We have another 2 Comment of the Day prizes to give away and both of them relate to the mainstreaming of online media (specifically video and audio). The first is from our post Is Oprah Going to Save the Internet?, in which Marshall Kirkpatrick noted that Oprah Winfrey's use of podcasting, Silverlight and Skype could be "a turning point for the [Web] platforms of the future." Via trackback, Jason Kaneshiro from Webomatica suggested that the 'Oprah Effect' is so important that Steve Jobs should consider partnering with Oprah in order to sell more iPods and AppleTVs.
Here are some of the highlights from the week's Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb. This week includes social networks and lifestreaming analysis (Facebook, FeedFriend and more), a look at new Semantic Apps, and a new service from Amazon. And don't forget to click through to our website and leave a comment on our posts, for a chance to win a daily $30 Amazon gift voucher.
Debate is raging over the news that Steve Jobs has made good on his summertime promise and is now sending Apple's browser Safari along for the ride when Windows users are prompted to update iTunes or Quicktime. Users can deselect the additional software download, but let's be realistic - there must be millions of people unwittingly downloading Safari onto their computers right now. Downloading software has to be opt-in, not opt-out.
It was just a couple of days ago that CBS VP and Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Keane used fan-favorite "Jericho" as an example of why television networks should potentially begin to include web viewership in ratings numbers. As we wrote, Keane pointed out that "the online viewers of one episode [of 'Jericho'] boosted the ratings from 4.2 to 5.1 - nearly a whole percentage point." But the large web following wasn't enough to keep "Jericho" on the air -- today CBS axed the show.
last100 is reporting that Joost (last100 review) is planning to let viewers access its Internet TV service via a Web browser, rather than requiring them to download and install the current Mac/Windows application. last100 editor Steve O'Hear notes that "though no specific launch date is mentioned (Joost has a track record of stating that it has plans to be everything to everybody), the move to a browser based offering is interesting on a number of fronts."
Today we have 2 prizes to give away. They both come from a very appropriate post from Sarah Perez: The Conversation Has Left the Blogosphere. In it, Sarah noted that "a lot of new aggregation services and lifestreaming applications [have] come into play recently", which may be dragging discussions off blogs and onto the likes of FriendFeed, digg, and Mixx. Ironically perhaps, there were a lot of great comments on our post! ;-) Two I enjoyed explained how lifestreaming apps can actually help blogs get comments.
In January, ReadWriteWeb brought you an exclusive look at SugarSync, the long awaited file syncing utility from Sharpcast, our 2006 Most Promising Web LittleCo. SugarSync is a software program that syncs files across multiple systems -- i.e., desktop, web, and mobile -- allowing users to access backed up data from whatever device they happen to be connecting with. Sharpcast officially launched SugarSync yesterday.
Don't look now but Oprah is at the top of the iTunes podcasting chart. Her discussion series with writer Eckhart Tolle is bringing not just podcasting to her huge audience, she's doing a ten week "class" by live video with a Silverlight player and Skype discussions. It's events like this that change the technology landscape.
The Internet has made our personal lives public. Thanks to social networks, the kind of public scrutiny that was once reserved for the very famous, is now possible for many of us. As we wrote last month, social networking sites like Facebook have become your "permanent record" on the Internet, and that privacy on the web is just an illusion. But do employees even have a legitimate reason for looking at your social networking profiles and other information on the web when hiring you? Is that fair?
Swotti is a new semantic search engine that aggregates opinions about products to help you make purchasing decisions. With Swotti, you can learn from the good and bad experiences of others as the site gathers together reviews and feedback from across the web and categorizes them to provide you with more information about the product you're interested in. What's unique about this search engine is that it uses semantics to do so.
