Do people read more syndicated content than they visit pages nowadays? I find myself trapped in the news-reader world a couple of hours a day (when I have the time), but for a person with my background - who loves layouts, web-page creativity and information design - I feel like I’m missing out on my favorite part of the web.

What would you do if you favorite pages started removing RSS feeds to get you back visiting? Would you, or have you been consumed by information to a point when it doesn’t make sense to use the browser but as an end-point to content reading?

In quite possibly the most despicable article I’ve read this year, Forbes calls bloggers part of an “online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies” (quoted from this article by Daniel Lyons). Talk about media sensationalism. Lets think about this for a little while. In fact, allow me to quote a whole paragraph from the same article:

Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. Microsoft has been hammered by bloggers; so have CBS, CNN and ABC News, two research boutiques that criticized IBM’s Notes software, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks, a Virginia congressman outed as a homosexual and dozens of other victims–even a right-wing blogger who dared defend a blog-mob scapegoat.

I ask one thing and one thing alone: are we talking about the same blogosphere, here? Or better yet, let me go for a straight comparison: magazines, run by millions and millions of dollars, started quite some years ago as a simple way for people to read interesting, informative material. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for sensationalist marketing, now that old media is threatened by millions of people doing what you might call “personal journalism”. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this old but strong strain of oratory.

My best bet is that there were no other terror stories left to cover, so you might as well pick the next best shot by aiming for the major threat to biased journalism - webloggers. And the funny thing is by doing that, they also target Google, Yahoo and many of what you could call “Web 2.0″ companies - companies that enable this new kind of media and content publishing.

I’m sorry to see Forbes go this far down my respect meter. The rest of the blogosphere is talking about it, I don’t need to echo the voices of everyone else. But please, Forbes, think before you post.. err, print.

Semi-personal post warning! Read if curious.

If you’re one of the (admitedly few) people who’ve been reading this blog for a few months, you may know how I was planning and antecipating my trip to the bay area. Some of you may wonder, now that I am back (and still jet-lagged to infinity) how my experience was. This post may make sense for people who like me, wonder(ed) why europe doesn’t cut it when it comes to the new web and the startup business.

I will start with the basics: it is so different out there that you need to experience it to actually realize how much the difference really is. Spending two months living and breathing bay area business and spirit, believe me, now I know. And the reasons for the success of the bay are beyond economic factors. (more…)

Whenever I see news of a new “Flickr of something”, I giggle. But now when I see a new “Flickr for video”, I sigh. If I had a penny for each video aggregator or video directory site that has launched in the last couple of months, I could almost buy a google share.

Let me rant for a paragraph: I know people love videos, and you can see that in some products and websites - they focus on the content, not the fluff. However, there is a load of new video-centric services popping up because someone decided it was hip to launch a “Flickr of Video” (share the meme) if there was no other interesting idea out there - and you know everyone and their cousin needs to launch a web 2.0 service because (apparently) the money is out there.

Now this is a personal opinion, obviously - there’s always room for more places hosting “All your base are belong to us”. But the idea that everyone will make money out of it and that it makes sense to keep spurring out new “super cool” “the number 1″ “got video?” websites, is a little out of focus.