If you're familiar with the overseas micro-lending space, then you're familiar with Kiva. In 2008, ReadWriteWeb readers chose Kiva as one of their favorite Web 2.0 apps. In 2009, the company continues to thrive.
Kiva initially allowed users to lend to entrepreneurs in developing countries. However, due to the American financial crisis, the company recently extended its mandate to help US entrepreneurs gain access to micropayment loans. As millions struggle to execute on their dream projects, a number of crowd-based funding options have emerged. Below are a few of these tools.
Annual changes of note: Facebook #5 with a rocket; Twitter entered Top 50 in June; Demand Media, Answers.com and Break Media sites to watch.
comScore has just released their latest
Media Metrix rankings for the Top 50 U.S. Web Properties. If we compare the top 50 to one year ago, we see that the top 4 is still the same: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL. But there's one notable entrant to the top 5: Facebook. Last year the same list by comScore had Facebook ranked number 16. As of July 2009, it is number 5; Facebook's highest ranking yet. What's more, guess who Facebook displaced at number 5? That's right, Fox Interactive, owners of increasingly untrendy MySpace.
The Opera Mini application is now considered not only the world's most popular mobile browser, but also the world's most downloaded app. According to independent applications marketplace GetJar, the browser has been downloaded more than 25 million times from its store. "The fact that Opera Mini is the most downloaded app on an open app store like GetJar makes us proud," said Opera's Chief Strategy Officer Rolf Assev. "It proves that our vision of providing a browser that works on almost all phones will give millions a better way to access the Web."
David Recordon, an outspoken young advocate for Open Source and Open Web technologies, is leaving blog software company SixApart to join Facebook.
He confirmed to us that he'll be starting on Monday with the title Senior Open Programs Manager. The move was first reported by Spencer E. Ante this afternoon in BusinessWeek.
Fifty years after its invention by the British Royal Navy for use by fighter pilots, the technology of layering information on top of our naked view of the world may cross over the line between science fiction and mass consumer experience as soon as next month. It's widely believed that the operating system for the iPhone 3Gs will be updated this Fall, possibly in September, to allow developers to use the phone's location awareness and internal compass to orient displays of information and imagery placed on top of the view through the camera.
"The internet smeared all over everything." An "enchanted window" that turns contextual information hidden all around us inside out. A platform that will be bigger than the Web. Those are the kinds of phrases being used to describe the future of what's called Augmented Reality (AR), by specialists developing the technology to enable it. Big questions remain unanswered, though, about the viability of what could be a radical next step in humanity's use of computers.
During a press conference today, Yahoo announced a large number of updates to Yahoo Mail, Search, and Messenger. Yahoo Mail, for example, will now feature status updates from a user's friends on its homepage. Yahoo Search will also receive a major redesign in the near future. Even though Yahoo will obviously switch to Microsoft Bing soon, Yahoo wants to align the look and feel of its homepage and search application. In the process, Yahoo will now also highlight more of its search services, including Search Monkey, right on its search results pages.
Black Internet, the Pirate Bay's largest bandwidth supplier, just shut down the notorious BitTorrent tracker after a court ordered it to pay a fine of 500,000 kroner ($70,800). Since about 9:30am PT, the site has been inaccessible. Just a few months ago, the Pirate Bay announced that it had been acquired by Global Gaming Factory (GGF). This sale, however, started to fall apart over the last few days. Unless the Pirate Bay can find another ISP, it will remain inaccessible until the outcome of a civil suit against the company can be resolved.
... Then This is What We Want.
Music subscription service Rhapsody has very publicly submitted an iPhone app to Apple and there's widespread speculation about whether Apple will approve an app that could be seen as competition to its own iTunes store. Like the Google Voice for iPhone fiasco, this is a story about freedom and platforms, about competition for filling consumer demand and about the long-term viability of the iPhone vs. open platforms like Android. Let's assume for a moment that Apple allowed apps that competed with iTunes on the phone. What kind of music app would you like to see? Here's our wish list.
All the major eBook vendors are currently trying to expand their eBook and eReader line-ups as fast as possible in order to compete with Amazon. Today, Barnes & Noble announced that it has partnered with Irex Technologies, a Dutch eReader manufacturer. B&N will sell Irex's new consumer-focused device in its stores and online later this year. B&N already signed a deal with Plastic Logic earlier this year. Irex already offers a number of different eReaders in its store, but this device looks to be specifically designed to take on the Kindle. It will feature an 8.1-inch touchscreen with stylus navigation and a 3G wireless connection.
The New York Times has an article today about sentiment analysis, a trend which has been accelerating on the back of the Real-time Web - and Twitter in particular. Sentiment analysis is no short-term hot trend. It will eventually become a key feature of search engines, which will integrate the aggregate sentiment of the crowd into search results.
The NY Times article looked at 3 sentiment analysis tools: Scout Labs, The Financial Times' Newssift, and Jodange. It also mentioned 3 Twitter apps: Tweetfeel, Twendz and Twitrratr. In our post we take a look at five other examples of how sentiment analysis is starting to ramp up on the Web. We invite you to add more examples in the comments.
