The next generation Times Reader desktop application, built by NY Times and Microsoft, has just gone live. At the end of August Read/WriteWeb published exclusive pre-launch screenshots of Times Reader, but now you can download the app and see for yourself. Note that it requires a Windows XP machine and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. Once downloaded and installed, you will need to login to the application using your NY Times website username and password.
Times Reader is built on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is Microsoft's advanced UI technology for applications. To check out the WPF features in Times Reader, try some of these things:
If you're interested in the technology behind Times Reader, there are more details on this Tech.Ed WPF demo page. It includes a screencast demonstrating the Tablet PC (Inking) capabilities on the Windows Presentation Foundation platform (screencast also on YouTube).
It's unclear at this point whether Times Reader will be free to use, or will require a subscription. I think the Reader itself is free and premium content requires subscription, just as it is with the website. Currently the content in Times Reader seems to mirror what NY Times offers on its website - i.e. some content is marked with TimesSelect, their premium content subscription service.
Here are some more screenshots of Times Reader in action, based on my tests:
Highlight and right-click for options
Adding notes - on a Tablet you can do this via 'inking'
Search and its heat map tile panel view
Topic Explorer
Exploring topics within a single article
Man about town Om Malik bumped into Netvibes CEO Tariq Krim at the The Future of Web Apps conference in San Francisco. Tariq told Om that Netvibes now has 5 million users, so naturally he is very optimistic of its future. Currently on Read/WriteWeb we're running a poll asking whether independent Personalized Start Pages (such as Netvibes, Pageflakes and Webwag) have a viable future as profitable businesses. The results so far have just 51% of respondents saying yes, start pages do have a future. 47% think no, they will go the way of the dot coms. 2% admitted they don't know what start pages are. The poll is still open, so have your say here:
I liked Om's conclusion, which I heartily agree with - not just for Netvibes but Pageflakes and the other small start pages too. Om said:
"...when I see Netvibes, I see a company that is offloading a bulk of heavy lifting to the client, aka the browser. Not very different than Skype, you could say. I see a tool that if nurtured properly could become the gatekeeper to my attention. Just like MySpace has the attention of its 100 million plus users, Netvibes can do the same, but as a starting point for our digital journeys. Of course, the company has to keep innovating and coming up with ways to extend their ecosystem. And they need to maintain unwavering focus on making the service easier, faster and more convenient to use."
Despite Netvibe's 5M user base (is that return users?), we're still a way off start pages being mainstream tools. Yahoo has shown little interest in doing one - which indicates they're still of niche value. And I've determined they're no good as RSS Readers (both Netvibes and Pageflakes ate up too much of my PC's memory every time they loaded up all my RSS feeds). But as a home to mini web apps and widgets, which will become increasingly popular, start pages have a promising future.
Microsoft has released details of its upcoming Zune product, an iPod-like device that is squarely aimed at challenging Apple's dominance of the online music market. TechCrunch, Engadget and PaidContent have all the details, so I just want to focus on a couple of interesting Internet features of Zune.
This is clearly going to wake Apple up, because a social networking aspect is the one glaring feature missing from its otherwise excellent iPod/iTunes online music combo. Zune's social networking will be based in Zune Marketplace, the equivalent of iTunes. Songs can also be shared via wireless technology on the Zune device.
It also seems that Zune will have as good a selection of music as iTunes, although details are sketchy at this stage.
This is what Microsoft truly believes is its advantage over Apple - ability to connect Zune across a network of devices. Zune will no doubt over time hook into the PC, Xbox, TV, etc. While Apple announced its own inter-connection plans with iTV this week, in this case Apple is the follower and not the leader.
Of course the big advantage Apple has is its brand and design, which a lot of people think is enough to continue its success. And given the early screenshots of Zune, with its brown(!?), black and white colors and its monolith-like shape - well, let's just say that Apple designers won't be feeling the heat any time soon!
Microsoft's vision for this is summed up here: "Zune is Microsoft’s music and entertainment platform that provides an end-to-end solution for Connected Entertainment."
It's a social platform, as well as a music one. This currently differentiates it from Apple, so it's a good move by Microsoft. It also promises a very connected experience across devices, which plays to Microsoft's strengths. Whether all this is enough to challenge Apple, which has already won over the hearts of the mass market with the iPod and iTunes, will be interesting to see.
Today Yahoo
is releasing the new Ajax-powered version of Yahoo Mail to all users in the US and across
18 international markets. Previously Yahoo Mail Beta (as it is known) was only available
to a relatively small group of people.
I spoke exclusively to Ethan Diamond, director of product management for the new Yahoo! Mail, to talk about the product. Ethan was previously the founder of Oddpost, a pioneer in Ajaxian web email, which got acquired by Yahoo in July 2004 - so he is the perfect person to speak to when it comes to web email.
Download Read/WriteWeb Interview with Ethan Diamond (3.8 MB)
Yahoo! Mail is the No. 1 Web mail service in the world - it has 255 million users according to comScore's July 2006 figures. By comparision, MSN Hotmail has 234 million, AOL Mail 56 million and Google's Gmail 49 million. Check out our overview of the web email market, for more context. So this release of Ajax functionality in Y! Mail Beta to 255M-odd users represents the largest scale use of Ajax in the world - together with the release earlier this year of Yahoo's re-designed homepage.
Yahoo Mail Beta
The new Yahoo Mail Beta is touted as being as functional as a desktop email client (such as Outlook). Other new features include an integrated calendar timeline (including mashups with Yahoo Maps), drag and drop e-mail organization, message preview, tabs for messages, plus an integrated RSS reader. There are also plenty of links to other Yahoo properties, such as this one just above the inbox: "Start your own blog here" (which leads to Yahoo360).
In my testing of the product, my favorite feature so far is a seemingly simple - yet surprisingly effective - one: the ability to have multiple e-mail messages open at the same time using tabs. Given that I virtually live in my email inbox and often am conducting a few email conversations at a time, this feature comes in very handy!
My only gripe about the product is that it is advertising heavy - but then people could say the same about my blog! ;-) They are predominantly ads for other Yahoo properties though.
Calendar view
RSS Reader integrated with email
The podcast interview has been edited (mostly to cut down my long-winded questions I think!), but following are the questions I prepared for Ethan. I re-phrased some of them during the interview...
1) Can you give us a bit of history about both Yahoo Mail and Oddpost, how they've evolved over the years and eventually (finally?) become integrated. And leading on from that question, Yahoo acquired Oddpost in July 2004 - why has it taken so long for Yahoo Mail to incorporate some of the Ajax features that Oddpost had 2-3 years ago?
2) The new Yahoo Mail Beta will function more like a desktop client application - including using the traditional 3-pane view, having folders, drag and drop, and so on. Some would argue that web-based email requires a different UI paradigm than a desktop client - for example Gmail's "conversation view" and labels instead of folders are two features that I love. Why does Yahoo believe that the desktop UI paradigm is right for web-based email too?
3) Tell us more about the calendar timeline, which is one of the main new features. What makes it different from your main competitors (Google, Microsoft, AOL)? One difference seems to be the Yahoo Maps integration with calendar - is that available outside the US?
4) The integrated RSS Reader is an interesting feature, because once Yahoo Mail Beta goes live to your 250M or so mainstream users - that will automatically make Yahoo Mail by far the biggest RSS Reader on the planet. It will go a long way towards making RSS mainstream in fact. How will you promote this new feature to your user base, given that RSS feeds are still not widely used in 'the real world'?
5) Tabbed messages is a nice UI innovation, meaning you can open and compose different email messages in multiple tabs. How did that feature come about?
6) What's the marketing strategy for the beta roll-out - will you be aggressively promoting it across Yahoo's properties and in mainstream media?
7) What's the timeline for going live with the new Yahoo Mail Beta (i.e. when will the "beta" be taken off)?
8) What's your vision for web email for the next 5 or so years? Now that rich interaction can be achieved using Ajax and all the major Internet companies have done that with their web email services, what can we as consumers expect next from web email? More integration with other Web Office apps, for example?
Update: A screencast has now been made available.
At yesterday's Apple Showtime event, Steve Jobs announced upgrades to iPod/iTunes, the addition of movies to iTunes, and an upcoming product called iTV. Movies on iTunes had been predicted and much discussed before the event, so the real interest was in the iTV announcement - which is essentially Apple's version of Media Center, the Microsoft tv product. iTV (not the final brand name) will enable users to view all their Apple-downloaded content on a big screen tv - movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, and photos.
Several pundits noted that Apple's strategy for their Internet-connected products, including iTV, is disarmingly similar to the one Microsoft employs: closed ecosystems built on proprietary, locked-down technologies. As Tristan Louis put it:
"...there is no DVR or traditional TV tuner built into the device. I believe that this was not due to a technical limitation but rather as part of a wider play to create an eco-system around the new device. Much like Apple initially allowed other companies to develop components that played well with the iPod, I believe they are trying to get a new ecosystem built around the new device. This will allow them to gage innovation in the space and identify which opportunities may be best for future integration or as components to add to the system."
Apple is betting that their design and marketing prowess will give iTV an edge in what is shaping up as a highly competitive market for online television and movies. Microsoft is taking a multi-pronged approach - with Media Center, XBox, the upcoming Zune (an iPod-like product) and other multimedia functionality built into Vista. Let's not forget other players either: Yahoo has been testing online TV and video services, Google hasn't done much yet but could easily enter the market, smaller players like Brightcove and Gotuit, the cable tv companies, Sony, plus there are the existing DVR products like TiVo.
Where Apple's Internet strategy is different from the others is that, as Om Malik put it, "content is what sells the hardware". And that has worked a treat for music - the iPod has 75.6% of the market and iTunes 88% in the US and number 1 most other places (it still hasn't released in New Zealand though!!). They've achieved that through a combination of a 'best of breed' design (for the iPod) and a large selection of music on iTunes, that is about as comprehensive as it gets for legal downloads (still nowhere near online music nirvana though).
I'd bet dollars to donuts that Apple can nail the design for iTV, just as they did for iPod. That's almost a no-brainer. The real question though is: can they get as wide a selection of video/tv/movies as they've managed to do with music? So far they only have Disney video, courtesy of Steve Jobs being on the board of Disney. Will the other Hollywood and major media tv networks be as willing to give Apple rights to their content? I doubt it. In fact, it'll be extremely difficult for Apple to get mainstream media content for iTV - which they need, given that it doesn't have DVR functionality.
The online video and tv market is wide open right now. Will Apple's iPod/iTunes strategy work as well for movies/tv shows as it did for music? If I was a betting man, I'd give that a resounding NO. There are too many other players - and none of them are as ill-informed and ignorant of the Internet as mainstream music companies were/are. Plus of course Microsoft missed the boat with online music (Zune is a very belated attempt at catch-up), but they won't make the same mistake with video/tv.
Written by Alex Iskold and edited by Richard MacManus.
Whether you like the bubble mentality of the current era or not, it's hard to deny that VCs play a big role in the Web ecosphere. Many prominent venture firms have funded startups in social networking, online video and vertical search - helping to jumpstart the current excitement about new social technologies.
With that in mind we prepared a comparison of VC portfolios. We included VCs that we think are most active in the space, but please note that this is not an exhaustive list. Also we have not attempted to include all of their investments, just the main social web ones. Bearing all that in mind, we encourage you to use the comments section to suggest VCs and companies you think should be added.
We've put the portfolio companies into 4 major categories. Some compromises where made in order to keep the list of categories short - for example Digg would be more precisely categorized under Social News and Flock as Social Browsing, but to keep the chart simple we filed both under Social Networking and Bookmarking.
In addition to the linked logo of each company, the table below also contains its current Alexa traffic rank - a basic (if controversial) measure of popularity. The VC listings include the links to their company, as well as partners working in Web space. Also, we've included links to their blogs and Technorati ratings of the popular VC blogs.
The (*) means that more than one VC participated and so the exact amount by this firm is not known. Other things: Angels are indicated in parenthesis. The transaction amounts/links for Angels are not listed since they are typically small and not publicized. Also, note the distinct links to the partner's bio, his blog and the Technorati rating of his blog.
What do you think - is there enough data here to draw conclusions? For example we can see that the most popular category is Search and Classifieds. This makes sense since there are many verticals to apply search to and classifieds is likewise popular. Social Networking and Bookmarking is also very crowded and competitive. What other trends do you see?
UPDATE 18/9/06: Version 2 of the chart has now been published, incorporating the feedback received.
In our latest poll, we're asking what you think of Personalized Start Pages as an ongoing business. Accel VC Judy Gibbons said in our interview that personalized start pages are under-hyped:
"Personal home pages like PageFlakes & Netvibes [...] represent the third generation of Internet usage: first portals because there was little content and it was hard to find; second search because there was an ever increasing amount of content if you could only track it down; now personalized ‘pull’ home pages, because most sophisticated users know what content and apps they want to check into every day - and they want these brought to them to improve productivity."
Do you agree? Let us know by selecting one of the choices below...
You may also want to check out previous R/WW posts on start pages: Business Models For Start Pages and The Future of Personalized Start Pages.
This is the start of a new interview series on Read/WriteWeb, about venture capitalists (VCs) and their thoughts on 'next generation web'. The aim is to find out what Web technology trends and products VCs are tracking - and at the same time provide some expert tips and advice for Web developers and entrepreneurs.
In this first installment,
we talk with Judy Gibbons of Accel. Accel is a
Silicon Valley and London-based VC firm and is an investor in Web companies such as
Facebook, Brightcove, Kosmix, Netvibes, Zimbra - and many others. Judy
is part of Accel's Venture Development team, in their London office. She has 25 years
experience in the computer industry, including working for Microsoft, HP and Apple.
Before joining Accel, Judy was Corporate Vice President of MSN Global Sales and Marketing
at Microsoft. Thanks Judy for participating in this interview!
R/WW: What web or new media companies have you invested in over the past 12-18 months?
Judy: In the London office we've invested in:
R/WW: Looking at upcoming web technologies, which trends are you interested in currently - and which trends do you see becoming increasingly important over the next 12-18 months?
Judy: It’s often referred to as web 2.0, but could more accurately be described as 'second generation internet' - and I think there are some recurring themes. For example:
These translate into a number of interesting business areas, some established but moving to second generation; some new. For example:
R/WW: In the blogosphere a certain type of 'web 2.0' company is endlessly hyped - e.g. Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube - while other deserving companies struggle to get attention from bloggers. What are a few examples of companies that are under-hyped, in your opinion?
Judy: Personal home pages like PageFlakes & Netvibes. These represent the third generation of Internet usage: first portals because there was little content and it was hard to find; second search because there was an ever increasing amount of content if you could only track it down; now personalized ‘pull’ home pages, because most sophisticated users know what content and apps they want to check into every day - and they want these brought to them to improve productivity.
Also Vertical Search like Kosmix and Kayak and Trulia - we are so far away from this problem being solved. There is massive consumer demand and compelling business models. Google was just the beginning...
R/WW: What are the main differences in the Web industry in Europe versus Silicon Valley, other parts of the US, or Asia? Obviously easier access to VC funds in the Valley is one key difference, but are there others - for example the types of products being produced?
Judy: Vs The Valley in previous decades;
R/WW: For a Next Generation Web startup, which is more important - building the technology with defensible IP, or just putting your beta product out there and growing your customer base?
Judy: They’re related; it’s about building something that is compelling to end users, that keeps them coming back and gets them recommending it to friends; that creates feedback and new ideas, that results in new features and functionality that spawns compelling business models. The IP is often in the customer and market knowledge - as much as in the software. It’s about the knowhow; pure IP on its own is often not enough. Equally companies with good ideas who attract early users, but fail to build on this through innovation, usually fade away..
R/WW: In your view what is the #1 problem that web startup CEOs commonly have:
a. Funding
b. Team
c. Competition
d. Revenue
e. Growth
Judy: All of the above, to be frank. The order varies for a given start up and depends on what phase they are in. That’s the challenge; they have to execute well across all of these dimensions.
R/WW: This is a question a lot of our readers will be interested in - how does an entrepreneur get on Accel's radar?
Judy: The best way is to find someone to make an introduction, as this inherently qualifies the company; it’s not that hard – six degrees of separation and all that. They can look at the existing portfolio for example.
Failing that, a direct approach to the right VC with the right pitch. Preparation helps; the entrepreneur needs to know enough about how venture works to know it’s right for them and their business, know which VC at which firm is likely to be most interested (read bios on web sites) and be able to explain the business well.
It's Apple Showtime today and as usual, plenty of great coverage to sort through. Here is a quick filter of the news, with a focus on Web-related announcements from Apple.
The iPod now has 75.6% market share, according to Apple. The range of 'devices' it connects to is impressive too - "70 percent of the new cars sold in the US offer iPod connectivity as an option." But the real Web interest is in iTunes, which has a market share of 88% for legal US downloads". According to Engadget:
"We have sold over 1.5 billionsongs. If you look at all the music that's legally distributed in the US, and CDs and online ..."
#1 Wal-Mart
#2 Best Buy
#3 Target
#4 Amazon
#5 iTunes"iTunes is now the fifth largest legal reseller of music in the US. we're on a trajectory to surpass Amazon and become #4 in January."
"Outside the US, there are iTunes stores in 21 countries . It's #1 in every single country."
Today Apple announced iTunes7, which has an enhanced UI (e.g. 3 "views": traditional, album view, and cover flow view). Also better integration with the iPod.
Apple is also ramping up their television content - they now have 220 shows from over 40 networks. Video has been enhanced in iTunes7 to 640x480 - 4x the resolution of the previous 320x240. Jobs also mentioned iTunes7 has "seamless playback for video".
The big announcement (pre-hyped in the blogosphere) is the introduction of movies to iTunes:
"Today we're starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax - four studios owned by Disney. Today we're making over 70 films available online today ... including Pirates of the Caribbean. They'll be available the same day they're out on DVD."
They will be "near DVD quality" at 640 x 480 resolution. Pricing: new movies will be $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them during the first week; other movies are $9.99.
The last big announcement was about the future release of a television connector box called iTV (not the final name). This seems to be Apple's version of Media Center, the Microsoft tv product. It will enable people to view all their Apple-downloaded content on a big screen tv - movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, and photos. iTV will connect to your home network via WiFi. It'll also be cross-platform, working on Mac and Windows. The price is $299 and it'll be available in Q1 2007.
For more comprehensive coverage, see Engadget and CrunchGear. TechCrunch also has a review post here.
In our post entitled Webified
Desktop Apps vs Browser-based Apps, Sharpcast CEO Gibu Thomas left a comment saying that his company fulfils the 'webified desktop' vision:
"At Sharpcast, we believe the right user experience is something closer to how in a corporate Exchange server environment, Microsoft Outlook works seamlessly with Outlook Web Access on any browser and a Blackberry mobile device. The user has the choice of interacting with his data in the most optimal way depending on whether he is connected or offline, which one of his devices he is on and so on.
We decided that every application should work like that for consumers and Sharpcast Photos is the first application that demonstrates this user experience."
In a nutshell Sharpcast enables you to synch your data across the Web, multiple PCs and your mobile phone. It's a real-time synchronisation engine and photos is just the first application of this - soon Sharpcast will be extended to all types of files. Indeed the platform was always intended to go well beyond photos.
Sharpcast recently demoed their product at the Wall Street Journal D conference. Although the video is not yet available for public consumption, I got the chance to check it out. Gibu demonstrated Sharpcast synching across a couple of Windows laptops, a Mac laptop and a Windows Treo phone. This was done using the Sharpcast platform and protocols. He also discussed how Sharpcast automatically backs up files for users.
Sharpcast has already garnered a lot of praise and awards. Oliver Starr has a good round-up of the product and I remember seeing it myself at the Supernova conference earlier this year. The real test will be how it works for non-photo applications. At the D conference Gibu showed how entering a new contact in his (PC) Outlook instantly synchs with his Mac email contacts and Treo too - giving a single view of contacts data.
Sharpcast's synching functionality will be offered as tiered service plans and they are also going to pre-bundle Sharpcast data synch on carriers. Perhaps the most exciting thing is that Sharpcast will open up APIs, so that other apps can utilize their synch platform. This is a webified desktop product to keep an eye on!
