2.0

Intel Mash Maker: Mash-ups for the masses

Intel wants to make the whole Web editable, just like a single Wikipedia page.

The chip giant on Tuesday will make a beta available of Intel Mash Maker, a free browser extension that allows users to modify Web pages and combine information from different sources. Its first beta works with Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7, though at this point the features are far more mature in Firefox, Intel said.

The product, which originated in Intel's research labs, is similar to existing mash-up tools like Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft Popfly in that it has a graphical design tool.

What's different is that the actual mashing up of information on Intel Mash Maker happens on the client, rather than the server. So instead of making a different Web application to, say, plot real estate listings on Google Maps, Intel Mash Maker lets people add a widget that adds visualization to the real estate listing site.

Photobucket shares interface, matches Flickr

Photobucket, is making a significant change aimed to weave the widely used photo-sharing site more tightly into the Web 2.0 fabric.

The company is releasing an application programming interface (API) for its site, said Chief Executive Alex Welch. That means that ordinary developers will be able to build more sophisticated services around the Photobucket services and content.

Photobucket already made its API available to commercial partners, but now ordinary coders will be able to get access by signing up on the Web site, Welch said. The company is announcing the news in conjunction with the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. … Read more

Vysr launches RoamAbout: An antitoolbar for search nuts

This morning Vysr is launching its browser plug-in and Web widget platform RoamAbout at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. The app has been designed to give you access to a slew of Web services as small, widgetized Web apps that can be called up in an instant without requiring additional software.

It was pitched to me as "a new way to browse the Web," which usually makes my stomach lurch, but it's actually pretty darn useful for giving you contextual searching and reference without mucking up the pleasingly simple experience of navigating Web pages.… Read more

Google shows coders new home page abilities

Google on Monday invited programmers into a new sandbox that will let them test out significantly expanded possibilities for Web gadgets, small applications that can be hosted on the company's iGoogle personalized home page.

The sandbox, available at Google's iGoogle developer page, lets developers get started with a number of new features that eventually will make their way to the regular iGoogle home page, said lead product manager Jessica Ewing.

Among those new features are a left-hand region of the Web browser that lets users navigate quickly through a list of gadgets, a "canvas view" that … Read more

Etelos brings offline data synch to Web apps

Etelos on Monday will open a limited beta for software that lets hosted application providers give their customers access to information offline.

It's called Apps on a Plane (AOP), a name that addresses a long-held limitation of Web applications. Namely, they can't be used when someone is on a plane or otherwise offline.

Company founder and Chief Technology Officer Danny Kolke said the software will synch data from an end user's computer to back-end applications when they go on and offline.

It's designed so that independent software vendors or businesses can convert existing applications to the … Read more

Web 2.0 Expo: What to watch for

On Tuesday, the Web 2.0 Expo invades San Francisco. The largest Web 2.0 conference there is--the organizers are expecting 7,000+ attendees--will inhabit the Moscone exhibit hall through Friday. Unlike smaller, more intimate conferences, there will be too much at the Expo for any one person to absorb it all. So herewith are a few things worth paying special attention to:

Keynotes to attend

Amit Mital from Microsoft will be talking up Live Mesh (see "What's in Ray Ozzie's Mesh?") at 5:00 PM Wednesday. It looks like this product will be the talk … Read more

What's in Ray Ozzie's Mesh?

While Microsoft eventually hopes its Live Mesh effort will be a way for people to share data across all of their devices, the service that launches next week will be limited in several ways, CNET News.com has learned.

Next week, Microsoft will launch a pre-beta "technology preview" open to about 10,000 testers in the U.S., according to a source familiar with the company's plans.

File synchronization is an important component of Mesh, but not its only feature, the source said. Developers will be able to write their own applications for Live Mesh, with the … Read more

Version 3.0 of Webware 100 is already under way

Thanks to the readers who contributed to the Webware 100 challenge in order to get a free all-access pass to Web 2.0 Expo, we now have a bunch of really good ideas for improving the Webware 100 awards program for 2009.

The two winning ideas (that are getting passes to the show) are:

1. Allow nominees to submit screencasts. I love this. We'll limit the pitches to 30 seconds, and we'll only ask for them from the finalists (not all the nominees), but this will be a great way to add some depth to the voting process. … Read more

When it comes to understanding IT, groupthink only gets you so far

Earlier Friday I was speaking with a CIO when the conversation turned to the subject of Microsoft. There's been no small amount of reaction to the publication of Gartner Group's gloomy report on Windows. But this exec was not buying into the notion of a future tech landscape where Web browsers elbow aside client operating systems as the preferred software development platform.

"We're still on XP. I'm not going to move to Vista for a while. We'll let other people be the early adopters," she said, asking to remain unidentified in case Microsoft … Read more

Win an all-access pass to Web 2.0 Expo

Web 2.0 Expo starts in San Francisco on April 22. It's the biggest Web 2.0 show there is, and Webware will be there in force, scouring the show looking for new companies, interviewing the architects of Web 2.0 companies, and celebrating the winners of the Webware 100, which we announce on April 21, right before the show opens. (Webware is a partner of the Web 2.0 Expo.)

As I've posted before, you can get a free exhibit pass, which also gets you in to the keynotes, by using the code "websf08pb6" at … Read more