Abhishek Tiwari

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Is it me or are there just way too many ad networks popping up everyday? Not only you have new ad start-ups, existing companies are reinventing / positioning themselves as ad firms as well.

These are some of the services, which over the past week announced their intention of being an ad network of some sorts. I feel that its almost become like a status symbol at this point…

Services like Heavy and VideoEgg used to offer video services and are re-branding themselves as an ad network. Is the margin not good in these core businesses? Is the grass really that green on the other side? Read more »

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From my mac dashboard to my Netvibes RSS start page, from my blackberry to my desktop on the office PC, it seems like these widgets are everywhere. Email, Stocks, Calculators, Chat, Cartoons, Sport scores, you name it and there is a widget for it. Now web widgets as a concept have been around for quite some time in rudimentary fashion. Konfabulator was one of the early pioneers in this space.

Over past few years with the Web 2.0 phenomenon, widgets have taken a prominent role in how we consume information on the web today. In the beginning, widgets were very unwieldy desktop applications, which had to be downloaded, configured and required lot of bandwidth. Now with increased broadband penetration and the web 2.0 model most of the early barriers have been lowered. With the success of RSS and other syndication technologies it has become easier for developers to create quick web widgets. Read more »

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Yahoo has had its share of issues in the past year. They had to let go their CEO and the co-founder of the company Jerry Yang was installed at the helm. They have been gradually loosing to Google over past few years. Recently with the management changes there is a new focus at Yahoo. They are getting rid of units which aren’t (Yahoo Photos) brining in much value and energizing the ones having potential.

Yahoo has been a long time leader in Local search. However the other big boys were gaining quickly with their own version of local services. So today as part of their new strategy Yahoo announced a newer and better Local service. This announcement brings much needed refresh to the service.

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What do these social networks have in common? I have my profile on all of them (and many more like them), I have friends on all of them and I find it increasingly challenging to keep up. Not to mention all the spam from MySpace and other messages are clogging up my Inbox.

I am sure most of you are in the same boat. Few years ago it was multiple versions of Instant Messaging and now the same issue is with the social networks. As with IM, one doesn’t have all their friends and acquaintances loyal to a single service. To add to this nuisance there are services, which allow you to launch your own social network. Oh man… haven’t we had enough?

The blogosphere is calling this problem the “Social Network Overload“. Fred Wilson (The VC) and Jason Calacanis have even declared bankruptcy on social networks.

Is there no end in sight? Is there no light at end of the tunnel? Just like the consolidated IM applications like Trillian, Adium, Pidgin and VelvetPuffin (read my post about VP), is there no consolidated social network?

Enter SocialStream — Quite possibly the answer to our problems
SocialStream is a Google sponsored project at Carnegie Mellon whose goal is to rethink and reinvent social networking. Their approach is to deliver this rejuvenated experience by delivering a unified offering. Check out the demo video below:

Download the Hi Res Quicktime version
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The recent monthly edition of Bestof Web 2.0 — Blog Carnival is hosted at TechLoaf. They publish the best posts on Web 2.0 and feature it on the carnival.

My post on Amazon becoming the “Social Operating Ecosystem” was picked up by TechLoaf and is currently featured on the carnival. Please go ahead and check it out.

Thanks Randy for featuring this post.

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