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


Microsoft to Release Windows Live Unified Installer This Week
The NY Times reports that Microsoft will release a Unified Installer program for Windows Live this week, enabling PC users to download a set of the services - understood to be Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 and Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. John Markoff of the Times says that this is an effort to connect the Windows OS with software services delivered via the Net - and he draws parallels with Microsoft tieing Internet Explorer to Windows in the mid-90s (for which Microsoft was eventually convicted of anti-trust violations). The implication is that Microsoft will have an unfair advantage, because the Windows Live Internet services will be tied in some way to Windows - or at least work better on Windows.Markoff also notes that the Windows Live installer is a direct competitive strike to Google and Salesforce.com, both of whom offer software services over the Internet.What is the Unified Installer?Read/WriteWeb...

Web Future Week
This week's feature is inspired byAlex Iskold's recent post on what he called The Digestion Phase. Alex defined this as "a period of time for us to reflect, to integrate, and to understand recent technologies and how they fit together."We've come so far in just a few years and while there's a lot of integration and reflection going on now about 'web 2.0', it's also useful to think about where the Web is headed. What's beyond web 2.0? And no we're not talking about "web 3.0" (whatever that is!).Alex mentioned some of these future Web ideas in his post: Digital Life, Attention Economy,Intelligent Machines, Semantic Search and Web Sites as Web Services. What others are there?If there's any particular Web Future topic or theme you'd like us to explore this week, please let us know in the comments.

Simpsonize Yourself
Ever wished you were a guest star on The Simpsons? Well you can at least create a likeness of yourself, should The Simpsons producers ever call. On Simpsonize Me, you can upload a photo of yourself and then make adjustments until the cartoon drawing resembles you. Here's mine - add a link to yours in the comments :-) Link via Reuben Schwarz.