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
On January 12 Google claimed that hackers from China had attempted to break into its infrastructure, in order to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Because of those hacks, along with other malware attacks on Gmail accounts and ongoing concerns about the Chinese government limiting free speech on the Web, Google said … Read more
In part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things. In Part 2, we explore how the Apple iPad may also become a key device. Adam Greenfield thinks it may become the … Read more
Last week I had the privilege of meeting Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. It’s one of my favorite books about the Internet of Things and is still ahead of the curve, even though it was written in 2005 and published in 2006. Greenfield was in my city Wellington for … Read more
The big news of the week came out of the annual Mobile World Congress, from companies such as Adobe, Facebook, Google and Skype – read on for our extensive coverage and analysis. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Augmented Reality. You may’ve noticed … Read more
Yesterday I asked the question: does China really feel threatened by U.S. social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube? As usual, I got an education in the comments to the post. While it’s true that the Chinese government blocks Twitter, Facebook and all of the main American social media sites, several commenters pointed … Read more
There’s no doubting the impact of social media on our day-to-day lives in 2010. In the western world, most big brands have Facebook and Twitter accounts nowadays, many TV journalists “write a blog” about their beat every day, and services like YouTube are widely consumed. However it’s the rise of social media as a tool … Read more
iPhone applications are no longer just toys for techies. There are now thousands of iPhone apps in the App Store designed for mainstream usage. Yesterday we looked at examples of health and fitness iPhone apps, today we check out what’s available for a current big sporting event: the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There were … Read more
As the Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona this week, one major mobile phone manufacturer is conspicuously absent: Apple. As the New York Times reported today, Apple is now the world’s third-largest maker of smartphones (behind Nokia and RIM). But Apple is growing the fastest, thanks in large part to the thousands of mobile … Read more
The big news of the week was Google launching its FriendFeed clone, Google Buzz – read on for our extensive coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web, Internet of Things and Augmented Reality. New! We’ve refreshed the format for … Read more
For kids under 12 years of age, entertainment websites and virtual worlds are all the rage. My 8-year old daughter plays ToonTown a lot. Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters are also popular in this demographic. But are these types of sites fulfilling the potential and talent our kids have with technology? In order to help … Read more
Green Goose is a new financial management service that launched today, which connects sensor activity to your savings account. At first Green Goose sounded a little gimmicky. Using green Internet-connected eggs, it measures how much energy you expend on your bike or how much water you use in your shower – and transfers amounts from … Read more
Yesterday we posted a video from the Teens in Tech conference, looking at how teens perceive technology. Today we’re co-launching a survey which aims to find out how children 12 years and younger use Web technology. We’ve partnered with Boston research firm Latitude, which developed the survey tool and will help us analyze the data. … Read more
The big news of the week was Facebook getting faster – read on for our extensive coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web, Internet of Things and Augmented Reality. New! We’ve refreshed the format for our longest running feature, … Read more
Widgets are mini web applications that you can insert into your website and/or social networks. They’re a popular way to add interesting third party content to your web presence. In this post we look at the top web widgets from Yola and Widgetbox. It’s clear from our analysis that widgets are well past the early … Read more
Mobile search company Taptu has released a detailed report showing that the future of the Mobile Web is likely to be dominated by cross-platform browser-based mobile web sites – rather than apps built specifically for iPhone, Android, or any other platform. Taptu calls the former “the Mobile Touch Web,” which it defines as “Web sites … Read more