2011

Flipboard founder: We need more soul in Web content

Flipboard founder and CEO Mike McCue devoted his 10-minute Web 2.0 talk this morning to beauty, emotion, and design. Not data, the theme of this year's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

"When you want to create a hit, you've got to be willing to look away from the data," he said. The backdrop for McCue's mini-presentation? A picture of a lipstick red 1957 Jaguar XK SS. McCue referenced the classic car, in part, to demonstrate how something beautiful can elicit a visceral reaction. "It makes you feel good, like the Jaguar,&… Read more

Web 2.0 Summit goes beyond the Web (roundup)

This year's Web 2.0 Summit is hardly limited to the Internet. Yes, there's plenty of chatter about Web startups. But featured speakers are also talking about what to expect next from Dell, Foursquare, and even Angry Birds.

Sergey Brin: I was wrong about Google+ On stage with Google's head of social media, Vic Gundotra, the Google co-founder talks about the rocky start of the search giant's latest social play.(Posted in Rafe's Radar by Rafe Needleman) October 19, 2011 3:01 p.m. PT

Google+ to get brand pages soon Google is set to … Read more

Kevin Rose demos Oink: Check-ins for things, not places

SAN FRANCISCO--At the Web 2.0 Summit, Kevin Rose of Digg fame showed off Oink--a service for checking into and rating "things," as opposed to places. Oink is the first product from Rose's new company, Milk.

You can rate, for example, the best teas at a specific location (Example: Samovar Tea Lounge) or all the teas within walking distance. Rose says early Oink users are mostly rating food and drink. But also seats at venues, attractions at theme parks, and so on.

There's a gamification element to Oink that will pay users back. "I'… Read more

Google Analytics goes with the flow for visual oomph

SAN FRANCISCO--Up until now, Google Analytics hasn't offered too much information on the way visitors move around a given site.

Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president of advertising at Google, took the opportunity of her speaking time allotment at the Web 2.0 Summit here this morning to unveil new functionality and features for Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free tool that that enables Web site and application developers (or simply anyone who is concerned with their site's traffic) to be able to understand traffic information better.

Wojcicki said that inspiration for these new features came from an … Read more

Ballmer on not buying Yahoo: 'Sometimes you're lucky'

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, never one to hold back his feelings, today told the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that he was grateful he failed to buy Yahoo for $44 billion back in 2008.

"Sometimes you are lucky," he said in an interview with John Battelle, whose Federated Media puts on the conference. "Ask any CEO who might have bought something before the market crashed (in 2008)... Hallelujah! Putting everything else aside, the market fell apart.... Sometimes you're lucky."

Ballmer did say, however, that Yahoo has value and that he … Read more

Apple's fiscal 2011 by the numbers

With Apple's fourth quarter earnings in the bag, we now have a fuller picture of how Apple's done during its entire fiscal year.

The company's current quarter, which is the first for fiscal 2012, kicked off last month.

Here's some of Apple's year by the numbers:

$108 Billion. Apple's total revenue for the year. That's 66 percent higher than Apple's total revenue from its 2010 fiscal year.

$25.9 billion. Apple's cumulative earnings for the year, or $27.68 per share. That works out to an 85 percent increase year over … Read more

View your system with SIW Portable

System information utilities usually don't "do" anything, other than display information about your system, but it's hard to overestimate how useful and important they can be when you need one, which is typically once trouble has struck. SIW Portable is a portable version of System Information for Windows. This free tool extracts huge amounts of information about your hardware, software, and networks and displays it in a familiar, easy-to-manage view. It also includes a variety of tools that do useful things. Since it's portable, it runs without installation and leaves no traces behind in the … Read more

Mary Meeker: Other than the economy, things look pretty good

SAN FRANCISCO--Mary Meeker, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gave one of her typical, blisteringly fast, data-driven talks at the Web 2.0 Summit here.

The slides she used are online on the KP site. I recommend giving them a read.

Some key points: Meeker kicks off by talking about globality. While the top four tech companies are American, there are several up-and-comers, especially from China. And 81 percent of Internet users are outside the U.S. Also, social-network use (aka the "new Internet," according to Marc Benioff) in the U.… Read more

New bird coming to Angry Birds

SAN FRANCISCO--Andrew Stalbow of Rovio, after revealing some stats on the success of Angry Birds at the Web 2.0 Summit here, let drop that a new bird is coming in the October update of Angry Bird Seasons.

Stalbow did not say what the bird would be, just that the game has been providing hints to users in recent updates and ancillary products. A slide he displayed of the Mighty Eagle bird showed a small, duckling-like yellow bird in the corner, which may be the new bird. But more on this as it develops.

As for those stats, Stalbow reeled … Read more