As we reported yesterday, CNN is this weekend re-launching its website as an enhanced multimedia site - packed with web 2.0 features such as recommendations and user generated content. The new site has just gone live - read our full review here.
One noticeable thing about the new site, that we didn't mention, is that both Google and Yahoo are CNN's search providers. Check out these screenshots:
In the week building up to the release of the iPhone on Friday evening US, we've been exploring web apps for the iPhone. We also reviewed
the first iPhone Development platform, created by Morfik.
Now that the iPhone is in the hands of early US adopters (the Apple ones at least), we expect to see a flurry of web entrepreneurs and ordinary users testing their apps in the iPhone.
Mobile social networking startup MyStrands pinged us this evening to tell us about their tests. Their excited blog post says:
The Weekly Wrapups have been a feature of Read/WriteWeb since the beginning of January 2005 (when they were called Web 2.0 Weekly Wrapups). Nowadays the Wrapup is designed for those of you who can't keep up with a daily dose of RSS. Here then 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.
Over the past year or so we've seen many mainstream publications 'web
2.0-ize' their web presence. BBC has been a leading force, while in
March USA Today
announced a re-design. Also we covered Martha Stewart 2.0 in April. Now it's CNN's turn. One of the
leading mainstream news operations in the world, CNN is this weekend re-launching its
website as an enhanced multimedia site - packed with web 2.0 features such as
recommendations and user generated content.
The new site officially launches on Sunday, July 1 - although the whsiper is that it might go-live sometime Saturday. Read/WriteWeb was given a sneak peak of the new site and we came away very impressed.
Yesterday Google's Russian Blog announced the launch of a new site on Google Russia called "Questions and Answers." The site uses a points-based system, where questions cost points and users are rewarded for participation (answering, rating, even logging in all apparently earn you points). This development has caused a lot of speculation about whether the Google Answers program, which was shut down last year, would be making a return in English-speaking markets.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the Google Russia project makes its way onto Google proper, but in the meantime there are a ton of other question and answer sites that you can use now. Below is a round up of places you can go to get answers that are hopefully more accurate than a fortune cookie.
The Beta testing trail took us to an interesting
new private beta site called Zude. This app is
deploying cross domain drag-and-drop technology to allow users to create a unique Web
presence. This development is like a 2015 version of Netvibes, or Pageflakes on steroids.
5g’s technology has enabled
perhaps the most powerful personal expression platform I have tested. Users do not need
any technical skill to essentially drag and drop their entire Web experience onto the
Zude platform. The platform also incorporates an advanced tool set, nimble enough for
experienced coders to fine tune their creations.
Note: at the end of this review, we give you a link and access code to test out this private beta.
This post is a result of an email exchange between Greg Pass from Summize and myself (Alex Iskold). Big thanks to Greg for his original ideas and the technical collaboration.
We spend most of our time online searching for information. This is not
surprising, since the Web is a vast sea of information, where finding exactly what you
are looking for is not easy. But why is it that when we find something on one site it is
still not easy to find it on another? Say you found a Harry Potter book on Barnes and
Noble, why is it still hard to find the same item on other sites like Amazon and Powells?
Why is search a one time deal?
For a long time, artisans wishing to sell their hand crafted goods generally had to do so locally through gift shops, swap meets, and craft fairs. Then in the mid-90s along came eBay, and for many years it was the best option for artisans to get their goods out to the world. But in the past couple of years, new online marketplace startups targeted specifically at the needs of independent artists and crafts people have emerged.
Below we'll take a brief look at three such startups as well as eBay.
It's possible the iPhone launch on Friday 29 June is more hype than substance - indeed the current poll we're running on R/WW has only 20% of respondants interested in buying an iPhone as soon as it's released! 41% have no plans to buy one and a further 18% said they'll never buy one. The poll is below, if you'd like to have your say. Nevertheless, there is a flurry of web development activity around the iPhone. One of the more surprising aspects of this is that enterprise apps are being built for, or ported to, the iPhone.
Written by Nitin Karandikar; all photos by Jeremiah Owyang
The highlight of the Searchnomics 2007 conference today was a keynote, at the
very end, by Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience at
Google. Mayer's presentation was titled The Future of Search, in which she
covered eight areas Google is focusing on now and in the near future.
