New rules from the Federal Trade Commission, requiring bloggers to disclose free gifts from companies whose products they review , came into effect on December 1st and the first major announcement of 2010 just occurred today. The Google Nexus One mobile phone was unveiled this afternoon and all the members of the press who were on-site for the announcements received free phones from Google. This is the most-anticipated phone to hit the market in years. It's like a unicorn sparkling with magic, perhaps. Almost no one at all has disclosed getting a free unit in writing their reviews. Sponsor The idea is that receiving free goods from a vendor makes a writer more likely to write positively about a product than they would otherwise. Readers deserve to know if a writer has a financial interest in the company or has received free stuff, so that the readers can take product reviews with gifts associated with a grain of salt. Some people believe that this is essential to safeguard the trustworthiness of media in a "new media" era, others believe it is unfair to small-time bloggers who deserve a chance to profit from their writing just like the pros do. In this case, though, it's the pros we're talking about. Blogger Robert Scoble tells us that all the attendees were given a choice: receive the phone as a gift or sign an agreement to borrow a Nexus One on loan for 30 days. Scoble signed up for the loaner. VC blogger Fred Wilson wrote in his post "I received a gift from Google. It was a Nexus One." Michael Arrington has said that TechCrunch will give away the phone he received at the press event. Scanning over Techmeme's survey of coverage , we're unable to find anyone else who makes mention of the freebie. It may be the case that big-name tech review bloggers like Walt Mossberg or Engadget are just expected to always send back the review copies of things they get and so there's no reason to disclose on every post. (I don't know.) It may be that all the press who got a Google Phone today is planning on giving the phones back in 30 days. How should disclosures be handled though if you're writing an article and you haven't decided whether you are going to send something back as a loaner or keep it? Here at ReadWriteWeb, we try hard to always make casual but clear mention when we have a financial interest in a company we are writing about. We try hard to mention the same if we are writing about a competitor to a company we have a financial interest in. And we always do our best to disclose it if we ever get free stuff from vendors we write about. That doesn't happen very much. Sometimes the lines aren't clear, either. The community manager at Postrank.com sent me a sock monkey she made last year and I write about that company often. (I use it daily for essential work.) I've never mentioned that sock monkey before, though. This is a phone made of pure sunlight and hype, though. Is it a poor reflection on the FTC's new disclosure requirements that so few have disclosed their free Google Phones, or is it a poor reflection on our group of tech bloggers? Discuss

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1 Month Into New FTC Rules: Who's Disclosing Their Free Google Phones?

Recently I wrote about the decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news. I noted that while many people still use RSS Readers, usage has decreased due to the emergence of real-time and social flows of information via Twitter, Facebook and other such services. The post sparked a fascinating discussion, with over 160 comments. What I learned from that discussion is that while the RSS Reader market is indeed in decline, there are still a number of compelling use cases for RSS Readers. Not to mention new tools worth checking out. So in this more optimistic post, I list 5 reasons why you should continue to use RSS Readers. Sponsor My conclusions in the previous post still stand: 1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market; and 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009/2010 due to Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, Firefox bookmarks, and more. However, a lot of commenters wrote that they still use RSS Readers each and every day. Here are the main reasons why: 1. Control over Information Flow RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information , whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. Mathew Ballad (comment 11) put it well: "I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter. I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over." It's not just about controlling your stream of daily news. Many people have feeds that they just don't want to miss. Tim Bray has a folder of feeds in NetNewsWire that he feels is "unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say." Some people would argue that it's a thankless task trying to control your RSS Reader. I am one of those people who long ago gave up trying to keep my "mark all read" count at zero. Indeed I don't even try to mark as read my email nowadays (I just let it all flow in and I mark the ones I should reply to with stars, in Gmail). On a similar point, RSS pioneer Dave Winer remarked (comment 80) that Google Reader "has the wrong view of RSS." In a follow-up post , he wrote that "fundamentally, Google Reader views RSS as email," by which I think he means users feel compelled to read everything in it. His view is that "reading every story is a meaningless concept" and that RSS Readers need to find a way around this issue. 2. Evolving User Interfaces Some readers are expecting RSS Readers to transform their UIs in 2010, in particular for "processing life and news streams in the same interface." ( Marco A Torres ) This has already happened to a degree in Google Reader, which has many nice social sharing features. @businessquests (comment 57) called Google Reader "a monitoring and intelligence tool enabled by tagging and publication of tag-based RSS feeds." Eric (comment 19) agreed, commenting: "I use it [Google Reader] not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me." Eric also noted that he gets breaking news in Google Reader, thanks to its support of the real-time standard PubSubHubbub. However a number of people complained that Google Reader isn't evolving fast enough in terms of user experience. I would put myself in that camp too. So, like me, you may want to check out some new feed reading innovations. Feedly (one of our Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009 ), Fever (one of our Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009 ) and my6sense (an iPhone app - our review ) are 3 apps that received multiple mentions from our readers. We use Fever internally at ReadWriteWeb and I just today downloaded my6sense onto my iPhone. As an aside, note that two of those apps (Feedly and my6sense) integrate Twitter as well as RSS feeds. 3. Tracking Twitter It's not necessarily an either/or situation between RSS Readers and Twitter. Lynne Pope from New Zealand pointed out (comment 44) that she uses Google Reader to track some Twitter accounts: "Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available." 4. Mobile News A number of people remarked that they commonly read their feeds via a mobile version of an RSS Reader. Something for those of us who are sick of being tied to PCs to do more of, perhaps. Bill (comment 46) wrote: "I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep." 5. Categorized News Perhaps some of us are finding RSS Readers difficult to use nowadays because we don't use them efficiently. If you spend some initial time setting up your Reader and categorizing your feeds, then chances are you will get a lot more out of it. Randy Orrison (comment 78) described a good use case that you may want to emulate: "I have folders in Google Reader for the blogs that I check every day, new release feeds for software I use (I could never remember to check all 20+ websites regularly), and down at the bottom of the folder list feeds from busy aggregators (like TechMeme) and news sites (like the BBC)." Conclusion Reading through all 160+ comments on my post restored some of my faith in RSS Readers. Viva la read/write Web! I'm going to test out some of the tools people suggested, find new ways to integrate Twitter streams with my RSS feeds, read more on my iPhone using my6sense and other services, and do some re-ordering in my Google Reader. What are your thoughts now about RSS Readers, given the discussion summarized here? Discuss

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5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock

Ever since Jeff Han demoed his Multi-Touch Workstation at the 2006 TED Conference , the world has been waiting for a high resolution sensory work experience. As a generation of hunched night creatures with intimate knowledge of our chiropractors, we've suffered and conformed to our traditional interfaces for too long. Touch was the future of workstations. But as articulated by ReadWriteWeb , the upcoming Apple tablet is not the workstation of the near future. It simply isn't practical. For those of us who still want to gawk at the cool regardless of its practicality, here is an assortment of 2009's most interesting interfaces. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! Sixth Sense : Sixth Sense is an extremely inexpensive interface ($350 to build the prototype) and it consists of some colored finger markers, a projector, and a camera on a necklace. Demoed at the TED conference, this interface has amazing potential. We reviewed this product as part of our post The Wearable Internet Will Blow Mobile Phones Away . Given Nikon's release of yesterday's first camera with a built-in pico projector and Mobileburn's demo of the Samsung Anycall Show phone , these little projectors are about to start popping up everywhere. For Minority Report fans, we may actually see these projector based interfaces used up for everyday tasks; however, it's more produce amazing entertainment for gamers. Perceptive Pixel Multi-Touch Wall (Jeff Han's new project) and Microsoft Surface : In the world of alternative interfaces, these two workstations are extremely well known. Certainly not the inexpensive, mainstream touch interfaces we'd hoped for, their size and price makes them unobtainable to the average user. However, for commercial uses, they've certainly got that wow factor. The products are used for story boarding, geo-spatial command, broadcast media, museum exhibits, hotels and Surface is even in Disneyland's tomorrow land. Scratch Input: Recently featured in Technology Review for his presentation at the SIGGRAPH Conference , Carnegie Mellon Ph.D student Chris Harrison created a gestural input interface using existing surfaces and an acoustic input technique. In other words, Harrison's interface uses scratches to communicate with his machine. By taping a modified stethoscope to a wall, Harrison got users to perform six scratch input gestures at about 90% accuracy with less than 5 minutes of training. If Scratch Input were utilized by a mobile manufacturer, a phone owner could simply rest their device on a table top and use it to scribble out messages. Pulp-Based Computing : While there's little information on these projects just yet, one thing is clear. The folks in MIT's Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group are exploring electrically active inks and fibers during the paper making process to create a new form of paper-based computing. Apparently the paper would react in the same way as regular paper; however, it would also carry digital information. While the project is only in its early stages and appears to be hooked up to a basic Arduino prototyping platform , theoretically this could be used to create a new type of Wacom tablet. Remember when Steven Levy wrote about losing his Macbook Air ? A paper interface would take some serious getting used to. Siftables : Created by David Merrill and Jeevan Kalanithi, Siftables is a series of blocks that contain built-in motion sensors, graphical displays and wireless communication. The blocks can be programmed to interact with digital information and media to form a collective interface. Siftables have been used to create art displays, painting tools, calculators, games and even a music sequencer . Bug Labs also offers a similar open source block system for modular device interfaces. For more on alternative interfaces featured during 2009, check out our articles on the BiDi screen and the wearable Internet . Discuss

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Where's my Jet Pack? Apple Tablet and Future Interfaces

Taptu , a mobile search engine that specializes in indexing mobile-friendly websites, just launched a new version of its iPhone app. The new app now includes real-time search results, which are powered by OneRiot . In addition to including these real-time search results, Taptu also worked hard on improving the speed of the app and on providing more relevant search results. Taptu offers apps for the iPhone, iPod touch ( iTunes link ) and Android, as well as a mobile optimized website. Sponsor Taptu first integrated real-time search results from OneRiot in its mobile web interface and in its Android app last month . The mobile apps definitely provide a far superior way of using the service than the mobile site, however. There are two ways to access real-time search results in the app. The homepage now displays the hottest trending topics and a single click on one of these opens up OneRiot search results. In addition, you can also do a normal search and then select 'latest buzz' from the options menu right next to the search box. This same menu also allows you to restrict search to images, videos, blog or Wikipedia articles, as well as to sites and blogs about sports, news or apps. For a closer look at Taptu's feature set, also have a look at our review of the service's web app . Discuss

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Taptu Adds Real-Time Search to Its Mobile Apps

Favrd , a site which aggregated the most popular starred tweets, has closed down. The site was a favorite of Twitter humorists, people who use Twitter mainly to express their wit. Favrd was the first of its kind to repurpose Twitter favorites (stars) into an aggregation site, where users could see who had "faved" their tweets, view tweets with 3 or more faves as a real-time feed, and check the most faved tweets in a 24-hour period on the Leaderboard. It was kind of like the Techmeme of funny tweets. Sponsor A similar site called Favstar launched in mid-09 ( our review ) and it appears to have taken the momentum from Favrd. Favrd was the original though, so it's disappointing to see it throw in the towel. Most people think of stars as a way to keep a personal library of favorites. But according to a regular Favrd user we spoke to, "Favrds" (people who used Favrd frequently) throw them like confetti and rarely look back at their own stream of favorites. Favrd was also different from Favstar because it only counted faves of people who were registered - although you could fave anyone. For a good overview of why many Twitter humorists liked Favrd, read this post by popular witterer Joe Schmitt ( @joeschmitt ). The site's creator, Dean Cameron Allen a.k.a. @textism , left the following suicide note for Favrd. You can tweet your condolences using this hashtag: #thankyoutextism . "Alas, stars on Twitter have become mere take-out menus hung on the doors of other restaurants. There are still lots of clever and funny things to read every day, but finding these is no longer a challenge - you already follow your sources. Sites like this one now serve mainly as fuel for emotional up-fuckedness in the guise of a game. Just an idea: next time you see something you like, write the person who made it a note telling them so. Even better, explain why. Take care! - dca" Discuss

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Favrd Shuts Down - Not Twitter's Last Laugh (Thank you, Textism)

What are you going to buy this holiday season? Gift cards aren't very personal, but friends' recommendations can be. Richard MacManus recently covered the trends in e-commerce over the past decade. He noted that Amazon and eBay have dominated the online retail market with their model of using implicit user data to generate recommendations for others. Although this model will surely remain a centerpiece of the online retail experience, it may soon face competition as "social shopping" takes off. Sponsor This guest post was written by Brynn Evans. What is social shopping? This is similar to the question of "What is social search," which I addressed previously by describing the three flavors of social search : what they are, why they're relevant and how they will help you search better. The Amazon and eBay model of online retail tapped into what I refer to as "collective social search." Social shopping, on the other hand, is more like "friend-filtered social search." In social shopping, you see recommendations and reviews that your friends have shared. You see items that your friends have purchased or brands that your friends have shopped with. This matters a lot when you're shopping for a digital camera and are stuck deciding between three different models. Of course, the last 10 years' worth of people's purchasing histories and written reviews on Amazon may help you narrow your choice - if you can filter out the noise. But those reviewers are entirely anonymous to you, even though they may use a real name and have a rating history with the site. The decision you are making, as with most decisions, will carry consequences going forward, which is a part of the reason why collective intelligence can't provide the necessary emotional "spark" in quite the way that a personal recommendation can. Patricia Mejia , a commenter on Richard's e-commerce trends post, explained why she wants this in shopping: "I want to be inspired, intrigued and entertained when I shop online." Algorithms don't provide that emotion. But a recommendation from a friend just might. Plus, users increasingly expect this, and the larger and more connected our networks become, the more powerful this social shopping model will be. What are the social shopping services that do this best today? (Hint: not Amazon.) Sites like ProductWiki are devoted to product comparisons, but their user base is most likely not your peer network. ThisNext and Kaboodle lie closer to the intersection of social media and e-commerce. They are predominantly social networks dedicated to sharing products and personal reviews. Kaboodle's user profile for " aplyler " closely resembles other social networking sites, and the site provides functionality for creating product lists, commenting on items and, of course, adding friends. On ThisNext, users' recommendations are featured front and center on their profiles. Here, " rjax " has been promoted to "Expert Maven" because of her extensive collection of recommended items. Unfortunately, the collection's range is so vast that you probably wouldn't care about the Christmas ornaments if you liked her review of the Macbook art decal. Thus, the limitation with sites like ThisNext and Kaboodle is that you, your friends and the products you're going to buy all exist on those sites. In other words, the sites are social shopping silos. RunToShop , on the other hand, brings a distributed social networking model to social shopping. A small Finnish startup, RunToShop aims to bring social recommendations to you wherever you may be, and from the friends in your network who you trust. This means that if you're shopping for golf clubs on Smart Golf , recommendations will be embedded on the site through the RunToShop widget. Currently, all user reviews are shown, but in the next release, recommendations from friends will be prioritized. (You can pull in your friends with Facebook Connect.) RunToShop also integrates with Facebook . So, if Facebook is where you spend most of your time, you can browse product offerings and friends' recommendations directly through the RunToShop Facebook app. Finally, its distributed social networking platform allows your product reviews to percolate out to other sites where those products exist. If your long-lost sister, for example, discovers one of these products through LinkedIn, she can view your recommendation right there. Based on most of the services I've seen to date, including RunToShop, the implementation and user experience around social shopping still has a long way to go. In the meantime, keep this in mind the next time you're shopping for the right social shopping service: will it provide the emotional spark you need? Guest author: Brynn Evans is digital anthropologist, design researcher and author who studies social interaction design and social search. Discuss

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Social Shopping: Putting the Emotion Back in E-Commerce