Archive for the ‘web 2.0’ Category

Four New York University students have raised over $200k to launch their privacy-conscious social network, Diaspora, intended as an alternative to Facebook for those becoming increasingly unhappy with the latter’s privacy policies. While it still very early days for Diaspora (they’re unlikely to overtake Facebook’s 500 million user mark any time soon), there can be no question that there certainly is a viable niche in the social network market for such a network as Diaspora – as their remarkably effective fund-raising efforts have shown (initial targets were a paltry $10k, exceeded 20 times over by the actual sum raised).

Furthermore, with the ‘Quit Facebook Day’ (organised by disaffected former users of the network) on May 31st seemingly attracting a reasonable number of…

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It does indeed look just like yet another search engine – but Wolfram alpha is a completely different beast entirely, and it’s one that I’m beginning to rather like. But maybe it would be better to start with a few hard facts before I go raving about this snazzy new tool…

In its alpha release as of last year, Wolfram has just celebrated its first birthday with an Alexa traffic ranking that places it in the top 5,000 sites globally. Still early days, but I expect Wolfram will only go from strength to strength in its second year, precisely because its unique novelty is also immensely useful.

Basically, Wolfram works to calculate data for you – whether that involves mathematical algorithms (like a fancy calculator)…

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For much of the past decade, the internet has been a great example of the old adage about the best things in life being free – whether one considers the mass of free information, media content, software, or services offered by the web, it seems clear that these days you can get an awful lot of stuff via your connection without paying for it (even more if you are prepared to breach copyright laws… but that is a different story). However, one of the latest services to buck this trend is Ning – provider of specialised social networks that have been free since the site’s launch but which will remain so only until this July…

In essence Ning offers a social network which…

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Etondigital is proud to announce the launch of TallyFox – a new business social networking site aimed at connecting professionals and experts working in common fields from all around the globe.

The Swiss-based company is hoping that by bringing together leading figures from various sectors it can bridge the gaps that sometimes exist between those working in different areas of the same problems and goals – be it private industry, NGO’s, governments, public initiatives, individuals, academics, charities or whatever. In other words, a true knowledge network with perspectives and expertise coming from all angles!

Registration for new users is open now, and the first flourishing network is based around the theme of water, bringing in professionals and experts from all around the world…

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A recent market research report has compiled data on the world’s top 100 brands, covering all industry sectors from web and technology to aviation and motoring. Perhaps unsurprisingly Google once again comes in first – though what might come as a shock to many is just how staggeringly financially powerful Google actually is (the report values the firm at £75billion). The data also puts into perspective some of the recent debates about the consequences of Google’s withdrawal from China – showing that, though not irrelevant, the decision has as yet done little to reduce the company’s economic standing.

This is probably the most useful thing about the report itself, in that it offers quite a different sense of perspective on who actually…

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