2009 is approaching quickly, and the consensus is that it's going to be a really tough year. The US financial crisis is triggering a global recession. Yet, a crisis is also a time full of hope. It is a time to re-think, re-tool, and get ready for the next upswing.
For big Internet companies, 2009 is going to be a very bad year for sure. Advertising profits are going to plunge, and consumers will spend less money overall, particularly on the web. There is little that can be done to change that. But what big companies can do is invest in innovation and killer moves that will bear fruit in the years to follow. Here is what we think would be cool for various big web companies to do in 2009.
FileRide is a Stockholm-based social network with a twist: FileRide creates a social network for you, based around the files that are already on your computer. FileRide, for example, lets you see who else on the services has the same song or image on their computers and lets you add them as friends. Even more interestingly, you can then also add comments to these files and chat about them in real-time. It is important to note, however, that FileRide is not a file-sharing network and that you can't tranfer files through the service. FileRide's client software currently only works on XP and Vista, but OS X and mobile versions are already in development.
We all know the economy is in shambles and there are massive layoffs across most industries, including technology - but there are still new hires happening in tech and new media! Who's getting hired? That's what we're tracking at our blog Jobwire - the stories of lucky people with exciting new jobs.
Who's getting those jobs? What kinds of positions are being filled and in what sectors? Check out our first set of charts below from last week's aggregate activity on Jobwire to find out the answer to those questions. One interesting tidbit? Software developers are getting hired by social networking companies. If you got a job or your company made a hire in tech or new media this week - send us a note about it at jobwire@readwriteweb.com. Read on for details on how last week looked.
Earlier this month, we heard how online video was cannibalizing TV consumption, thanks to data coming out of an IBM study that polled people across six different countries worldwide. The study showed that 36% of people watched "significantly less" TV as a result of their online video viewing. This week, however, a report from Nielsen contradicts that study. Their "A2/M2 Three Screen Report" released yesterday shows that TV viewership isn't declining at all...in fact, it's at an all time high.
Are you a fan of keyboard shortcuts? Do you j and k your way through Google Reader? Or Ctrl + Enter (Cmd + Return) to add the "www" and the ".com" when you're browsing the web in Firefox? If ditching the mouse is your definition of efficiency, then you're going to love this new Google Search Mashup called keyboardr.
As the prices of professional quality video equipment continue to drop and the number of people with high-speed internet connections continues to increase, online video sites have been scrambling to keep up with their users' desires to deliver higher quality content to their viewers.
YouTube is no different. Today, they announced the latest enhancement to the YouTube platform - a widescreen video format across the site - which they hope will provide users with "a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience."
Kyte, the popular video streaming platform, announced a new product tonight: branded mobile web destinations. These new sites will allow brands to easily create and monetize their own video-enabled sites for mobile devices.
As we reported earlier this year, Kyte is slowly moving away from user-generated content and is focusing on large brands and content producers instead. Among the launch partners for the new branded mobile sites are two Interscope recording artists: Lady Gaga and the All-American Rejects.
We have been tracking the so-called 'health 2.0' trend for some time now. We've covered the top health web apps, the trends to watch in health 2.0, and the latest industry stats. And this morning we published a Health 2.0 update. So in this week's episode of RWW Live, to be broadcast live at 3.30pm PST Monday (6.30pm EST), the ReadWriteWeb authors get together with a number of industry experts to discuss how the Web is changing health care.
You can tune into the show, and interact with us via the chat, by clicking here. You can also use the Calliflower Facebook app to tune in and participate.
Twitter just announced on the company blog that the company has acquired the assets of Portland, Oregon based Values of n and brought its well-known engineer founder Rael Dornfest on to the Twitter staff. Dornfest's latest project at Values of n was an anthropomorphized personal assistant service called Sandy.
We're covering the deal in more depth on our new blog about tech company hires Jobwire. Please see our coverage there for more details about what's sure to be a very interesting move.
Late last week Google unveiled the first major change to its search interface since the introduction of multi-media ("Universal") results into the search results page. They called it Google SearchWiki.
It's a big deal, it's awkward, it's frightening, it's brave, it's already both loved and hated - but it's not a wiki. As Ward Cunningham, the man who invented wikis, told us in our initial coverage of SearchWiki, "Collectively editing thoughts is what leads to the unique wiki behavior..." Days into the experiment it's clear that this feature is more like a forum, and it's not a particularly well architected one at that.
