Walled gardens are already under attack because of the ease of sending content like messages and photos from one website to another. Sites that don't let content flow in and out freely, when that's what users want, are fighting against the powerful tide of the internet.
Now a new proposal aims to take things to the next level and send a payload of item-type specific action options along with every piece of content that gets shot across the internet. A loose body of innovators from some of the biggest social networking companies online have begun discussing an addition to the Activity Streams standard format called an Action Stream.
That could blow the world of social networking wide open, allowing users to try out other competing social networks without losing their ability to interact with friends on Facebook, for example.
Last year, Foursquare was called the break-out mobile app of the conference by more than one tech journalist.
This year, a new contender has appeared - Austin's native Gowalla. And Brightkite is still hanging on to the LBS community,
if only by a thread of loyal users - but they still offer more features than some of their better-known competitors.Which do you use now? And when your attention is at a premium during one of the year's most popular geek conferences, which app or apps will you use to collect badges, connect with friends, and find out where the party really is?
The big news of the week was Google's efforts to remove censorship from its search results in China - read on for our coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.
Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.
Facebook has been granted a patent on the Newsfeed, "displaying a news feed in a social network environment." Nick O'Neill at AllFacebook found the patent first and says it could be "one of the most significant social web patents" in a decade.
If all algorithmic ranking and delivery of social activity updates to social network users falls under this patent Facebook applied for in August 2006 (one month before it launched its controversial Newsfeed) then there's going to be a whole lot of trouble for sites all over the web. We've got calls and emails in with Facebook PR, we're going to start thinking and reading up about what this could mean but for now, please join us over on Google Buzz to discuss this story as it unfolds in real time. Our coverage continues below.
SXSW Interactive is just around the corner, so it's time to make your party plans for Austin, Texas! ReadWriteWeb's SXSW party - in partnership with PBS, NPR, and others - is happening on Sunday, March 14, from 9pm at KLRU's legendary Austin City Limits Studio. There will be shuttles to and from the Austin Hilton.
We invite you to enjoy some tex-mex, margaritas and live music with us! Also you'll network with the smart, cool people attending SXSW from ReadWriteWeb, PBS, NPR, Frontline, ITVS and Futurestates. This event is free to attend for all SXSW Interactive or Film badge holders.
You can register your interest at the event Facebook page.We don't know about you, but we're sort of a fan of being a fan of things on Facebook. It can be useful a way to keep up with what's going on at the White House, for example. Or you can let the world know that you enjoy "Not Being On Fire", in case they were wondering. Or, you can express your support for political change. Or can you?
At the recent Mobile World Congress 2010, Dutch app store analytics firm Distimo presented their findings on the six largest mobile application stores in existence today: the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In their presentation, they analyzed everything including store size, store growth, the most popular applications and where you can find the best deal. They recently shared some of the highlights from that presentation by way of a slideshow embedded on their blog.
The big news of the week came out of the annual Mobile World Congress, from companies such as Adobe, Facebook, Google and Skype - read on for our extensive coverage and analysis. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Augmented Reality.
You may've noticed that we've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.
Location-based social networks like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Google Buzz are currently among the fastest growing new mobile services. All of these apps have one thing in common: they encourage you to share your current location with the rest of the world. By doing this, though, you are also telling people where you are not: at home. A new site, PleaseRobMe, plays on this theme and displays real-time updates from Foursquare users who broadcast their check-ins on Twitter.
Three weeks ago Facebook Platform Manager Dave Morin announced he was leaving the company to start a stealthy new startup with Napster founder Sean Fanning.
The new company is called Path and you can sign up to request access to the closed beta at Path.io. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Google that the new company was in hiding and so tonight we have a fair amount of information about what these internet veterans are up to, courtesy of Google's cache of the otherwise locked-up site. The company describes itself as "a tool that facilitates the creation, sharing and correlation of lists." List creation is nothing new, but that's not a problem. When world-class social technologists tackle an age-old problem, the results can be quite interesting. Check out what this team has developed so far.
