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
Today I gave a presentation at the XMediaLab event in Wellington New Zealand, entitled: What’s Next on the Web? Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond. It was an update of a presentation I gave in Sydney in March. It covers some of the top trends we track on ReadWriteWeb; such as Websites becoming web … Read more
Today I attended the XMediaLab event in Wellington New Zealand (my hometown). Tom Duterme, who is in the New Business Development group at Google in Mountain View, was here talking about innovation. Tom’s job is to travel around the world looking for acquisitions for Google, so it was interesting to hear what things he looks … Read more
RWW network blog last100 has coverage of the latest Android news coming from Google’s I/O conference. Dan Langendorf writes that “as you would expect from the company that brings you search and Google Maps, Android handles information delivery, location and navigation extremely well — or so we think. There’s still no actual Android phones to … Read more
The next Mobile 2.0 Conference is happening in Europe, on July 4 in Barcelona, Spain. ReadWriteWeb is a media partner, because we support what Rudy De Waele and team are doing to promote the Mobile Web across the world. I myself attended the last event in San Francisco last October and learned a lot. We … Read more
Google I/O is the first event for web developers that Google has run. It happens later this week on 28/29 May and Google is expecting 2,500 people to attend. The I/O stands for “Innovation/Open” (i/o is also a programmer term input/output). Recently I spoke with Tom Stocky, a Director of Product Management at Google, to … Read more
A couple of weeks ago we ran an interactive game on the topic of Data Portability. We had a great response, with 680 people playing the game. Here now are the results, showing how RWW readers think 5 of the major players – Google, Microsoft, MySpace, Facebook, and the non-profit Data Portability Project – will … Read more
Thank you to our sponsors, for supporting ReadWriteWeb’s mission to provide in-depth coverage of Web apps and trends. To enquire about sponsor slots on ReadWriteWeb, please email us for a Media Kit. We are currently booking June and July spots; and we offer discounts for signing up for 2 or more months. ReadWriteWeb is ranked … Read more
Inside Steve’s Brain, a book about Steve Jobs written by Leander Kahney, is a fascinating look at the thought processes and inspiration behind Apple’s products and branding. It has a particular and much welcome focus on the current era – iPod/iTunes, the latest iMacs, the Apple Store and more. The central theme of the book … Read more
Here are some of the highlights from the week’s Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb. On the product side we explored: next gen apps outside the browser, uses for wikis, Facebook’s usefulness (or lack thereof), the public launch of Google Health, and 4 promising mobile social networks. On the trends side we analyzed: the Mobile Web, … Read more
ReadWriteWeb is the exclusive Media Partner for an interactive debate on the future of the Web, featuring Tim Berners-Lee. The event is June 11 and is being run by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The debate will address questions such as: Is net neutrality essential for democracy? What role does AI have in the future of … Read more
Today we’re pleased to announce a new biweekly feature on ReadWriteTalk, our podcast show. It’s a live discussion with the ReadWriteWeb Network authors that we’re calling RWW Live. On this first episode, host Sean Ammirati is joined by myself (Richard MacManus) and Alex Iskold from ReadWriteWeb, along with Steve O’Hear from Last100 and Charles Knight … Read more
In the tradition of American Idol, The Apprentice, Top Chef, and Dragons’ Den, a new TV show is in development in New Zealand that will bring the ‘Elimination/Game show’ format of reality TV to the world of startups. I will be one of the 3 judges. The TV show, to be called Start Up (not … Read more
Today Google announced the public availability of Google Health, after initially launching as a closed beta back in February. It is described as “a safe and secure way to collect, store, and manage [your] medical records and health information online” and is being positioned as a way for users to control their own medical records. … Read more
ReadWriteWeb network blog last100, which focuses on digital lifestyle products and services, is currently running a competition where you could win a top of the line HP HDX Dragon Entertainment Notebook valued at around $5,000. To be in to win, leave a comment on last100listing your top five digital lifestyle products and/or services. They don’t … Read more
Digg is in big trouble. We already know that Yahoo! Buzz, a beta social news service by Yahoo!, can drive a large amount of traffic and comments to websites. We also know the ongoing problems at competitor digg, which continue to be skated around by digg management. Now we have proof that Yahoo! Buzz is … Read more