interview

Kevin Rose opens up and Diggs in

q&a MIAMI--Kevin Rose, founder of social-news site Digg, has a lot to say about the evolution of the social Web. So much, in fact, that when I caught up with him at a sidewalk cafe in Miami's South Beach neighborhood while in town for the Future of Web Apps conference, I had to split the interview transcript into two parts.

Here's part 1, in which Rose talks about open standards, dodges those pesky acquisition rumors, waxes philosophical on the site's active community, and declines suggestions from the restaurant staff to check out the cocktail menu, … Read more

In Miami, Digg's Kevin Rose gets social

MIAMI--If you believe the blog rumors, Digg founder Kevin Rose is constantly dealing with a community that threatens mutiny at the drop of a hat, perpetual acquisition offers from companies such as Google and News Corp., and the aftermath of that thumbs-up BusinessWeek cover that made him one of Web 2.0's most recognizable shaggy-haired poster boys. Oh, and then there's this Yahoo Buzz thing that's getting a whole lot of press.

So here at the Future of Web Apps conference, I sat down with Rose to clear the air. He's participating in a panel on … Read more

Kingston's class with the photo icons

Kingston's low-key but interesting Icons of Photography site uses a monthly magazine format to make the most of a relatively shallow content pool. Over the past year and a half, it's parlayed the four pros--Harry Benson, Colin Finlay, Gerd Ludwig, and Peter Read Miller--into 11 issues by doling out bite-sized chunks of editorial.

Accompanying each piece you'll find a handful of photos, representative of the work of the pro or the amateur supplicant. Calling them galleries would be a gross overstatement: they're five-photo, completely text-free slide shows. If the idea were to present the photos in an elegant manner, that would be one thing. But the huge, distracting Kingston logo banner and ad ruin any chance of that. So a label with the name of the photographer, and perhaps some EXIF data, might be nice.

There are four basic types of stories, all targeted toward the interested amateur. The feature "20 Questions" presents brief interviews with pros, that makes an interesting two-minute read for the uninitiated. It's a bit frustrating, though. For instance, when Harry Benson discusses his famous image of the Beatles' pillow fight, a link to or inclusion of the photo would have been really nice.… Read more

Sage Advice to Webmasters and SEOs from a Google Support Engineer

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Maile Ohye from Google in this podcast interview (6 MB, 25 minutes). Maile is a Senior Support Engineer on Google's Webmaster Central team. I got to know her at the AMA Hot Topic: Search Engine Marketing conference, where we were both speakers. Maile not only supports webmasters and users, but also implements changes within Google's code based on feedback from newsgroups like Google Webmaster Help, forums like Webmaster World, and blogs like Google, I Suggest.

The recently revised and expanded Google Webmaster Guidelines was a hot topic in this … Read more

Weekly Wednesday Digital Home Interview: Leo Laporte

This past Friday (iPhone Day), I had the opportunity to chat with Leo Laporte while he stood in line waiting for an iPhone. Thirteenth in line and with about six hours left until 6PM, Leo and I discussed what The Digital Home is all about and how he got his start in the tech industry. Leo talked about Tech TV, shared who his inspirations were when he first started and even hinted that his new TV show Lab with Leo may be coming to the United States.

For those who don't know, my love for technology journalism started when … Read more

Digital Home Interview Series: Dick DeBartolo

In a new series that will be featured each Wednesday here on The Digital Home, I will be interviewing industry experts and icons to talk about how they made their rise to the top and what The Digital Home means to them.

In the very first installment of the interview series, I had the opportunity to talk to "MAD's Maddest Writer" Dick DeBartolo. With a career that spans more than forty years of comedy, gadgets and TV, Dick the longest running writer for everyone's favorite comedy magazine, and is one of the most renowned gadget lovers … Read more