2008 has seen a big change in the way the blogging community communicates with each other. In a nutshell, discussions have become very fragmented. There are two main reasons for this: firstly Twitter and its 140 character soundbites has become very popular among bloggers, and secondly FriendFeed has tipped as the lifestreaming aggregator of choice for many people. The upshot is that there are now many places where people can have online discussions. This has been a challenge to blog publishers, for whom comments are an integral part of the blogging experience.

Over the past few months, the ReadWriteWeb team has been discussing internally how to adapt to this. We've discussed whether to use services such as Disqus, YackTrack and SezWho, which enable people to track, organize and rate blog comments. However our conclusion was that those types of apps are unsuitable for a large multi-author blog like ReadWriteWeb - there are question marks over ability to handle the load, what happens if the service goes down, SEO, and other issues. And to be frank, personally I haven't found the user experience of any of those apps to be very compelling (we've tested one of them on RWW before).

FriendFeed Comments

So we got to discussing how to utilize FriendFeed and/or Twitter in ReadWriteWeb. To make a long story short, ReadWriteWeb recently implemented a new Movable Type plug-in called FriendFeed Comments. The plug-in was developed by Mark Carey and it enables FriendFeed comments to show up on ReadWriteWeb posts as comments - and vice versa! Note that there is a similar Wordpress plug-in, developed by Glenn Slaven.

Full disclosure, Mark Carey is a Technical Consultant for ReadWriteWeb. But he also runs his own business, which includes developing Movable Type plug-ins. So ReadWriteWeb was the first blog to test FriendFeed Comments out. As Mark explains, it "enables you to import and display comments made using FriendFeed on your entries. You can also use the plugin to enable your blog commenter to "Cc." their comments to FriendFeed (if they have a FriendFeed account)."

Here is an illustration of how it works:

People commenting in FriendFeed about our post profiling Identi.ca

The FriendFeed comments show up on the RWW post

To send comments from RWW into FriendFeed, simply click the 'cc' link

What I love about the MT and Wordpress FriendFeed plug-ins is that they recognize the fact that conversations are occurring elsewhere, but they bring the discussion back to the source of the content where relevant. It's win-win as far as I can see.

And Now Please Fix Trackbacks...

Six Apart's David Recorden implied in a post that the FriendFeed plug-in operates in a similar way to Trackback [update: David clarifies in a comment that he didn't mean from a technical perspective, "but rather that the idea of bridging conversations around the web is very similar."].

On that point, RWW has had a lot of issues with trackback. During our discussions internally about the plug-in, we also considered if it could somehow be adapted to replace or augment trackbacks. Because frankly trackbacks don't work for us. We are one of the most linked-to blogs in the world, yet we get just a trickle of trackbacks. So if there is a way to integrate link-backs into ReadWriteWeb as easily as the FriendFeed plug-in integrates outside discussion, then I'd be one very happy publisher! Consider that a challenge to the plug-in developers out there ;-)

What are your thoughts on the state of distrubuted discussions in the blogosphere? And how can we give trackback the same makeover that blog comments has gotten in 2008?

Hitwise Intelligence took an interesting look at the breakdown of Yahoo's properties today. They come to the conclusion that, even if Yahoo sells off its search division, Yahoo's other properties probably wouldn't be too affected by this, as they get most of their traffic from Google's search anyway. Only Yahoo Image Search, Games, Maps, and News get most of their traffic from Yahoo Search.

Looking at these statistics, it becomes clear that most of Yahoo's properties would continue doing just fine without getting traffic from Yahoo Search. Also, according to Hitwise, Yahoo Search only gets about 12% of Yahoo's traffic anyway, while Yahoo's homepage and Yahoo Mail get a combined 68%.

It's important to note that Hitwise bases its data solely on US traffic. Yahoo is also very popular in Asia. There, these numbers might look slightly different.

As rumors about the future of Yahoo continue swirling around the net, these numbers from Hitwise give us at least some idea that selling only its search business to Microsoft (or anybody else) would still allow the core of Yahoo to continue doing just fine. At the same time, though, the rest of Yahoo would become even more dependent on Google for its traffic.

RSS is magic and the things we do online are often beautiful - so why are all the interfaces for displaying the feeds of our activities so ugly? Enter Swurl, a visually stunning system for displaying a timeline of your activities on various sites around the web.

Developer Ryan Sit specializes in leveraging the visual to create new interfaces for data, his ListPic application lets users browse Craigslist by images. Just like Listpic creates a whole new experience for Craigslist, Sit hopes that Swurl will make interacting with lifestream data a much more visually enjoyable experience.

How it Works

The most important part of Swurl is the timeline view, where all the messages, bookmarks, album covers and photos you've saved in various services are organized in a calendar view. It's a great way to look back at days gone by - we've found already that it can't help but put your experiences into a different perspective.

In addition to the timeline view, Swurl also publishes your activities in a blog-type format. Each person's blog is highly customizable. If you've hesitated to send the URL to your crazy-chaotic FriendFeed page to your grandma, maybe you should send her to a Swurl page instead.

Inside of each item you'll find all kinds of visual treats, like a nice slideshow viewer, song lyrics displayed below the Flash audio player for each song in your time line and elegant captions on your photos. There are lots of nice little touches here and we hope it will only continue to improve.

One of the areas the app could really use improvement is in viewing your friends' activities. You probably don't want to use it for that, unless it's very casual. Swurl discovers your friends on various services but displays their activities in a boring list that's spotty and hours behind.

The big picture here for us is that RSS feeds and lifestream data in particular can really look great when displayed nicely and mashedup with various sources of data. By grouping your activities into a calendar view, Swurl really facilitates a change in perspective. We think you'll enjoy this app and we are excited to see where it goes in the future.

While quite a few mainstream users use RSS daily on their personalized homepages without ever knowing it, more traditional RSS aggregators are only slowly expanding beyond the early adopter crowd. Regator, which released a private beta today, is courting these mainstream users by giving them a very straightforward and easy way to browse RSS feeds while keeping the layout of more traditional RSS aggregators.

Courting Mainstream Users

A couple of things set Regator apart from other RSS aggregators like Bloglines, Newsgator, or Google Reader. First of all, Regator only offers a set of roughly 3000 blogs to subscribe to, as well as 'channels,' like Technology, Politics, Sports, etc.

You can't import your own OPML files or subscribe to blogs from outside of Regator. While this is clearly meant to keep things simple for Regator's user base, it does limit its usefulness for more advanced users. You can, however, nominate your favorite blogs to be added to Regator's catalog.

Another difference between Regator and other RSS aggregators is that while Regator opens in a River of News style view, the default view is organized by popularity, not chronology. Users can vote up or down on every post and those votes determine the position of the posts on the site. Regator does have the option to switch to a chronological view.

While Regator does not feature any social networking or sharing functions yet, users can comment on blog posts, though those comments stay within the Regator silo.

Only Summaries

One thing that might make bloggers happy, but makes Regator just a little bit less useful is the fact that it only displays summaries and not the full text of all blog posts. It also doesn't display any pictures from those blog posts, even if they are part of the summary. Regator says they are doing this to give back to the bloggers featured on the site. Given the many discussions around full feeds and community sites lately, they are definitely doing the right thing, especially because Regator has comments on its site.

Audio and Video

Besides blog posts, Regator also functions as a podcast and video player. Posts with embedded media like mp3 files or YouTube videos will display those in either a pop-up player for videos or a little audio player at the bottom of the screen (see screenshot). Especially the audio player is a nifty solution, as you can keep browsing the site while the player stays out of the way at the bottom of the page.

Verdict

Overall, Regator seems like a very well thought out product. Finding blogs and channels to read is easy and the "What's Hot" bar on the right side gives you a quick overview of what the most hotly debated topics in the blogosphere are right now. The green theme, which can't be changed, might not be everybody's cup of tea, but the layout of the site works very well.

Invites

Regator has given us 100 invites - you can claim yours by heading to Regator's homepage and using 'readwriteweb' as your invite code.

If you're a developer who loves to build mashups - especially map mashups - then you have to check out the library provided by Mapstaction. (And if you're end user, wait until you see the demos!) Mapstraction is library that provides a common API for various mapping APIs already in existence. This allows developers to use the Mapstraction API to build a mashup that supports nine of the major mapping providers including Google Maps, Microsoft's Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, and more.

There are several reasons why a developer might want to use the Mapstraction library to build a mashup. For one, they would only need to code their apps once and then they could switch the mapping provider as necessary when their project's needs changed. A ProgrammableWeb post points to another possibility, which is that Mapstraction allows for building a map where the end user could select which mapping provider's base they want to see.

In addition, Mapstraction "fills some holes each provider's current offerings" - meaning if a certain mapping provider doesn't offer a particular feature that another one does, Mapstraction turns to open source solutions (for the most part) to provide the feature needed.

Those are the technical details, but what's really impressive about Mapstraction are the demos. Take, for example, this demo, a single page showing several maps. As you move around in one map, the other three also move simultaneously to reflect the changes that take place in the map you're using. This is a great way to view comparisons of the different mapping systems side-by-side.

Another feature of Mapstraction allows for tile layer support. This feature lets you toggle different overlays on top of a mapping provider's map, like this one. Clicking the links below this map let you toggle different overlays on top of the Google Map to see maps from 1950, 1912, and 1877.

This demo takes you to a full screen map where you can switch from mapping provider to mapping provider by selecting the name in the box displayed in the bottom-left corner. (Note: to exit the demo, you'll need to know your browser's keyboard shortcut to go "back").

Mapstraction isn't exactly new, having debuted back in 2006. It's currently in use in places like the UK's Nestoria, Mapufacture, Reuters Labs, and even powers a WordPress and MT plugin called GeoPress, which adds geo-tagging to your posts and pages.  However, we would like to see some more Mapstraction mashups - so if you've built one, let us know in the comments.

In the ongoing copyright litigation between Google and Viacom, a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered Google (PDF) to hand over data on every YouTube user, including username, the associated IP address, and a list of all the the videos that user ever watched.

In this lawsuit, Viacom is seeking more than $1 billion in damages because of alleged copyright violations on YouTube.

Besides this user data, Viacom also sought access to Google's source code for its web and video search, as well as for its 'Video ID' program. The judge, however, denied access to the code, because, "considered against its value and secrecy, plaintiffs have not made a sufficient showing of need for its disclosure." It's interesting that Google's trade secrets are worth protecting while the privacy of users is not.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that this ruling is in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPAA), which forbids the disclosure of personally identifiable rental data without a consumer's consent. The EFF argues that because some users on YouTube used the full names as login names, the VPAA applies to YouTube.

Mark Cuban also has an interesting take on this story. He argues that the data Google now has to release might show that Google actively removes pornographic content from YouTube, which would then lead Google to lose its DMCA protection.

For a lot of users, the question is going to be what Viacom will do with all this data . Are they planning to sue individual users as well as Google? To substantiate its claims against Google, Viacom doesn't really need to be able to identify individual users.

Update: For now, it seems that Viacom is restricted to using the data solely to prove its copyright claims.

The music search engine SeeqPod has just announced a new service for music fans: "PodLists." Because of the massive amount of playable search results available on the SeeqPod service - 12 million at the moment and ever-growing - it can be difficult to find music that you like. Sites like Last.fm rely on social recommendations to help you find new artists, but SeeqPod's take is a bit different. Instead of launching social features, they'll be posting fresh, customized playlists to the site's homepage on a daily basis.

Each PodList will have an identifying theme - for example, today's include the "SeeqPod Top 20," "Old School Rap," and "Funk For Ya Trunk." The idea is that instead of having social recommendations in place, you can be exposed to more kinds of music by playing a daily playlist that highlights some of the tracks that can be found on SeeqPod. In a way, this also turns SeeqPod into an online radio station of sorts - one where they don't bombard you with the same tunes over and over again, but one where the station changes identities every day.

For fans of Muxtape, the new PodLists feature may hold some appeal - the only difference is that instead of searching through various online mixtapes identified only by username (you should at least be using Muxfind for that!), you'll have daily access to a fresh set of what are, essentially, online mixes identified by theme or genre instead.

As you listen to the PodLists, you can use SeeqPod's built-in features to remove the tracks you don't like and save the rest to a playlist of your own.

At the moment, the PodLists aren't customized to a particular user's tastes, but the SeeqPod team does look at the most popular search queries by topic or artist, and, based on the data found, they then create a list that suits that particular demographic. However, sometime this summer individual users will be able to search for lists by username, list name, or date - which will make the service more Muxtape-like, considering that users could then create playlists that others could discover.

For anyone in search of more ways to discover new music, this service is worth a look...as long as they keep their recommendations fresh.

For more information on SeeqPod, you may be interested in checking out our recent Alt Search Engines podcast which featured LaurieAnne (LA) Lassek of Seeqpod and Aza Raskin of Songaza (who partnered with SeeqPod this year to offer more music).

What can the plan be with Microsoft's purchase of hot startup Powerset? The 3-year old company, founded by Dr Barney Pell, recently launched a semantic search experience for Wikipedia.

It is doubtful that Microsoft bought the company just to enhance Live Search. Possibly the plan is to replicate the Wikipedia solution, then incorporate Powerset into Internet Explorer. In this post we look at what the thinking behind the acquisition might be.

Most initial reviews found the Powerset product release underwhelming. Critics appreciated the innovative semantic UI and recognized its potential, but believed it didn't vastly improve Wikipedia. So in view of the lukewarm reviews, the acquisition by Microsoft was unexpected. The 100M price tag is around 5x the 12M Series A + 8M investment put into the company. Microsoft execs must believe Powerset can be a weapon in its battle with Google.

What Powerset is today

Given a set of unstructured information, Powerset applies Natural Language Processing techniques to extract concepts and the key semantic concepts out of the text. It then builds a semantic index (similar to Google's) as well as a conceptual graph of relationships between entities. This graph is typically expressed in RDF triples.

One of the Powerset innovations is surfacing of semantics to the user interface. The contextual gadget is overlaid to help navigate the unstructured information.

Many thought Powerset to be a generic semantic search engine, but its first product is limited to Wikipedia. It is not trivial to scale the technology to the entire web.

Why Powerset is Powerful

When semantic technologies emerged a few years ago, people started talking about how semantic web and/or semantic search might be a Google killer. The talk was supported by logic that semantic search can deliver more relevant results because it "knows" the content.

Industry realizes that isn't the case. Semantic search has no huge advantage over the statistical approach used by Google. We discussed this in the post Semantic Search - Myth and Reality.

What is powerful about Powerset? Precisely that it doesn't try to search the web as a whole. Right now, the solution works on Wikipedia, but the infrastructure is generic, so any other site could also be enhanced. The contextual outline developed can be used to navigate any content.

Instead of dealing with the whole web, the idea may be firstly to build solutions for specific sites.

Head-on with Google?

Powerset as it is today is no Google killer. At this point only something with huge traction and momentum would stand a chance.

In the search market, Google has a strong hold - potentially stronger if the Yahoo deal goes through. People are conditioned to Google: it's simple and, yes, imperfect, but it's good enough and the results are still better than Live Search.

If Microsoft bought Powerset with the goal to incorporate it into Live Search, then it's likely to be another acquisition to make little impact on the bottom line. In fact, the announcement on the Live Search blog states just that. The number one reason is acquiring talent; the second is the belief that NLP and semantic algorithms will be able to patch holes in today's search.

Today Powerset brings only interesting technology; it doesn't bring traction. So what were they thinking up in Redmond? There may be more subtle play, leveraging the fact Powerset works well on knowledge sets like Wikipedia.

Possibly Microsoft plans to deploy Powerset across its own sites, then perhaps incorporate Powerset into Internet Explorer.

Imagine going to Wikipedia and having a semantic overlay on each page. Now imagine scaling this experience across major information sources around the web.

Providing contextual, semantic experience allows Microsoft to retain eyes longer, shaving off the time people spend searching Google.

This is an important point because Google doesn't make money on search - it makes money on advertising.

Can Microsoft ever beat Google in Advertising?

The real problem Microsoft is seeking to solve is advertising. Until now the web has figured out two fundamentals for advertising - portals and search.

Portals show ads on each page; the more people browse the content, the more ads are shown and the more money is made. The search model emerged as an alternative, now more successful, path to advertising dollars.

With Powerset and other semantic technologies, there's another model: contextual information exploration overlaid on existing content.

If Microsoft can figure how to keep eyes off Google's home page, the game will shift dramatically. The browser is one of Microsoft's most powerful tools - and the default box is Live Search.

If Microsoft wants to win over advertisers, it might just do more with the browser. Incorporating aspects of Powerset's semantic navigator into the browser by default could be a game changer. This is not a straightforward play. A large company with bureaucracy and execution problems is unlikely to be able to merge semantics into the browser quickly and elegantly.

Conclusion

The Powerset acquisition is an interesting move by Microsoft. This hot semantic startup was on everyone's radar.

What can the plan be? It is doubtful that Microsoft bought the company just to enhance Live Search. Possibly the plan is to replicate the Wikipedia solution, then incorporate Powerset into Internet Explorer.

That is a bold play requiring exact execution - not the kind Redmond has shown lately.

What do you think Microsoft is going to do with Powerset? What are the other applications of this technology that you can think of?

We already knew that Mozilla had a record breaking day on June 17th when Firefox 3 was downloaded close to 8 million times, despite the download site not working for at least part of the morning. Now, Mozilla has announced that Firefox 3 has indeed made it into the Guinness Book of World Records with 8,002,530 downloads. Mozilla had set itself a goal of only 5 million downloads.

If you participated in the event by downloading Firefox 3 on the 17th (and even if you didn't, but want to pretend you did), you can now also download your own, personalized certificate from the Firefox site.

A number of analysts expect Firefox to capture a 20% market share this month and if the downloads for Firefox 3 are any indication, Mozilla might indeed be getting close to this. Here on ReadWriteWeb, more than 50% of our readers already use Firefox.

While quite a few extensions didn't yet work with Firefox 3 when it was released, most developers have made their plugins compatible with Firefox by now.

Microsoft is expected to release the next beta of its Internet Explorer by August 2008, though the time for the final release isn't quite clear yet. Last month, Opera also upgraded its browser to version 9.5, which garnered a number of favorable reviews.

Microsoft today announced that it will release an all-in-one software subscription package that includes Live OneCare and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Microsoft Equipt, formerly known as 'Albany,' will be sold in Circuit City stores starting mid-July. The subscription price for Equipt is set at $69.99 per year. Microsoft's regular price for buying Office Home and Student 2007 is around $150.

Subscribers will receive free upgrades when they become available and, just like owners of the Office Home and Student edition, subscribers can install Equipt on up to three computers in their household. Equipt will also come with a number of other Live branded Microsoft software that is available for free online already, including Live Messenger, Live Mail, and Live Photo Gallery.

It seems odd that Microsoft would (at least at first) exclusively sell this package through Circuit City. There doesn't seem to be any good reason to restrict the sale of Equipt to just one retailer, unless Microsoft is just trying to test the waters here to see how the public will react to a subscription service. While software subscriptions are common in the business market, consumers are used to buying their software outright, with maybe the exception of anti-virus software, which might explain the combination of OneCare and Office.

For users who already subscribe to OneCare at $49.95 a year, Equipt is a bargain at only $20 more a year. Subscribing to Equipt just for the Office package, though, might be less of a deal, especially given that Microsoft doesn't always upgrade Office every two years and that most users don't always need to have the latest version of MS Office.

Equipt clearly points in the direction that Microsoft wants to be going with software subscriptions - the question will be if mainstream users are ready.