Tech Analysis

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2015

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Every December, I do a year in review of Internet technology. It’s a tradition going back to 2004, when I posted my first annual review of technology onto ReadWrite. This year I’m doing it slightly differently. I usually pick out ten Internet products that I personally use a lot and enjoy. This year, however, my selection … Read more

Top 5 Consumer Internet Trends of 2015

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The consumer facing Internet has always been where online innovation first happens. The Consumer Internet, as I’ll call it here, is where experiments are conducted. It’s where trends are born. Sometimes these trends move into the enterprise world (like cloud computing), sometimes they become a part of mainstream media (like blogs) and sometimes they change … Read more

Why Following People On Twitter Is Broken (And What To Do About It)

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Most social media products rely on the ‘friend or follow’ model of connecting to other people. Friending usually means a two-way connection, whereas following is most often a one-way connection. Friending is inherently a strong connection, because it mimics how we operate in real life – friends socialize and share things together. But just how useful is it to have a follow connection with someone? I’m going … Read more

Emerging Markets: Social VR

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The virtual world Second Life launched in mid-2003 and from the start it was out of place. Its jerky and cartoonish graphics seemed to belong more to the 1990s than to the new era of social software. Nevertheless, Second Life enjoyed as much media attention in the 2000s as Web 2.0 darlings like Flickr and YouTube. Nowadays, in the … Read more

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2014

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Every December since 2004, I’ve posted a year in review of Internet technology. In 2010, I began doing a top 10 list of my favorite technology products and I’m continuing that format this year. 2014 has been a particularly interesting year for new media, with innovations in blogging, podcasting, curation and paid content. Three of my top ten are examples of new media innovation. … Read more

Why I’m Disappointed In 23andMe – Hopefully Its “Personalized Recommendations” Will Help

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When I began my book project on consumer health technology, I had two classes of technology in mind for particular attention: Quantified Self (a.k.a. self-tracking) and personal genomics. I’ve found plenty of material to write about in the Quantified Self area. However I’ve been disappointed in my findings about personal genomics. I’m also not so … Read more