Home / valleywag.com rss archive / September-12-2007


Jason Calacanis: Mogul bans Valleywag from TechCrunch's next conference
Jason Calacanis, frenemy of Valleywag's parent company and co-organizer of an event with TechCrunch (the TechCrunch 40), invited me to the event's Facebook group. Upon joining, I asked, "This means I'm in free, right?" Jason's reply: "sorry, no Valleywag people at the event. You guys are just too hated! :-)" Aw Jason, I emoticon you too!

Party Report: Conversational Marketing Summit unofficial afterparty
I stopped by the House of Shields for the "unofficial afterparty" of this week's Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit and was greeted by a crowd of FM employees and Web 2.0 regulars. You could tell the crowd apart pretty easily -- the FM employees wore suitjackets and had the ad-salesman glow to them, the regulars all answered "no" when asked if they attended the conference. A few FM employees indulged my request to pose for a picture doing the John Battelle salute, including Director of Author Services Bill Brazell, pictured above. (Fun fact: he and I graduated from the same high school!) So what is "Conversational Marketing" anyway? New advertising paradigm? Or just a way to keep FM boss Batelle in Mystic Tan? At one point, social media gadfly Chris Heuer and I talked about whether the term itself has a definition beyond "bullshit." He seems to think it does, I'm still undecided. The whole idea has the taint of undisclosed advertorial to me, especially after last...

Google Jet: Party plane parking pass: $1.3M
Who told you first that the Google founders' party plane, pictured here in New Zealand, was parked at NASA's Moffett Field? Turns out they've found a permanent home there for the low, low price of $1.3 million dollars and the right for NASA to use the plane for "science missions." The winners in this? Google founders and owners of the plane Larry Page and Sergey Brin, obviously, who now have a short seven-minute jaunt before taking off for Greenland or other exotic locations. Losers? Every other private-plane owning tech mogul out there who has to muddle through traffic on 101 and security lines at SFO or SJC. Oh, and the people of Mountain View and other surrounding areas, who didn't realize they were buying their multi-million dollar bungalow underneath a flightpath. Complains one community activist: "If they are doing it just because they are rich and popular, it is not O.K."

Stupid Startups: Buy your friend a drink
"A new way to buy someone a drink online!" I love that a site named BuyYourFriendADrink.com adds an explanatory tagline. Buy a "drink certificate" (only good at participating bars) and the recipient gets a text message and e-mail with a gift code. So it's like buying a drink but more expensive and involves making a barkeep check codes. If I lived near one of these bars, I'd wait until the bartenders got tired of checking codes and just use fake ones. But then I'd have to pretend I'm friends with someone dumb enough to use this site.

Digital Music: Britney, blame those damn MP3s
Do you have a problem enjoying today's music? Blame the MP3, says the recording industry. Apparently the ubiquity of iPods (and their low-quality headphones) means many producers are using the MP3 as their reference platform. Since the digital music files often cut out a lot of high frequencies in order to minimize file size, bands are releasing albums that sound increasingly wretched.

Toogle Many Googlers: Google Health claims its first victim
Just as we predicted, the Google Health project has killed off one top exec. And in record time, too! Head of the project Adam Bosworth has decided to move on from the company once he gets back from vacation. Now in charge? One Marissa Mayer, long the object of Valleywag's fascination. While the powers that be will try to spin this as a promotion, we think that Marissa might want to dust off the old resume. Becoming the head of health is the tech equivalent of being named the drummer for Spinal Tap. After the jump, the email explaining the management change sent to all Google Health beta testers.Dear Trusted Testers:Some of you may have recently seen the news about Adam Bosworth. Adam has decided to pursue other opportunities and is currently on vacation. While we are sad to see Adam go as he is a great talent and was instrumental in starting Google Health, we will be moving forward with our product plans and are 100% committed to health. Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search...

Biotech: Haha, I saw your mom's genes
Say what you want about the alleged nepotism behind 23andme, but this genetics startup founded by Anne Wojcicki (recently married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin) sounds sweet. According to Forbes, clients send in a cheek swab, get back info on their DNA, including information on their ancestry and even distant relatives. I bet that sensitive information is behind a lot of security, right?Illumina would then be able to tell 23andMe about hundreds of DNA variations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that each customer has. 23andME would make that information available through a password-protected Web site.Oh grand. I'll just write it down with all my other passwords.

Facebook: MORE POACHING: Looks like AOL is using Facebook's ...
MORE POACHING: Looks like AOL is using Facebook's poaching tactics to recuit from Yahoo. Check out this ad from Facebook's network for Yahoo employees.

Virtual Economies: Second Life land bubble.
For all of Second Life's apparent freedoms, it certainly mimics the first. Linden Lab's virtual world is experiencing a bit of a land crisis -- there's far too much readily available. In August, Linden Lab announced it was limiting new land creation due to falling prices. Now Linden is halting production while it implements a new auction system in the hopes that the recess will clear out caches. Second Lifers are none too happy. With the ban on gambling and flooded land market devaluing holdings, the economy is taking a nose dive. It looks like Lindens have realized they're buying little more than Florida swamp land.

Advertising: Political blog Daily Kos is begging Firefox ...
Political blog Daily Kos is begging Firefox users to pay a subscription fee. "If you use ad blocking software while viewing Daily Kos, you're getting all the benefits of our site but we're not getting any of the advertisement revenue associated with your visits." The better question: Who actually clicks on adverts anyways? [Daily Kos]

Online Advertising: Google set to cramp mobile web with Adwords
Don't own a shiny, new iPhone, but you still need to put up with the cramped, slow, "fake" Web delivered to your mobile phone? Well, it's about to get a little more cramped as Google begins introducing Adwords ads to Google Mobile Search. Ads will be truncated if they are more than half a twitter (70 characters or less) and will only be used if the site linked in the ads is suitably adapted for mobile browsing, but that does little to mitigate the unwanted intrusion. And with the mobile advertising market about to take off, Google isn't going to heed user concerns over millions in revenue. Bring on the mobile ad blockers! [Image: Google]

Online Video: Hulu got its name, now it gets a site... from China
TechCrunch posts a rumor that NBC and News Corp. joint online video venture, recently dubbed Hulu, has purchased a little known company based in China called Mojiti to power its video platform. If true, it's just the latest sign that the oft-delayed Hulu doesn't stand a chance of competing with popular video destination site YouTube. Silicon Alley Insider thinks it's better to buy than build, but Hulu went the entire summer without a name or any details rather than delivering on a promised launch. When Hulu finally did announce its name, an October beta was mentioned. Mojiti is primarily a video annotation service, an interesting but minor addition to what is currently nonexistent. Purchasing a little-known, eight man operation out of China with a niche focus for an alleged $10 million at the eleventh hour to power a delayed and highly-criticized video platform is anything but a good move.

Social Networks: "Here's Your Chance to Poke Martha Stewart." ...
"Here's Your Chance to Poke Martha Stewart." Expanding beyond her MySpace presence with a new Facebook profile, the home-style guru puts the "omni" in omnimedia -- even if she is a little slow to join the bandwagon. [AdAge]

Videogames: Why, happy National Video Games Day to you ...
Why, happy National Video Games Day to you too! What? Never heard of it? Apparently the greeting cards industry has nothing better to do than create more ludicrous ways to sell cards. Watch out. Tomorrow is Junk Drawer Day. [Kotaku]

Facebook: The New York Times to shame youth into reading the news
The Internet, despite its vast repositories of knowledge, has made us stupid. According to the Pew Research Center, Americans know less about current events now than they did in 1989. Too many distractions? Well The New York Times is looking to inform all the Web's denizens, or at least guilt them into scanning RSS headlines. It's launched a Facebook App dubbed The New York Times News Quiz. After a answering five questions based on the day's headlines, takers are awarded a "Times IQ" and ranked against their friends and collective Facebook users. Brilliant move. Even cheaters will end up learning something. No one wants to look like an idiot in front of friends.

Silicon Alley Insider: Absurd assumptions about the iPhone
Dan Frommer of the Silicon Alley Insider sees the world as flat and static -- at least when it comes to Apple's iPhone. Two days ago, he estimated that the iPhone wasn't meeting Apple's expectations based on the absurd assumption of flat sales -- despite the obvious fact that sales will not be consistent over the time period analyzed. Between now and the end of 2008, Apple will experience two holiday shopping seasons when they have historically experienced huge surges in sales. Apple will also enter at least two new markets, Europe and Asia. And while a 3G version of the iPhone is unlikely to arrive in the US before the holidays, an upgrade of some kind is certain in the next 15 months... as are additional price cuts. All of which will produce sales increases and likely fuel further upward momentum to Apple's pricey phone. Not content with poor analysis of unit sales, Frommer is now extending his simplistic assumptions to iPhone profits.Frommer asserts that Apple will need to...

Social Networks: "While [Facebook apps] may seem silly now," ...
"While [Facebook apps] may seem silly now," writes San Jose Mercury News reporter Dean Takahashi, "those applications could eventually become some of the most popular services on Facebook, and MySpace may have to follow." Takahashi explores the differences between the big three networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace) and fails to determine which is best. [San Jose Mercury News]

Silicon Valley: Birthplaces of the rich and Webby
Before the Googleplex there was a garage. Prior to Marck Zuckerberg's hip Facebook HQ, he had a dorm room. Second Life got its start in a small warehouse - now turned Moroccan furniture store -- found in Linden Alley. And Craigslist? That's still basically run out of a house. Business 2.0 chief of reporters Yi-Wyn Yen goes on a photographic tour of Web startup birthplaces. If you need motivation to jump on the giant Web 2.0 bubble, check it out. And work on your coding.

Netscape: AOL spins its Propeller
AOL's Digg clone, formerly branded as Netscape and already pronounced dead, will be rebranded as Propeller. The announcement came from Tom Drapeau, the head of AOL's Netscape division since Jason Calacanis's brief tenure. Muhammed Saleem, a Propeller editor n Netscape Scout, thinks technology sites should be eating their hats for the grave predictions. Maybe the site would have had a chance at life and competed with Digg, the social news site, if it had launched with original branding instead of misusing the name of the already-dead Netscape. But AOL angered and turned off a loyal community when, under Calacanis, it killed the original Netscape and, after Calacanis's jealous pursuit of Kevin Rose, its own Digg clone -- even if the sites ignominiously remain on life support and AOL refuses to accept that its time to pull the plug.

Facebook: Facebook is poaching Googlers
This is from an ex-Googler who remains in Facebook's Google network. When he logged onto Facebook, guess what popped up? It's not as high-profile as, say, Microsoft's poaching suit against Google two years ago, but it's interesting to note that all the big Valley companies are feeling free to steal each other's employees.

Facebook: Facebook is poaching Googlers
This is from an ex-Googler who remains in Facebook's Google network. When he logged onto Facebook, guess what popped up? It's not as high-profile as, say, Microsoft's poaching suit against Google two years ago, but it's interesting to note that all the big Valley companies are feeling free to steal each other's employees.

Yahoo: Warning: Viewing Yahoo may cause seizures
As if there weren't enough problems at Yahoo, now the site causes seizures--or they just have some REALLY cautious lawyers, who could probably be doing something much better with their time. Since you people are so busy and important, we'll just cut and paste section 19E of the Yahoo users agreement:A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF USERS MAY EXPERIENCE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES WHEN EXPOSED TO CERTAIN LIGHT PATTERNS OR BACKGROUNDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN OR WHILE USING THE SERVICE. CERTAIN CONDITIONS MAY INDUCE PREVIOUSLY UNDETECTED EPILEPTIC SYMPTOMS EVEN IN USERS WHO HAVE NO HISTORY OF PRIOR SEIZURES OR EPILEPSY. IF YOU, OR ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY, HAVE AN EPILEPTIC CONDITION, CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN PRIOR TO USING THE SERVICE. IMMEDIATELY DISCONTINUE USE OF THE SERVICE AND CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS WHILE USING THE SERVICE: DIZZINESS, ALTERED VISION, EYE OR MUSCLE TWITCHES, LOSS OF AWARENESS, DISORIENTATION, ANY INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENT, OR CONVULSIONS.

: Warning: Viewing Yahoo may cause seizures
As if there weren't enough problems at Yahoo, now the site causes seizures--or they just have some REALLY cautious lawyers, who could probably be doing something much better with their time. Since you people are so busy and important, we'll just cut and paste section 19E of the Yahoo users agreement:A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF USERS MAY EXPERIENCE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES WHEN EXPOSED TO CERTAIN LIGHT PATTERNS OR BACKGROUNDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN OR WHILE USING THE SERVICE. CERTAIN CONDITIONS MAY INDUCE PREVIOUSLY UNDETECTED EPILEPTIC SYMPTOMS EVEN IN USERS WHO HAVE NO HISTORY OF PRIOR SEIZURES OR EPILEPSY. IF YOU, OR ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY, HAVE AN EPILEPTIC CONDITION, CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN PRIOR TO USING THE SERVICE. IMMEDIATELY DISCONTINUE USE OF THE SERVICE AND CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS WHILE USING THE SERVICE: DIZZINESS, ALTERED VISION, EYE OR MUSCLE TWITCHES, LOSS OF AWARENESS, DISORIENTATION, ANY INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENT, OR CONVULSIONS.

Deals: Peter Chernin puts the kibosh on a MySpace/Yahoo swap
Despite rumors to the contrary, News Corp. president Peter Chernin says there are no talks and no deal. His boss, Rupert Murdoch, was reportedly thinking about trading MySpace for a 25 percent stake in Yahoo.

Apple: The iPhone price cut produced pissed-off ...
The iPhone price cut produced pissed-off early adopters -- and a ton of new, nonenraged customers. It bumped sales 200 percent, according to one report. [Apple 2.0]