Web Page Tools and Browser CGI flash Plugins and Dynamic Controls

Why can't you give Kindle books as gifts?

Facebook Like Moves Beyond the Dumb Grunt, Adds Comments to Like Button

One of the most obnoxious things about Facebook's recent changes has been that clicking a Like button around the web just pushed a dumb, inarticulate grunt out into the newsfeed of your friends. "I Like this thing," it said, and nothing more. Today that's changing, with the inclusion of a writable comment space inside the pop-up that appears when visitors Like something out around the web.

Messages sent with personal comments tend to get more click-throughs, the company said today. These messages will now also include a longer description of what's being liked. This is a great change towards making the point of intersection between Facebook and the larger web richer, more personal and less condescending.

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Update: Readers smarter than I point out in comments below that there have been other methods that enabled commenting in a Like button for some time. I stand corrected! I am also glad that it's now all the easier, including here on ReadWriteWeb.

To Like in Facebook parlance might be to show support for something, it might represent the intention of subscribing to future updates or it might be an action that a user takes solely to gain access to priviledges exclusive to a page's Fans, as they used to be called. Allowing users to post additional commentary just makes sense.

To Like an object is also to give that object's owner some access to your personal and demographic information on Facebook. Such a complex interaction is inappropriate to make as simple as it has been and adding a place for users to annotate the signals they emit into their social graphs is a logical first step.

Remember when George Bush joined Facebook, but in such a way that only people who Liked his Fan page could write comments on it? How many of you would have liked to have added a comment to the message that went out to your friends saying you Liked George Bush? I know I would have.

The Cloud Services Market is Looking Like a Red Ocean

Earlier this week, Opsource announced a partner program. The news came on Monday, the first day developers could download code from OpenStack, a separate initiative that has had considerable attention this week.

Both companies provide cloud infrastructure based upon open source. They could easily be part of a same open-cloud network such as OpenStack. But for now Opsource says it will not join the effort lead by Rackspace. Our guess is Opsource competes to some extent with Rackspace and is looking at other alternatives.

Rackspace, Opsource and almost two dozen other companies are now offering a variety of cloud infrastructures. It's an increasingly crowded market that is due for some consolidation. But for the moment, the market is an example of how companies perceive the opportunities the cloud provides.

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Rackspace, as we know, provides public cloud infrastructure. Opsource offers cloud infrastructure to the enterprise, service providers and systems integrators.

Opsource calls its program a partner ecosystem. These partners include integrators, developers, ISVs, cloud platform companies and telecom providers.

Opsource expects 50% of its revenue to come from these partners, and points in particular to telecommunications companies. CEO Treb Ryan:

"The feedback we're getting from the telecoms is that a request for cloud is becoming an increasing part of the RFP's they are seeing from customers. Usually it comes as a request for bundled services (such as managed network, internet access, hosting and cloud.) One of our European telecoms stated they couldn't bid on $2 million a month worth of contracts because one of the requirements was cloud."

Ryan says customers want to work with one company:

"Most likely it's a combination of not wanting to go to separate vendors for separate services (i.e. a colo company for hosting, OpSource for cloud, a telecom for network, and a managed security company for VPN's) they want to get it all from one vendor completely integrated. Secondly, I think many customers have a trusted relationship with their telecom for IT infrastructure services already and they trust them more than a third-party company."

Opsource and Rackspace are two well-established companies in the cloud computing space. But the number of providers in the overall market is beginning to morph.

John Treadway of Cloud Bzz put together a comprehensive list. He says the market is looking more like a red ocean:

"I hope you'll pardon my dubious take, but I can't possibly understand how most of these will survive. Sure, some will because they are big and others because they are great leaps forward in technology (though I see only a bit of that now). There are three primary markets for stacks: enterprise private clouds, provider public clouds, and public sector clouds. In five years there will probably be at most 5 or 6 companies that matter in the cloud IaaS stack space, and the rest will have gone away or taken different routes to survive and (hopefully) thrive."

Lots of blood in the water. Who's going to get eaten first?

We're Going Live Today from OSCON - Come Watch the Stream

We'll be doing a live stream from OSCON, talking to the people here who want to answer our tough questions. :)

The stream will be live at 2:30 p.m. PST.

The first interviews today are with folks from Mashery, Twilio and Mindtouch. Stop by if you'd like to talk or do an interview.

If you are here at OSCON, we are at the small tables by Starbucks, facing the entrance to the Oregon Convention Center.

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Watch live video from ReadWriteWeb on Justin.tv

Link: http://justin.tv/readwriteweb

You can ask questions through our Justin.tv channel or use any of these tags on Twitter: #rwwc, #rwwcloud, #rwwoscon

We'll be streaming until about 4 p.m.

Forums are crap. Can we get some help?

VMware: Drops Prices by Half for Small Business Market

VMware is changing the pricing model to a more pay as you go basis and is cutting by half the cost of its low-end offerings for the small business market.

The pricing changes are a reminder of how competitive it is getting as virtualization technologies become a means for deploying private clouds.

Microsoft this week announced it own initiative to launch private cloud environments at its Worldwide Parters conference. Microsoft is in alliance with Citrix, a competitor to VMware. For hardware, Microsoft has formed alliances with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu.

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VMware has another approach. Its strategy is to help data centers run, secure and manage applications in the private cloud or have them bridged on-demand to partner-hosted public clouds.

It is apparent that VMware is trying to increase the pressure on Microsoft while also responding to criticism about its higher prices.

Under the new pricing for VMware vCenter management solutions, customers will now be charged for which virtual machines that get powered. So, for example, if a client has purchased 10,000 virtual machines in the previous 12 months then it will only pays for the virtual machines it powers up.

The model borrows from cloud computing services. It's clear the intention is to provide more attractive ways to get customers to scale its use of virtualization services but on a pay as you go basis. Customers have been asking for this change as they commit more deeply to virtualization.

This in turn provides insight into VMWare's plan to reduce by half the cost of its software for the small business market. VMware is seeing some of its most significant growth with small businesses. VSphere Essentials is VMware's most affordable virtualization platform. It will now cost $495 for six CPUs, or $83 per processor. That is down from nearly $1,000 for six CPUs.

VMware is also announcing it is tripling the power of its virtual management environment, providing the capability to for its VMware vCenter Server to maintain up to 15,000 virtual machines.

The new upgrade is designed to increase the scalability of the platform to support cloud computing service providers.

VMware's news goes into far deeper detail on issues such as its memory compression technology enhancements and faster migration capabilities.

But the most interesting news is the contrast to Microsoft.

VMware is using its position in the market to create disruptions in pricing models. In turn, its incremental improvements provide the company with the capability to offer easier scaling capabilities with more flexible pricing, helping small businesses most of all.

VMware is a sponsor of the ReadWriteCloud channel

Twitter: Comparing its Velocity, not Downtime

It's such a glorious Saturday here in Oregon but I've been wanting to put this post up all week about Twitter's uptime and its use as a measure of its service.

The connection to the cloud seems distinct as Twitter is simply the leading edge of what we can expect as using Web apps become standard practice for everyone, not just the geeks and influencers.

I am reminded of a conversation I had recently with some people who know far more about APIs than I do. We started doing the math for the synaptic effect when the top 1% of all Twitter users post a tweet.

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Take ReadWriteWeb's Twitter stream as an example. The @rww account has more than 1 million followers. One tweet will go out to people with, for example, as many as 500,000 users. They have their own followers and so on. So you can see what happens when the World Cup gets going. The synapses are bursting with messages at electric speeds on levels that networks have never been accustomed to handling. The system goes kaput, down time follows. The network goes back up and the NBA Finals have the same effect.

Twitter has 65 million tweets per day, which averages about 750 tweets per second. Twitter experienced 2,940 tweets per second when Japan scored against England in the World Cup. There were 3,085 tweets per second when the Lakers won the NBA Finals.

Facebook is dealing with its own velocity issues. At Structure 2010, Faecbook's Tom Cook said it now supports 60,000 servers to serve 400 million users.

Facebook's Jonathan Heiliger provided this perspective about Facebook's volume:

• Users spend more than 16 billion minutes on Facebook each day
• Every week users share more than 6 billion pieces of content, including status updates, photos and notes.
• Each month more than 3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook.
• Users view more than 1 million photos every second
• Facebook's servers perform more than 50 million operations per second, primarily between the caching tier and web servers
• More than 1 million web sites have implemented features of Facebook Connect

Just to bring this point home, DJ Patil gives a picture of what the social graph looks like for people with followers in the tens of thousands. It almost looks like a morphing molecular structure.

So, is Twitter's 99.17 uptime for the month of June really that bad when you compare it to other services?

It's more accurate to compare Twitter to other social networks in terms of velocity more than anything else. It's the speed of the social graph that Twitter needs to keep in check. What they learn and apply will become tenants for how future social graph service manage their own velocity.

What that means is the use of terms that have historically been attributed to more standard data mining practices. Modeling and statistical analysis are now part of the vocabulary that is needed to fully understand the dynamics of this ever faster synaptic environment.

John Adam of Twitter illustrated what we are seeing as the number of users and amount of data continues to scale:

Twitter is even more fascinating if you think of what its velocity will compare to fast growing services over the next five to ten years.

How that affects developers is something we look forward to exploring more in future posts that explore the current issues they face when developing services that rely heavily on APIs for both consuming and making data available.

Batter Up! Enterprise Giants and the Games They Play

The big guns of the technology world are sometimes like that aging baseball team making another run for the World Series.

The baseball team's roster is filled with stars in the later part of their careers. They are not as fast as the younger players they oppose. But they sure have experience and enough knowledge to know exactly how to exploit the weaknesses of those kids with the big bats and strong arms.

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In the world of cloud computing and the enterprise, companies like IBM, SAP and Oracle represent the older, more seasoned players. They have great technology. They innovate to some degree but not at the pace of the younger, agile (no pun intended) pure play providers.

Appirio has written a two-part series that explores the issues customers face when considering a cloud computing service.

Of course, Appirio has its own agenda. The company provides services to implement, build and manage cloud environments for. The platforms they work with include Salesforce.com, Google and Amazon. So, it's no surprise that they critique companies that have a history of providing enterprise software.

In the first part, Appirio makes a distinction between public and private clouds. The second post provides its own view about the more established players.

Appirio makes three observations about the games the entrenched players are now making:

Name Everything the Same

We see that a lot. Appirio points out IBM and SAP. We're told it's about branding but making sense of it all helps muddy the waters.

Baseball Analogy: Established technology companies have any number of pitches in their arsenal. They throw a particularly good knuckle ball.

Our view: It's not as diabolical as it seems. Technology companies need to grow as much as the startups do. They have shareholders who hold them accountable on that score. It is, though, a way for companies to obfuscate what it really is they provide in the cloud.

Claim Progress Through Standards

This one is tough to judge. The cloud computing world does need standards to make interoperability a reality. But standards issues can be a bit like a slow moving chess match. Case in point is the Open Cloud Manifesto.

Baseball Analogy: A veteran team knows how to slow the game to a crawl. Lots of pitching changes. Goal is to throw the other team off.

Our view: Standards can be used by the new players as much as the older established companies. Most all, new and old, are guilty of poor interoperability. Chess is a thinking man's game. Standards are, too.

Develop a Few innovative Solutions

Established technology companies do innovate but will often mix its developments with legacy services, making the on-premise offerings look like it has a cloud connection. We see this all the time.

Baseball Analogy: Don't mess with the starting team but do beef the line up a few promising players from the minors.

Our view: You see this approach with companies that are considered relatively young. Salesfroce.com is criticized for strapping on new features to10 year old technology.

How to Respond

But how to respond when facing the dizzying marketing barrage presented by the veterans of the gamer?

Appirio makes three points worth considering when going to the cloud. It's the last point that we think makes a lot of sense:

Use pure plays to increase knowledge, get real benefit and put pressure on legacy vendors - We have had many prospects and customers begin to explore public cloud apps like Google simply to place pressure on their legacy vendors (Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes). In some cases, this resulted in dramatically lower renewal costs of those products; in others it led to a deeper understanding of and eventual selection of Google Apps. Either way, it's a clear benefit to the enterprise. And over time it inevitably increases the rate of adoption of the solutions delivering superior value (i.e. the cloud).

We agree that established companies do take steps to develop the next generation of technology. But they have a lot to protect, too. The young companies are exciting and have the capability to serve the enterprise. But do remember they are young and are more susceptible to ever present disruptions to the market.

But in either case, now is the time to move forward with cloud computing, no matter if you choose the veteran or the new upstart. The times are changing fast.

It's not the time to live by the time worn and well known refrain made famous by Brooklyn Dodgers fans:

"Wait 'till next year."

Green Aisle: How One Company Uses Social Media to Drive Business

For Web-based businesses, a foray into social media may seem like a no-brainer, but how can real-world, brick-and-mortar companies use the social Web to drive revenue and growth? Look no further than Green Aisle Grocery, an independently owned, organic grocery store in Philadelphia.

Even before Green Aisle's South Philadelphia storefront opened in Nov. 2009, co-founders Andrew and Adam Erace were using Facebook and Twitter were giving followers a taste of what the store would be carrying on day one as a way to build up local buzz.

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Today, the store has over 780 followers on Twitter and 745 Facebook fans receiving around-the-clock updates about new products, sales and in-store events.

"Social media is definitely a regular part of our business," says Adam Erace. "The speed of social media lends itself so well to our business model."

On a typical day, Green Aisle might use Facebook and Twitter to announce the arrival of fresh-picked apricots, natural almond milk and hummus, all accompanied by camera phone-snapped photos of the actual products as they come in the door.

In some tweets, Green Aisle calls out to specific regulars of the store with timely updates:

Hey @joymanning your fave selzter is back in stock! http://yfrog.com/jpxvbpj

In addition to product arrivals, in-store tastings and free samples are announced online, which helps drive foot traffic to the store. When something goes on sale, the store's Twitter followers and Facebook fans are the first to know.

While the real-world success of the social media initiative is not as easy to quantify as, say, page views on a website, Erace says that each day about 40% of their customers mention something they saw on Twitter or Facebook.

Until recently, social media was the only form of marketing Green Aisle used. It was only after about six months of operation that it decided to purchase its first print advertisement in a local magazine covering sustainability.

The success Green Aisle has enjoyed over the last seven months is substantial enough that it's already considering opening a second store in another Philadelphia neighborhood, according to Erace.

In the meantime, the owners are looking to upgrade their website to enable customers to order groceries online. "We do delivery and pick up, just via phone and email for now," says Erace. "It works but we'd like to put a more efficient system in place."

Oracle VM VirtualBox 3.2.6 is released.

iPhone 4: Your Burning Questions Answered

Congratulations, you're a new iPhone 4 owner! Now what do you do with it? The iPhone 4 operating system introduces a number of new features, some, like FaceTime video calls, which are entirely unique to the iPhone 4 hardware itself.

Plus, there are several reports now surfacing about issues with the iPhone 4's hardware. Are these credible? Should you be concerned? How do you resolve these issues?

Below, we'll answer these and more of the most burning questions new users may have about their iPhone 4.

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1. Is There Really an Issue with the iPhone 4's Antenna?

Yes. Apple has officially gone on record with a statement that reads as follows:

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

This comes after an outpouring of reports from new users, gadget sites and technology news outlets, all discussing the same exact problem with the new Apple phone. Left-handed users have it the worst, due to the antenna placement. (The issue is worst when gripped in your left hand, with your skin pressed against the outside steel band.) Even Steve Jobs himself is now responding to user email complaints with the simple advice: "Just avoid holding it in that way."

What way? The way the Apple commercials show? Yes, that's right. Apple's own marketing material shows people happily chatting on their iPhone 4's while holding the phone in the way that would actually lead to signal loss.

Instead, here is the proper method.

Is there a solution? Of course. Why do you think Apple got into the bumper biz? Reportedly, using a plastic iPhone bumper (the outer rubberized protection product sold for around $30 at the Apple Store) solves the problem.

2. How Do You Use FaceTime?

FaceTime, the video calling feature introduced in the new Apple operating system can only be used on iPhone 4 hardware. Simply upgrading your iPhone 3G or 3GS is not enough - you must purchase the new phone. That's because FaceTime takes advantage of the iPhone 4's new dual-camera system, allowing to you to broadcast your face while watching your screen.

To actually use FaceTime, when you're on a phone call, move the phone away from your face and press the FaceTime button that appears on screen amid the menu of choices (like Keypad, Hold, etc.).

The recipient, assuming they also have an iPhone 4, will receive a request to initiative the FaceTime session, which they can then either accept or deny.

You can also start a FaceTime call directly from your Contacts list. Just scroll to the bottom of a contact card and tap the FaceTime button.

Remember though, FaceTime is a Wi-Fi only application for now (Jobs said it's Wi-Fi only "in 2010," hinting at Apple's future plans), which limits its functionality for the time being. However, FaceTime calls don't eat up your wireless minutes, as we recently found out. You can also test FaceTime out by calling 1-888-FACETIME.

3. How Do You Kill a Multi-Tasking App?

The iPhone 4 operating system (iOS) offers a new feature called multi-tasking. This works on the iPhone 3GS as well, but not the 3G. Not all apps multi-task - they must be designed that way by their developers first. To launch the multi-tasking interface, double-tap the "Home" button (the round button at the bottom of the screen). To kill an app that's running in the background, press and hold the app in the multi-task interface until it starts jiggling. Then, you'll see a red minus icon appear on the app icon's top-left. Tap the minus icon and the app closes. All the multi-task enabled applications stay open after you close them, so this menu can get filled up quickly if you're a heavy app user.

4. Does the iPhone 4 Record 1080p HD Video?

No, it records 720p HD video, up to 30 frames per second.

5. How Do I Make Sure an App isn't Tracking My Location?

Location services, which use information from the phone's GPS, cellular and Wi-Fi data to determine your location, are used in applications like Maps and Compass, as well as in other Apple apps like Camera and any number of third-party applications, too. If the Big Brother-esque tracking has you worried, you can turn location services off using the global switch located in Settings > General > Location Services. Otherwise, you can use the settings below this switch to individually shut off location services for select apps.

6. How Do I Access My Playback Controls? (The double-tap now launches the app switcher!)

The multi-tasking interface is now revealed when you double-tap the home button, but your playback controls are still there. Just swipe to the right from within the app switcher to reveal them.

7. How do I Make the iPhone 4 Stay in Portrait Mode?

Follow the instructions in step six above to reveal the playback controls. To the left of the controls is a black icon with an arrow making a circle. Tap this button to lock the screen into portrait or landscape mode. You'll know the screen is locked because an icon appears next to the battery meter at the top right of your screen.

8. How Many Applications Can I Install?

Given disk space, you can theoretically install up to 2,160 applications on your iPhone now, using the new "Folders" feature. Folders let you organize apps into folders simply by dragging one app on top of another and then providing that folder with a name of your choosing (or keeping the suggested name that appears).

ReadWriteStart Events & Deadlines for Startups, 19 June 2010

There are a lot of great activities happening in the startup world, and we would like to help you make sure you're on top of these opportunities. The ReadWriteStart Calendar tracks both startup-oriented events as well as application deadlines (for competitions, grants, and incubators, for example).

If you'd like to add something to the calendar, leave a comment here or email us.

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Here are some of the upcoming deadlines and events that caught our eye this past week:

Women 2.0 Labs

Women 2.0 is sponsoring Women 2.0 Labs, a new 5-week program (July 6 - August 5, 2010) for engineers, developers, biz dev folks, and marketing mavens to develop high-growth technology ventures in San Francisco, CA. Applications due June 20.

Transfer Summit UK

Transfer Summit will be held June 24-25 at Keble College in Oxford, England. The event, which includes a BarCamp, is focused on on Open Source technology/collaboration/innovation as it intersects industry, research, and academia. Our attendees are an amalgam of business executives and technologists, interested in streamlining the innovation and resource discovery process, cultivating partnerships, and accelerating the process of commercializing products.

Edmonton Startup Weekend

Edmonton, Alberta's Startup Weekend will take place June 25-27. As with the other Startup Weekend events, it promises to bring together "developers, designers, marketers, inventors, and anyone else interested in ideas and startups to see what they can build in 54 hours. "

Creative Commons Catalyst Grants

As we reported this week, Creative Commons is accepting applications for their Catalyst Grants through the end of the month. These grants are meant to seed activities that support the Creative Commons mission. Applications due June 30.

Photo credits: Keble College photo by Flickr user Dimitry B

ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 19 June 2010

For those of you with your head in the cloud, we've got two big events for you in the next few weeks. Salesforce.com is holding Cloudforce 2010, which will have "more than 35 Cloud Leaders on the tradeshow floor and 18 expert-led breakout sessions." A few days later, the Cloud Computing World Forum will take place in London, which will "provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry."

You can import individual events in the Events Guide into Google Calendar using the link beside each entry, or download the entire thing as an iCal file (which is importable into Google Calendar, Outlook, Windows Live Calendar, etc.) or even view it as a world map. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

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21 - 25 June 2010: San Francisco, California

SemTech 2010

SemTech 2010 is the world's largest, most authoritative conference on semantic technology. The programs covers semantics in enterprise computing, consumer applications, search, Linked Data and social networking. SemTech is the place where the entire community gathers to do business - entrepreneurs and investors, researchers and product developers, marketers and customers.

This year we have in-depth focus on industry applications in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Open Government, Publishing, Finance and Advertising. Case studies will be provided by early adopters including Best Buy, Biogen, Blue Cross, Boeing, Cleveland Clinic, DoD, Group M, Merck, Nokia, Pearson, Pfizer, Salesforce.com, US Air Force, University of Texas and the World Bank. The conference hashtag is #SemTech.

22 June 2010: San Jose, California

Cloudforce 2010

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, announces Cloudforce 2010, the largest cloud computing event of the year. This industry, customer and developer event is being held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. With the arrival of Cloud 2, the next generation of cloud computing that is collaborative, real-time and mobile, an entirely new economy has emerged.

Some of the biggest names in technology are participating in Cloudforce 2010 - from the world's largest software companies like BMC and CA, to technology pioneers like Dell and VMware and several surprise guests - all to educate the technology community on how they can realize tremendous success with Cloud 2. Cloudforce 2010 will provide the roadmap for the cloud computing industry with more than 35 Cloud Leaders on the tradeshow floor and 18 expert-led breakout sessions. Salesforce.com will also announce the arrival of Salesforce Chatter. Register here.

22 - 24 June 2010: Santa Clara, California

Now in its third year, Velocity - the Web Performance and Operations Conference from O'Reilly Media - is dedicated to helping people build a better Internet that is Fast by Default. Join hundreds of web developers and experts under one roof from June 22-24, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA Velocity packs a wealth of big ideas, know-how, and connections into three concentrated days. You'll be able to apply what you've learned immediately for high impact results and you'll come away prepared for what's ahead. O'Reilly Velocity 2010 is the premier conference dedicated to building industrial strength sites, at internet speed. Velocity">Register Now and save 25% with discount code "vel10rww".

29 - 30 June 2010: London

Cloud Computing World Forum

The 2nd annual Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event to learn and discuss the development, integration, adoption and future of cloud computing and SaaS. Building on the success of the 2009 show, this two day conference and free-to-attend exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry. Show highlights include:

• Co-located with CloudCamp London
• Co-located with Green IT conference
• Free-to-attend exhibition with seminar and scenario theatre
• Free-to-attend evening awards presentation
• Hear from leading case studies on how they have integrated cloud computing and SaaS into their working practices
• Learn from the key players offering cloud and SaaS services
• Evening networking party for all attendees

5 - 7 July 2010: Marseilles, France

Lift France '10

Lift France gathers pioneers from all over the world to explore how the technologies and concepts of the Web are changing the real world. Through a combination of workshops, inspiring talks, and innovative demos, Lift offers a chance to anticipate the major shifts ahead, and meet the people who drive them.

Together we will explore 4 major topics:

Speakers include Sam Pitroda, advisor to India's PM on innovation; Alma Whitten, Google's privacy lead; Haakon Karlsen, Fab Labs Foundation; Michael Cross, FreeOurData.org; Amit Zoran, MIT Smart Cities Lab; Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French minister for the Digital Economy; Geoff Mulgan, the Young Foundation.

7 July 2010: Melbourne, Australia

Digital Sport Summit

Digital Sport Summit is Australia's premier sport and digital media event. Hear from social media pioneers who are changing the face of Australian sport. Learn how social media and mobile technology is taking fan engagement to a whole new level.

Speakers on the day will cover a variety of topics including:

• iPhone application development for sport
• Convincing management of the case for social media
• How to monetize social media
• Fantasy sports
• Social media from an athlete's perspective

With speakers representing Essendon Football Club, Cricket Victoria, Herald Sun, Football Federation Australia and more. Digital Sport Summit will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

22 - 23 September 2010: Singapore

Social Media World Forum Asia

Social Media World Forum Asia is back for 2010. The event will be taking place at the larger venue - The Suntec Conference Centre - before the F1 Singapore night race. Two days of interactive and engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking. Speakers include:

5 October 2010: New York City

FinovateFall

FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies.

FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today's market. Early bird registration rates are available.

29 - 30 March 2011: London

Social Media World Forum Europe

Social Media World Forum Europe: Two days of interactive & engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking.

Social Media World Forum Europe is continuing to evolve and deliver an event which is second to none, ensuring our audience receive the maximum potential from attending our shows. New for 2011 we have introduced interactive panel discussions, live streamed debate sessions, collaborative learning, break-out group discussions, open Q&A portions in every session, open workshops, with group discussions and interactive zones within the exhibition hall. We have introduced the Online Marketing Toolbox Workshops, educating in all elements of the online marketing mix, such as SEO, Paid Search, Affiliate, Mobile & Apps. The perfect toolbox to complete your online marketing strategy.

Download this entire events calendar in iCal format.

RIM Speeding Up BlackBerry Browser with New Patents

RIM filed patents for technology that prioritizes different components of a Web page when loading and displaying it according to GoRumors. Specifically, it should make BlackBerry Browser load and display a page's main content before processing CSS and Javascript files. The patents further RIM's efforts to improve its mobile browsing experience as enterprises and consumers increase their reliance on Web apps.

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If you've ever seen your BlackBerry stuck on a blank screen even though 50 out of 51 kilobytes of Web page has already loaded, you've experienced the problem RIM is trying to solve. The CSS and Javascript files used to format a page's text can be larger than the text itself, so showing readers the text before it's formatted should speed things up considerably.

RIM announced in November it will release a new WebKit-based browser sometime in 2010, and filed a patent in January for technology to speed up browsing using proxy servers.

The BlackBerry Web browsing experience has been notoriously weak and it makes sense for RIM to improve the experience not just for consumers but for increasingly Web dependent enterprise users as well.

The iPhone and Android are gaining popularity in the enterprise, and many third-party tools such as Sybase's Afaria attempt to bring the advantages of RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Server to other devices. RIM needs to innovate continuously in order to stay ahead in enterprise, and the browser is a good place to start.

RWW Real-Time Web Summit: Watch the Keynote Live at 9:30AM ET

Our ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City will kick off with a keynote by our own co-editor and VP of content development Marshall Kirkpatrick this morning. Marshall plans to address some of the myths that surround the real-time Web and share his thoughts about its future.

Our friends at Justin.tv will provide a live stream of the keynote, which will start around 9:30am ET.

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Throughout the day, we will also stream selected sessions here.

Watch live video from ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit on Justin.tv

Real-Time Conversations

Conversations about the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit will be taking place all over the Web. Tag your Tweets, pictures, and blog posts with #RWWSummit to show up here.

Wine Font smooth!!

ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 5 June 2010

Blogs with Balls 3 is happening in Chicago this weekend; next week's H+ Summit is all about the "Rise of the Citizen Scientist"; and a few days after that is the Corporate Social Media Summit, which features speakers from McDonald's, Adidas, PepsiCo, Dell, Johnson & Johnson and Nokia. And don't forget about the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit on June 11. We'd love to have you join us.

How do you like your events guide? You can import individual events into Google Calendar using the link beside each entry, or download the entire thing as an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file, or even view it as a world map. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

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4 - 6 June 2010: Chicago, IL

Blogs with Balls 3

The bright future of sports media gathers for Blogs with Balls 3 in Chicago at the legendary Wrigley Field. This third installment of the conference focuses on sports and local media, the ever-changing face of traditional media, as well as all the ways that mobile and emerging technologies are changing the world of the sports fan (and the companies trying to reach him or her) today. Feature speakers from established players like ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! Sports & The Sporting News and emerging blogging/podcasting personalities and sports new media entrepreneurs, not to mention former professional athletes who are bolstering their brand through digital.

Register before May 15 and save more than $50 off the full ticket price at blogswithballs3.eventbrite.com. Use discount code RWWxBWB

11 June 2010: New York City

You're invited to join ReadWriteWeb for our third event and our first on the East Coast: the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit, on June 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. This is our second Summit on the Real-Time Web, following on from our successful debut event in Mountain View last October. It will follow the same unconference format, which we have gotten a lot of great feedback on.

The Real-Time Web is a set of technologies that impacts almost every service, activity and application on the Web. We were one of the first news outlets to analyze the Real-Time Web and we've since written extensively about it. Come to the summit to understand how it impacts you, your business and your next development.

The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our first New York event and we look forward to seeing you there!

12 - 13 June 2010: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

2010 H+ Summit

The focus of 2010's H+ Summit is on the "Rise of the Citizen Scientist" and will feature 60 renowned speakers who are leaders and champions of global movements involving transformative science and technology. These thought-leaders will provide an early look at the trends and technologies that attendees will be writing, speaking and communicating about for the next twenty years.

Three of the Summit's featured speakers include Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist, Stephen Wolfram, creator of Wolfram|Alpha, and Andrew Hessel, an outspoken advocate and champion of DNA technology. The visionary thinking of Kurzweil, Wolfram and Hessel is representative of the level of trend-setting talks that will be featured in the 2010 H+ Summit.

15 - 16 June 2010: New York City

Corporate Social Media Summit

The Corporate Social Media Summit is a two day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can take advantage of social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. Featuring:

• Practical and relevant insights from peers who have already used social media successfully
• 20-plus corporate speakers (including PepsiCo, Whole Foods, Dell, McDonald's, General Motors, Citi, Johnson & Johnson),
• Best practice, benchmarks and practical next steps you can use to take advantage of social media in your business
• A tightly-focused agenda with 14 in-depth, practical workshops giving you knowledge on only the most critical business issues surrounding corporate use of social media

21 - 25 June 2010: San Francisco, California

SemTech 2010

SemTech 2010 is the world's largest, most authoritative conference on semantic technology. The programs covers semantics in enterprise computing, consumer applications, search, Linked Data and social networking. SemTech is the place where the entire community gathers to do business - entrepreneurs and investors, researchers and product developers, marketers and customers.

This year we have in-depth focus on industry applications in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Open Government, Publishing, Finance and Advertising. Case studies will be provided by early adopters including Best Buy, Biogen, Blue Cross, Boeing, Cleveland Clinic, DoD, Group M, Merck, Nokia, Pearson, Pfizer, Salesforce.com, US Air Force, University of Texas and the World Bank. The conference hashtag is #SemTech.

22 - 24 June 2010: Santa Clara, California

Now in its third year, Velocity - the Web Performance and Operations Conference from O'Reilly Media - is dedicated to helping people build a better Internet that is Fast by Default. Join hundreds of web developers and experts under one roof from June 22-24, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA Velocity packs a wealth of big ideas, know-how, and connections into three concentrated days. You'll be able to apply what you've learned immediately for high impact results and you'll come away prepared for what's ahead. O'Reilly Velocity 2010 is the premier conference dedicated to building industrial strength sites, at internet speed. Velocity">Register Now and save 25% with discount code "vel10rww".

29 - 30 June 2010: London

Cloud Computing World Forum

The 2nd annual Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event to learn and discuss the development, integration, adoption and future of cloud computing and SaaS. Building on the success of the 2009 show, this two day conference and free-to-attend exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry. Show highlights include:

• Co-located with CloudCamp London
• Co-located with Green IT conference
• Free-to-attend exhibition with seminar and scenario theatre
• Free-to-attend evening awards presentation
• Hear from leading case studies on how they have integrated cloud computing and SaaS into their working practices
• Learn from the key players offering cloud and SaaS services
• Evening networking party for all attendees

5 - 7 July 2010: Marseilles, France

Lift France '10

Lift France gathers pioneers from all over the world to explore how the technologies and concepts of the Web are changing the real world. Through a combination of workshops, inspiring talks, and innovative demos, Lift offers a chance to anticipate the major shifts ahead, and meet the people who drive them.

Together we will explore 4 major topics:

Speakers include Sam Pitroda, advisor to India's PM on innovation; Alma Whitten, Google's privacy lead; Haakon Karlsen, Fab Labs Foundation; Michael Cross, FreeOurData.org; Amit Zoran, MIT Smart Cities Lab; Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French minister for the Digital Economy; Geoff Mulgan, the Young Foundation.

7 July 2010: Melbourne, Australia

Digital Sport Summit

Digital Sport Summit is Australia's premier sport and digital media event. Hear from social media pioneers who are changing the face of Australian sport. Learn how social media and mobile technology is taking fan engagement to a whole new level.

Speakers on the day will cover a variety of topics including:

• iPhone application development for sport
• Convincing management of the case for social media
• How to monetize social media
• Fantasy sports
• Social media from an athlete's perspective

With speakers representing Essendon Football Club, Cricket Victoria, Herald Sun, Football Federation Australia and more. Digital Sport Summit will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

22 - 23 September 2010: Singapore

Social Media World Forum Asia

Social Media World Forum Asia is back for 2010. The event will be taking place at the larger venue - The Suntec Conference Centre - before the F1 Singapore night race. Two days of interactive and engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking. Speakers include:

5 October 2010: New York City

FinovateFall

FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies.

FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today's market. Early bird registration rates are available.

29 - 30 March 2011: London

Social Media World Forum Europe

Social Media World Forum Europe: Two days of interactive & engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking.

Social Media World Forum Europe is continuing to evolve and deliver an event which is second to none, ensuring our audience receive the maximum potential from attending our shows. New for 2011 we have introduced interactive panel discussions, live streamed debate sessions, collaborative learning, break-out group discussions, open Q&A portions in every session, open workshops, with group discussions and interactive zones within the exhibition hall. We have introduced the Online Marketing Toolbox Workshops, educating in all elements of the online marketing mix, such as SEO, Paid Search, Affiliate, Mobile & Apps. The perfect toolbox to complete your online marketing strategy.

Download this entire events calendar in iCal format.

If You Like Moustaches on Men - You'll Love These Restaurants

Cross reference a person's Twitter friendships with their Foursquare favorites with their Hunch.com articulated "taste graph" and what do you get? Interesting personalized restaurant recommendations, for one thing.

Taste-gathering startup Hunch is experimenting with a recommendation service that cross references social graph connections on other services with the large set of unusual questions its users have answered. Questions like "do you like facial hair on men? Yes? Well, 48% of our users have said that." The end result is a simple prototype website where you enter a city and your Twitter username and Hunch will show you Foursquare venues it thinks you'll like. Or at least it thinks that people on Hunch who are like your friends on Twitter tend to like those places, on Foursquare. Crazy? Maybe not.

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Restaurant recommendations are just the beginning. Hunch knows a lot about a lot of people. The company recently said that the average Hunch user has answered 152 personal questions about themselves. Now that data and our corresponding friend connections are going to be the basis for personalized recommendations. Want to see how well the company thinks it understands you? Check out the recently launched Hunch Twitter predictor game. It's downright eerie.

Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon explained (vaguely) what's going on by email.

We developed the technology to project and propagate our taste data using graph-like connections via public APIs. In this case we propagate our taste profiles to Twitter by projecting the subset of Hunch users connected with twitter onto all Twitter
users. Then we propagate this taste data to Foursquare by projecting the subset of Twitter users checking in on foursquare onto all Foursquare venues. With our collection of taste profiles, in real time we can calculate affinities between any Hunch user, Twitter user, and Foursquare venue. As we project and propagate across all the web's entities, we will enable crazy data mashups. It's going to be cool!

In other words, if Hunch doesn't know about you well enough to make Foursquare recommendations via a Twitter account that's tied to both Foursquare and Hunch, then it will assume you are like those Twitter friends of yours who are on Hunch, and Foursquare.

That's the kind of data-driven value that making all these connections explicit will allow. The future will look like a big algorithm and interface war between companies battling it out to better serve you based on commonly, publicly available user data. Or data you selectively expose in return for recommendations.

Open API Madness: The Party Has Just Begun for Cloud Developers

It's like an API festival here at Gluecon. I tweeted that this afternoon. But it's not just Gluecon, though - they're one of the hottest topics in discussions about cloud computing.

In his presentation today at Gluecon, John Musser of Programmable Web illustrated how hot APIs have become and how they've matured.

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Perhaps most illustrative is his "API Billionaire's Club."

Members of the club include Google and Facebook with 5 billion AP calls per day. Twitter has 3 billion per day. Ebay has 8 billion per month. NPR gets 1.1 billion calls per month for its API-delivered stories. Saleforce.com gets 50% of its traffic through its API.

According to Musser, it took eight years to get to 1,000 API's but just 18 months to get to 2,000. This year, the number of API's are double what they were last year on a month-per-month basis.

Internet/platform as a service (PaaS) API's are now number one. That's illustrative of the increased usage of services like Amazon S3 and all its competitors. Maps are the number three API, dropping from the number one spot last year. Social API's are number two.

REST API's are far surpassing SOAP.

There's a real energy here at Gluecon around the discussions about APIs. The room was packed for the presentations on the topic.

We'll pour more into the topic in later posts.

Bee.tv Recommendation Engine for TV and Film

From shopping to music, the overload of information on the Web has been shaped and ordered by recommendation engines. There are even tools like the browser extension GetGlue that purport to sail the entire recommendations ocean. But one very important aspect of the online experience has been overshadowed: video. Milan- and Tel Aviv-based Bee.tv, currently in beta, has introduced a proprietary, cross-platform recommendation service to personalize television, film and video viewing. Bee.tv aspires to do for video what Pandora or Last.fm do for audio.

"Bee.tv employs a proprietary algorithm that includes contextual and semantic analysis, collaborative filtering, and thematic push to deliver personalized TV, movie and video content recommendations."

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I signed up for the beta and was interested to see if my weird taste in TV and movies would track at all. I like Blazing Saddles, Chuck, The Beekeeper, Erich Rohmer, Rick Steves, Cracked.com and A Blog About History, so heaven only knows what they'd make of that.

You chime in on eight movies from Superbad to Casablanca. I wound up with The Bourne Supremacy (sure), Observe and Report (eh, probably not) and All Through the Night (never heard of it). It didn't blow my mind but it wasn't crazily out of the park either. Presumably, as I use the service, and rate more offerings, the engine will hone in on my weirdness and before you know it, voila! Kentucky Fried Movie and Cities in the Mist.

Recommendations are broken into TV, Web, Mobile and iPad. A recommendation filtering mechanism can monitor your preferences.

YouTube and most online video viewing sites have recommendation algorithms, but Bee.tv is a stand-alone site, with an emphasis on the recommendation process.
The site provides you with a place to purchase each of its recommendations that are for sale, but unlike Hulu, say, it does not seem to be a platform for free programming.

Bee.tv's partners include Apple, YouTube, Tribune Media, Amazon, broadcast and cable networks and various online content creators.

Larry Ellison cikk, tervek a Sun-nal, az ember az Iron Man 2-b?l, Reuters interjú

2010. május 12-én jelent meg a következ? cikk az Oracle-r?l és Larry Ellisonról (az Oracle CEO-ja): Special Report: Can That Guy in Ironman 2 Whip IBM in Real Life?.
Larry szerepel az Iron Man 2 c. filmben is, ahogyan korábbi blogbejegyzésemben már írtam róla: Larry Ellison is szerepel az Iron Man 2 c. filmben, a nyúlfarknyi 3 másodperces szerepben önmagát alakítja. A következ?kben a cikkb?l idézek.
"...Sun under Oracle should be larger than Sun ever was", azaz a Sun az Oracle kezében sokkal jobban fog muzsikálni, mint korábban önállóan.
"He added that he expects profit from Sun's operations to boost Oracle's earnings in the current quarter, which ends May 31.", azaz Larry már a két hét múlva végetér? pénzügyi negyedévben is profitot remél a Sun termékekb?l.

"Last year he unveiled Exadata, version 2, based on Sun technology, which he says initially has nearly $1 billion in potential sales and will likely have annual sales measured in the billions of dollars within a few years."

Újabb házassági terv az adatbázis piacon: Sybase és SAP

Az Oracle az utóbbi évben technológiai és alkalmazás oldalon több mint 50 céget vásárolt meg, legutóbb a hardver-operációs rendszer, Java, IDM, virtualizáció és számos más téren is innovatív Sun céget. Ráadásul az Oracle best-of-breed azaz iparági vezet? cégekkel és mogoldásokkal er?síti a portfólióját. Az Oracle hosszú évek óta az adattárházak (data wrehouse) területén is a Gartner szerint a piacvezet?k mágikus négyzetében van. Ennek a területnek vezet? megoldása az Oracle Database optimalizált hardveren futtatása az Exadata / Database Machine hardveren az Exadata Storage Server Software-rel. Az Oracle Database mind tranzakciókezelésre mind adattárház feldolgozásra, mind ezen megoldások egy környezetben futtatására optimalizált megoldás.
Az SAP korábban meglehet?sen elítélte az Oracle best-of-breed felvásárlási stratégiáját, mondván az nem vezet semmire. :) Most a megmaradék önálló cégek közül a Sybase-t szemelte ki. A BBC híre. Kicsit soknak t?nik az 5,8 milliárd dollár? Érdekes, hogy a cikk szerint a felvásárlási terv hírére az SAP részvény árfolyam 40 centtel esett.

Is Real-Time Search Still Waiting for Mainstream Adoption?

Real-time search is very different from regular search. After studying about 1 million queries on real-time search engine Collecta, researchers at Pennsylvania State University came to the conclusion that - relative to regular search - users of real-time search engines tend to search less for adult topics and focus more on technology, entertainment and politics. This, according to the researchers, reflects "both the temporal nature of the queries and, perhaps, an early adopter user base."

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API Accounts for Most Queries

According to the data the research team collected, most real-time queries come from third-party applications and don't happen on the search engine's own page. On Collecta, API queries account for about 60% of all queries and we've heard similar - and often even higher - numbers from other real-time search engines. As these API-based queries are often repeated multiple times throughout the day, real-time search engines also tend to see fewer unique queries than regular search engines.

Top Queries

The researchers also collected a list of the most popular queries on Collecta during a 190-day period at the end of last year. This data shows that the typical queries on real-time search engines are quite different from what we would expect to see on a regular search engine. Even the most popular search term ("naomi watts"), only accounted for 0.003% of all queries. According to Hitwise, "facebook" is currently the most popular search term on all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and accounts for between 1.17% of all queries on Google to 2.6% of all queries on Bing.

Where's the Porn?

As the researchers note, Collecta registered almost no searches that were pornographic in nature. "Sex" was the ninth most popular search term and only accounted for 0.002% of all queries.

Early Adopters

As the researchers rightly note, the list of most popular search queries on Collecta reflects the early-adopter nature of the service. The fact that the second-most popular query was "jQuery CSS" is a good example for the nature of real-time searches. To some degree, of course, these numbers are also biased towards Collecta's users and the kind of applications that have been developed on top of Collecta's API.

It will be interesting to see what these numbers look like by the end of this year. If "jQuery CSS" is still in the top 10 of most often used queries, we can safely assume that Collecta - and maybe real-time search as a whole - hasn't reached a mainstream audience yet.

Skyscraper aims to clean up river

One Search Engine, All Your Messages: Silentale Launches Public Beta

Silentale, the new web service that backs up and archives your contacts and messages from all the communication platforms you use, has now launched into public beta as of this morning. The online application is part universal inbox, part social CRM tool and part contact management solution. But unlike some of its competitors, the best part about Silentale is that it archives your messages - all of your messages, including every single email, Twitter reply or direct message, Facebook message and more and then makes those searchable from one location.

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Where's that Email? Oh, it Was a Tweet

If you've ever searched through your inbox for that email you just know you received..sometime...somewhere...and have come up dry only to find it later in your Facebook or Twitter inbox, then Silentale is an ideal solution for you.

The system is designed for those of us who consistently communicate over multiple channels and then can't remember where to find the information we need. This "information overload" problem is something many companies are trying to address whether by offering an email prioritization system, universal inbox, inbox CRM add-on or external contact management type service.

Yet no system is perfect. In fact, earlier today, Fred Wilson, venture capitalist and principal of Union Square Ventures, declared "email bankruptcy" via a post on his blog, despite his use of external contact management services like Gist and Etacts. He says that he has to perform 30 Gmail searches to find the messages from his top contacts. There are better ways to do this using just Gmail, of course, as the blog commenters pointed out, but Silentale could help him address another issue: what if the message wasn't sent as an email? Silentale can pull all the messages associated with a contact and present them in one view.

In the future, Silentale will continue to grow their search offering to allow for combination searches, the ability to save searches plus access to search history and last contacts viewed.

The Info Overload Problem

The problem with many of today's external email and contact management solutions is that they either expect you to use their inbox over the much more robust webmail or desktop-based email program you already have in place or they aggregate your messages, but don't archive them.

Silentale's closest competitor may be Gist and in many ways, it reminds us of that service. Gist retrieves contacts from your email and social networks and gives you a combined view of their activity, including related news, events, attachments and links. Silentale does much of the same.

But while Gist is more focused on being more of a business-ready social CRM tool, Silentale focuses more on being a searchable communications archive. "No one else provides your complete history of emails combined with tweets, Facebook messages etc., that you can search and access from anywhere," explains Silentale's GM, Shannon Ferguson. "We're a complement to the services you already use to communicate vs. a substitute."

Another difference between some of the competitive solutions out there and Silentale is the application ecosystem. You don't necessarily have to log in to the web service to use this system. It also functions by way of a Firefox add-on and search plugin and will soon arrive as an iPhone app, Android app and Outlook plug-in. An API for developers is also available for the creation of additional third-party applications.

Pricing and Sign Up Information

For those connecting five or fewer accounts, Silentale will remain free, although your message archive will be limited to six months. A "Pro" plan will backup 10 accounts and import 2 years of message history for $49/year and the "Pro Plus" plan supports 20 accounts and unlimited import. Enterprise plans are also available and will receive group discounts, depending on volume.

You can sign up for a free beta account here: http://silentale.com

Skype "Seriously Considering" Ads

According to Skype's CEO Josh Silverman, Skype wants to be the "fabric of real-time communications on the Web." To get there, Skype is "seriously considering" to create a new revenue stream by running third-party ads on the service. In an interview with the Telegraph, Silverman noted that adding ads will be difficult, given that "the way people use Skype is very personal." There are currently no ads on Skype and the company's main source of revenue is selling optional telephony features that allow its users to make calls to landlines and mobile phones.

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Tasteful Ads

Silverman also noted that Skype ads "will be done in a tasteful way." Sadly, it is not clear what these ads will look like (assuming Skype will go ahead with this plan). Given that Skype is an audio and video service, these ads could include audio ads that play while you are waiting for your call to connect or small Youtube-like pop-up ads in your video calls. Currently, Skype only runs banner ads for its own products in its Windows client.

Skype currently has over 560 million registered users and more than 20 million of these are logged in at any given time. The company has trained all of these users to expect free and unimpeded calls to other Skype users, so adding ads will surely create a bit of a stir among Skype's users.

New Skype Features

Skype also announced a number of new subscription services and features during the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last week. These new services include highly discounted calls to over 170 countries for a monthly fee starting at $1.09 a month, as well as a group video chat for up to five users that will launch as a free service. Skype plans to charge a subscription fee for this feature later this year.

2 More Weeks Until the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit - Register Today!

There are just two more weeks until the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010, so we invite you to register now. Be a part of high-value, intimate conversations with people working throughout the world of mobile, from garage developers to industry luminaries.

The summit will take place May 7, 2010, in Mountain View, California and will be an exploration of the latest mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. We are looking forward to some amazing discussion and debate about mobile with participants like:

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• Deb Schultz of Altimeter group
• Patrick Chanezon, Don Dodge & Bob Meese of Google
• Ted Morgan of Skyhook Wireless
• Scott Raney and Tom Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures
• Adam Blum of Rhomobile
• Brady Forrest of O'Reilly
• Brent Simmons of Newsgator Technologies
• Patrick Burns of DASH7 Alliance

As with our first event, the Real-Time Web Summit last October, the Mobile Summit will be in the "unconference" format. Laura Fittion, founder of oneforty.com, had these thoughts about ReadWriteWeb's last summit:

"There were a lot of investors there and it was a great dialogue between startups and investors. The unconference format was great because it got away from the bogus who-is in the real-time Web, and made it who-wants-to-be. You didn't have to be big and influential to get your ideas across - if it was a good idea then it got heard. It wasn't just Twitter, it was many things real time, defined pretty expansively."

As with our previous event, the Mobile Summit will be facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, who in our opinion is the best in the business at this style of event. We're using the same venue too, the beautiful Computer History Museum.

Mobile was one of our top five trends last year and continues to undergo explosive growth, so our aim with this event is to help you navigate the opportunities. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of mobile! Because it will be you - the attendees - who ultimately set the agenda. You can begin adding your suggestions now.

We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here's a sample of some of the topics we'll explore in both of these tracks:

• Geo-location services - what can you do using location as a platform?
• Commerce & Marketing - as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel?
• Content, Publishing & Recommendations - the technologies and best practices.
• Mobile Social Networking - how to tap into communities on mobile devices.
• Internet of Things - the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data.
• Augmented Reality - the technology and business applications of AR.
• Native App vs. Browser Based - Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

If you're a company in the mobile Internet market, you may be interested in becoming a sponsor for this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information about sponsor packages. And a big thank-you to our current event sponsors: CallFire, WorldMate, Alcatel-Lucent and Ipevo.

The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our second event and we can't wait to discuss the opportunities in Mobile with you on May 7. You can find banners and logos to link to our event here, if you're so inclined.

We hope to see you on May 7!

Migrating to Mozilla Firefox: the Pros, Cons & Installation

Part 1 deals with the pro's and con's of using Firefox in preference to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Part 2 is a practical

Part 1: The Pros and Cons

Things change quickly in the world of computers. Just a year ago Microsoft's Internet Explorer seemed to have an unassailable hold on the Internet browser market.

Then all of a sudden through a combination of multiple security vulnerabilities, an aging set of features and the emergence of more modern browsers, Internet Explorer has started to look vulnerable.

So vulnerable in fact that over 100 million users have already switched over to other browsers. And the browser most have switched to is Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox is a fast, lean tabbed browser produced by the Mozilla Corporation. It's the young nimble brother of the original full-featured Mozilla Suite that itself being a spin-off from the ill fated Netscape browser.

The current version of Firefox is 2.0, the first major update since V1.0, the first official release.

Firefox is an impressive product but it's certainly not perfect. A decision to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox is a decision involving trading one set of attributes for another. Each individual will need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their own needs.

The purpose of this guide is to help you make that choice. And if you decide to go for Firefox I hope to provide you with some tips to make the transition from Internet Explorer as smooth as possible.

Three Good Reasons to Abandon Internet Explorer

1. It's an ongoing security risk.

Even the most one-eyed Microsoft supporter would have to accept that IE has been plagued with security problems.

First, as the world's most popular browser it's a target for hackers. That's because any vulnerability they uncover can be utilized against over 90% of all computers. That's quite a temptation. In fact there have been more attacks against IE than any other Windows component or application and there is no reason to believe this will lesson in the future.

Second it's a security risk because it employs Microsoft's propriety active scripting component called ActiveX. Now ActiveX offers users some real convenience features but those features come at a high cost. Security experts have been concerned about ActiveX right from its introduction and those concerns have proven justified as ActiveX has been at the center of multiple security vulnerabilities including many of the most serious. And it's not only ActiveX, IE also makes use of VBScript and browser helper objects (BHOs) two other convenience technologies that has been heavily exploited by hackers.

The latest version of Internet Explorer, IE7, includes enhancements that address many of these scripting problems but the fundamental problem remains.

Third it's a security risk because IE is too close to the core of the Windows operating system. In fact Microsoft itself argues that it's actually not a browser but part of the operating system. Such closeness is not a good thing; it means that a hacker who breaks into IE may not only have hacked your browser but may also be able to gain access to the operating system itself.

Finally Microsoft's record for responding to reported flaws in IE has been checkered. In several well publicized instances Microsoft have denied the existence of the flaws and instead, gone into "blame the messenger for the message" mode rather than respond. In other cases they have questioned the severity of the claimed flaws. This strange PR-driven stance has meant that patches for a number of critical flaws have been slow to arrive. Indeed even today there are over 20 publicly reported but yet unpatched critical IE flaws. And don't expect things to change much in the future.

Firefox is not exempt from flaws and as it has becomes more popular, these flaws are emerging. Part of this is due to the fact that, unlike IE, the Firefox source code is in the public domain and can be scrutinized for flaws by hackers. However Mozilla has shown itself to be very responsive to fixing reported flaws, often doing so within a few days. This is a far cry from Microsoft's poor track record.

2. If you are not using Windows XP, Microsoft has abandoned you

Internet Explorer 7 is only available to those using Windows XP SP2 or later. Users of earlier versions of Windows have to IE6, a version which has proven highly vulnerable to exploitation. Worse still, the folks at Redmond have announced that any future security enhancements to IE6 offered to Windows XP SP2 users will not necessarily be made available for any Windows operating system prior to XP. The intent is evident; they want everyone to upgrade to Windows XP or the upcoming Vista. The Microsoft announcement will inevitably embolden hackers to target future attacks on IE to versions on non-XP PCs. So if you don't use Windows XP, this alone is sufficient reason to look for an alternative to Internet Explorer.

And it's not only security. IE6 is a dated browser that doesn't even offer tabbed surfing. Yet another reason for users of earlier Windows versions to shift to Firefox.

3. Internet Explorer is less configurable than Firefox

Although IE7 now offers a useful collection of add-ons that allow you to customize your browsing experience the number of such add-ons just can't compare to the 1000+ free extensions available for Firefox.

For example I currently use eleven Firefox extensions, but only one is available for IE7.

To many users, these free extensions are more than niceties; they are integral to the browsing experience. For example the free Adblock extension that eliminates the vast majority of web ads. At the time of writing there is no comparable free extension available for IE7.

IE6 is even less configurable than IE7 and most of the add-ons available are commercial products not free

Three Good Reasons to Stay with Internet Explorer

1. Some web sites won't work properly with Firefox

A number of web sites utilize non-standard, proprietary Microsoft features such as ActiveX in order to provide site navigation and other features. It's probably not a good web design practice but that doesn't stop people doing it.

If you visit one of these non-standard sites using Firefox you will find that some functions won't work or work differently. This could be could be something trivial like the screen colors are wrong or an animation doesn't work or it could be some vitally important function such as a logon box or navigation link.

Luckily there aren't too many such sites and thankfully, their number seems to be reducing. However there are sufficient that you will encounter one sooner or later. If it's an important site such as your internet banking site then you are going to be frustrated.

One site that definitely doesn't work with Firefox is Microsoft Windows Update. Hardly surprising but still an annoyance.

You can of course, simply open IE when you encounter any of these sites. Firefox even has a downloadable extension that allows you to open a page using IE from within Firefox. This significantly reduces the nuisance value but does not of course, solve the basic problem.

If you use Firefox you are going to have to accept that certain sites will be broken and will require you to fire up IE to access them. This is a simple reality.

2. Firefox loads slower than Internet Explorer and takes more memory

Firefox may load web pages faster than IE but the program itself takes longer to load. Much longer, maybe twice as long. Firefox also uses more memory than IE.

IE's better performance here is to some degree an illusion. That's because some of the major components of Internet Explorer are always running on your PC, they are pre-loaded when Windows starts. That means IE has less work to do when it starts so it loads quicker. It also means that IE actually takes up more memory than it appears to.

This Firefox load time inconvenience can be eliminated by always keeping Firefox loaded and simply minimizing it when not in use. In fact it doesn't even need to take up any task bar space as there is a free Firefox extension that allows you to minimize it to the system tray.

Minimizing Firefox also releases some of its memory space so you are killing two birds with the one stone

That said it is a reality that IE loads faster and all potential Firefox users should be aware of this.

3. Firefox has had its own security problems

Firefox may be safer than IE but it has had its own share of security problems. Indeed since V1 was released there have been more than seven new versions containing security enhancements.

This may be so but Mozilla have to be commended how quickly they have released patches for newly discovered flaws, often only a day or two after the flaw was first demonstrated. This is in sharp contrast to Microsoft's tardy response to fixing IE problems.

In fact I have never encountered a hostile website that successfully exploits flaws in the then current version of Firefox. In other words, if you keep your copy of Firefox up to date it is extremely unlikely your browser security will be penetrated. The same cannot be said of Internet Explorer, particularly IE6.

Conclusion

As I said earlier, a decision to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox is a decision involving trading one set of attributes for another. Each individual will need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their own needs.

If you are not using Windows XP, I think the situation is clear cut. Microsoft has announced that they will not upgrade your Internet Explorer to the latest version 7. Given that, you should move to another browser just on security grounds alone. And if you are going to go to another browser, then THE current browser of choice is Firefox

Windows XP users on the face of it, have a real alternative to Firefox. They can stay with IE by installing XP Service Pack 2 along with IE7.

However experience with IE7 since its release indicates the likelihood of on-going security problems. Yes, Internet Explorer 7 is safer than IE6 but Microsoft's track record for speedily fixing any security problems is poor and bodes ill for the future.

So what do I think?

There is no doubt that Firefox is currently less of a security risk than IE6. In particular it is way less liable to Spyware infection. Every week I get letters from readers who have migrated to Firefox from IE because of recurrent IE6 based spyware infections. Commonly these folks tell me since changing over, they have never had a spyware infection.

This equates with my own experience. Not only have I never had a spyware infection since using Firefox but I have never even seen a circulating spyware exploit for Firefox. By contrast I encounter IE6 based spyware exploits every day.

There is no doubt that IE7 offers better security then IE6 and maybe as good as Firefox 2. However IE7 will remain a target for malware writers simply because of its popularity. That means that there will be more flaws discovered and more exploits released than for Firefox. Combine that with Microsoft's slow response to releasing patches and IE7 security becomes a serious concern.

So to me, security is the bottom line here. Yes, Firefox offers faster browsing. Yes, there are hundreds of free Firefox extensions to customize and optimize your browsing experience. All that is fine and most welcome but the real clincher is that Firefox offers a safer browsing experience and that alone is sufficient warrant to drop IE and make the change right now.

Ten Countries Call On Google to Respect Privacy

A letter sent today from leaders from 10 countries criticized Google's handling of privacy concerns when rolling out new technologies, such as Google Buzz and Google Street View, saying that the company launches new products "without due consideration of privacy and data protection laws and cultural norms."

The letter, first reported by CNET, is addressed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and signed by "Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, and the heads of the data protection authorities in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom".

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The letter starts out by acknowledging Google's role as a technological innovator, before continuing to say "we are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world's citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications. We were disturbed by your recent rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application, which betrayed a disappointing disregard for fundamental privacy norms and laws. Moreover, this was not the first time you have failed to take adequate account of privacy considerations when launching new services."

It then calls for Google to set an example to other companies in regards to user privacy, making the following requests:

• collecting and processing only the minimum amount of personal information necessary to achieve the identified purpose of the product or service;
• providing clear and unambiguous information about how personal information will be used to allow users to provide informed consent;
• creating privacy-protective default settings;
• ensuring that privacy control settings are prominent and easy to use;
• ensuring that all personal data is adequately protected, and
• giving people simple procedures for deleting their accounts and honouring their requests in a timely way.

While Google was sued in the U.S. following its roll-out of Google Buzz, the letter notably lacks any U.S. representation.

In all, the letter makes some reasonable requests of a company that likely knows more about us than our closest of friends, and we are looking forward to reading Google's response.

NYC Startup Job Fair: How Graduates Can Get a Great Job at a Startup

As the season turns to spring in the U.S., many soon-to-be college graduates and their soon-to-be employers turn their focus to the job market. In answer to the questions that graduates inevitably face from friends and family - "What will you do with your degree?" - one response should certainly be, "Find work with an exciting startup."

While some colleges are developing solid entrepreneurial programs, many graduates are still prone to believe that their best post-college employment prospects are to be found with more established companies. To change that perception, the Columbia Venture Company and the NYU Venture Company are hosting the first annual NYC Startup Job Fair.

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Since there remains much that higher education can do to nurture startups and to prepare and encourage students to seek opportunities there, the class of 2010 college graduates can and should look to startups as opportunities to launch their careers. Likewise, the class of 2010 and their search for post-college employment can and should provide startups with an opportunity to recruit the best and the brightest to join their ranks.

Just as there are many myths surrounding the risks associated with launching a startup as an entrepreneur, there are many myths associated with joining a startup as an employee - whether as a recent college graduate or as someone with more substantial work experience. However, as Chris Dixon notes, this career move may actually be less risky than one might believe. He cites the following reasons that college graduates should consider joining a startup:

One of the event organizers, Alex Horn, realized the need for this sort of event as he prepared to graduate from Columbia University, noting that there was "an information gap for graduates seeking out startup job opportunities; the Career Services Center at Columbia did a great job of promoting big financial institutions but very little to show students that there were other viable options out there." Horn hopes Friday's event "will enhance credibility for NY startups among young qualified job-seekers, lead to some resume exchanges, and convert some would-be bankers and googlers to entrepreneurs."