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Time to get over the Web 2.0 inferiority complex

SAN FRANCISCO--So there was Marc Andreessen, scaring the bejeesuz out of the crowd at the Web 2.0 Expo here with talk of a "nuclear winter" descending upon techdom. Maybe it was the Lex Luthor resemblance that made it seem extra sinister.

For the record, this line is becoming old hat for Andreesen--in a blog post he wrote after Ning raised $60 million net in a private round of funding, Andreesen said the money would "enable us to keep scaling given our accelerating growth (more than 230,000 networks on Ning now, growing at over 1,000 … Read more

Finally, some actual Web 2.0 apps at Web 2.0 Expo

As I've said previously, the Web 2.0 Expo show features a lot of products for developers. But there are still cool new Web apps to find--especially at the Launch Pad, a rapid-fire demo session featuring six relatively new companies. It's kind of like a mini-Demo.

Acquia sells a commercialized version of Drupal, the open-source content management (and Webware 100 winner). If you buy the open-to-commercial model, as executed by RedHat (Linux), and Trixbox (Asterisk), this business makes a lot of sense. I'm glad to see the platform get some business attention.

Chirpscreen is a fun … Read more

Max Levchin envisions an Alcoholics Anonymous app on Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO--Max Levchin made a name for himself as the co-founder of transaction system PayPal, one of the Web's foremost utilitarian services. Then he made a name for himself again at the helm of Slide, which isn't exactly in the same space. Its flagship product, "SuperPoke," has become the poster child--er, poster sheep--for criticism of social-networking developer applications as a silly fad.

On Wednesday, after his keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, I asked Levchin if he thought there were actually a chance for some social applications to emerge that … Read more

Zittrain's 'U.S. 1.0' advice for Web 2.5

SAN FRANCISCO--Jonathan Zittrain recently published a terrific book with the suggestive title The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It. But as I settled into my seat to report on his talk at the Web 2.0 Expo here Thursday, the Internet stopped me.

Dead in my tracks.

It was a confluence of events. In a switcheroo, what we witnessed was actually "virtual Zittrain." The good professor--he teaches Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University and is the co-founder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society--appeared on the big screen in a … Read more

Flash Web builder tool, Rambla, demos at Web Expo

The Web 2.0 Expo is really a show for developers. Most of the exhibits are developer tools and platforms, and the pitches I'm hearing in the hallways are for tools, not applications. Case in point: Rambla, by Piria, a Flash-based Web site builder that president Bob Lang is building to sell to hosting sites, so they can rebrand it and sell it to their customers.

In this very early stage, it looks like a very usable tool for building flat sites. The templates are attractive and flexible, and it's easy to select and move text and art … Read more

Mozilla chairman sets sights on mobile devices

Mozilla's Chairman Mitchell Baker talked about "opening the mobile Web" this morning at the Web 2.0 Expo. While not discussing planned functionality in future products, Baker's vision of tomorrow's browser is less Minority Report and semantic search (see Hakia and Powerset) and more about making browsing a simpler experience by taking advantage of your browser history. She also vaguely mentioned Mozilla's plans to step into the mobile browser market later this year with a browser currently code-named "Fennec."

Mozilla has already taken the first steps to get to such a place … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 710: Operation MAHEM

OK, the Internet, that was pretty cool. But molten jets of metal hurled through space to destructive effect? I mean, is someone keeping an eye on these DARPA guys or what? In other news today, a DirecTV-DISH conspiracy of awesome proportion, Android coming to T-Mobile this year, and Samsung fanboys prove they are the fanboyest of them all.

--Molly Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 710

Hacker testifies News Corp unit hired him http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080424/tc_nm/echostar_newscorp_dc_1

T-Mobile confirms Android phone by year’s end http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804231045DOWJONESDJONLINE000770_FORTUNE5.htm… Read more

Opera 9.5 Beta 2 adds neat URL look-up

If you can't remember the URL of a site you've once visited, what do you do? You can either scour your history, willing the evasive address to remain listed, or you can search in Google by the keywords you remember and hope the site you want floats near the top of the results.

The latest version of Opera Software's 9.5 Beta browser, released Thursday for Windows, Mac, and Linux, makes fishing for past Web addresses much easier with a new feature called Quick Find.

Quick Find essentially bundles the keyword search directly into the Opera browser'… Read more

History lessons with Marc Andreessen

SAN FRANCISCO--"It turns out that the Internet has worked pretty well," industry mainstay Marc Andreessen told an audience at the Web 2.0 Expo here Thursday morning.

Andreessen's keynote interview with Federated Media chief John Battelle was somewhat of a history lesson into the distant past of the Web (you know, 15 years ago) followed by the requisite speculation about an uncertain future.

"It was a very confusing time," Andreessen said of the Net's early days. In the early days of Mosaic, the browser created by Andreessen that eventually evolved into Netscape and … Read more