While it used to be a bit of a media darling, it’s not often that we write about MySpace anymore, but they continue to plug along – as one of the most popular sites on the Web. And, they continue to roll out new features for their user base. For many, these features may fall into the “too little too late” category. But it’s still interesting to see…
NYT Times Newswire API: All the News That Will Fit
We continue to be impressed with the direction The New York Times is taking with their Times Open strategy – exposing more and more data from the Gray Lady via a number of APIs. The level of access that the venerable publication has continued to provide has been laudable. There’s just been one thing missing: immediacy. But the latest API – one of…
Just Work Please: Mainstream Media Meets the Fail Whale
The online world is an imperfect place. Gmail goes down, chunks of blog posts disappear, and users are deceived on a regular basis. Most of us who spend time online are aware of – and have come to expect – these foibles and hiccups. But now, throngs of mainstream media outlets are entering the fray with a bit of naivete, rushing to use online…
Google.org Gets More Business-Like
Three years ago Google launched Google.org, an attempt to “use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age.” And they’ve been very successful in that regard, providing more than $100 million in grants, creating tools like Google Flu Trends, and leveraging technology like the recently launched Google…
Times Open: Developers Gather to Discuss The New York Times APIs
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we’re big fans of the Times Open strategy, the program that focuses on making the data of The New York Times more accessible to the developer community. We heralded the launch of the program, covered the first available API, and marveled at the access to content the APIs have begun to provide. Now the Times has taken another…
ReadWriteWeb France Catches Up with Matt Mullenweg
While Matt Mullenweg was in France for WordCamp Paris 2009, the team from ReadWriteWeb France took the opportunity to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about open source, WordPress, and the future.
OpenID Foundation Introduces New Executive Director
The awareness of OpenID continues to grow. At the same time, the OpenID Foundation – the organization founded to promote, protect, and enable OpenID technologies and community – has been growing too, adding new board members and sustaining sponsors. Today, another piece of the board came together, as the OpenID Foundation introduced its new…
Is This Thing On? SpeakerRate Helps Speakers Get Honest Feedback
The tech event season is beginning to heat up. If you’re a speaker, you know that standing in front of a crowd isn’t half as hard as getting critical feedback on your talks. People who disliked it will generally remain silent or opt for a snarky tweet or two. Those close to you will tell you “You did great!” no matter how poorly you performed…
What Are People Reading in The New York Times? Ask the TimesPeople API
When it comes to venerable publications, few hold as much esteem as The New York Times – and few have as much access to interesting user data. That’s why we’re excited to hear that the Times’ API team has announced the release of its latest API, TimesPeople, which provides developers with access to data on registered NYTimes.com TimesPeople…
Facebook Launches Facebook Bill of Rights, Reverts to Previous Terms of Use
If you read any tech publication this week, you couldn’t have helped but encounter the brouhaha over Facebook’s revised Terms of Use. Now, Facebook has decided to return to its previous Terms – dated September 23, 2008 – until it can better determine how to proceed. To help ensure they don’t make the same mistakes again, they’ve also started the…
Kiva Alerts Make Microlending Information More Accessible
Nonprofit person-to-person microlender Kiva has committed to a huge undertaking: to facilitate lending for entrepreneurs in developing nations for the sake of alleviating poverty. And part of making that dream into a reality means helping people get access to the loan information they need as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s why Kiva…
Social Media Saves Lives: Salmonella Outbreak Pushes HHS, FDA, CDC to Get Social
Following the recent peanut-butter-borne Salmonella outbreak, the United States Department of Health and Human Services – specifically the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – engaged in a heavy social media push to inform citizens about the health risks and product recalls. The result? The formation of…
Would You Pay $200 for an Android App? Android Market Preps Priced Applications
The Android Market was designed to be the one-stop shop for all G-1 users to download applications for their mobile handsets. As such, it had a great deal in common with the Apple iTunes App Store – save for one specific feature: the ability for developers to charge for their apps. Now, even that feature will be common between the two application…
Flickit: Gracefully Add iPhone Photos to Flickr
On any given day, there are thousands of people snapping iPhone photos and uploading them to Flickr. So many in fact, that the iPhone is one of the top five cameras. That’s amazing – but not for the reasons you’d think. It’s amazing because the default process of getting a photo from the iPhone to Flickr should be easier. And while any number of…
Bespin: Could Your Favorite HTML Editor Live in the Cloud?
The Cloud. We save our data to it, create documents in it, collaborate in it. But coding in the cloud? That has remained a decidedly desktop-centric pursuit. Now, even that may be changing thanks to Bespin, a new prototype from Mozilla Labs. Flaunting thoughtful functionality and bearing an appropriately geeky name (a nod to the home of the Lando…
Twitter OAuth Spotted in the Wild
Twitter OAuth – oft promised but lagging in delivery – had begun to take on a mythical status, leaving many to wonder if it would ever be released. Now, that naysaying could be coming to swift end. It appears that Twitter OAuth has been released into the wild as part of a limited beta.
Onehub Makes FTP Simple, Straightforward, and Sexy
When it comes to transferring files, FTP services are as old as the Internet itself. Unfortunately, so is the logic surrounding the process of moving files. “Intuitive” doesn’t exactly jump to mind. As such, a multitude of designers, photographers, and account managers struggle with technically challenged clients for whom the seemingly simple…
MySpace’s Former Owner: Facebook Will Win – for Now
Brett Brewer, who co-founded InterMix Media – the company that developed MySpace – and turned a tidy profit when that company and MySpace were sold to NewsCorp for $580 million, says MySpace’s ongoing battle for social network supremacy with Facebook won’t last much longer. In his opinion, Facebook has already won – but it won’t remain a winner for…
Lovely Charts: When Any Old Flowchart Simply Won’t Do
“I wish I could make this flowchart look better” is a common complaint that pops up around ReadWriteWeb – and throughout offices around the world. So whether it’s mind maps, wireframes, or flowcharts, we’re always drawn to test new diagramming tools – just to see if they can help us create more aesthetically pleasing depictions of the concepts…
Now Where Was I? Gmail Labs Adds Location to Signatures
Location is the feature du jour at Google as of late. First they released, Latitude, a new location sharing service. Now, the Gmail team has announced a new Labs feature that allows you to automatically append your location information to your signature.