Web Concepts

Here’s our summary of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories we published in the last seven days:

Google pays web pioneer to bash Apple — Tim Bray isn’t as well-known as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but the guy has had a leading role in defining the Internet. When he announced this week that he’s joining Google as an evangelist for the Android platform, he published a blog post that was pretty critical of competitor Apple, and which VentureBeat’s Paul Boutin found “off-putting.”

Fastest site on the web: The IRS? — Performance monitoring service Gomez has released its annual list of major websites with the best overall responsiveness as measured by Gomez over the entire year 2009. Surprise winner: IRS.gov, a site that uses images sparingly and pushes off large documents to PDF format for downloading, rather than trying to serve them as Web pages.

Facebook ousts Google as most popular U.S. site — Facebook is now the most popular site in the U.S., according to analytics firm Hitwise. In the week ending March 13, 2010, Facebook surpassed the previous most popular site, Google, in terms of overall traffic for the week.

Google admits Buzz mistakes, tries again at SXSW — A product manager from Google told attendees at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas that Google had misstepped by launching its social network, Google Buzz, too broadly and too promiscuously. In the future, said Google’s Todd Jackson, the company will pre-test new features rather than roll them out to all customers at once.

Twitter launches “At Anywhere” platform, integrates tweets, profiles across the web — Twitter CEO Ev Williams demonstrated a new platform this week that will spread the microblogging network’s profiles, tweets, and possibly advertising across the web.

And here are five more stories we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:

Evan Williams tries to do-over SXSW interview via Twitter — Although Twitter co-founder and and chief executive Evan Williams made a couple of interesting points during his keynote interview (and announced the ‘At Anywhere’ platform mentioned above), the consensus was that it did not go well. Following the tradition of journalist Sarah Lacy’s similarly-criticized interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW in 2008, where Zuckerberg staged a second interview where he engaged more directly with the audience, Williams offered to answer more questions over Twitter.

Sony shows what an epic game really is with God of War III — Sony’s role in video games seems to be to remind us every now and then what an epic game is all about. It did so again with the launch of God of War III for the PlayStation 3.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek vague on US launch, company has 320,000 paid subscribers — European music streaming service Spotify now has 320,000 paid subscribers, said chief executive Daniel Ek, speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin. But he couldn’t give a firm date on when the service would come to the United States.

FCC announces National Broadband Plan — The FCC finally unveiled the National Broadband Plan following months of speculation. The plan — for how to extend internet access to all American citizens — marks the first time that broadband access, and internet access in general, have been given considerable government attention in America.

EPA, Energy Dept. sharpen Energy Star’s teeth — The Energy Star program has successfully broken into the mainstream consciousness. But before last year, it seems like the label didn’t mean much. Now government agencies are making good on their promise to be tougher about who gets certified and who doesn’t, and they’re kicking the effort up another notch.

Tags: Energy Star, FCC, God of War III, Google Buzz, National Broadband Plan

Companies: Facebook, Gomez, Google, Sony, spotify, Twitter

People: daniel ek, Evan Williams, Tim Bray

A French animator's soundtrack visualization brings to mind the Kaossilator.

So, this video by animator Renaud Hallée isn't quite a pure infographic--but as you'll see, it's pretty damn close. Titled Sonar, the short film basically visualizes the sound track. Now, we've previously covered such projects, but this one's interesting because of how much information about the song Hallée manages to squeeze into the image. It quickly gets crazy complicated:

The one element that's purely visual about it is the placement of the blips--they don't correspond with pitch or tone. If they did, you could imagine turning this sort of display into a straight-up touchscreen musical instrument--something like a next-gen version of the Kaossilator, a "cyberpunk lute of the future" that can be used--even by those with no musical training--to create astonishing electronica tracks in real-time (fast forward to 7:30 to see it in action):

[youtube aeQOuNBuJwg]

[Via Fubiz]

It hasn't officially been rebranded, of course; God is notoriously conservative about updating that Bible of His. But, as reported by the New York Times, Reboot, a nonprofit Jewish think tank, has come up with a new version of Shabbat that is not only restive but sort of cheekily appropriate. And if you notice a lack of Jews on the internet, starting about now, you'll know why.

Shabbat, observed sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, usually involves traditional Jewish meals (including bread, wine, and meat and/or fish), prayers, lighting candles, and spending relaxing time with family and friends, but it's the myriad restrictions that are best known (and loathed by every bored 13-year-old who just wants his Game Boy). It's prohibited to turn electronic devices on or off, as well as to travel in cars, trains, buses, and planes. There are workarounds for all of that stuff (like elevators that stop at every floor, or lights on an automatic timer) but many Jews have simply stopped bothering with the more intrusive aspects of Shabbat.

Reboot's "Sabbath Manifesto" takes a different approach. Instead of observing traditional modes of rest on Shabbat, it recommends we use that day to unplug ourselves from our connected lives. It's a fun twist on the traditional ban on electronics, and it's a good idea for anybody, anyway: taking one day to remember what life is like apart from Twitter, Facebook, email, and all the rest can only be good for our perspective and mental stability (let alone our social lives here in the real world).

Today (right now, actually: I've scheduled this article to publish at 7:07 PM EST, sundown in New York City), Reboot is hosting the first "National Day of Unplugging," which lasts the length of traditional Shabbat: sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. The group is hoping this big press push will encourage more obedience of their "Sabbath Manifesto," which is basically a weekly version of the National Day of Unplugging.

The Sabbath Manifesto, in full:

The philosophy goes beyond just a list of rules; Reboot is taking a more pro-active promotional path:

Reboot’s organizers are promoting the National Day of Unplugging via (what else?) Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. But the manifesto also emphasizes direct personal interaction. As such, Reboot has planned intimate gatherings this weekend in New York and Los Angeles, where members will dine and share their views on the manifesto. Cellphones must be checked at the door, where they’ll “sleep” in miniature sleeping bags.

Look at that! Miniature sleeping bags for cellphones! See, everyone? Shabbat can be adorable too! And that adorability is why you might see a distinct lack of Jews around on the internet tonight and tomorrow. Looking at my watch, it's just about time for me to head out as well: Shabbat Shalom, everyone.

You can make anything from 3-D printing, from impossibly complex lamps to chain-mail bags to entire buildings. So it's actually kind of surprising that 3-D printed shoes aren't more common. Maybe someday soon: For her master's thesis at ArtEZ in Arnhem, The Netherlands, Pauline Van Dongen created a line of high heels, dubbed Metamorphosis.

The pieces were exhibited recently in a show in Amsterdam called "The Future of Fashion," curated by Freedom of Creation, a Dutch outfit that specializes in 3-D printed design.

The shoes themselves are, like many 3-D printed objects, made of powdered nylon that has been slowly fused together, by a computer guided laser. As you can see on the heel and the forefoot, there's a little bit of a platform flange--to give a bit of cushion on what's normally a very stiff material.

It'll probably take a few more years though before you see 3-D printed shoes in your local mall: Even small objects like these can run thousands of dollars per copy, unless the designer happens to own her own machine. But these are dropping in price at a crazy rate: What used to be hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago can now be had by the at-home tinkerer for as little as $5,000.

Originally, the researchers were investigating "superchiral" particles, which focus light into even smaller wavelengths than usual. However, the scientists realized that rather than just altering the light, the light also began to organize the superchiral nanoparticles. After a day of light exposure, the particles had formed into ribbons, and after three days the ribbons had woven themselves into nano-rope.

As soon as the researchers overcame their disbelief, they began exploring the applications of their discovery. One scientist is working on getting the nanoribbons to spin in the presence of light, essentially creating an artificial flagellum that could drive a nanosub. Another speculated that the light-warping effects of superchiral particles to create a cloaking device. And yet another wants to use the ribbons self-assembling power as a way to make microchips and other nanomachines.

[Science Daily]

We're guessing we don't need to do much to get you hyped for the NCAA tournament. But here's a little data throw out in obsessive sports talk. Because, while the NFL playoffs, culminating with the Super Bowl, are overall the biggest moneymakers on the American sporting scene, the hoops tourney is a none-too-distant second. And unlike the Super Bowl, which creates a windfall for a single city and a handful of prominent players, the college games spread the wealth all over the country. To wit: this fast-breaking graphic displaying how everyone from media behemoths like CBS to a little pub in Buffalo, NY, to you and me are making the most of the madness. Talk about passing the bucks!

Infographic: Rob Vargas

Ninteno's guru Shigeru Miyamoto has just revealed that Nintendo might be aiming at a surprising new market for its games consoles: Schools. With all the controversy about distractions and violence, is this sensible?

Miyamoto's words came during an interview with the AP. While dodging questions about the future of the Wii, and how he thinks about competitor consoles (particularly relevant now Sony's PlayStation Move is on the way) he noted that getting Nintendo products in use in an educational environment may be the area in which he's most expending his efforts. The DS console, in its various variants, is already in use in Japanese museums and other publicly-visited venues, and that a roll out in "junior high and elementary schools in Japan" will start in the new school year later in 2010.

What exactly would kids use the devices for though? The aim really has to be for interactive educational purposes--very probably with dedicated software that, perhaps, a whole class works through at once, under a teacher's supervision. The right kind of app could also work well as interactive homework, even including a pop-quiz, with results that the school collects up electronically the next day.

Nintendo will have to adjust the hardware carefully though, so its incompatible with the plethora of games available for the DS. I don't know how disciplined the average Japanese school kid is...but my peers at these sort of school ages would have found the potential gaming options a huge distraction, and the electronic homework would come last in the priority list. And I'm sure Mario would've made an appearance in class too, if they thought they could get away with it. There're also a few privacy issues to ponder on--let's not forget the apparently illegal and desperately big-brother behavior of that Pennsylvania school recently, when it turned on Webcams on school laptops to monitor kids activities at home. And there's even a technology addiction angle to think on--our society is so bedazzled with tech, that integrating it so firmly into school kids lives may not be all that much of a good thing.

[School image via Flickr user anijdam]

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