Home / readwriteweb.com rss archive / September-12-2007


Yahoo Launches 2 New Hacks - Interview with Bradley Horowitz, VP of Yahoo Advanced Development Division
This evening Yahoo! is announcing two new 'hacks' that have been in development since late March. While it is tempting to write them off as two small features being incorporated into the largest Internet Property in the world, we wonder if there is more meaning here - especially given that Jerry Yang announced a 100 day strategy refresh back in July. This week I sat down with Bradley Horowitz, VP of Yahoo's Advanced Development Division, to discuss both hacks that are launching tonight. (You can listen to the full interview on Read/WriteTalk) As we talked, it became apparent that Horowitz was trying to make these hacks more symbolic. Specifically he commented: "And even at this time, when the media has widely reported struggles and the internal challenges we have at Yahoo, the Hack spirit is very much alive. And I'm really happy to be sharing with you today a couple of innovations that I think are representative of the kind of things that we see coming out in...

10 Ajax Start Pages to Consider
Ajax start pages are easy-to-use, customizable webpages, allowing you to keep up with the latest news and add interactive content. You can add new RSS feeds and widgets, and move your content around the page. In some ways start pages are the successors to the portals of the 90's. They have yet to break into the mainstream, however the promotion of iGoogle and the presence of MyYahoo are facilitating the transition. Let's explore some of the top players - and also some you may not have been aware of.For in-depth analysis on start pages, check out Read/WriteWeb's The Future of Personalized Start Pages and Business Models For Start Pages. NetvibesNetvibes is one of the leaders in the space. The interface is not only clean, but also very well thought-out. Usability seemed to be a big factor when designing the experience - and it shows. In March they released their Coriander Edition - a "super personalized homepage, including a "Netvibes Reader" with multimedia...

Mojiti, China's YouTube 2.0, in Acquisition Rumors
Back in January we reviewed a promising new online video startup out of China, called Mojiti. We noted that thereare many so-called Chinese YouTubes fighting it out on the Chinese web2.0battleground, but Mojiti.com - which launched in November 2006 - caught our attention because it offered a fresh user experience. It wasn't just a YouTube clone, in other words. In Mojiti, videos are not just available to watch andshare - youcan annotate them too. With Mojiti you can add text and graphicsto existing videos.In our review, we spoke to Eric Feng, the founder of Mojiti.com and a former Microsoft exec. He mentioned that other new features to come included a Media Center plugin, Flash Spots, and SubRip/SubViewer. So there is a lot of functionality in Mojiti, which seems to have made it a prime acquisition target for $1 billion News Corp./NBC online video joint venture Hulu, according to Techcrunch.Note that Eric Feng told Read/WriteWeb in January that unlike most Chinese startups,...

Social Network Types, Motivations, and the Future
The desire to network is as old as humanity and online social networking sites do seem to solve a need that is different from simply using email, chat and blogging tools separately. However the idea that there will be one big social network platform is the purest form of baloney. The Internet is the platform. Period, end of story. The Facebook social graph platform pitch looks like a classic end of hype cycle attempt to inflate valuation, but as they say, that's another story!It is and interesting exercise to attempt to theorize how online social networking is likely to evolve once we get past the hype cycle. The best way to start is by looking at the different types of human networks and the motivations that drive them. I see two distinct types of motivation. One is, "I want to communicate better with the people that I already know and trust". The other is, "I want to increase my visibility so that I can connect with more people".This also fits in with classic consumer marketing...

Firstgiving - $50 Million Raised for Charity and Counting
Somerville, Massachusetts-based Firstgiving makes it simple for anyone to raise money for any accredited charity in the US. By providing donation and awareness tools to organizers, anyone can set up a fund drive in the name of their favorite charity. One of the most popular uses of Firstgiving is to use the site to raise money as part of a sporting event, such as a walk-a-thon.For example, say you're planning to walk barefoot across the state of Wisconsin to raise money for cancer research. With Firstgiving, you could set up a page that would let people donate directly to the American Cancer Society using a secure form, which might make it easier to convince people to give you money -- since you never handle any of it and they can be certain of exactly where their money is going. Firstgiving makes it easy to raise money on your own as part of an organized event, or set up a page for an event/cause you come up with on your own.Firstgiving has helped over 100,000 people raise...

New York Times Launches Facebook App
The New York Times takes a step into the social networking realm today by launching a Facebook application called the New York Times News Quiz. The simple application presents users with a daily (Monday-Friday) 5 question, multiple choice quiz about the top news stories as determined by the New York Times editorial staff.Users are assigned a "Times IQ," which is a numerical representation of how up-to-date they are on the current goings on in the world. Users of the Times app also get to compare their news knowledge with their friends and the rest of Facebook.When Facebook released their platform earlier this year, the Washington Post was one of the first major print newspapers to jump on board with their wildly successful Political Compass application -- a 10 question quiz to determine your approximate political leanings. Even though the Compass is listed in the "Just for Fun" category, it has garnered close to 350,000 users.Unfortunately for the Washington Post, their applicati...

Across the Read/WriteWeb Network: Charity Search, Internet TV, Niche Social Networks
Here are some of the highlights from the Read/WriteWeb Network over the past few days:AltSearchEngine's List of Charity Search Engines: Charles has compiled a very useful list of charity search engines. He concluded that while none of the search engines on the list rated a perfect 5 star rating, several were very good - namely GoodTree, GoodSearch, CharityCafe, and EveryClick (U.K. only). Also, with just one exception (SearchGive), they all use a Major search engine to power their results, so you should get good search results.last100's Internet streaming: five U.S. television networks compared explores how major U.S. television networks continue to embrace Internet technology and put their shows on the Web for online viewing. However - writes last100's Daniel Langendorf - their online offerings remain sporadic and their Internet strategies feel like we have to rather than we want to.iFood.tv Social Network for Food Lovers - R/WW's Josh Catone checks out iFood.tv, a social network...

Social Graph: Concepts and Issues
Brad Firzpatrick recentlywrote an elegant and important post about the Social Graph, a term used by Facebook to describe their social networkIn his post, Fitzpatrick defines "social graph" as "the global mapping of everybody and how they're related". He went on to outline the problems with it, as well as a broad set of goals going forward. One problem is that currently you need to have different logins for different social networks. Another issue is portabilityand ownership of an individual's information, explicitly and implicitly revealed while using social networks.As was recently asserted in the Social Bill Of Rightsand as has been advocated for a while by Attention Trust Principles, userswant to own their personal information - including their chunk of the Social Graph.The problems are all interconnected - what makes up a Social Graph, how it is treated by social networks, what theAPIs and standards are, as well as who owns the informatio...