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
Mike Arrington thinks Tim O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 meme map should be simpler and Dave Winer responds, saying it’s a complicated self-serving meme and pointing out that the map doesn’t include RSS. I’ve been looking at the meme map closely, while working on the latest chapter of Josh’s and my O’Reilly book on Web 2.0 (so … Read more
Fascinating post by John Blossom on the evolution of content in the Web world. It’s similar in theme to AP chief Tom Curley’s famous Content and Containers speech last year – and my own extensive thoughts on the matter. Riffing on GoogleNet, Blossom wrote: “As content and software services merge into common XML-based objects, the … Read more
NewsGator Technologies will be announcing “a MAJOR acquisition” at the Web 2.0 Conference on October 5-7. Hmmm, I wonder who it is. Looking at my RSS Spacespreadsheet, Newsgator is one of the leading vendors in the Reader Services category. They also have a presence in the Search space. I wouldn’t be surprised if they acquire … Read more
This week: Microsoft vs Google, Web 2.0 coverage galore, Web 2.0 Conference, The Real World: yoga blogging, Techie post of the week: Mini-Microsoft. The Wrap-up is proudly sponsored by: Microsoft vs Google Over the last week the number of stories about Microsoft vs Google has reached a crescendo. The best one was a story by … Read more
Just to let you know I’ve been re-arranging the furniture on Read/WriteWeb over the past couple of days. I went from a 3-column design to a 2-column one and tidied up the CSS. As well as keeping my web design chops up-to-date, I think the layout is a lot cleaner now. I feel like I … Read more
CNET takes an interesting look at Microsoft’s history in the Web era and suggests that MSN may now be a key part of Microsoft’s Web 2.0 strategy. They write that MSN is already being used as a platform for Windows software releases: “The search service in Windows Vista, for example, shipped earlier as MSN Desktop … Read more
Bud Gibson has a nice profile of FeedDigest, an RSS remix service created by Peter Cooper that I’ve had my eye on for a while. FeedDigest lets users “mix, filter and republish or syndicate feeds to HTML, JavaScript, WAP or PHP, or to a new feed.” Personally all I’ve used it for so far is … Read more
Yahoo Mail, the beta Web-based email program, is better than Gmail – so says the WSJ’s Walt Mossberg. He notes: “The new Yahoo Mail is far superior to Gmail. Yahoo more closely matches the desktop experience most serious email users have come to expect. Gmail, by contrast, is quirky and limited.” He goes on to … Read more
Darren Rowse (who earns nearly US$200k a year from blogging) has published an interview with fellow “six figure blogger” The Manolo. Here’s how The Manolo, who blogs about shoes, makes his/her money: “In the order of importance, the affiliate sales of the shoes and the fashion, the contextual ads like the google and the chitka, … Read more
Feedburner’s released more stats to celebrate reaching 100,000 managed feeds. They highlight some impressive growth in the number of subscribers to Feedburner feeds – over 4.2 million subscribers per day by end of August. Paul Kedrosky noted that the number of subscribers has doubled every 2 months during 2005. Dick Costolo also pointed out the … Read more
Tim O’Reilly has posted a meme map of Web 2.0, from the “What is Web 2.0?” brainstorming session at FOO Camp 2005. Hat-tip Josh for the link. It’s kind of a business model map: Click here for full image The orange box in the middle and brown ovals at the bottom cover some the themes … Read more
sponsored by: This week: eBay-Skype: Web 2.0 Ramifications, The Real World – Katrina response, Microsoft PDC – Start.com extended, Yahoo Shopping API and Shopify, New apps on the block. eBay-Skype: Web 2.0 Ramifications Early this week eBay confirmed its acquisition of Skype for between $2.6 – 4.1 billion. On my ZDNet blog I looked at … Read more
I love reading old books about the Web and Internet. I’m in the middle of Stewart Brand’s classic book from the 80’s, The Media Lab, right now. Anyway I came across this 2001 web article from devx called The Future of Web Apps and Services, on the subject of Futurist Paul Saffo’s predictions for the … Read more
Summary: 2006 may well be Microsoft’s year, with upgrades to its flagship Vista OS and Office 12 products. But only if Google lets it be their rival’s year. We don’t yet know what Google has up its sleeve – when will they release their own browser, or their web-based Office suite? We’ll find out perhaps … Read more
Part of my duties as the self-proclaimed Father of Web 2.0 is to help spread the word and get people interested in Web 2.0. BlogBridge has just published a list of some of my favourite Web 2.0-focused blogs. Note that it’s not a directory of all Web 2.0 related feeds, just a selection of feeds … Read more