Valleywag
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In Brief
Party plane down under
Is this Google's party plane? Christchurch's Press newspaper is reporting that a 767 like that kitted out by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, was spotted at the New Zealand city's airport, earlier this week. I particularly like the sealed stairs, perfect for an airtight exit into a smoked-glass SUV. -
In Brief
Things that didn't happen in 2006
Thank god for the collective intelligence of the blogosphere, or at least its willingness, occasionally, to do the grunt work of journalism. Thomas Hawk's been scoring predictions made a year ago by the oracles of the web.
Web veteran Dave Winer said Apple would ship iPods that could pick up both satellite and FM signals. And he predicted Google's video move, but got the vehicle wrong: the search engine bought Youtube rather than, as Winer expected, doing a deal with Time Warner. Lots of people, including Gigaom's Om Malik and Fortune's David Kirkpatrick, predicted a cellphone from Apple.
Jason Calacanis, soon after he sold Weblogs Inc. to AOL, expected everybody else to follow. He said CNET would buy Digg and itself be acquired. As would Federated Media, to Google, and Gawker Media, publisher of this site, to News Corporation.
John Battelle, chronicler of the search industry, predicted a stumble by Google, a search engine IPO which would get the press talking about "the Next Google", and a gain by Microsoft of least five points of search engine share. A balm for Battelle's battered reputation as a seer: he said Web 2.0 would make the covers of the news weeklies. -
In Brief
Here comes the Boom!
The year in review, a video medley inspired by the new tech boom, by Richard Blakeley. Music: P.O.D.'s Boom! Ready or not. Here comes the Boom! Featuring: Hollywood star Tom Cruise at Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters, a visit that later inspired the internet media company's own Jerry Maguire moment; Chad Hurley and the other guy, demonstrating the on-camera goofiness that made Youtube $1.65bn; Lonelygirl, the other ingredient of the video sharing site's success; Michael Dell and Larry Ellison as Jib-Jab puppets; and others. The full video, after the jump. More » -
In Brief
The indispensible CEO
Amid the mess of Apple Computer's executive options scandal, there's one consolation for Steve Jobs, the computer company's brilliantly insane CEO. Investors would really, really miss him. About 30 companies have lost top execs after the discovery that they deviously fed extra profits to chosen executives by adjusting the dates of options grants. Most of them aren't missed. But Apple's Jobs, the driving force behind its iPod music player and corporate recovery, may be the Valley's one truly indispensible CEO. Which makes Apple vulnerable, as illustrated by the excerpt below, but flatters Jobs. As if the Apple founder needed further inflation of his overblown ego. More » -
In Brief
The frustrating chase of the long tail
I'm beginning to have my doubts about Chris Anderson's long tail, the proposition that cultural boutiques can make a living on the internet. Seems the more successful abandon the long tail for the plusher conditions of network television; and the stragglers are so far down the long tail that they fall off the chart. One disgruntled publisher complains she's owed less than the minimum Google can be bothered to pay her. And, as fast as she makes money, Google lifts the threshold. More » -
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In Brief
Boobtube overload
Google's acquisition of Youtube was always a mixed blessing for other video sharing sites. On the one hand, it established an elevated price benchmark, and set Google's comptitors into a frenzy. On the other hand, the deal set off an even more overwhelming rush to sell, before bandwidth costs ate up the video startups' funding. And it became hard to see companies such as Metacafe and Grouper as anything other than leftovers. Leftovers that are now beginning to go off. Grouper was smart to sell to Sony in September while media companies were still in full panic mode. But Metacafe's negotiations with Yahoo have been dragging on, without conclusion. And now comes an extraordinarily blunt admission by Guba's founder that execs are leaving the company: More » -
In Brief
2006 in tech, the marketing awards
The moment has arrived. Voting begins in Valleywag's 2006 marketing awards. The nominees: a startup which delivered pizza to Google's Mountain View gourmands; the low-rent TV ad for Eons, the social network for the over-50s; a grassroots marketing campaign by Microsoft's Zune team, the year-end meltdown of the Valley's most influential tech news publisher; Microsoft asking for the return of laptops it had given to bloggers; the painfully long life of Sony battery recall; Facebook's arrogance; and Second Life's unwise hypemongering. More » -
SVUG #16: What's the easiest New Year's Resolution I can make?
PAUL BOUTIN — Why suffer a diet or slog through another article on "2007 Ways to Fast Forward Your Career?" SVUG has a five-minute Valley makeover you can start right now at your desk.
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diggbait
I'll have what he's having: Specialty cocktails for the tech world
NICK DOUGLAS — Another year and the bubble hasn't popped! Sysadmins and C-level execs alike, you deserve something special, like a drink named after you or your latest achievement. And Yahoos deserve a drink all to themselves. So after the first champagne, order these official cocktails for techies in 2007! More »
San Francisco, 9:20 AM
Sun Nov 23
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