I'm pleased to announce the second network blog under the Read/WriteWeb umbrella, AltSearchEngines. This blog will be focused on search engines, in particular the hundreds of 'alternative' search engines that compete with the big guns like Google and Yahoo. AltSearchEngines is edited by Charles Knight, author of the very popular Top 100 Alt Search Engines List (which started in January '07 here on R/WW).
In fact we're launching AltSearchEngines with the latest edition of The Top 100, in which Charles has chosen not one, but two Search Engines of the Month!
Thank you to our sponsors, for supporting Read/WriteWeb's mission to provide quality and original news and analysis about Web Technology. We make it a point to always write thoughtful posts - you may not agree with all of what we write, but you have to admit we are contributing something unique to the blogosphere.
I want to make one thing clear. One thing we don't do - and will never do - is copy and paste PR news from emails and crank out 20 such "posts" per day. Some other blogs seem to think that is the formula for success. To my mind, it just pollutes the blogosphere and clogs up peoples RSS Readers. I don't like it one bit, and you have my word that Read/WriteWeb will never stoop to that level of "news reporting". We will always write original and thoughtful content. What's more, we always test out the web products we write about.
(Yes, that was a bit of a rant from the Editor!)
Needless to say, Read/WriteWeb is continuing to grow - and keep an eye out for some more news on that front, first thing Monday morning PST...Here now are links to our sponsors. And ok, what follows is PR - but then the headline of this post clearly identifies that and it's not masquerading as news :-)
I'm pleased to announce the first network blog to launch under the Read/WriteWeb banner - last100. We have more network blogs launching soon, all with the aim of leveraging Read/WriteWeb's reputation for quality news and analysis about Web technology.
last100 will provide news, reviews and industry analysis on products and services related to the digital lifestyle, with a particular emphasis on how the Internet is being used throughout the home. The site is edited by Steve O'Hear, a London-based consultant and journalist. Steve also writes a blog for ZDNet called The Social Web and wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary In Search of the Valley.
Where does the name last100 come from? It refers to what industry insiders call the "last 100 feet" problem, which is the gap between the typical home's computer and its living-room TV set. While the digital living room is a primary focus of last100, the site will also cover other areas of the digital lifestyle (VoIP, portable media, mobile web etc).
Thank you to our sponsors, for supporting Read/WriteWeb and helping us grow. Keep an eye out for some news on that front later tonight...
Wild Apricot offers Web-based Membership Management Software for clubs, associations and other non-profits.
Zoho is a leading Web Office suite, which continues to add to and enhance its impressive product range. Check out Zoho Wikis, CRM and Projects for 3 examples.
Userplane is a provider of communication software for online communities. Recently they released Webmessenger 2, a new offering that integrates IM, user presence and buddy list.
Compete is more than just a statistics service to rival Alexa; Compete also provides search, analytics, shopping deals, and a personalized homepage.
DesktopOnDemand is a free online desktop that lets you access your desktop remotely. DOD comes with 1GB of free disk space, with extra space available for a fee.
Adicate has developed an online advertising solution called The Hourly Advertising System, which lightens the work of both advertisers and publishers without increasing costs.
Eurekster is a search engine that learns from the community's search behavior, so it gets better the more you use it.
Also check out Read/WriteWeb's Job Board (in partnership with VentureBeat and Alarm:Clock and run by JobThread).
If you would like to enquire about sponsoring Read/WriteWeb and/or our network blogs (the first one will be launched later tonight), please email the editor for a Media Kit.
I'm on holiday all this week and during that time Josh Catone will be Guest Editor of Read/WriteWeb. You may remember Josh from such posts as Internet Killed The Television Star and Crowdsourcing: A Million Heads is Better than One. Josh is a talented writer, as well as being co-founder of the web's largest community dedicated to Ruby on Rails development - Rails Forum. His personal blog is mockriot. I've said to Josh that he can post what he likes here, as long as it's about web technology of course :-)
Read/WriteWeb's other writers will also be contributing, so you shouldn't notice much difference - although it will probably be lighter posting this week than usual.
So without further ado, I am off to enjoy a one week break from blogging and online life in general! If you are thinking of emailing me during this time, don't expect a response ;-) I will be back at the Editor's desk from Monday 30 April, when Microsoft MIX in Las Vegas kicks off. I will be covering that event live, so see you then!
Yesterday, 20 April, was the 4th anniversary of Read/WriteWeb's first official post
(although I first tinkered with blogging in March 2002). It's amazing how much has
happened in the last 4 years. A common question I get when I meet industry people is: how
did you start R/WW? The short version is I started writing Read/WriteWeb in the evenings
4 years ago, simply because I was passionate about Web technology and wanted to explore
the read/write web, a.k.a. the two-way web - Dave
Winer's term that pre-dated the term 'web 2.0'. For a long time the blog stayed a
part-time hobby, albeit one that consumed my life more and more. It was only really when
the web 2.0 trend started to take off in mid 2005 that Read/WriteWeb got popular too.
Then of course in 2006 the blog took over my life completely, as web 2.0 ramped up. Read/WriteWeb is now a media property and it's my full-time job to edit and manage the site. It is also no longer a 1-person blog, but has many talented people writing for it. Of course I'm continuing to grow the site, and there are some big plans in store for the rest of 2007.
If you're interested in more detail on how R/WW was born, check out this post I wrote on the 1-year anniversary. Here is a quick pictorial reminder of the old days:
Post Web 2.0 Expo, time to get back to work and thank our sponsors. Also of course thanks to our readers and writers!
Read/WriteWeb's sponsors are:
Wild Apricot is bringing web 2.0 to non-profits. It offers membership database, event and website management for non-profits, clubs and associations.
Zoho is a leading Web Office suite. I met up with them at the Web 2.0 Expo and discovered they have a lot of great new productivity apps coming soon.
Userplane is the premier provider of communication software for online communities. I met them too at Expo - expect more integration with AOL properties soon.
Compete is more than just a statistics service to rival Alexa; Compete also provides search, analytics, shopping deals, and a personalized homepage.
BlogRovr is a download plugin for Firefox 2.0, which 'fetches' related blog stories for you as you surf the Web. BlogRovr is complementary to RSS Readers.
DesktopOnDemand is a free online desktop that lets you access your desktop remotely. DOD comes with 1GB of free disk space, with extra space available for a fee.
Eurekster is a search engine that learns from the community's search behavior, so it gets better the more you use it.
Also check out Read/WriteWeb's Job Board (in partnership with VentureBeat and Alarm:Clock and run by JobThread).
If you would like to enquire about sponsoring Read/WriteWeb, please email the editor for a Media Kit.
A quick thanks to our readers and sponsors, for supporting Read/WriteWeb's mission to deliver in-depth news and analysis on Web Technology. Also of course thanks to our excellent writers!
Our sponsors are:
Wild Apricot offers web 2.0 products for non-profits - one of their largest user segments is professional associations. Probably the most popular area of functionality in Wild Apricot is the online member database.
Zoho is a leading Web Office suite, which recently added a Web Conferencing application called Zoho Meeting to their excellent range of office products.
Userplane is the premier provider of communication software for online communities. It is now part of the AOL network.
Compete is more than just a statistics service to rival Alexa; Compete also provides search, analytics, shopping deals, and a personalized homepage.
BlogRovr is a download plugin for Firefox 2.0, which 'fetches' related blog stories for you as you surf the Web. BlogRovr is complementary to RSS Readers, because it allows you to track your favorite blogs while you are browsing.
DesktopOnDemand is a free "online desktop service" that lets you access your desktop remotely. DOD comes with 1GB of free disk space, with extra space available for a fee.
Eurekster is an innovative kiwi startup that provides the community powered search box on Read/WriteWeb. It is a search engine that learns from the community's search behavior, so it gets better the more you use it.
Also I want to mention Federated Media Publishing's latest CPM campaigns running on this site, which are quite innovative - e.g. the Hakia one ("Richard MacManus on the search for better search...").
Finally, check out Read/WriteWeb's Job Board (in partnership with VentureBeat and Alarm:Clock and run by JobThread). Just this week, Rearden Commerce posted 7 great new jobs - among other positions, they're looking for an Engineering Program Manager and a Sr. Software Engineer, Platform.
I hope you'll indulge me in thanking Read/WriteWeb's excellent sponsors, for supporting quality content on Web Technology. Thanks also to R/WW's super-smart authors and our community of readers, which continues to grow at a great rate!
If you would like to explore sponsorship opportunities with Read/WriteWeb, one of the top 50 blogs in the world and the premier resource for Web Technology trends, contact the editor Richard MacManus at readwriteweb@gmail.com.
Our current sponsors are:
Atlassian is a leading wiki provider for enterprises and it has a new product called Confluence Hosted, which I encourage you to check out. Right now you can try Confluence Hosted free for 30-days.
Wild Apricot is a long-term supporter of Read/WriteWeb. Wild Apricot offers web 2.0 products for non-profits - one of their largest user segments is professional associations. Probably the most popular area of functionality in Wild Apricot is the online member database, which features goodies such as online application forms, automated renewal reminders and much more.
Zoho is also a long-term R/WW sponsor. It's a Web Office suite and they recently added a Web Conferencing application called Zoho Meeting to their excellent range of office products.
Userplane has been a sponsor since December. Part of AOL, Userplane is the premier provider of communication software for online communities.
Compete has been supporting Read/WriteWeb since the start of 2007. Not just a statistics service to rival Alexa, Compete also provides search, analytics, shopping deals, and a personalized homepage.
ElephantDrive came on board as a sponsor this month. It is an online storage and backup product, with a new WebDAV client coming in April. This will allow users to map a network drive directly to their ElephantDrive account.
Digication has also supported R/WW since December. It is an e-learning suite of tools, designed by educators for educators. Digication is all about bringing teachers and students together in a seamless learning environment.
Eurekster is an innovative kiwi startup that provides the community powered search box on Read/WriteWeb. It is a search engine that learns from the community's search behavior, so it gets better the more you use it.
Every Friday afternoon PST, Read/WriteWeb publishes a Weekly Wrapup of news, reviews and analysis from the past week. I know a lot of people are too busy with their jobs to keep up with Web tech news on a daily basis, so the Weekly Wrapup is the perfect opportunity for those people to catch up with the most relevant Web Tech news from the week.
We offer the Weekly Wrapup in an email newsletter and also as an RSS feed. Here is the form to subscribe to Read/WriteWeb's weekly email newsletter:
And here is the RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/readwriteweb/weekly
Incidentally, how much demand is there for a DAILY roundup of Web Tech news from around the blogosphere? If there is sufficient demand, than that is another option. Let us know in the comments...
