Rattleblog: Tales from the blogosphere

15-01-2007

by Damien Mulley

This week's Rattleblog samples a cross-section of blogosphere activity over Christmas, and looks forward to 2007.

It's back! Rattleblog finally returns after the long break. Before we get started into the New Year cheer, let's see was Christmas good for any of the tech giants, and what does 2007 hold for them?

While Google had another great year and was listed as the biggest brand of 2006, the last month of the year saw more and more people start to doubt their "Do no evil" mantra.

A most scathing attack came from Blake Ross, one of the creators of Firefox. The attack came as a result of Google adding in special ads for their own products when users searched for certain topics, ensuring their products were listed ahead of competitors'.

It didn't stop with outside people though, even one of their own employees considered it a bad idea. The Techcrunch blog said it well when it pointed out that Google holds themselves to a higher standard than their competitors, and that they make sure the public knows it too. This time they disappointed the public.

Friends and foes of Google are now going to watch anxiously and see will Google's trust be eroded even more in 2007, or whether they will once again win the public over.

Microsoft also got into all sorts of trouble when they started sending out Vista-powered laptops to high-profile bloggers and told them they did not need to be returned. There was an outcry with some bloggers suggesting this was tantamount to a bribe while other bloggers were more annoyed there weren't offered one.

There was a little more hissing and booing when details of Microsoft's much talked about website advertising system was released. The supposed rival to Google's adwords system will use profile information from hotmail accounts to more effectively target ads to users.

Ironically, at the same time, ads for Microsoft products were spotted on Google.

So who did do well at Christmas? Apple. When even the editor of PC Magazine switches to a Mac you know the company from Cupertino is getting better and better.

Meanwhile Om Malik highlighted that on Christmas Day the Apple store website stuttered to a halt due to the surge of traffic after everyone fired up their new iPods. On Christmas Day the Apple Store was the 4th most visited site on the internet.

And barely two weeks into the New Year it still seems like Christmas for Apple with the whole world talking about two new products -- the Apple TV and the Apple iPhone. Not much has been said about the TV because of the frenzy with the iPhone.

As usual with hype and hoopla, the shark-suited lawyers have also come out to play. Cisco owns the rights to the name iPhone and while at first it was okay with Apple's use of this name, it has subsequently decided to sue. Apple is no stranger to law suits and strongly protect their own brands. Time will tell who wins the legal battle.

In other mobile news, Facebook finally released a mobile version so you can check out your college buddies while on the bus.

In virtual world news, Linden Lab --creator of Second Life -- gave the world a belated Christmas gift when they announced they were open sourcing some of their technology. With the browser revolution that followed after Netscape open sourced their product, perhaps 2007 will be the year of virtual world innovations.

But even with the New Year just beginning, people are already talking about next Christmas and next year. We'll leave the final word to young Irish blogger Michael Collins (aged 26 and 3/4s) who is already writing santa letters to Apple. "Dear Steve, please can I have an iPonyi for MacWorld next year?"

Happy 2007 from Rattleblog.

Damien Mulley is an Irish blogger and works as a technical writer in Cork.