RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2015

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

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)

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

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

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

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2013

Every December I list out my top technology products. This tradition dates back to 2004, when I began posting these lists onto ReadWrite (the tech blog I founded). This year I did it a bit differently, by posting one pick per day onto my Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts. I’m now posting the full list … Read more

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

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

Why I’m Bullish on Smart Watches

At the start of this year I noted the return of the watch to technology innovation. The renewed interest in watches is largely thanks to Pebble, a crowdfunded smart watch that got a lot of attention at CES this year. It’s looking increasingly likely that watches are going to be a big driver in the … Read more

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2012

When I was a professional blogger, December was one of my favorite months of the year. Because December is when I rolled out the year-end Best Of and Top 10 lists on ReadWrite. It’s a tradition dating back to 2004. While that’s only 8 human years ago, in Internet years it’s about 3 eras. Consider … Read more

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2011

This time last year I listed my favorite Web products of 2010. I enjoyed that process so much that I’m doing it again this year. These are products that I liked and used the most during 2011, but I hope my list is useful to others too. I wondered whether my top 10 products for … Read more

RicMac’s Top 10 Tech Of 2010

This month ReadWriteWeb is publishing a series of top 10 lists of the best products of 2010, each based on a specific category. This post is a little different, in that it’s my own personal top 10 list of my favorite products of 2010. I’m not claiming these are the best products of the year, … Read more