Excursions

MIAMI--When the Future of Web Apps conference wound down Friday night, a few things were clear, not the least of which is the fact that open standards are a big deal.

Google engineer Kevin Marks gave a talk at FOWA about application program interfaces (APIs) and Google's role in the developer community. Marks, a veteran of blog search start-up Technorati, now works on the search giant's OpenSocial initiative, which is working toward a universal standard for social-networking standards and is slated to launch on MySpace.com and Hi5 as well as Google's own Orkut soon. He also … Read more

MIAMI--The way people have been talking about e-mail at the Future of Web Apps conference, you'd think it were a cell phone carrier or a domestic airline. It's antiquated, it's backward, and everybody hates it.

Kevin Marks, a Google engineer and Technorati veteran, said in a talk about the company's OpenSocial project and Social Graph APIs that e-mail is a "strange legacy idea."

"E-mail has died away for a group of users. For the younger generation, they don't use e-mail," he said, talking about the young Web users who have started … Read more

MIAMI--Joseph Smarr, chief systems architect at Plaxo, has become somewhat of an icon of social media's future. An ardent supporter of open standards, Smarr is arguably one of the biggest proponents of Google's OpenSocial who can't officially claim to be a Googler. So it's fitting that Smarr has played a prominent role at the Future of Web Apps conference; CNET News.com had a chance to catch up with him on Thursday and find out some more about what "open" really means and what's next at Plaxo.

Plaxo was the first major social … Read more

This post was updated at 4:49 PM PT with a clarification from Matt Mullenweg.

MIAMI--"I'm Matt Mullenweg, and I'm famous for eating 108 Chicken McNuggets and surviving," the eccentric 24-year-old WordPress founder said in his talk at the Future of Web Apps conference, explaining that he's no longer continually the No. 1 "Matt" in a Google search because the dancing viral-video star "Where The Hell Is Matt?" gives him a run for his money.

At FOWA, Mullenweg was slated to talk about both the physical and psychological "architecture&… Read more

MIAMI--The Knight Concert Hall in Miami's Carnival Center complex was filled with a whole lot of Mac laptops on Friday morning for a day of panels and lectures at the Future of Web Apps conference.

Ryan Carson, co-founder of conference organizer Carsonified, had selected freelance Web consultants Brian Oberkirch and Tantek Celik to "emcee" the event and give the audience an idea of what the day's major themes would be.

So what is the future of Web apps? There are a few concrete trends, Oberkirch and Celik told the audience.

First, they said, there's simplicity--the … Read more

MIAMI--A tech conference just wouldn't be a tech conference without a few wacky parties. The Future of Web Apps event in Miami this week is no exception.

Handset manufacturer Nokia decided to take advantage of the fact that no official FOWA parties were on the books for Thursday night by throwing its own soiree at an awkwardly named Miami Avenue bar called Dolores, But You Can Call Me Lolita (if it's going to be literary, can't the name at least be a little shorter?) as a promotion for its S60.com smartphone software.

The party was appropriately … Read more

q&a MIAMI--In the first half of a leisurely chat at the Future of Web Apps conference, Digg founder Kevin Rose talked about open standards, improvements to the site, and his thoughts about some other companies' social news projects. Now, in part two, Rose discusses the problems with Web analytics, his high-profile side projects, and Digg's future amid escalating talk of economic uncertainty and "Bubble 2.0."

How is Digg going to have to evolve to stay relevant, with so many new ways of getting news, and emerging competitors? Kevin Rose: I think that we'll … Read more

q&a MIAMI--Kevin Rose, founder of social-news site Digg, has a lot to say about the evolution of the social Web. So much, in fact, that when I caught up with him at a sidewalk cafe in Miami's South Beach neighborhood while in town for the Future of Web Apps conference, I had to split the interview transcript into two parts.

Here's part 1, in which Rose talks about open standards, dodges those pesky acquisition rumors, waxes philosophical on the site's active community, and declines suggestions from the restaurant staff to check out the cocktail menu, … Read more

MIAMI--If you believe the blog rumors, Digg founder Kevin Rose is constantly dealing with a community that threatens mutiny at the drop of a hat, perpetual acquisition offers from companies such as Google and News Corp., and the aftermath of that thumbs-up BusinessWeek cover that made him one of Web 2.0's most recognizable shaggy-haired poster boys. Oh, and then there's this Yahoo Buzz thing that's getting a whole lot of press.

So here at the Future of Web Apps conference, I sat down with Rose to clear the air. He's participating in a panel on … Read more