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
Television is one of the biggest markets in entertainment, but it is at the early stages of a huge shift online. While most people still watch TV through cable and via traditional linear programming, increasingly TV will be delivered over the Internet and with the user in charge of their own programming. The big TV … Read more
When it comes to unique, ‘out there’ startup ideas, it doesn’t get much more far out than Ponoko. The simplified concept for customers: design your own custom product and someone will make it for you. Example products created for Ponoko users so far include custom chairs, jewelry, toys, wine racks, laptop stands. As if the … Read more
Yesterday we looked at the evolution of GetGlue, a service that allows you to “check in” to TV shows, movies, music, and more. One of the striking things about GetGlue is how it has used cutting edge web technologies (recommendations, Semantic Web) to build a future-proof foundation. And how it has taken advantage of currently … Read more
Today we’re launching our sixth channel, ReadWriteMobile. Sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent, ReadWriteMobile is dedicated to helping its community understand the strategic business and technical implications of developing mobile applications. ReadWriteMobile will be authored by Sarah Perez, who you all know as a feature writer for ReadWriteWeb. Sarah admits in her Twitter profile that she’s “obsessed with … Read more
Sometimes a successful web product takes a while to find its niche. Occasionally it morphs into a different product altogether, along the way. Both things have happened to GetGlue, the service where users “check in” to watching TV shows, reading books, listening to music – indeed, to just about anything. I caught up with GetGlue … Read more
In our new series about product innovation, we’re exploring how cutting edge Internet products are created. Yesterday we wrote about the design philosophy of John Borthwick, the CEO and co-founder of Betaworks. His company operates some of the leading real-time web products: Bit.ly (link shortener), TweetDeck (desktop Twitter client), SocialFlow (a social messaging service) and … Read more
Continuing our series on product innovation and the people driving it, this week I spoke with the CEO and co-founder of Betaworks: John Borthwick. If you’re unfamiliar with the name Betaworks, you will recognize the products under its umbrella: Bit.ly (the leading link shortener), TweetDeck (desktop Twitter client), Chartbeat (real-time analytics service) and SocialFlow (a … Read more
In our new series about product innovation, I’ll be speaking to a variety of entrepreneurs about the products they’re building and how they’re going about it. One of the more unique people in this series is Buster Benson, a 34-year old Seattle resident whose experience includes working for Amazon.com, writing a novel, and co-founding a … Read more
Yesterday we started a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on web product innovation. We began with a product that aims to change the way people consume news on mobile devices: Newsy. In part 2 of this interview with founder and CEO Jim Spencer, we delve into Newsy’s audience and how that’s evolving, what’s next … Read more
Today we’re starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I’ll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, all of whom have created ground-breaking Internet businesses. I hope that this series will give insight into both product innovation and what drives the people behind the … Read more
One of the more interesting startup battles in recent times has been Tumblr vs. Posterous, two light blogging services that make it easy for anyone to publish ‘found’ things very quickly and at the click of a button. Tumblr was the first kid on the block, but over the past year Posterous has tried to … Read more
Yesterday Twitter announced a major redesign of its homepage. The new twitter.com is designed to make it easier for mainstream people to consume content on Twitter. “You don’t have to tweet,” said Twitter co-founder Evan Williams at the press gathering yesterday, “any more than you have to make a webpage to use the Web.” In … Read more
This week, leading tech news aggregator Techmeme turned 5 years old. The service launched in September 2005, under the name tech.memeorandum, and ReadWriteWeb was one of the first media publications to review it. In 2005, tech.memeorandum mostly tracked blogs. In 2010, Techmeme tracks all types of media web sites. Everything from news wires, newspapers, professional … Read more
Over the past month, Facebook has not so smoothly transitioned third party content from boxes to tabs on your Facebook profile page. This is best explained by example: if you had a music box on your profile page, displaying what music you’re listening to, then that box is now gone. Instead, you have the option … Read more
Music videos became famous in the early 80’s on MTV. Nowadays, music videos are more likely to be viewed on the Web. Seven of the top ten YouTube videos of all time are music videos – from the likes of Lady Gaga, Shakira and Justin Bieber. The increasing popularity of music videos online led the … Read more