Home / readwriteweb.com rss archive / October-02-2007


Wired vs Wired: The Evolution of a Technology Magazine
Wired magazine has been telling us what's hipand cool in technology since the birth of the Web. In this post, we look at the elements that make up Wired - and how it continues to evolve as both a print and online publication.Led by its current editor in chief, Chris Anderson (since 2001), Wired has always stayed true to its original style and format. From jargon, to gadgets, to tech breakthroughs and the people behind the technology, Wired has remained on cutting edge and, at times, defined it. Also over the past decade and more, Wired and other Conde Nast publications have adapted wellto the print-online duality. Today the company maintains a print edition, an online edition, a rich set oflogs and, recently launched, Geekipedia. The print edition brings subscription revenueas well as advertising dollars. The online edition is free, supported only by advertising.Wired, The Print EditionThe print edition of Wired costs $10 a year. Considering that a pack of cigarettes in...

Internet TVs Future is Set-Top Boxes
last100 editor Steve O'Hear has been pondering the future of Internet TV and he sees set-top boxes as key. A set-top box, according to this definition, is "a device used with televisions, allowing users access to enhanced and sometimes proprietary features such as digital channels, video-on-demand, and Internet access".Here is what last100 had to say about this future for Internet TV:"Two seemingly unrelated announcements last week have got me thinking about whether the future of “full screen” Internet TV applications, such as Joost or Babelgum, reside on a PC or, instead, some sort of set-top-box which connects to a TV.Microsoft launched a Beta version of its new MSN Video-based “Internet TV” service, compatible with “Extenders for Media Center” devices from Cisco, D-Link, and HP; and Jaman published a software hack — albeit, unsupported — to enable content from its movie download store to work...

Top 100 Alt Search Engines, October 2007
AltSearchEngines has just released its latest Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list. ASE tracks over 1,000 "alts" in all, so choosing the top 10% is a pretty big deal.One trend that ASE editor Charles Knight is beginning to see is some of the alts getting larger. Charles noted: "We have always said that there are 4-5 major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask) and 100 Top ASE. But we may have to revisit that. Some ASE (maybe - blinkx, GigaBlast, Exalead, picsearch, Answers.com, Eurekster, Quintura - this is a new concept) seem to be growing larger than a typical ASE, but are not major yet either."Exalead was chosen as the Search Engine of the Month for October - it is a Web and image search engine.Check out the entire list and accompanying analysis over on AltSearchEngines.

Adobe Demos "Thermo" RIA Design Tool to Delighted Crowd
At this morning's keynote at the Adobe MAX event in Chicago, Mark Anders and Steven Heintz of Adobe gave a sneak peek of a new application being developed by the company code-named "Thermo." Thermo is what they're terming a "rich internet application design tool." Its goal is to allow designers to create Flex-based RIAs without the need to touch any code and to create a more seamless workflow between designers and developers.With Thermo, designers can build a web app UI and the MXML code to control it is automatically rendered by the application. Developers can then access that code and tie the UI to the rest of the application. Some conference attendees were rightly of Visual Basic, but Thermo seems much smarter -- and, of course, is aimed at web app developers.The demo at the conference was very compelling and drew the loudest applause of anything presented. Thermo has basic drawing tools that can be used to wireframe an app, but what really makes Thermo special for designers...

Bloglines Makes Announcements, Including OpenID Support
Bloglines, the IAC owned online feed reader, made a number of different announcements this morning - most importantly that the company now supports OpenID. At least it is starting to support OpenID, more on the details below. By some accounts Bloglines is the market leader in online feed readers - by others it trails behind Google Reader. Regardless, the company has been a key innovator in the space for some time and the product is widely used. We reviewed the most recent major overhaul of Bloglines in August.As of today Bloglines users can use their Bloglines login info to sign in to other sites that support OpenID login. This is good news, but more than a bit underwhelming at the same time. Big companies can announce all day long that they will now let you log in to other sites with their ID - it's time for them to support OpenID login on their own site using credentials from other vendors. Bloglines' GM Eric Engleman told me this morning that Bloglines will do just...

Yahoo! Launches Search Enhancements
The news search engine features that we wrote about at Yahoo! in early August are now live on their site. The enhancements include Yahoo!'s Search Assist, which is an improved version of their search suggestion feature, and a number of new Yahoo! Shortcuts. Shortcuts are self contained information widgets that appear at the top of results for certain searches and draw content from other Yahoo! properties.In addition to the Shortcuts we talked about in August for music, movies, travel, and images, Yahoo! has rolled out a handful of additional Shortcuts for topics like sports, business, health and events. The sports Shortcut, like the one seen below, is especially useful to a fantasy sports addict like myself. Unfortunately, it isn't triggered for all players. For example, a search for New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter brings up a Shortcut about him, but a search for teammate Robinson Cano does not. My guess is the decision whether to launch a Shortcut is based on search...

Barnes & Noble.com Gets Makeover - Adds Some Web 2.0 Elements, But Still Far Behind Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble.com has launched a re-design, with several new web 2.0 features - including "One on One" podcasts, a large tag cloud on the frontpage, a "See Inside" program that offers a virtual book-reading like experience, a service called "Live at Barnes & Noble" where you can view webcasts of readings at member stores. Another new feature is B&N Review, a daily magazine with reviews and interviews.The goal of the re-design was to add more "motion", as well as more content, interactivity, and community. The AP report also noted that Barnes & Noble.com "has become increasingly important to Barnes & Noble Inc. [...] The online seller's percentage of the superstore's total sales have doubled in the past five years to 10 percent."Joe Wikert has a nice review of the re-design, noting that it is "disappointing to see that B&N's page has nothing to offer on the widget front." Indeed check our recent review of Random House's widget and web services program...

10 Chat Widgets to Consider
Embedded chat in a website provides the ability to more closely connect with your readers or customers, depending on the instance. Chat widgets provide real-time feedback and spur thought-provoking discussions - features lacking in e-mail. However the disadvantages should be acknowledged too. In some cases, widgets may slow down the page load or take away from the overall site experience rather than enhance it. However I encourage everyone to give some of the following chat widgets a try and make your own conclusions. Let's take a look at some of the top ones...MeeboMeMeeboMe is the leader in the space. This spin-off of the original multiple client chat (Meebo) is a nice, simple chat widget. It features publisher status, user nickname editing, and sound control. Also be sure to check out MeeboRooms, launched earlier this year.PlugooPlugoo is a slick little chat widget that enables you to talk with site visitors via your IM client. In other words, you can work as usual without...