Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 1st July 2009
11 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Digg today announced (in their own words) “major updates to our dupe detection technology and content submission process that should go a long way in eliminating duplicate submissions.”
Clearly the site needs to go back to the drawing board because as I write this, two stories with almost equal amount of Diggs, posted at similar times sit awkwardly underneath each other on the Digg front page.
To prove I’m not making this up, this is one story and this is the other and here is a screenshot (more…)
Written on 11th June 2009
1 COMMENT
Keith, Network Consultant, Social Media Fanatic
Layers.com has just launched a new way for users to share web content. According to their site,
Layers is allowing anyone to create over (on top of) existing websites. It’s intuitive, easy and can be used for countless purposes such as annotations, highlighting, embedding video.
If you can get past the atrocious grammar and flagrant abuse of buzz words like “vertical web” you might be inclined to give Layers a try. I watched their demo video and was truly intrigued to give Layers a try.
(more…)
Written on 9th June 2009
47 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
So, the new iPhone 3G S has been announced and Apple fans are keenly expecting to upgrade upon its release on the 19th of June. Keen, that is, until they find out the cost of upgrading.
In the UK, O2 is telling iPhone customers that they’ll need to buy out of their existing contract before signing up on a new deal for the 3G S. For customers who bought an iPhone 3G on release day last year with 7 months left on their 18 month contract, that’s at least £245 (if you’re on the cheapest monthly price) that you’ll have to pay before signing up for a new contract and maybe paying towards your new phone too.
Last year, there was none of this. Existing iPhone users could upgrade to the 3G version without having to buy out of their existing contract, simply signing up for a new one. It’s understandable that these people were assuming that they could simply do the same this time.
Now they’ve found out they can’t there’s a bubble of anger building. The hashtag #O2Fail is trending highly on Twitter this morning and a petition has been launched asking for “A reasonable way to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS”.
Unfortunately, these people are missing a pretty obvious fact. The original iPhone wasn’t subsidised; you had to pay full price for it. The 3G, on the other hand was subsidised heavily by O2 meaning that part of the money you pay to them monthly covers the price of the handset.
This is how it usually works in the UK. You can pick up a top-of-the-range Nokia for free because you pay for it monthly in your contract. If you want to upgrade early you have to buy your way out of the contract because you committed to it.
Whether it’s a fair system or not, that’s the way it works. Apple fans had it good last year, but O2 doesn’t owe them anything. There’s no way they could take the hit of writing off all the money they spent on iPhone 3G handsets last year just to satisfy their customers’ gearlust. The iPhone offers the best user experience of any phone on the market but that doesn’t make it immune from economic realities.
Tech humour site TechChuff has the right idea. Their alternative petition hits the nail on the head.
Written on 19th May 2009
0 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
I can’t help but enjoy the hell out of FailBlog.
Check out their latest find:
Written on 15th May 2009
6 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
It appears so.
At this moment in time, many blogspot blogs aren’t loading, YouTube is either failing to load or unsearchable and embedded videos aren’t loading elsewhere. Gmail is failing to load in some locations and more importantly google search is showing frequent server errors.
This is not good, particularly as its just 24 hours since the last officially downtime.
How are things on your end?
Update 1: This may once again be location specific. Reports from people in the US suggest they are only having issues with YouTube and some with GMail.
This is breaking news, more to come as we hear it.
Written on 13th April 2009
2 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
I wonder if this laptop still works and if this invalidates your warranty. Can someone re-create this nice romantic experiment and let us know?
Found at Fail Blog.
Written on 28th January 2009
9 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Just found this hilarious FAIL cake on Flickr. The accompanying text:
Can you guess what happened? Apparently the printing process is mostly automatic and is printed directly from the website in edible ink. The designer didn’t catch it and they tried to sell it to the purchaser.
Original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34613929@N08/3224867375/
Written on 27th October 2008
3 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Always wondered where the great FAIL Internet meme came from? Rocketboom explains the phenomena in one of their videos. Enjoy!
Written on 4th August 2008
1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Ah, the wonders of digital technology. Look at the details of this horse. the big teeth, the droopy eyes, the… wings…. Wait a minute…
Thanks to Pixites for the tip!
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
