the state I'm living in

"If I were truly mischief and wanted to game the system, I would have named this article, “Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login, Part 2.” If you’re not familiar with the incident to which I’m referring: One of the most illustrative cases of the incomplete state of the Internet as an information system was in February 2010, when ReadWriteWeb itself happened to publish an article with “Facebook” and “login” in its headline. It soon found itself at or near the top of Google search results for the phrase “facebook login,” with the result being that hundreds of Web users to this day happen upon this page when they’re trying to reach Facebook itself."

"Google Currents is a new tablet app that launched today. It makes reading of syndicated web content easier, faster and more enjoyable than almost any other interface you can imagine. It’s like Flipboard but for RSS feeds. People are going to love it. That’s the nice way to describe it. You could also call it the sterilization of the social web. Just like today’s new Twitter redesign it makes things nice and pretty for non-technical users. Google Currents is infinitely friendlier and more accessible than any RSS reader, even Google’s own Reader. Unfortunately, in the current application that ease of use comes at a great cost: Google Currents does away with many of the best parts of the social web. It sings a catchy tune, but there’s far less life inside the experience."

"What if you could flip through a regular news website like a magazine? Håkon Wium Lie, Opera Software’s CTO and creator of cascading stylesheets, has proposed a new set of CSS tools that transform longer web pages into a more book-like experience, where the reader flips from page to page instead of scrolling down one long screen."

"Goodreads, a social network that lets readers rate and review books, has launched a recommendation engine designed to help users choose what to read next. The new feature comes six months after the startup acquired Discovereads, a book recommendation engine which is something CEO Otis Chandler cited as a sought-after feature among Goodreads users. The site’s new reading recommendations are generated using a set of propriety algorithms which look at over 20 billion different data points. Perhaps most importantly, it takes into account the stated preferences of of its nearly 6 million users, for whom rating books is already a key component of using the site."

"It’s one thing to be slandered by another person on a website, on a blog, in comments. It’s another to have your reputation slandered by computer algorithms. The algorithmic associations do reveal the attitudes and practices of people, but those people are invisible; all that’s visible is the product of the algorithm, without any context of how or why the search engine conveyed that information. What becomes visible is the data point of the algorithmic association."

"Kevin Kelly wrote a thought-provoking post about how “the impossible” is happening more often nowadays, thanks in no small part to large scale collaboration over the Internet. In other words, the hive mind. He cites eBay and Wikipedia as two examples of things he would’ve thought impossible in decades past. Collaboration over the Web is still evolving. One way it might be immediately improved is by adding more women to collective intelligence projects and by shutting up the loud mouths. I’m not idly speculating here, those were the findings of a recent study by MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence."

"The New York Times has launched a public testing site called beta620 where it will try out new web experiments, some of which will eventually “graduate” to become full-fledged New York Times products. The site launched with seven projects, including instant search, richer community tools, and an HTML5 Web app for the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle. The site’s welcome post says beta620 “will also be a place where Times developers interact with readers to discuss projects, and incorporate community suggestions into their work.” This audience-friendly approach is a stark reversal from the company’s past approach to web innovation."

"Adobe… unveiled an early version of its latest software on Monday called Adobe Edge. The software will enable Web designers to create online content using the Web programming languages HTML5, JavaScript and CSS, instead of Flash. At first blush, it might seem that Adobe is ceding some ground to those, like Apple, who contend that Flash is the past and HTML5 is the future. The iPad and iPhone, for instance, do not display Flash animations. But the new software is not intended to replace Adobe Flash. Instead, it is meant to give developers a tool that will enable them to create animated Web content on devices that do not run Flash, specifically those Apple iOS mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Mark Anders, an Adobe fellow who is leading the Adobe Edge project, said in a phone interview that the company decided to pursue the new non-Flash software in response to requests from developers. “The developer community has really been asking for the software,” Mr. Anders said. Last year Adobe and Apple were engaged in a very public disagreement about Apple’s refusal to allow the Flash software on Apple’s mobile devices. Apple said Flash was too slow and raised security concerns for the company’s mobile devices. Mr. Anders said the new Adobe Edge software “doesn’t have anything to do with Apple, other than they have been helping to drive the HTML standard on the Web. Although they put up some roadblocks with Flash on their devices, it was really the community asking for it."