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
I have an Excel spreadsheet of data about RSS vendors that I want to share with the world. I recently did a report for a client, in which I defined and analysed ‘The RSS Space’. As part of that report, I created a spreadsheet that mapped RSS vendors to categories – with a lot of … Read more
Interesting podcast conversation today between Steve Gillmor and Rafat Ali (of paidcontent.org). Steve labelled paidcontent.org “an emerging force in the new media” and this theme was explored during the podcast. My ears pricked up when Steve talked about blogs like Om Malik’s, John Battelle’s and Engadget becoming media properties in their own rights. No mention … Read more
Last night while looking at the new Feedburner design (well done guys!), I noticed that my subscriber stats figure has suddenly jumped. My current count of RSS subscribers in Feedburner is 3744. The main reason is that Rojo has just been added to Feedburner’s numbers – previously it was missing. What surprised me is the … Read more
I can imagine the movie trailer voiceover: “In a world where Thin Clients rule, one man (and a very large software company) is fighting back…” This is a movie starring Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s most famous blogger. It’s about the war against Web-based apps and the script is being written by Robert himself. First he said: … Read more
sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: Google vs Skype, BBC puts TV on … Read more
I’ve joined the 9rules Network, a community of high quality weblogs and websites. Here’s the announcement from Paul Scrivens, 9rules’ inspirational CEO. The 9rules Network is very similar to what I described as my ideal blog network a few weeks ago: “a group of niche bloggers, each with their own unique look n’ feel but … Read more
Today is my first day as a full-time freelancer, doing Web analysis and writing. It’s also my birthday, so double reason to celebrate 🙂 I finished up at my day job yesterday, so as of today I’m working 100% virtually – with people and companies from Silicon Valley, Britain, perhaps even Australia. I do have … Read more
sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: New apps on the block, Schools and … Read more
A bit of admin – just so you know, I’m testing out a new type of RSS advertising with Feedburner. I’m testing it because it’s pretty close to the type of RSS advertising I described in this post back in May. Speaking of advertising, Phil Ringnalda has noticed the O’Reilly Network is using a subtle … Read more
This is news to me. Apparently there’s a version 3 of RSS, which purports to be “a derivative work which is meant to replace the 2.0 version.” That’ll please Dave Winer, I’m sure. A guy called Jonathan Avidan is behind RSS 3.0 and he seems to be the only one contributing to the RSS 3 … Read more
There have been a lot of excellent posts and articles this week about APIs, the Web as Platform, web sites as software companies, and so forth. Here’s my own mash-up of some of the highlights: The Philosophy of Web 2.0 To set the scene, let’s consider what the essence of Web 2.0 is. Peter Merholz … Read more
Feedster have come up with a Top 500 blogs list, in response to Jason Calacanis’ challenge. I make the charts at number 215. Even though charts are elitist and all that, it’s cool to see my blog up there. Maybe charts are only elitist when I’m not on them? But reality check: as number 220 … Read more
I got quoted in an IDG article, currently on Macworld, about the RSS naming debate. I’m pleased to get my name in mainstream media, however they got the dates out of context. Here’s the extract where I’m mentioned: “The debate raged on after Torres’ response to Winer. In an Aug. 10 entry on his Web … Read more
sponsored by: Onfolio is offering R/WW readers a coupon code entitling the bearer to $30 off a purchase of Onfolio Professional before August 31st (a 30% saving off the normal $99.95 price). To use the coupon, enter it at the time of purchase. Coupon Code: RM857202 This week: RSS branding, More Web 2.0 definitions, Spam … Read more
This week I kicked off a discussion about what the brand name of RSS should be, going forward. It’s generated a lot of great discussion, including some excellent comments on my blog. And funnily enough, I’m now convinced that in fact RSS is not the right term to market to the masses. ‘Web feeds’ is … Read more