ReadWriteWeb

Just ask the man who signs my paychecks... or at least, go back to October 2007 and ask Richard MacManus, the founder and EIC of this publication. He would tell you directly and succinctly that ReadWriteWeb is not a blog. That is, by the definition of that time, it's not a one-man show. "ReadWriteWeb has evolved," Richard wrote at the time, "into something different than a blog, which is traditionally thought of as the voice of a single person."

Over the years, the complaints I've received from readers (we all receive some) center around the notion of bias - a tendency to interpret a story with the appearance of a certain slant or, perhaps more accurately, from an angle somewhat askew from the angle most others use in their interpretations. If a blog were truly by and about one person, then the appearance of bias would be impossible to avoid. Typically with publications, it is plurality that enables the reader to see the complete picture of subject matter. Plurality, for any organization, requires organization. And at a time when the Web publishing industry's definition of what we do evolves faster than our ability to do it, organization has been difficult to achieve.

Earlier this week on his personal blog, one of Google's product management directors, Hunter Walk, posted a very interesting sampling of responses from technology journalists about the broad question of whether they are receiving the level of journalism from our business that they deserve. I found it very interesting that a product manager from any company was able to reveal at least as much, if not more, about the folks who usually interview him than they reveal about his company.

The emerging theme from the journalists' responses was distinct exasperation and frustration with the level of interest that you, their reader, have demonstrated in their product. It's getting "harder... to convince people to read these stories" on broader subjects like piracy, said one. Another remarked, "I wish more people cared about" the very topic on which his publication was founded (you'll know the one I mean), and which you would think his livelihood is based. And a third went so far as to blame readers for being interested in the wrong things, saying, "I am dismayed every day by the crap that people seem to find worthy of page views."

There's an interesting discussion brewing in the wake of some of the comparison articles recently published about the latest Android tablet devices, including Amazon's Kindle Fire. I'm on record here as liking what I saw from the initial publication of Joshua Topolsky's "revenge" upon Engadget, The Verge, and I'd be blind if I didn't point out that competitor publications may feel they have something to gain by casting The Verge in a negative light. That's by way of disclaimer.

That said, I think the discussion about what's important in a product review is an important one to have, and we need to have it periodically. The current debate stems from whether device specifications - particularly with respect to this positive recommendation of the iPhone 4S by Consumer Reports and this comparison of Kindle, Nook, and iPad tablets by The Verge - truly matter nowadays with respect to buyers' decisions.

I don't think TechCrunch's M.G. Siegler cares about location in the same way I do. Maybe it's because he lives in the heart of the tech scene of San Francisco; which is both the center of the world and a kind of history-less-nowhere. It's more fun to know where you are and what has happened there before when you're not in a place that's all about planned obsolescence.

Either way, Siegler was told by the startup Quora today that Topics (collections of questions and answers on Quora) will soon have locations associated with them. (The feature is live now.) He makes a case that it's a bigger deal than it might seem, but the way he explains it makes me wonder whether he was even able to convince himself. I'll tell you why adding location data to Quora could be a big deal. I think it's because of the pseudo-secret Quora iPhone app that's about to launch.

Human-powered search site Mahalo, created by notable entrepreneur, investor and blogger Jason Calacanis, may soon be involved in a class-action lawsuit, the result of a change to its Terms and Conditions that may have affected the pay of its contractors and employees.

Meanwhile, as Mahalo's legal troubles begin, CEO Calacanis is preparing to launch a new project, itself called "Launch," which aims to be a direct challenger to TechCrunch.

As the week began, all eyes in the tech world were on the Techcrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco, from which some of the biggest tech news of the week came.

While

I accepted a job offer with TechCrunch on June 7th, 2006 - days before the site celebrated its first birthday. I left AOL for the position. I worked there for less than a year but it made a huge impression on my life and career.

Today I got to see, on live streaming video, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sign a contract on stage to sell the site to AOL. As co-editor today of a competing site, and as someone whose big break was joining TechCrunch as the site's first hired writer, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the deal and what it means.

Last month, Wired magazine set off a furious debate with a feature titled: "The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet." The crux of the argument was that people are spending less time on the open Web and more time using apps.

It's undeniable that apps are in vogue. But does that mean the open Web - the one we access through a browser - is dead? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg really hopes not.

Yesterday morning the web's largest web tech blog added video comments courtesy of of live video startup Seesmic. About 24 hours later, video comments had turned into a mini-trend with another 80 blogs installing them. While adding them at TechCrunch was a smart move by founder Michael Arrington -- who is also an investor in Seesmic -- because they've clearly already paid small dividends in spreading the product, I wonder if they're really adding to the conversation. Below are 5 reasons why I don't particularly care for video comments out of the gate.

Edit: We've added a poll. Please vote below.