Tech analyst, AI & the web
I founded the tech blog ReadWriteWeb in April 2003 and ran it until October 2012. During my time running the business, it was well known for its cutting edge content (“What’s next on the Web”) and its influential global audience. At its peak, RWW was ranked among the top ten blogs in the world by Technorati.
This category contains all of the articles I personally wrote for RWW, now archived on ricmac.org for easier browsing and search. If you’d like to explore the original context, you can also view a year-by-year archive with links to the Wayback Machine
Interesting little post from Jason Calacanis, who wrote: “TIRED: Subscribing to Fred’s blog: http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/ WIRED: Subscribing to Fred’s Del.icio.us feed: http://del.icio.us/rss/fredwilson Note: On Bloglines Fred has 383 subscribers to his blog and 9 to his del.icio.us RSS feed… I prefer to read what Fred is *considering* blogging about 🙂 Question: What’s more interesting to you, … Read more
Feedburner CEO Dick Costolo has just posted what I think is a milestone post for RSS and Web 2.0: How feeds will change the way content is distributed, valued, and consumed. In it he expounds on the future direction of his company Feedburner, which I’ve long considered to be the leading company in the RSS … Read more
This week: Explaining Web 2.0 to normal people, Google Base, Yahoo Shoposhere, Amazon tags, Hypertext and the next 15 years. Sponsor Opportunity The Web 2.0 Weekly Wrap-Up has had 3 excellent sponsors over the past 30 weeks and now I’m looking for the next great sponsor. If you’d like to associate your brand with premium … Read more
YAW2D = Yet Another Web 2.0 Definition. But this time it comes from Paul Graham, whose every essay is treated like a tablet from Moses by the Slashdot crowd. Surprisingly, Paul Graham’s essay entitled Web 2.0 is not a Naysayer one. It’s critical of Web 2.0 in parts, but overall the essay is well thought … Read more
Serendipitously I came across a beautifully done multimedia montage of Web 2.0 on Flickr, by Leigh Blackall. The photos are stunning and Leigh has weaved Web 2.0 themes into all of them. Plus some of the slides have notes attached. Here are a few of the slides, but I recommend you flick through the whole … Read more
From the Warning Label Generator (via Supr.c.ilio.us). Harnessing collective intelligence in The Long Tail. Don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉 Hey if Eran can be serious, I’m allowed to be silly every now and again. I will start writing proper posts again soon, I promise… Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)
While pondering my Midblog Crisis, I remembered a fortune cookie I received during the spicy noodles dinner in Palo Alto on 12 October (when I was in the US for the Web 2.0 Conference). Present at the meal were Dave Winer, Mike Arrington, Fred Oliveira, Gabe Rivera and myself. At the end of the delicious … Read more
Forgive me, it’s time for an introspective blog post. Lately I feel I’ve been in a bit of a blog slump with Read/WriteWeb. My numbers are still good, but I’m not happy with the quality of my recent posts here. I set very high standards for myself and I get disappointed when I don’t meet … Read more
In the third and final part of my series of ZDNet columns about Yellowikis as a Web 2.0 case study, I look at some of the design principles that can be applied by other Web 2.0 companies and services. Following is a summary of principles that Yellowikis demonstrated. Be sure to check out the whole … Read more
In another great sign for blogs becoming a mainstream news and entertainment source, Nick Denton’s blogging empire has struck a distribution deal with Internet media giant Yahoo. Reuters reported: “Yahoo said it will post “dozens” of stories per day from Gawker Media’s blogs, including New York-media gossip blog Gawker, U.S. political gossip-focused Wonkette, Hollywood insider’s … Read more
In my ZDNet blog, I’ve published the first in a 3-part Case Study of a Web 2.0 business. Yellowikis is an open business listings site that has the potential to shake up the $22 billion Yellow Pages industry. What Wikipedia is to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Yellowikis may be to Business listings. In an email interview, … Read more
TechCrunch has the scoop about Yahoo’s new e-commerce web app, Yahoo! Shoposphere. Mike’s taken it for a test run already and here’s his description: “Yahoo is making a major push into search personalization and recommendations – the overall project is called “Shoposphere” and the major feature being released is called “Pick Lists”. Their goal is … Read more
Alan Taylor and Anil Dash report that Amazon is rolling out tags in a big way. In a discussion board message, Amazonian Blake Scholl announced that 50% of Amazon customers will see the tagging features at this time. You will be able to apply tags to any item on the Amazon website and your tags … Read more
The Hard Man of 2.0, Ben Barren, takes out his nutcracker and starts crunching the numbers of Internet companies. Wielding financial methodologies, Ben intends to get some REAL analysis happening in the hot-air-o-sphere. Things like profit, revenue and unique user multiples relative to market cap. Not for the faint-hearted then. Ben’s made a start with … Read more
In my ZDNet column today I took a look at the top websites in the world according to Alexa. You might be surprised by what I found. Here is the current top 10 in terms of traffic: 1. Yahoo! 2. Microsoft Network (MSN) 3. Google 4. Yahoo! Japan 5. Baidu.com 6. sina.com 7. EBay 8. … Read more