The times are changing, Microsoft is losing and Google has won as computing moves to the web - right? That's not necessarily the case. In fact, Microsoft has a clear opportunity to come from behind online and dominate the future, albeit in a radically different way than they dominated the past.
Look to the bank, as metaphor, for one vision of how it could go down. Microsoft could beat Google by embracing services the same way Google has but simultaneously building a strong bond of trust with users around protection and proper use of user data. Like a bank, for user data. I'd call this an emerging theory that not only I hold - what do you think?
You've spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it's important to make sure that someone isn't out there dragging it through the mud. The latest tool for reputation management is Trackur, but its bottom-level price is $88/month, so the question on my mind, is: "Is it worth it?" There are already many different ways to monitor your online reputation as it is. Let's see how they stack up.
Last week we wrote about a boycott of online auction site eBay that was organized by sellers angry over recent fee and policy changes. We noted that the full effect of the boycott wouldn't be evident until today, when the consumer action was scheduled to come to an end. "If [eBay's listings total] falls below 12 million we've made a pretty good impact," eBay PowerSeller Nancy Baughman told Fortune Small Business last week. Listings didn't fall quite that much, but almost.
Adobe's AIR platform allows developers to create web applications that run on your desktop without the need of a web browser. Now that AIR has dropped the beta tag (see our previous coverage), it's time to look at some of the AIR apps you can use today. And if you want to know why we here at Read Write Web are so excited about AIR, read more of our analysis about the platform to get caught up. Did your favorite app make the list?
Pulse of Open Source is a new site that aggregates the Twitter messages of thought leaders and participants in the Open Source Software community. It's a great example of the value that can be added on top of a simple aggregation of dynamic niche content. It's also a good example of how you can find value in Twitter without even having an account of your own.
Inspired by the site Pulse of PDX, an aggregation of Twitter messages from users in the tech-rich town of Portland, Oregon (where I live) - these Pulse sites provide a model that could be used to create a central location for live discussions on any topic.
Microsoft today announced the release of a new ROI measurement tool called "engagement mapping." Rather than measure ROI based on the last ad a user clicks, Microsoft's new tool attempts to take into account all the interactions with a company's marketing message and brand that may have lead up to a purchase or other user action.
Adobe is launching out of Labs today the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR. AIR is a really exciting platform that combines qualities of the web with a presence on the desktop by making it easy to build attractive Internet connected applications that live outside the browser. As part of today's launch, new AIR apps from Salesforce, FedEx, eBay, Nickelodeon, Nasdaq, AOL and The New York Times Company will be demonstrated at the Adobe Connect conference in San Francisco.
Lots more AIR apps are coming soon and that's great news. Some of my favorite words to hear these days from startups are "we're working on/have an AIR app."
Alex Iskold just posted Rethinking Recommendation Engines, a product type that we here at ReadWriteWeb have explored a lot over the past year or so. In this follow-up post, we present 10 recommendation engines that we like. And we don't include the obvious ones, such as Amazon, Netflix, last.fm, Pandora. So it's not a 'top 10', don't panic. We invite you to add your favorites in the comments.
Over two years ago, Netflix announced a Recommendation Engine contest - anyone who invents an algorithm that does 10% better than
their current recommendation system will win $1 Million dollars. Many research teams raced to attack the problem, excited by
the unprecedented amount of data available. Initially quite a lot of progress was made, but then slowly
the progress stalled and now teams are stuck at around the 8.5% improvement mark.
Adobe today will bolster its "Platform for Rich Internet Apps" with the full release of a trio of developer tools. Each of the tools Adobe is releasing is either free or open source. Along with the boost to Adobe's RIA platform, a number of companies are also announcing applications built on Adobe's cross platform system runtime, AIR.
