2008 has seen a proliferation of new Web platforms, including a few major ones built using open standards. In this final instalment of our series of top products of 2008, we choose the top 10 Web platforms of the year.
We've written a lot of times about platforms for the Web. A web platform can be as simple as an API, like the one offered by Twitter, which allows external developers to tap into a company's data. It can be software and services, like Amazon's Web Services. It can also be a fully fledged development platform, such as iPhone SDK and Adobe AIR. Whatever the case, platforms on the Web mean allow people to build on top of another company's product, so we think it's an appropriate way to close our Top Web Products series.
Massify, the online collaboration site for film makers, recently reached its goal of creating the first ever fan-created film with the completion of Perkin's 14, a horror flick scheduled to premier January 9 - 15 during Horrorfest III.
Most exciting is the process; from selecting the story to post production and launch, the Massify community was involved in making decisions every step of the way.
Great news for those who have both Blu-ray and DVDs in the house; Infinity Storage Media has released the first hybrid Blu-ray and DVD disc in Japan.
The new media has a total storage capacity of 33.5GB and is compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray players. The biggest advantage of the new media is backward compatibility - you can play it on your DVD or Blu-ray player.
This is what I love about technological innovation: I'd thought singing Christmas ornaments were the most irritating thing human beings could possibly invent.
And then along came Facebook...
After participating in a two day cyber war simulation last week, government and industry officials said that the United States is ill-equipped to cope with a major attack against computer networks Reuters reports.
The cyber war game brought together 230 representatives of government agencies, private companies and other groups, and revealed failings in leadership, planning, and communications.
Can't make it to the TED conference or don't want to cough up the $6,000 conference membership fee? Well, we have good news for you. Starting 2009, TED will offer a live webcast as part of its associate membership program.
Experiencing the conference, which has always been by invitation only, will be much easier too with the new $995 price tag - if you're willing to participate virtually.
Earlier this month, the World Wide Web Consortium announced the availability of the W3C mobileOK checker, a free service that performs various tests on a Web page to help you determine its level of mobile-friendliness.
According to W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee, mobileOK checker builds on the suite of quality assurance tools already offered by W3C and "does a nice job helping you improve your content one step at a time."
It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the product side, we continued our Best Products 2008 series with 5 more lists - covering Mobile Web, Enterprise, 'Real World', Digital Lifestyle, and Alternative Search Engines. We also named our Best BigCo of the Year, the fifth year we've done this. On the trends side, it's that time of year when we start thinking about what will pan out in 2009. So we brought you our picks for social media in '09, as well as our analysis of predictions from leading marketing geeks. Last but not least, check out the latest Jobwire stats - our new product which tracks hires in tech and new media.
Google Image Search remains one of the most comprehensive imagery resources available. But the sheer amount of imagery that the site indexes creates a problem. More of than not, Google Image Search gets you close to what you're seeking, but it doesn't really help you find exactly what you're looking for.
Now, Google is working to fix that with new filtering options.
We all tend to think of fax machines as quaint, 20th century products that became irrelevant when the Internet came along. But in reality faxes are still the most efficient way to quickly deliver a signed business document. As with most office tasks these days, you can do faxing over the Internet and in many ways it's more efficient than using a fax machine. So in this post we take a quick look at some of the electronic fax options out there.
