Home Weekly Wrapup: Tim Berners-Lee Interview, Google Chrome OS, Social Network Stats, And More…

Weekly Wrapup: Tim Berners-Lee Interview, Google Chrome OS, Social Network Stats, And More…

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup, our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week, we feature an in-depth interview with the inventor of the Web Tim Berners-Lee. We also cover and analyze the surprise announcement of a Chrome OS (Google’s new operating system for netbooks), investigate a raft of new statistics from social networks, analyze the impact of ‘freeconomics,’ and more. This week we soft-launched a new design for ReadWriteEnterprise, and you can check out our latest posts in that channel. We also update you with the latest from our channel ReadWriteStart, dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

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Web Trends

ReadWriteWeb Interview With Tim Berners-Lee

During my recent trip to Boston, I had the opportunity to visit MIT. At the end of a long day of meetings with various MIT tech masterminds, I made my way to the funny shaped building where the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its director Tim Berners-Lee work. Berners-Lee is of course the man who invented the World Wide Web 20 years ago. In Part 1 of the interview we cover the emergence of Linked Data and how it is being used now even by governments.

InPart 2 of the interview we discuss how previously reticent search engines like Google and Yahoo have begun to participate in the Semantic Web in 2009, user interfaces for browsing and using data, what Tim Berners-Lee thinks of new computational engine Wolfram Alpha, how e-commerce vendors are moving into the Linked Data world, and finally how the Internet of Things intersects with the Semantic Web.

Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like?

A new study by Anderson Analytics looks into the demographics and psychographics of social networking users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a goal of providing marketers with information about users’ interests and buying habits as related to their network of choice. The end result is a detailed look at the profiles and habits of social networking users on the web today.

Some of the study’s findings echo things we’ve already heard. For example, Facebook users tend to be old, white, and rich. MySpace users are young…and fleeing. Other info is new: Twitterers are more likely to have a part-time job, LinkedIn users like to exercise and own more gadgets.

See also Part 2 of this post for details on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook’s Own Estimates Show Declining Student Numbers; Now More Grandparents Than High School Users

How fickle are kids these days? Just when all the grown ups started figuring out Facebook, college and high school users have declined in absolute number by 20% and 15% respectively in a mere six months, according to estimates Facebook provides to advertisers that were archived for tracking by an outside firm. Facebook users aged 55 and over have skyrocketed from under 1 million to nearly six million in the same time period. There are more Facebook users over 55 years old today than there are high school students using the site.

Grandma and Grandpa showed up to have a conversation, but Billy and Sally were gone. Facebook cannot be excited about this.

Does Twitter Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize? Maybe Not Yet, But It Could Someday

It’s hard to imagine anything more far out than the suggestion that the founders of Twitter be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, especially since the people who invented the internet never were. But that’s what Deputy National Security Advisor, Mark Pfeifle, argues this week in The Christian Science Monitor, because of the company’s role in supporting the ongoing uprising in Iran. Pfeifle isn’t the only one making this argument, either.

I think the idea is serious enough to warrant some closer consideration. I think those little narcissistic bites of information and the platform people publish them on are serious enough to warrant taking this opportunity to consider what it all really means. You might assume that these most recent platitudes are just about Twitter’s celebrated role in Iran – but in fact there’s a lot more going on. Twitter is changing the human experience in important ways, for those fortunate enough to experience it.

Free: It Works, It Cries, It Bites

Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price (available for free in text form and as an audio book), is stirring controversy and a spicy conversation around the blogosphere. The current wave of discussion started with a critical review by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. In his review, Gladwell defends journalism and goes negative on “Free.” Seth Godin, who till then had stayed out of the debate, penned an instantly classic Godin post titled “Malcolm is wrong.”

Mike Masnick followed on TechDirt with an insightful post in which he attributes some of Gladwell’s confusion to the way that Anderson wrote the book. Masnick says that the book does not provide enough details on the mechanics and applications of Free. (I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on that.) Fred Wilson joined the conversation with a sharply delivered post on Freemium and Freeconomics. He gives examples of the kinds of Free that actually work.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

A Word from Our Sponsors

We’d like to thank ReadWriteWeb’s sponsors, without whom we couldn’t bring you all these stories every week!

  • Mashery is the leading provider of API management services.
  • WeeBiz, a business community where you can find and share new business opportunities.
  • Domain.ME, the official registry for all .ME Domains.
  • SiSense, Analytics, Reports and Filters
  • Mollom, stop comment spam and build your community.
  • Crowd Science gives you detailed visitor demographics.
  • hakia is a semantic search engine.
  • Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
  • Socialtext brings you 5 Best Practices for Enterprise Collaboration Success
  • Aplus provides web hosting services for small business hosting needs.
  • Wix, stunning Flash Websites for Free
  • MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
  • SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.


ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0’ and using social software inside organizations. Sponsored by Socialtext.

Smibs Could Rival Both LinkedIn & Salesforce.com

After being in beta for a year, Smibs has launched their SaaS business software into full production mode. The initial series of applications, with more planned for the future, include a Web-based CRM called Doorbell, and the Smibs Network, a business networking service. LinkedIn has largely wasted its potential to be anything other than personal promotion, and Salesforce.com CRM focuses almost solely on internal collaboration. While it has a long way to go to truly compete with either, the way that Smibs bridges the gap between public business networking and in-group workflows makes it a serious future contender.

John Hagel Interview: Implications of the Shift Index for Enterprises

John Hagel, perhaps best known for his book The Only Sustainable Edge, has been one of the leading strategic thinkers for decades. Recently, as Co-Chair of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, he unveiled the Shift Index. This is a fascinating way to look at the economy and goes well beyond the traditional GDP and employment measures. Have a strong cup of coffee before reading or listening to this interview. This is important for enterprises as they think about the big picture related to social media, changing demographics, and increased global competition. It is also valuable for enterprise software vendors as they seek to articulate the value of their products to these clients.

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

Six Reasons to Stick with Your Startup: Survival Stories from the Trenches

Starting a new tech company is a labor of love. Particularly in the beginning, when funds are low, expectations are high, and the product is still a twinkle in the developer’s eye, stressful situations under external pressures can lead to pull-the-plug moments.

When we interviewed Pandora founder Tim Westergren last week, he shared his personal brush with startup death: In 2007, it seemed that the music-streaming site would have to declare bankruptcy and close shop. Pandora’s success is one reason to stick with your own startup. Here are six more.

SEE MORE STARTUPS COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL

Web Products

The Google OS Becomes Reality: Google Announces the Google Chrome OS

Just after we heard a number of rumors about the possible arrival of the rumored Google OS this week, Google actually went ahead and announced that it will indeed release its own operating system – the Google Chrome Operating System. For now, Google plans to aim this OS at the netbook market. The OS will only become available for consumers in the second half of 2010, but Google promises that it will open-source the code later this year. According the the announcement on the Google blog, the OS will run on standard x86 chips as well as ARM chips, and Google is already working with a number of OEMs to bring devices that run the Google Chrome OS to the market.

10 Things We’re Dying to Know About Chrome OS

This week the blogosphere was abuzz with the late-breaking news about Google’s new Chrome OS, a combination of the Chrome browser and windowing system running on top of a Linux kernel. But more important than what’s being announced is what hasn’t been said. People already have a lot of questions about the Chrome OS and the answers may ultimately determine how well it succeeds as a true competitor to both Microsoft and Apple, as is being widely speculated. We’ll explore some of those questions in this post.

Wolfram|Alpha: The Use Cases

At the recent SemTech conference in San Jose, I sat down with Wolfram|Alpha‘s Russell Foltz-Smith. Wolfram|Alpha bills itself as a “computational knowledge engine,” a nerdy and unfortunately not very intuitive description. Because it’s hard to grok, most people have categorized Wolfram|Alpha as a new type of search engine. The site got a lot of press when it launched in May, as many pundits saw it as a challenger to Google. However in our own extensive tests of the product before launch, we concluded that it isn’t a “Google Killer” and that it has more in common with Wikipedia.

Even now there is still confusion about what Wolfram|Alpha is and what its main use cases will be. In this interview with Russell Foltz-Smith, we discuss what people are using Wolfram|Alpha for now; and more importantly what its uses will be in the near future.

Bing and Google: Users Are Willing to Try New Things

According to the latest data from Compete, Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, is still going strong, though even a month after its launch, the majority of Bing’s users still switches back and forth between Google and Bing. About 66% of Bing’s users also use Google search, and this number has held steady over the last few weeks. 30% of Bing’s users also use Yahoo Search, and about 4% use AOL Search. The most interesting aspect of this report, however, is that Google’s users seem to be far more interested in trying out a new search engine than users of other services.

Transportation Apps: Are We There Yet?

There are sites devoted to regional public transportation route planning, sites devoted to rail transportation, and city-wide sites for light rail, bus and ferry planning. But if you’re looking for something across cities, states or even countries, you’re not likely to find it.

Why is it that with GPS applications being so advanced, we’re still such a long way from the benefits of seamless transportation? It’s doubtful that riders really care which transportation authorities are responsible for their trip. As a user, I want to be able to type in my home address and get inexpensive door-to-door transportation options to any destination in the world.

There’s no reason this shouldn’t exist. If transportation authorities standardized their data, aggregation services would have no problem mapping routes from Beijing to Belize.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

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