Another busy week in web tech. Alex Iskold was at DEMOfall06 in San Diego - where emerging technology companies showed their wares - and live-blogged much of the action for Read/WriteWeb. A full list of his posts is here, but I thought I'd mention some of my favorites:

• BuzzLogic - a hot new social influence tracker
• blueorganizer - a 'smart browser' extension; I'm kind of biased, as this is Alex's company - but Marshall at Techcrunch and the zdnet guys (Mitch and Marc) loved it too!
• PostPath - a Linux version of Microsoft Exchange (Alex's review)
• MojoPac - allows Windows users to save their entire PC onto a USB or iPod
• Widgetbox - an online widget marketplace

Alex's favorites were USBCell, BuzzLogic, Pluggd, Retrevo.

Two other DEMO wraps I liked were ZDNet's and Christine Herron's. Also check out Renee Blodgett's coverage of the final DEMOfall dinner, which "pulled a handful of media visionaries to discuss the technologies they saw unveiled over the last couple of days, what trends were important and why." While they apparently spent most of the time dissing young people and blogs, the final thought is worth noting:

"They ran through the companies and everyone agreed on the top cool factor companies – once again, the hardware guys. High votes went to the USB battery and the wireless rabbit, but BuzzLogic also got a plug."

So BuzzLogic and USBCell seemed to be the standouts for most people.

Non-DEMO news

In other news this week....

• Google is introducing Structured Data into its main search, via Google Base.
• The VoIP market is really hotting up, with startups like Jajah and Rebtel putting pressure not only on telecoms companies - but perhaps Skype too.
• Google released an impressive re-design of Google Reader - I called it stunning, mainly because I was stunned that Google Reader had finally been upgraded.
• Bloglines also did an upgrade, as did FeedDemon (which I am finally testing out right now!)

Finally, do check out Alex Iskold's latest analysis article: Watch Out Google, Vertical Search Is Ramping Up!. This is excellent reading and the comments are great too.

Summary

A fascinating week, with lots of DEMO news - and we also seemed to focus on Google all week, for some reason. Two things I didn't get time to blog, but wish I had, were:

• Yahoo opening up its identity system; and
• Some interesting news around online advertising - Techmeme's RSS-powered ads and TLA's feedvertising system (disclosure: the latter is a R/WW sponsor).

Roll on the new week! p.s. thanks for the comments last week, suggesting I create a new RSS feed just for the wrapups (for really busy people!). I will do that...