Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, all of whom have created ground-breaking Internet businesses. I hope that this series will give insight into both product innovation and what drives the people behind the product.
We're starting with a web service that aims to change the way people consume news on mobile devices: Newsy. Jim Spencer is the founder and CEO, based in Columbia, Missouri. Newsy produces 2-5 minute video summaries of news stories, piecing together content from multiple sources. It's proven to be a hit on smart phones and more recently on the iPad, where short video chunks are a great way to consume news. I spoke to Jim Spencer to find out how he came up with the idea for Newsy, the usage patterns that have emerged, and the company's plans for the future.
As we mentioned this morning, Twitter is holding an event at its headquarters this afternoon at 4 pm PT, but so far the company is keeping mum on why we're all attending. But attending we are and we have a few hypotheses as to what could be coming, from the long awaited Twitter Analytics, to the launch of Annotations to a true business offering.
Whatever it is, it's sure to be exciting (right?) and our own Mike Melanson will be there to let you know what happens, as it happens. Come back at 4pm PT/7pm ET for our live blog.
Over the past month, Facebook has not so smoothly transitioned third party content from boxes to tabs on your Facebook profile page. This is best explained by example: if you had a music box on your profile page, displaying what music you're listening to, then that box is now gone. Instead, you have the option of creating a tab for music. This works the same way as a web browser tab, opening a new page when clicked.
However, this means that fewer people will see your music updates - because it's hidden behind a tab. I for one think that's a shame. Nevertheless, tabs are where it's at now. So in this post we suggest 10 Facebook tabs that you might like to add to your Facebook profile.
Google unveiled a new way to display its search results this morning, called Instant Search. Instant brings search results to your browser, as you type. Letter by letter - it's amazing. The feature will be rolled out to all users over the coming hours and days but is available to be tested here.
It's fast. It's satisfying. But if respected critics like Nicholas Carr have raised the alarm that Google's legacy search product might make us stupid - what might Google Instant do to our brains and thinking? There are at least two ways to look at the question.
There's an interesting chart making its way around the Net this morning comparing the number of iTunes app downloads to the total downloads of songs. The surprising reveal is that it shows apps are being downloaded much more rapidly than songs. In only 2.2 years, the iTunes App Store has reached the same total downloads as the iTunes Music Store did after five years. And before the year is out, the two curves on the chart will be around the same height - 13 billion downloads each.
Why is this happening? Why are apps becoming more popular than music?
The Internet of Things, when real world objects are connected to the Internet, has been slow to attract the attention of budding entrepreneurs. However, there has been some startup action in so-called "social objects." We've covered two companies in this domain in recent times, StickyBits and TalesOfThings. The New York Times profiled a third company in this space over the weekend, Itizen.
All of these startups are searching for a business model, but there is massive long term potential in this market. Leandro Agro, CEO of sensor data company WideTag (our review), says that by 2050 objects will be judged more for their 'sociality' than their aesthetic value. It's an intriguing notion, so in this post we imagine what a 'social' tennis racquet might look like in 40 years.
We are once again pleased to announce a new premium report: The Social Layer: How the Rise of Web-Oriented Architecture is Changing Enterprise IT. Thanks to Socialtext for sponsoring the report and making it available as a free download.
The Web 2.0 era gave rise to social applications such as Twitter and Facebook. These services made it easier to share information and connect with family, friends and experts. The enterprise has followed this movement by creating its own social applications that fit within a secure environment.
The Internet was in flames last week as popular social news curation site Digg.com launched the latest iteration of its platform, unleashing a groundswell of outrage and protest from a majority of the site's loyal users. A week later, Digg has begun to respond to its passionate community, making rapid changes and bug fixes as its exhausted back-end infrastructure struggles to keep up. Today I spoke with Digg's VP of Product Keval Desai about the launch, the company's reaction to the negativity from its community and how it intends to move forward into the future.
Twitter has just launched its first official iPad application, and the reviews so far have been glowing. The new app offers a few notable features, such as panes for interacting with content within a stream, media which displays inline without slowing you down and gesture support for common Twitter actions.
What stands out the most about this new application is not a summary of its features, however. It's how the app fits into this growing trend that positions the iPad as the go-to device for consuming streams. With its touchscreen interface, the Apple tablet is ideal for both viewing and interacting with flows of information - not just tweets, but also Facebook status updates, news, RSS feeds, photos and more.
Part of the new iTunes 10 software, announced and launched yesterday, is a significant new social networking feature for iTunes called Ping. It allows you to comment on music, 'like' it a la Facebook, or rate it. Ping is also very similar to Twitter, in that you can 'follow' people and music stars. All of this happens inside of the iTunes application, either on your computer, iPhone or iPod Touch.
We took the new feature for a spin and came away intrigued, despite some initial flaws. We do however wonder at the overly commercial focus of Ping. Is this really about social networking, or mostly for Apple and artists to sell more music?
