• EmTech

    A gigantic picture of Robert Scoble for no reason

    CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Fast Company videoblogger Robert Scoble, who has discovered in the Web a popularity which escaped him in high school, has been moderating a panel titled "Web 2.0/Web 3.0 Mashup" at MIT's EmTech conference for the past hour. There are people from Facebook, Six Apart, and Plaxo on stage with him. With no introduction, Scoble launched into a meandering conversation about data portability, online video, URIs, social TV guides, and the Olympics. An hour later, it still has no sign of going anywhere. Joseph Smarr of Plaxo talks very fast. Dave Morin of Facebook seems very tired. Sample quote: "The pace of change is not indexable from a central service." The audience appears to be stunned into stupor. Does it matter that nothing is being said? Perhaps not; perhaps the point is to show this audience of technology generalists how insubstantial the obsessions of the Valley's geek set are.

    1:20 PM on Wed Sep 24 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    384 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Antilles_Prime: well, I think that quote is alluding to emerging tech like XRDS-S that is going to allow for dynamically discoverable more »

  • once you're lucky, twice you're good

    P is for Parker, the Valley's bad boy

    Sean Parker has had a hand in some of the Valley's biggest successes. His first company, Napster, took the world by storm, but didn't make Parker rich. His second, Plaxo, just sold to Comcast. And his third, Facebook — well, say no more. Except for the bit about him getting kicked out, according to Mark Zuckerberg's legal testimony, for a cocaine arrest. (Parker characterized the incident as "a misunderstanding.") That and more is covered in the 21 pages Sarah Lacy devotes to Parker in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, new book about Web 2.0. The index page where Parker is listed: More »

    6:00 AM on Thu May 15 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,294 views, 4 comments

    Latest by Dweezil: @dingdongditch: I wasn't thinking about pot. more »

  • acquisitions

    Comcast acquires Plaxo, after unbearably long courtship

    Months after rumors of its interest first surfaced, Comcast has officially bought Plaxo. Terms weren't disclosed, but we last heard that the price was rumored to be around $175 million. For now, Comcast is keeping Plaxo and its engineering team in place in Mountain View, giving the cable company a toehold in Silicon Valley. I briefly spoke to Plaxo marketing dude John McCrea, who outlined some possibilities for how Plaxo could apply social networking to Comcast's Web properties. John, sounds great, but I'd be happy if your engineers could just figure out how to connect my Comcast.net Internet ID with my Comcast.com billing account.

    4:20 PM on Wed May 14 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    578 views, 4 comments

    Latest by haggie: Two companies that will gladly screw over customers to make a buck. They belong together. Expect your private data to more »

  • earnings

    Comcast's fourth-quarter earnings

    Comcast reported a 54 percent jump in fourth quarter profits due primarily to increased customer spending and added revenues from acquired companies. Comcast also announced a dividend of 6.25 cents per share for the quarter and said it plans to spend $6.9 billion on share buybacks before 2010.
    "We are not spending any time on any of the large transformative acquisitions that have been speculated about, like Yahoo! or Sprint," said CEO Brian Roberts. No official word about small ones like Plaxo. [AP]

    2:50 PM on Thu Feb 14 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    137 views, 2 comments

    Latest by Owen Thomas: @rohitj: Thanks for the catch. I'll admonish Carlson. more »

  • deals

    Comcast to Plaxo: "Yeah, I'd sync that" -- for $175 million

    We keep hearing Plaxo has signed a deal to sell the company. But is the buyer Google — where engineer Brad Fitzpatrick is buddy-buddy with Plaxo's Joseph Smarr? Or is it Comcast? The latter. Comcast, we're told, has bought Plaxo for $175 million in cash. While Plaxo has tried to reinvent itself as a social network, its still primarily used as an online address book. And that's the appeal to Comcast. More »

    5:06 PM on Wed Feb 13 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,097 views, 1 comment

    Latest by ballmer: You're going to make David Recordon jealous more »

  • deals

    Plaxo torn between two lovers?

    Is Plaxo going to Google, as some rumors have it? Possibly. We hear Joe Kraus, a Google executive knee-deep in its effort to catch up in social networking, skipped the company trip to Disneyland this week so he could finish a deal. But other insiders say Google's not doing a deal with Plaxo. Another plausible bidder: Comcast. More »

    5:39 PM on Thu Feb 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,416 views, 1 comment

    Latest by googoobaby: Joe probably had a previous date with his alien friends and had to get kitted up before the comet passed. more »

  • deals

    Google to buy Plaxo -- and a new pal -- for $200 million?

    Plaxo, the contact-sharing service trying to reinvent itself as a social network, may have sold itself to Google for something close to $200 million. And if the rumor's true, I think the companies may be doing it out of friendship. One could bloviate endlessly here about industry consolidation, user-data portability, and so on — and I'm sure you'll read plenty of that. I think the real reason is much simpler. Brad Fitzpatrick, the LiveJournal founder now leading Google's social-network strategy, wants to work with Joseph Smarr, Plaxo's chief platform architect. I sat with the two at lunch at the Web 2.0 Summit last year, and they got along famously. More »

    12:50 PM on Thu Feb 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,928 views, 7 comments

    Latest by vijaymv_in: Wanted to know what is going to happen to Mark Jen working with plaxo who was fired from Google for more »

  • joseph smarr

    Plaxo's Share Bear speed-talks his way through friends-list chat


    Joseph Smarr is Plaxo's chief platform architect and one of the data-portability Share Bears. He just wants you to be able to snuggle your friends from one website to the next. How sweet! Smarr gave a speech on the subject at this weekend's Foo Camp nerdfest. I'd do a 100-word version of it, but I just can't keep up with the geek rock star's mile-a-minute pace.

    12:00 PM on Mon Feb 4 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    485 views, 8 comments

    Latest by babyjesus: @macbeach: i'm not sure exactly what you mean by receiving a reply, but members on my site have been able more »

  • separated at net worth

    The Share Bears in the Land Without Portability

    Caring is sharing, people, especially when it comes to your personal data. Leading developers from important social-network sites joining a "data-portability" advocacy group doesn't represent history in the making. It's a marketing campaign to make everyone feel sickly sweet, knowing that these websites are so concerned about our information. Like the Care Bears, by signing on to the DataPortability Working Group, top coders like Brad Fitzpatrick, Dave Recordon, and Ben Ling have joined forces to form a group which we can only call by one name. Presenting: The Share Bears! More »

    6:00 PM on Wed Jan 30 2008
    By Tim Faulkner
    1,983 views, 5 comments

    Latest by sample032: Cheer bear is totally gay, people. more »