Home / valleywag.com rss archive / September-17-2007


Venture Capital: Facebook backers team up for an offer startups can't refuse
Back in July, I speculated that Accel Partners VC Jim Breyer might use his position on the Facebook board to strongarm startups developing Facebook apps into taking its money. And sure enough, he's setting up a new fund to do exactly that. But he's cleverly cutting in Facebook itself, as well as fellow board member Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at TechCrunch40 that his company and its two main backers are forming fbFund, a $10 million pool of money that will invest between $25,000 and $250,000 in Facebook-app startups. As hard to resist as a solo offer from Breyer might be, a check offered by Breyer, Thiel, and Zuckerberg seems irresistible. And more than a little menacing.

Superficial: Michael Moritz, what are you doing with your shoes?
Pictured this morning on the TechCrunch40 stage, four men worth a total of a kajillion dollars or something along those lines. From left, Yahoo founder David Filo, wearing the safe and unimaginative Silicon Valley uniform, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley in his jeans-and-jacket casual yuppie attire, Ning and Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who goes for the novel tracksuit and khakis combo, and Sequoia Capital uber-investor Michael Moritz. Oh, Michael. He's Welsh, so he's always dressed a bit more snappily than the normal tech layperson, which is a good thing. But what on earth is he doing with his shoes? Hoping to change into slippers and a cardigan like a powerful Mr. Rogers? Or just nervously squirming in his chair before the crowd? VCs already have a reputation as ADD-addled fidgeters, this isn't going to help. (Photo by jspepper)

Your Privacy Is An Illusion: Ameritrade warned users of security breach months after the fact
Is it sheer pride that prohibits companies from admitting the fallibility of their data servers? TD Ameritrade is the latest in a string of security-breach deniers. Possibly hacked as early as October 2006, Ameritrade's servers divulged users' names, addresses, email accounts and account activity. When email accounts were pumped full of spam messages, a couple users sued Ameritrade in late May -- indicating that there was a breach. Ameritrade delayed issuing an official release until last Friday, conveniently timed to beat a lawsuit that sought a court ordered release.

Copyfight: YouTube backs censors, bans dissenters
An ongoing YouTube feud between the Rational Response Squad and the Creation Science Evangelism Ministries is highlighting flaws with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The law, of course, requires any online service presented with a copyright notice to remove offending works. The atheist Squad released a series of YouTube videos critical of the Ministries. In retaliation, the Ministries served a notice to YouTube claiming its copyright had been breached. YouTube removed the suspected materials, despite the Squad's claims of fair use and public domain. The Squad protested, and was subsequently banned.

Mahalo: We don't need no stinkin' promotion!
You would think that relentless self-promoter Jason Calacanis would take advantage of the attention he's receiving for his TechCrunch40 startup conference and use the spotlight to further push his new project, people-powered search engine Mahalo. You'd be wrong. Mahalo's sole contribution to TC40 is a Mahalo-branded baseball hat in the conference schwag bag. Why? Because the sharer in Calacanis wants the attention on the actual participants... and because Mahalo needs no promotion. That's right. The mere suggestion that Calacanis would promote Mahalo or that Mahalo even needs promotion is "so silly." Calacanis says, "We're in 'put your head down and make the product great' mode and we will be for the next four years." Indeed, Jason. We agree that Mahalo needs no promotion. Now please stop pitching Mahalo in search engine presentations, conducting interviews about the company, and signing blog comments with "Mahalo" for the next four years. Sadly, we suspect his no-promotions...

Superficial: Michael Mortiz, what are you doing with your shoes?
Pictured this morning on the TechCrunch40 stage, four men worth a total of a kajillion dollars or something along those lines. From left, Yahoo founder David Filo, wearing the safe and unimaginative Silicon Valley uniform, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley in his jeans-and-jacket casual yuppie attire, Ning and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, who goes for the novel tracksuit and khakis combo, and Sequoia Capital uber-investor Michael Mortiz. Oh, Michael. He's British, so he's always dressed a bit more snappily than the normal tech layperson, which is a good thing. But what on earth is he doing with his shoes? Hoping to change into slippers and a cardigan like a powerful Mr. Rogers? Or just nervously squirming in his chair before the crowd? VCs already have a reputation as ADD-addled fidgeters, this isn't going to help. Photo credit, used with permission: jspepper

Acquisitions: Sir Richard Branson has dumped his Virigin ...
Sir Richard Branson has dumped his Virigin Megastores into the lap of Zavvi Entertainment Group. Stores in the United Kingdom will be rebranded zavvi as early as November. Not even the ringle can keep Branson in the music retail business. [Gamesindustry]

Dynasties: Happy birthday to the Trotts
It's a big year for Ben and Mena Trott, the husband-and-wife founders of Six Apart. The blog-software company was named after their six-days-apart birthdays; Mena just turned 30 yesterday, while Ben begins his fourth decade on Saturday. (Such a cradle-robber, that Mena.) Six Apart's board of directors just gave Mena the best present a founder could ask for -- a new CEO, in the form of the eminently capable and blogging-savvy Chris Alden. Putting Alden, the former CEO of the Red Herring (back when it was an authority on tech, not its current incarnation) in charge should do much to clear up the company's bouts of less-than-transparent behavior. It's hard to top that kind of gift. So if you're in a generous mood, save it for the next generation of Trotts. The Trottlet, as some around the Six Apart office call Ben and Mena's next product release, is expected next month, according to their baby registry.

File-sharing: MediaDefender's plans to ensnare the Web uncovered
A group of hackers banned together to hack an antipiracy group's email == and uncovered a dastardly plan to entrap file sharers. MediaDefender, the antipiracy organization, spends its days devising new means to thwart BitTorrent networks, the current, most sophisticated generation of file-sharing technology. Recently it's taken to seeding them with fake files. Among the 6,000 captured messages were emails detailing the planned creation of MiiVi, a faux BitTorrent site that would track all IP addresses that accessed the site. MediaDefender executives were also considering hacker tactics like a hostile takeover of computers, transforming them into bots that would spread fake files among peer-to-peer networks. That's a vile technique perfected by spammers, of course.

Search: Mention "nude pics", increase site traffic -- duh!
Silicon Alley Insider is trying to figure out how AOL's BloggingStocks has surpassed Seeking Alpha in the stock blogging market, and they've discovered the obvious: mentioning nude pics, particularly those of controversial pop figures, is a tried and true method of promoting your site through search engines. The top keywords people use to find BloggingStocks are "vanessa hudgens nude" and "amanda beard playboy," whereas top terms for the more serious and boring Seeking Alpha are "seeking alpha" and "visa ipo." Valleywag and BloggingStocks are not alone in appealing to the salacious side of the Web. Many sites know the search engine optimization, or SEO, value in mentioning the latest nude photographs of an attractive young pop star. Including, curiously, Mahalo.Mahalo, run by professed SEO-hater Jason Calacanis, has been buoyed by two separate Vanessa Hudgens pages in its top ten results since shortly after the story initially broke. However, they have failed to fully capitalize...

Techcrunch40: Jason Calacanis is Willy Wonka
I've always had trouble understanding Jason Calacanis's rationalizations for DemoPit, the sleaziest part of the TechCrunch40 conference. Calacanis and his partner-in-wasting-time, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, launched the conference promising not to charge companies to demonstrate, as other startup conferences did. But then Calacanis turned around and announced DemoPit, a side room for also-rans to hawk their Web-based wares. He snuck in the news that the 100 DemoPit participants would have to buy a ticket -- a sneaky way to charge, after all, for the right to demonstrate. Taking into account all the direct costs, Calacanis should turn a tidy profit on the sideline, I calculated. When I called him on it, Calacanis blustered and blathered, calling me a "pariah" for daring to question him. Charming. But then I figured it out: Jason Calacanis is Willy Wonka, the magical candyman. And the DemoPit participants are his Oompa Loompas.Why? Well, Calacanis has realized the flaw...

Ethics: By blocking web ads, am I stealing?
Most of the free content online is supported by advertising. But most advertising is designed to interrupt the content. Even Google's supposedly helpful text ads are, in the end, a distraction; otherwise people would just search for ads instead of real results. Most ads are worse, a moving distraction while I'm trying to read text. So since the dancing cowboy will never make me buy , is it wrong if I just block them?Political blog Daily Kos asks ad-blocking users to buy a subscription. Technologist Nick Carr says that Google and other ad servers should ignore ad-blockers and bet that the habit won't become popular. The New York Times only teaches the controversy. How about you -- got a good excuse for why you block ads, or a good reason that you don't?["Ethicist" image stolen from this blog]

Digital Music: RIAA schooled on piracy-busting tactics
The Recording Industry Association of America -- known throughout college campuses for blanket accusations of music piracy and legal scare tactics -- will have to curb its wanton copyright-infringement lawsuit-slapping ways. The RIAA uses a "making available" clause in copyright law that allows it to quickly target anyone it suspects of copyright infringement. If you have a file-sharing client and copyrighted media on your machine, you've helped spread illegal files, the RIAA's lawyers reasoned. But last month, a California judge threw out this legal theory -- and put the music industry's strategy in jeopardy.In Interscope v. Rodriguez, the judge ruled that the tactic was invalid because it was based on speculation. The RIAA regrouped and submitted a new complaint, claiming it had detected an individual downloading and distributing copyrighted files at a specific time and place. Good luck with that. According to copyright attorney Ray Beckerman, the RIAA can't actually determine...

Techcrunch40: Powerset's party time
Conference paraphernalia is normally comprised of useful but boring office supplies and t-shirts. Except, it seems, at Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis's TechCrunch40 conference. Rafe Needleman of CNET blog Webware is shocked by one giveaway from "natural-language" search engine Powerset -- test tubes of cranberry juice and vodka. We're not shocked, of course. We just suspect Powerset CEO Barney Pell is pulling the usual bar pick-up trick of buying drinks for the person you're trying to seduce. Everyone knows you're prettier when they're drunk.

Videogames: Brandon Scott, a GameStop retail-store manager ...
Brandon Scott, a GameStop retail-store manager who refused to serve kids who didn't obtain high marks in school, has been suspended by corporate HQ. Apparently GameStop is dependent on these young, impressionable, subpar minds for its bottom line. [Techdirt]

Yahoo Mash: "Hello, someone else has created your profile!"
What does Yahoo have in common with Spock, Gleamd, and 43 People? Like these lesser-known sites, Yahoo now lets members make profiles for non-members. And that's how I got creeped out this weekend.I already distrust these sites that let others hijack my bio and only let me reclaim it if I become a member. It's a blatant extortion scheme to get me to join. Look at my Gleamd profile, which I found last week:Feels like a weak Wikipedia entry. But on Wikipedia, I could pop in (even without an account) and explain any flaws. My edits would be reviewed by other Wikipedia users, and eventually some fair profile would come out. But I can't edit anything about myself on Gleamd. Instead I can make an account, "claim" to be myself, and write a note saying I have wings. And then I can go claim to be Chuck Norris.Gleamd at least could be a poor man's person-search. Yahoo Mash, though, doesn't do anything real. I found out about it when Ben Gold (an Internet fanboy) made me a profile:On the...

Geek Love: Your Twitter makes my heart go flitter
FROM THE DESK OF MEGAN MCCARTHY -- Is it possible to have a crush on a Twitter stream? Cause I do. Whoever you are, mysterious TC40 guest posting as "TechCrunch40" on Twitter, you need to call me. Now. A girl has needs.

Microsoft: Eurocrats school Microsoft on antitrust
Microsoft has lost its appeal with the European Court of First Instance, upholding the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the Seattle-area software maker for abusing its dominant position in the operating system, media player and server markets. The Court only overruled one minor provision regarding trustee oversight. While the American antitrust settlement was considered toothless, primarily imposing some minor business restrictions, the European decision is far more significant. It imposes technological restrictions on Microsoft's business, including Bill Gates's sacred cow -- the right to provide "integrated products," something he fought for tooth and nail with the Department of Justice. It's a precedent that could have wide effects on other software makers. Microsoft's lawyers, while still reviewing the decision, are playing contrite: "We'll study this decision carefully, and if there are additional steps that we need to take in order to comply with it, we will...

Techcrunch40: Startups face a wireless disconnect
TechCrunch40 organizer Jason Calacanis is madly spinning the glitch-filled presentations at his conference as a success. The back channel -- on Twitter and IRC -- begs to differ. The biggest problem: There's no cell phone service deep inside the Sheraton Palace, the hotel in which the conference is being held. You'd think organizers might have checked such a thing before scheduling wireless startups to go on stage with live demos, but no. Instead, with no canned presentations to show, entrepreneurs are attempting to talk about how cool their mobile Web products would be ... if they worked.

Techcrunch40: Meanwhile, in the real world of business
The Web 2.0 startups featured at TechCrunch40 are adorable, really. But they can't compete with the draw of a real business with real, paying customers, Six Apart executive Michael Sippey points out: "Around the corner from tc40 there are 7000 people at salesforce.com's conference." Salesforce.com, unlike most of the startups on display at TechCrunch40, dares to charge for its Web-based software -- a recipe for disaster, according to TechCrunch40 organizer Michael Arrington. Right. If you consider half a billion dollars in annual revenues to be a disaster, that is.

Acquisitions: Intel's Havok buy means game's on with AMD
Intel has snagged videogame programming tools provider Havok. Its "physics engine," among other software products, is widely used in the industry to simulate real-world motion inside games. Havok will continue to operate independently, but is likely to offer Intel-specific products to aid in the chipmaker's gaming arms race with AMD. Intel needs all the help it can purchase to drum up support for its upcoming Larrabee graphics chip. So how does Havok fit in?Havok isn't responsible for how a videogame looks or plays, but it adds believability to the experience. Havok's software helps In-game objects behave reasonably like they would in the real world. If you knock into a table, items will fall off. And, of course, any enemy killed will realistically slump to the floor. In the clip below from 2K Game's Bioshock you can see Havok at work.

IPhone: US sales may disappoint, but European carriers eager to carry Apple phone
While American analysts question whether an iPhone price cut means the uberphone is a disappointment, European analysts wonder how Apple secured as much as 40 percent of all revenue from partner O2, the British wireless carrier, on the eve of the iPhone's impending European launch. Orange and T-Mobile have been "confirmed" as the French and German mobile carriers, but things could change as Steve Jobs continues to negotiate for even a larger share of mobile revenue. [The Guardian]

Geek Love: Mark Pincus finds his match
We should have know that dot-com wonderboy Mark Pincus was maturing when he sold Tribe, his social network for Burning Man attendees, to Cisco earlier this year. After a few months cavorting around Aspen and partying with movie stars, he's settled down and gotten engaged to girlfriend Alison Gelb, who works at magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi and whom a friend describes as "a huge prize" for Pincus. As for Pincus? Not so much of a prize. Ever the romantic, Pincus gallantly waited for Gelb to recover from a momentary illness before popping the question.I had an amazing 6 course meal (hers and mine) and then realized she was too sick and passed out for me to propose. At one point Ali woke up to say 'I'm glad were not getting engaged tonight!'--Luckily, the chocolate desert brought her back. We stopped in the vip salon for tea and fruits, and with her forming whole sentences I realized she could now coherently accept a proposal.How sweet! Mark, we just hope you remembered...

To Do: Valley rallies for TechCrunch borefest
I have never been more grateful to Jason Calacanis. The prickly Internet entrepreneur disinvited me, you see, from TechCrunch40, the conference opening today in San Francisco that he organized with TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington. And thereby saved me from a long nap at the Sheraton Palace. The conference was originally supposed to highlight 20 companies, but Arrington and Calacanis couldn't decide on just 20, so they "doubled down" and expanded the list to 40, ostensibly because all the companies were so great. But then we all saw the list last night. I'd considered jumping off my red-eye flight and heading to the Sheraton Palace -- indeed, friends begged me to just show up and see what happened. But going by the list of startups presenting there -- Zivity? Orgoo? -- I'm just as content to get your reports and post the best of them.

Loser-generated Content: TechCrunch40 gets a bitter Twitter
Brilliant. Someone -- apparently a rejected applicant for the TechCrunch40 conference going on now in San Francisco -- has hijacked the shindig's name for a Twitter account and is skewering the presenters' every misstep live. Already, the organizers' lack of selectivity -- if you'll recall, it was originally supposed to be 20, not 40, startups -- is becoming clear. "Thus far, 50% of presenters have a better way to search for Britney Spears... GENIUS! (psych)" reads one Twitter.

Picture Of The Day: The Google Jet cockpit
This picture is the closest you will ever get to the controls of the Google founders' Party Plane. Snapped three years ago, it shows the cockpit of the then-Qantas-owned 767 waiting on the runway in Australia before a flight. While Sergey Brin and Larry Page redecorated the rest of the plane we suspect the cockpit remains unaltered, save for cosmetic decorations. Perhaps they changed the color scheme to a white background with primary colors? Anyway, we hope all those buttons and screens don't distract the pilots too much. After all, someone needs to keep the ride smooth enough for Larry to make out with his girlfriend.

Clips: Internet People
From Amanda Congdon to Tay Zonday -- virtually every inane, pop culture Internet video "star" of the last few years who have made YouTube indispensable to millions of... Internet People! Depicted in Flash animation in under three minutes by Dan Meth, music by Dan Meth and Micah Frank.

Quotable: Fake Steve on Justine Ezarik aka iJustine ...
Fake Steve on Justine Ezarik aka iJustine aka the hot chick lifecaster and her new Apple logo tattoo: "I know it's wrong for us to use women's bodies to sell our products. Is it also wrong for this woman to use our products to sell her body?" [The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

IPhone: Sick of those $3,000 bills for international ...
Sick of those $3,000 bills for international iPhone data roaming? AT&T has created a data plan that is slightly less wallet- gouging at a generous $25 a month for 20MB of data transfer. [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

In Brief: The Federal Communications Commission has ...
The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that cable providers must support analog television sets until 2012 to help ease the strain on the estimated 40 million homes that are not digitally compatible. The switch to digital broadcasts is still slated for February 2009. [Ars Technica]

Online Video: Revver shares a million in revenue with video producers
Online video platform Revver announced it has paid out $1 million dollars to video producers from its ad revenue sharing program, just in time for its one year anniversary. That puts Revver's total revenue at around $2-$2.5 million, since it splits fees 50/50 after paying 20% to a distributor. Sounds great. But it doesn't prove that Revver has a sustainable, profitable model--not after the year it's had, losing key staff, being banned from MySpace, losing LonelyGirl15 and several other notable video producers like Ze Frank and Ask A Ninja, and a rumored buyout. Why?Repeat after me: REVENUE IS NOT PROFIT. And Revver is competing in a sea of also-rans. VuMe and Metacafe also have producer reward programs, and DailyMotion and YouTube are about to launch their own programs. Lots of sites are about to start competing for the few uploads that will have money-making potential.And it turns out that $1 million, impressive as it sounds, is not so great if you're a vidoe producer,...

Social Networks: Your online friends aren't real
New friends acquired through MySpace or Facebook may as well be invisible. England's Sheffield Hallam University, studying whether social networks ease the friend-making process, has concluded that "online only" relationships are extremely shallow. It determined that 90 percent of close online connections met in real life. Well, duh. Most use networks to keep in touch with people they already know, or, perhaps, reach out to friends of friends. Who actively cultivates all those unsolicited Facebook friend requests from total strangers? (Photo by ellectric)

Quotable: Quincy Smith, head of CBS's online business, ...
Quincy Smith, head of CBS's online business, on competing networks News Corp. and NBC's online video play Hulu: "I love everything about the joint venture and the notion of syndicating content with distribution partners that are already proven in the business, both in the video-destination and the widget business. But why--why still hold on to a destination [Web site]? That's a huge amount of infrastructure, that's a huge part of investment and frankly, a huge distraction." [Forbes]

Google: Mountain View's search giant is funding the ...
Mountain View's search giant is funding the quest for robot-conducted moon exploration. Google is teaming up with the X-Prize Foundation to offer a total of $30 million to private firms that can land a rover capable of documenting its moon roaming. [BBC]

Followup: Fark vs. Fox: here come the lawyers
Valleywag first reported the allegations last month, and now lawyers for news aggregation site Fark.com have made it official. This week, a lawsuit was filed in a Lexington, Kentucky courthouse alleging that a Kentucky-based Fox News reporter attempted to hack into Fark's servers. The one surprise -- the defendants are named as "John Does 1-10," instead of an individual person. But that doesn't mean that the main suspect, Fox News reporter Darrell Phillips (pictured above right, after the jump), is off the hook. "We needed to be able to file subpoenas to get the final information from his net service providers," Fark.com founder Drew Curtis (pictured above left) IM'ed earlier today. Have more information on this developing story? Let us know.

Your Privacy Is An Illusion: When bank accounts run dry, phishers attack videogame consoles
Anyone with an email address has encountered fraudulent requests for online banking info and Paypal logins -- but the new phishing target is Microsoft's Xbox 360. Microsoft confirmed today that subscribers to its Xbox Live online gaming service are receiving emails linking to a cloned Xbox login page. Since Live accounts are tied to your Microsoft Passport, these attempts are clearly attempting to access stored credit card and billing info.

Venture Capital: Entrepreneurs to VCs: Stop sharing my ideas!
The anonymous entrepreneur behind VC-rating site TheFunded.com put together a memo telling Sand Hill denizens how to "be a better VC." In short, it's a list detailing the most common complaints users of his site make about venture capitalists. We got our grubby little hands on a leaked copy. The lessons? Entrepreneurs want a better communication, firmer answers, and for VCs to want them for their companies, not their business secrets. The biggest complaint? That VCs regularly leak business plans and confidential documents to other startups, even potential competitors. We ask: Is this really a new phenomenon? VCs are typically exempt from non-disclosure agreements, something entrepreneurs should always keep in mind. The threat of an idea leak seems to be the price to pay for the pleasure of doing business with Sand Hill Road. Is the shocking part that VCs "cross pollinate" the competition using ideas swiped from pitching startups? Or that some entrepreneurs are such dumbasses...

The Chart: Valley morale continues to sag
In June, when we crunched the numbers provided by a Vistage CEO confidence survey showing declining business confidence in the Valley, commenter edmDusty argued, "Most industries are cyclical. I doubt you can find any significant trends just using two quarters." While unlikely to satisfy edmDusty, we can now report that the trend has continued into the third quarter. In the second quarter, the margin between those Northern California business leaders who saw profitability improving versus decreasing was 32%. This quarter it has declined to 27%. Previously, the margin between those who saw revenues increasing versus decreasing was 54%, it is now 44%.Additionally, Northern California business leaders, which are a fair barometer for the tech industry, were far less optimistic than the average American business leader:63 percent of all Northern California firms anticipate an increase in revenues during the third quarter, which is slightly lower than the national reading of 67 percent....

Online Video: MySpace spending gobs of cash to win YouTube audience
MySpace is taking a new tack with video in an effort to lure away YouTube viewers -- it's developing a catalog of professionally produced videos. The social network has announced it will distribute Web production quarterlife, a series about show biz wannabes, developed by the producers of Blood Diamond. The real surprise is that each episode will cost more than $500,000 -- roughly 100 times what Michael Eisner's Vuguru spent on each episode of Prom Queen. MySpace's is praying that original, professional quality content will be enough of lure to sell mad ads against. But the kind of cash thrown at this project could have been much better spent, by say finally fixing the perpetually broken site.

Clips: Wozniak donates car to charity, laughter to us
To the tune of Weird Al Yankovic's "White & Nerdy," Steve Wozniak is pimping his 2005 Nissan 350Z Anniversary Edition at Hotswap.com. The Apple co-founder thinks America is losing its engineering and technological competitiveness, so he wants to donate the proceeds to UC Berkeley's Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The lucky buyer gets the pick up the car at Woz's pad and join him for lunch (and hopefully a Segway ride). He'll even provide his autograph (hopefully on the car, not lunch) and talk to you. But his generosity doesn't stop there -- he's created a parody of a Datsun 280Z commercial he starred in back when his hair was a healthy brown and he was half as wide. Unfortunately, Hotswap is rather protective of their embed code, so you'll have to jump over there to see Woz in his Segway riding glory. For comparisons sake, take a gander at the 280Z commercial.They see me roll on my Segway. I know in my heart they think I'm white and nerdy.

Feuds: iPhone vs. gPhone vs. the telecom industry
Even with the controversial price cut and an impending European launch, the Apple's iPhone is so pass. Why? The entire Valley (or almost everyone) is convinced search giant Google is about to enter the telecom business in a big way. They just have no idea what way: A software platform? Their own handsets? A significant wireless services revolution using the wireless spectrum soon to be auctioned? No one seems to be sure, but -- just as everyone was confident Apple could deliver a better, consumer-focused handset -- they're also sure that Google will do something that will overturn the existing mobile apple cart. And do so in a way that others can capitalize for themselves unlike Apple who prefers to keep profits to themselves. And while some hope to see an unlikely battle between partners Apple and Google, what they really hope to see is one of these giants break down the walled gardens controlled by the telecom carriers.

Online Video: Yahoo Web show to appear on MTV
Yahoo is distributing its Nissan Live Sets, a Web hi-def Web show that mimics a live concert viewing experience, on MTV's high definition channel. Despite the popularity of Web shows like Prom Queen and LonelyGirl15, studios are so busy trying to get onto the Internet that they don't pull content from it. As the Motley Fool points out, this is good news for Yahoo Music. Recent reports of Yahoo's financial doom put its music service on the guillotine. Perhaps some MTV eyeballs will spare it from the block.

Stats: Whose favorite Internet past-time ISN'T ...
Whose favorite Internet past-time ISN'T watching YouTube? Analytics firm comScore says three out of every four Web surfers are watching online video, consuming an average of three hours a month, as of July. [PaidContent]

Wireless: Verizon doesn't like to share, suing FCC
All this talk of auctioning and the 700mhz spectrum has thrown Verizon into a tiff. It's apparently none too happy that Google and other interested parties may soon have access to the airwaves once analog television broadcasts are discontinued in early 2009. So the telecom is suing the Federal Communications Commission on the grounds that its open-access rules -- that the auctioned bands be made compatible with any device -- are illegal. Sounds like its afraid of some friendly competition -- the freed 700Mhz band could be used for anything from new wireless phone to broadband service. (Photo by majorvols)

Junk Food: Care for a frypod with that shake?
What red-blooded American child wouldn't rather have nice, healthy apple slices in a frybox than the warm, salty bits of FAT that they're used to? Burger King, doing its best to be a good corporate citizen and fight the good fight against obesity, is offering this new snack in a "frypod." Better question: which marketing consultant decided that evoking "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in a snack would make it more appealing?

Reality TV: "It's time to dump the term "reality TV." ...
"It's time to dump the term "reality TV." At this point, it's rather like referring to packaged fruit snacks as "produce." My suggested replacement would be "partially scripted TV," which I imagine would be preferable to "fabricated" for those who work that end of the business." Ray Raymond, for the Hollywood Reporter.

Social Networks: Viacom throws social networks into Flux
Unable to match the pure social power of MySpace or Facebook -- no matter how many Virtual Laguna Beaches it launches -- Viacom is taking the next leap in the networking frontier. Instead of hosting, it's getting all Matrixy and becoming the network. Its Flux platform is sort of like Microsoft's PassPort or Google Checkout -- a universal profile and set of user features that will appear across Viacom's sites and any interested third parties. A smarter move considering we're all sick of remembering multiple logins, but when will we finally reach social network saturation?

Media: We do TOO have a lot of traffic, says BusinessWeek
In the category of "the best defense is a good offense": The editors at BusinessWeek are not interested in anyone's analysis of why their website's traffic lags Forbes.com and Fortune.com--even when it says they're not to blame. Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka tried to give them a break, yesterday, saying that a 24/7wallstreet.com report blaming their crappy numbers on crappy content was faulty analysis; they were actually the victims of poor distribution. Fortune.com, for example, benefits from all the traffic at CNMoney.com, while BusinessWeek.com stands alone on the web. Yet editor-in-chief John Byrne responded by saying that the ComScore numbers were completely wrong. Yes, they probably understated the case, but they weren't completely out of the ballpark, even according to Kafka. So the question remains: why DO they lag so far behind the other financial sites? I'd pick poor distribution. It's a lot easier to fix.

Silicon Valley: Vinod Khosla thinks all you Prius owners ...
Vinod Khosla thinks all you Prius owners are on personal guilt trips. The venture capitalist likens it to giving money to "art museums instead of starving people [in Africa]." Ethanol and bio-fuels are better bets because the average consumer isn't willing to spend $5,000 to save a half ton of carbon per year. Neither is Khosla. [VentureBeat]

Online Video: You can teach old media new tricks. The New ...
You can teach old media new tricks. The New York Times posted its first video to the editor sent in by film maker Charles Ferguson as a rebuttal to an Op-Ed on the disbandment of the Iraq army. [Editor & Publisher]

Videogames: Ever-growing concern that children play too ...
Ever-growing concern that children play too many videogames has led one Texas GameStop retailer to refuse school-age customers who can't prove they have good grades. He'll even buy students earning straight As a new game. [Kotaku]

Your Privacy Is An Illusion: Google wants Web privacy standards
Peter Fleischer, Google's privacy czar, wants universal privacy laws -- no doubt Google wants to establish a base standard so it won't continue to get called on its own anti-privacy actions. At a United Nations agency conference in Strasbourg, Fleischer cited the proliferation of personal data on the Web as a cause for concern, particularly because things like credit card numbers passes through several nations, all with varying privacy laws, before completing transactions. "If privacy principles can be agreed in such divergent countries [as Australia and Vietnam], then we think that is a model for the rest of the world," said Fleischer in reference to guideline established by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Of course the real question is who will enforce them.

Techcrunch: Is TechCrunch turning into Valleywag?
That's not our question. It comes from this blog.. The evidence: these headlines, which the writer apparently feels are beneath Arrington. * Breast Isn't Best On Facebook* Something Going On At Twitter? * Googlers Get Kinky On Wikipedia * Multi-Day Paypal Subscription Outage * Like Sands Through The Hour Glass, Another Person Is Claiming To Have Founded Facebook * Sprint Sucks And Their New Website Is Stupid * Attack Of The Fake BloggersIyer clearly thinks Arrington is going to the dogs. But we think those heds are fab--and can't understand why everyone doesn't want to be like us.

Six Apart: Six Apart parts with CEO
After Livejournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick left for greener, Googlier pastures, we told you to expect more drama from blogging software company Six Apart, and here's the latest installment. Barak Berkowitz, pictured, is out as CEO and will be replaced by Chris Alden, the former head of 6A's Professional Division and the person in charge of the recent Movable Type 4 upgrade. Alden came to Six Apart after last year's acquisition of feed reader company Rojo, a purchase which some saw more as a play to bring Alden to Six Apart than for the technology behind Rojo. As for Berkowitz, there is no word on his next professional move -- a spokesperson for Six Apart said that he was taking a "well earned vacation" immediately following the handover and would then "explore new opportunities."

Confirmed: PRWeek confirms our month-old scoop that ...
PRWeek confirms our month-old scoop that Facebook has hired PR firm OutCast to help manage the hungry journalists seeking information on the hot social network. [PRWeek]

YouTube: Prince is gonna sue you like it's 1999
Purple Rain vs. Chocolate Rain: Prince is suing YouTube for not actively removing illegal copies of his work. His argument is simple and solid: "YouTube ... are clearly able (to) filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success." YouTube responded with the usual lines.The company's top lawyer said, "Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better." This bullshit started to smell months ago, and Prince has long been a caller-out of bull. (Remember that the "my name is now a symbol" stunt was his way of avoiding an unfair label contract.) On the other hand, YouTube knows that it's easier for most labels and artists to give in and take a cut of ad revenue from these illegal clips, than to constantly delete the clips that users will submit...

Quotable: Being either too aggressive or too compliant ...
Being either too aggressive or too compliant can be disasterous when negotiating with Apple so News Corp's president Peter Chernin opts for the safety of being obvious. On upcoming music negotiations with the computer maker: "I assume it will be prickly and dicey and contentious like all negotiations are and like all negotiations should be." [Reuters]

Google: Land on moon, collect $30 million
One-upping the $10 million non-profit X Prize for commercial space travel, Google is offering $20 million to the first private enterprise that makes it to the moon. Of course, this is a Google venture, so the winner has to compete some secondary tasks to get the prize. Once they're done with the main bit of landing on the freaking moon, prize seekers must take video and walk some specified distances. Google offers bonus prizes for finding ice, spotting Apollo equipment, and surviving the lunar night. Great, the next lunar landing will play like an episode of Survivor.

Digital Music: Village People to YouTube: "Can you say D-M-C-A?"
Perhaps emboldened by Prince's move to sue YouTube, eBay, and Pirate Bay for encouraging others to violate his copyrights or -- more likely -- seduced by Web Sheriff who is assisting both artists to create a minor media brouhaha, disco band The Village People has announced its own plans to sue YouTube for a video featuring Hitler and a coterie of prominent Nazis singing "YMCA." Unlike Prince who seems to have given little regard for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's provision which allows potentially infringing parties an exception until a take down notice has been issued, Web Sheriff and The Village People have sent more than 500 take down notices for the same offending clip.Every time YouTube complies, another user uploads the same video -- which may provide The Village People an actual legal argument . On the other hand, while The Village People have every right to be offended by their music being associated with Nazis, doesn't Hitler dancing and singing gay men's disco...

Rumormonger: Adam Bosworth going to Facebook?
We're hearing whispers that Adam Bosworth, ex-Google and Microsoft engineer who created XML and the Access database, will soon join hot social network Facebook. Not 100% on this yet -- Facebook PR head Brandee Barker is traveling and unavailable for comment -- but the rumors seem strong and very plausible to us. If true, this sheds new light on Bosworth's swift and sudden departure from Google, where he was head of Google's beleaguered health project. The most surprising rumor is Bosworth's supposed new title: Vice President of Engineering, a position currently held by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Know anything more? Please fill us in.

Caption Contest: Kevin Rose cracks his iPhone
"I dropped my iphone :(" says Kevin Rose, co-founder of social sites Digg and Pownce. Best caption wins an iPhone ringtone version of "Umbrella."

YouTube: Pitzer College offers YouTube class
Or, as TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington puts it, WTF? Although maybe it's not so far-fetched since, as we pointed out earlier in the week, Stanford is offering a similar class: Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook."

Google: Esther Wojcicki, did your journalism degree teach you disclosure?
Huffington Post's Esther Wojcicki gushes over Google's Lunar X Prize. It's not the $30 million those nice Google boys, Larry and Sergey, are offering whomever can successfully land a rover on the moon. This Palo Alto schoolmarm is keen on all the teaching tools the Lunar X Prize is providing educators. She writes, "The team at the Lunar Xprize has prepared free learning guides, videos and other resources to help stimulate student interest not only in space but in math, science and technology as well." She sees this as an effort to rectify the "anti-science trend in schools." Google's efforts are all well and good, but there's another reason why this journalism teacher is so sweet on Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- she's Brin's mother-in-law. Her daughter Anne married him in May. But the Google ties go even deeper. Her daughter Susan Wojcicki is Google's VP of product managementand Susan's garage in Menlo Park served as the search engine's first headquarters. Even daughter Janet...

Trends: Goodbye cruel online world
The Times of London has a hilarious story on the rise of a new phenomenon they dub the "Facebook Suicide," -- completely deleting all your information from a social network. If this were an actual, measurable trend, it might cause some consternation in the social networking world, but, after reading the article, Silicon Valley should be relieved. All the people quoted come off like complete technophobic loons. Take 27-year-old Stephanie, who quit Facebook to save her relationship with her insecure, insanely jealous, and manipulative boyfriend, who couldn't stand to see old pictures of her on her exes' profiles. "Facebook was damaging my relationship with my boyfriend to such an extent that if I hadn't done it [deleted her profile] we wouldn't be together now," she states. "As soon as my Facebook profile died, our relationship improved." Right-o there, Steph. It's Facebook's fault that your boyfriend is an abusive control freak.But leave it to the therapists to take the whole...

Sponsors: Advertise on Valleywag, collect $30 million
Ah, to be an all-powerful search engine capable of funding lunar expeditions to the tune of 30 mils. We do not have that power, gentle sponsors. But we do have the power to thank you:Ask.comBank of AmericaCanonMioPioneerSprintTiVoVerifyInformation on how to advertise -- no off-Earth travel required! -- can be found here: Advertise on Valleywag.

Embargo Breakers: The TechCrunch40 List
Since mini-moguls Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington both made their fortunes from New Media, one would assume that their conference TechCrunch40 (the one that Valleywag is banned from) would be a modern affair where bloggers wouldn't be ignored while big-time journalists got special treatment. But the founders hid the names of their conference's forty featured companies. They're telling journalists tomorrow but putting an embargo on the names. An embargo usually means they've promised someone an exclusive. My bet is that Arrington and Calacanis fed the list to the New York Times. But they also put it on a big sign that's already set up at the venue, San Francisco's Palace Hotel, where journalist Paul Boutin saw all 40 names. Guess he wins the exclusive!

Exits: The fall of AOL's Mike Kelly
Search and ye shall find -- steady employment in advertising, that is. That's the lesson I'm taking from Mike Kelly's abrupt ouster, announced today, as head of AOL's ad sales. How abrupt? Mediaweek just named him one of the 50 most influential people in advertising. If you haven't heard of Kelly, here's his resumé at a glance: A Time Inc. ad sales guy who rose to become publisher of Entertainment Weekly, Kelly was sent down by Time Warner to fix AOL's relationships with advertisers. He largely succeeded in that, and also spearheaded the acquisition of Advertising.com, an online ad network that places ads on third-party sites. Advertising.com has provided much of AOL's recent growth in ad revenues. But elsewhere, AOL's ad sales have stalled. Especially in search. And Kelly, fairly or unfairly, is getting the blame.Like Yahoo's ousted ad-sales chieftains, Gregory Coleman and Wenda Harris Millard, Kelly grew up in the world of print publishing. And banner ads, although...

Online Advertising: AOL's internal email on the New York shuffle
There's a truism that every corporate relocation, whatever the ostensible business reason, ends up shortening the CEO's commute. And AOL's Randy Falco has accomplished that much. By moving AOL's headquarters from Dulles, Va. to New York City, he's able to stop diverting the company jet to White Plains and go back to getting driven into Manhattan. Oh, sure, New York is a better location for an advertising-driven business. With the collapse of AOL's dial-up Internet business, Dulles's network operations are less and less important. Falco has much else to say in an internal company memo obtained by Valleywag. The full memo is printed after the jump, and I'll be back with more analysis of AOL's big changes.Dear AOL colleague,A little over a year ago, AOL announced its new strategic direction as a global advertising supported Web business. And with a series of announcements we're making today, we are - at last - fully embracing our new direction as a company. When Ron and I came...

Recap: While I was out
Seriously, people. I leave you alone for a week and what do you do?Well, if you're Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, you Pay $1.3 million to park your jet at Moffett Field.If you're Nick Douglas, you go on a Digg strike.If you're Six Apart founders Ben and Mena Trott, you swap out your old and busted CEO for the new hotness.If you're Digg founder Kevin Rose, you break your iPhone.If you're Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, you donate your car to charity and make a nerdy video.That's it. I'm never taking a vacation again. You people clearly can't be trusted to behave yourselves.