So, higher asset prices on fewer transactions, and no clarity on how many are inside deals? That sounds familiar. What could it be? Hmmm. Gosh, it sounds like the dying days of the real estate bubble, circa late 2006.

(Photo by Annie Lawry) [Infectious Greed]

*In the sense of "persuading, especially with flattery," you dirty birds. What did you think I meant by "canoodling"?

Remember Yahoo FinanceVision? It was Yahoo's attempt to imitate CNBC, except on your computer. Launched in 2000, with an annoyingly overenthusiastic commercial embedded above, dragged on for two years before declining online advertising revenues put a bullet in it. We hear it's rising from the grave. We've confirmed that BusinessWeek columnist and certified Valley Fox Sarah Lacy has been signed as a talking head. Other rumored contributors include VC blogger and TV pundit Paul Kedrosky and manflesh connoisseur Henry Blodget, the disgraced Wall Street analyst and founder of Silicon Alley Insider. Blodget, at least, has experience talking up stocks.

Google this! On the Money [YouTube]

• The New Yorker publishes a followup six years in the making — the wedding of designer Jason Kottke and Blogger co-creator Meg Hourihan. [New Yorker; Photo source: Kottke]
• Mini-Microsoft blogger stops writing; Microsoft now allowed to be huge and ungainly again. [Mini-Microsoft]
• Publisher Tim O'Reilly writes a lengthy response to the Web 2.0 (TM) shitstorm. The upshot: Yes, O'Reilly wants to own the name "Web 2.0 Conference." He's also disappointed in you all. [O'Reilly Radar]
• Blog mogul Jason Calacanis answers Michael Arrington: Jason meant to defuse the rumor that Arrington's TechCrunch reviews are for sale. But since Mike wants to make a public spat out of it, Jason's only too happy to oblige. [Calacanis.com]
• PR Agency Idea Grove wants to cheat test Technorati. Here's some help, just 'cause their site is pretty. [Idea Grove]
• "In McKinsey space," says VC blogger Paul Kedrosky, "no one can hear you scream." The consultants that told eBay not to worry about Google's PayPal killer, now invites other dot-coms to a bull session. [Paul Kedrosky]
• See, it's funny because Google bought GoogleMastercard.com on the eve of MasterCard's IPO. PayPal is screwed. [Simple SEM]
• Someone forgot the first two rules of Fight Club. [USA Today]

We're certainly not paying $2 billion for Facebook. If the price was right I'd be interested in it.

So says News Corp dealmaker Ross Levinsohn, who bought MySpace for $580 last year, when it was already more trafficked than Facebook.

Looks like Facebook's recent rejection of a $750-million offer is still bringing in bad PR: giga-blogger Om Malik, not satisfied with showing Facebook's flagging Alexa-reported traffic, graphed out Facebook's inadequacy with more specific ComScore metrics.

Meanwhile, VC blogger Paul Kedrosky figures Facebook's a ticking time bomb, since its college-student users have a nasty habit of graduating.

Tried to reach my only contact at Facebook, but he's in Bora Bora. Is the Facebook management escaping to tropical paradises while selling the company for ten times its value? (No, but it's fun to ask.)

Facebook: $750 million or $2 Billion [GigaOM]
Fox on Facebook: Not at These Prices [Paul Kedrosky]

Not my argument. Rather, that s the other side s argument, and the one that has to be addressed by proponents of Net Neutrality (like me!). I even later joked about the inevitability of being misquoted. And yes, sure enough.

Oh, it happened more than once, Andrew. [GigaOM]
And so it begins: a judge orders Google to hand a Gmail account to the feds. Suddenly that "delete" button looks a little better than "archive." [Techdirt]
Esthrfication watch: still stripping vowels, and Mark "Zuckrbrg" is a double victim. [Esther Dyson on Flickr]