Here is a summary of the week’s Web Tech action on Read/WriteWeb. Note that you can
subscribe to the Weekly Wrapups, either via the special RSS feed or by
email.
Featured Posts
To mark the halfway point of 2007, I wrote up a 2007
Half-Year Web Technology Report. This review showed that Google and Facebook have
been setting the pace on the Web so far in 2007. Do you agree? Please
leave a comment on that post if you have an opinion on the top Web Tech companies of
2007.
Emre Sokullu wrote two fascinating pieces this
week. First he explored the pivots of the
Web, which in a nutshell asked: What’s Next After Social Networking?. Check out the
comments on that post, as an excellent futuristic discussion is still in progress.
Emre also wrote a revealing post on what
Internet millionaires do with their money. He classified 4 different types:
- Serial entrepreneurs – keep doing the same
- Dreamers – expand their horizons
- Midas – invest and help multiple entrepreneurs grow new
businesses - Consistents – stick with their jobs
Unfortunately there were few women on the list, as commenter Angela pointed out.
Another commenter, the anonymous “Mr Example”, claimed that he was one of the people on
the list and that “the real reason to do startups is the adrenaline. It’s a thrill ride.
Why not get on again?”.
On a similar theme, Josh Catone wrote a piece this week entitled Making
a Copycat Site? At Least Copy an Idea That’s Working. Josh noted that some
entrepreneurs strike it rich time and again, but rarely with the same business. In other
words, originality is key.
Analysis Posts
Alex Iskold wrote about Digital Life
vs Life Digital. His thesis is that life is becoming more digital and the digital is
becoming more alive. On one hand we have the rapid rise of Second Life and other virtual
worlds. On the other we are beginning to annotate our planet with digital information,
via technologies like Google Earth.
Also this week we tracked the aftermath of the iPhone launch last Friday. We continued
to explore Web Apps
on iPhone and Alex wrote an in-depth piece on Why iPhone
May Really Matter. The latter post explores the high level strategy behind Apple’s
iPhone – and it may surprise you how far-reaching it is for the Web.
Last week also marked the go-live of CNN.com’s web 2.0 re-design. This week Josh took a look at
redesigned mainstream news sites, comparing CNN, USA Today and AOL News.
In another Web Office play, Google
acquired GrandCentral this week – a web-based telephony service. Our post noted that
this move is a threat to Skype.
Also we reviewed New
Netscape.com – One Year On. How has their social news makeover, which occured June
2006, turned out?
R/WW Network Blogs
last100’s weekly
wrapup has all the latest news from the digital lifestyle frontier. Plus this week
last100 tested and reviewed three Internet TV applications. VeohTV, which is pitching
itself as a more open alternative to Joost; Zattoo, a p2p
live streaming offering; and LiveStation,
which like Zattoo also specializes in ‘live’ TV over the net, rather than
on-demand content.
Over on AltSearchEngines, the big news was the latest
Top 100 Alt Search Engines, for July 2007. This month’s list has ‘gone global’ – from
now on there will always be 10 slots reserved for International Alts.
Startup Action
The Startup of the Week is Thoof: A
New Social News Startup. It’s a link sharing and social news site, allowing users
to edit link titles and descriptions (or add new tags). In that sense, it papers over some cracks in
digg’s system.
Other web products we profiled this week:
- Current TV Takes User
Generated Content On Air - eSnailer:
Send Postal Mail From the Web - Glubble:
Parental Control in Firefox - MyLifeBrand:
Social Network Aggregator Playing Catch Up
Poll
Our poll this week asked: What
Will Apple Conquer Next?. Here are the results:
—
Mobile Web (WAP, Nokia, …) 38% (118 votes)
Browsers (IE, Firefox, …) 14% (44 votes)
Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, …) 12% (36 votes)
Search (Google, Yahoo, …) 5% (16 votes)
Other (please comment below) 17% (52 votes)
All of the above (Mua ha ha!) 14% (43 votes)
—
The Mobile Web is seen as the next conquest of Apple, but check the comments because
“Other” got the next best vote. Examples of other include: new types of hardware, in-dash
gps/audio solution, cameras, TV. Read the discussion for more details.
That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.
