It looks like Google will shortly be adding a wiki to their web office application suite. Google acquired JotSpot, a provider of hosted wikis, last October, and signs now point to a re-launch of the service as Google Wiki. Google Blogoscoped noticed that "jotspot" is now a Google Apps service code, and if you try to log in to the service you're treated with a rather poorly-sized Google Wiki logo.
Google said in July that it would be adding JotSpot to Google Apps, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise. The Google Operating System blog speculates that the launch will be timed with an announcement at this weekend's Office 2.0 event in San Francisco.
Apple obviously already has a phone. Microsoft has been rumored to be making one. So has Yahoo!. And, of course, the Google phone is supposedly just around the corner. You're not cool if you're not rumored to be working on a phone.
It's clear that companies realize the mobile market is big and getting bigger. So where are the eBay phone rumors? Barring Apple, which is a proven gadget company, I think a phone from eBay might make more sense than phones from any of them.
Of course, eBay is not a gadget company, and eBay does not make a mobile operating system (like Microsoft), or control a lot of mobile information services (like Google and Yahoo!). What eBay does own, however, are PayPal and Skype -- both of which are very well suited for the mobile world.
This week's poll is a tough one, because we're asking you to predict the future. But we hope you're game enough to vote, because it'll give us some clues on what to write about in Web Future Week ;-)
We're asking: Which Web technology do you think will have the most impact over the next 10 years? In some ways it's a follow-on to a poll we ran at the end of 2006, asking about 2007 Web Trends. But this one is a longer view.
It is of course very difficult to predict what will happen in 10 years time, given how fast technology moves. Who would've predicted in 1997 that a search engine company would rule the Web tech world in 2007. Probably not many people, given that Google wasn't formed until September 1998. It's possible that the dominant web technology of 2017 doesn't even exist yet, or is a twinkle in a Stanford Uni student's eye (or maybe a Shanghai Uni student).
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.
This week's feature is inspired by Alex 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 Web Future ideas in his post: Digital Life, Attention Economy, Intelligent Machines, Semantic Search and Web Sites as Web Services. What others are there? And 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.
Ever wished you were a guest star on The Simpsons? Well now 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.
Update: Here's Josh Catone-Simpson...
Here 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.
This week Read/WriteWeb introduced a new network blog: a podcasting show called Read/WriteTalk, hosted by Sean Ammirati. The tagline behind the show is "The People Behind The Web" and Sean will be interviewing a number of major players in the Web Technology industry over the coming months. The opening podcast features Jason Calacanis and he gives a lot of informative details about his background and experiences as an entrepreneur.
This week we focused on Web Office and here were our top posts:
