Valleywag
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leaks
You too can be a Crunchies Co-Host for $25,000
"Sure the economy is kicking the crap out of us," says the website for this years Crunchies awards for Web 2.0 startups, overseen by TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington. But don't let that stop you from spending $25,000 to be an official Co-Host for the event, a posh dress-up bash to be held at San Francisco's Herbst Theater in January. Or, for $15,000, you can sponsor one of the 15 award categories. I crashed the afterparty last year and, really, it was fun. But $25K? I'm dying to find out what this year's sponsors actually end up paying. Here's the official price list: More » -
we read twitter so you don't have to
Twitter ad system lets you shill automatically
One reason a lot of Twitterholics love Twitter is that there are no advertisements to interrupt the first-person human communication. Now TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington has found a German startup, Be-A-Magpie, that offers to pay Twitterers to mix ads into their status updates. The service sends tweets from your account, with your name and face plus their 140-character advertiser's message. I love watching Arrington smolder over the idea, because he's right. The Internet was built by people trying to get away from this sort of thing. -
toogle many googlers
Google now lets TechCrunch pretend we don't exist
With a name like SearchWiki, you know it's going to be clever, yet stupid. Google has spent ten years and I don't know how many hundred million dollars refining a rocket-science algorithm for ranking Internet search results. Now, a few Google coders have whipped up a feature that lets you boost or cut the scores of individual websites from your own future searches. For example, grudge-o-matic TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington can click his own posts to the top of any Google search he performs. With one more click, he can remove Valleywag entirely from his life. That frees us to post as many photos of Big Mike's girlfriends as we want. Everybody wins! Personal note to Google engineer Amay: Next time you make a video, try to go longer than seven seconds without saying "cool." -
meltdowns
GOOG at 283.44, TechCrunch to throw party in Paris
Shorter version of TechCrunch: It's the "worst economic environment in our collective lifetimes. Get your ticket for the TechCrunch/LeWeb party!" If this does not make perfect sense to you, please move back to Nebraska. -
Great Moments in Anonymous Journalism
LayoffGossip just keeps getting better
I won't give up until I land automoronic rumor site LayoffGossip a hit in a major American newspaper. It's a perfect story for a lazy reporter: Web 2.0 uses Web 2.0 to document failure of Web 2.0. Three's a trend! Right now, the site's Valleywag entry says, quote, "General feeling is fearful. to be careful. Average salaries will be available next week." LayoffGossip has forced me to confess an ugly truth: TechCrunch is actually pretty good. -
politics
Valley homophobes still drafting Yes on Prop 8 response ad
BoomTown reporter Kara Swisher rappelled from a skylight at Jerry Yang's secret hideout to score this draft copy of an ad, in which a bunch of tech bigwigs come out in favor of gay marriage — or at least in opposition to Proposition 8, a California state ballot initiative which would ban it. No Valley company in its right mind would be seen opposing gay marriage, so why bother? More » -
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great moments in journalism
Top 10 commenters TechCrunch is afraid of
I understand it's still Tough Times, Tough Decisions month. But a layoff at TechCrunch would have been better than a post by TechCrunch's leader criticizing the site's commenters. It's a slow news morning here, too, so I'll reblog the best entry, No. 3: More » -
blogging for dollars
TechCrunch heads for the deadpool
Michael Arrington is a has-been, and he knows it. When the smoke clears after the crash and burn of the money machine behind today's tech startups, there's one word no one will ever write into a business plan again: Web 2.0. For Arrington, whose TechCrunch blog was born with the mission of tracking what he called "Web 2.0" startups, that's a problem. More » -
Checking In On Facebook Connect: Where Are All The Partners?
Facebook Connect, a product that ties a user’s Facebook account to other sites on the Internet, was first announced on May 9, more than five months ago. Digg was announced as a launch partner.
It’s a strategically important product, with competition from both Google and MySpace. So the big question is, how is it doing?
Facebook Platform Is Dead! Long Live Facebook Platform!
Facebook Platform continues to evolve, which mainly means pushing applications developed by third parties farther and farther away from the home and profile pages. Some Facebook employees have said privately that the platform is dead. Many developers agree.
Facebook’s internal struggle over the role of the Platform going forward may be nearing a conclusion. Facebook’s new music initiative will send a clear signal one way or the other as the company decides to either build it themselves or partner with developers.
But Facebook Connect is the new Facebook Platform. Instead of bringing third party apps into Facebook, Connect brings Facebook functionality into those third party services. Those sites get to leverage Facebook’s social graph to help them connect users. In return, Facebook gets lots of user data and cements its position as the owner of canonical profiles (meaning real users, real data) and their friend list.
So Who’s Adopted Facebook Connect So Far? In late July more details were given on Facebook Connect, and 25 more launch partners were added. ABC Television Group (plus Disney), Amiando, CBS (including CNET and The Insider), Digg, Disney, Flock, Hulu, IAC (CitySearch, College Humor, Evite, Vimeo), Kongregate, Loopt, Plaxo, Radar, Red Bull, Seesmic, SocialThing (now part of AOL), StumbleUpon, Twitter, Six Apart, Uber and Xobni were all announced as launch partners, along with a statement that the service would go live in the coming months. Of those partners, two have integrated with Facebook Connect, although data on activities is not yet sent back to Facebook for inclusion in the News Feed: The Insider and Red Bull. In addition, a few other sites have gone live with Facebook Connect that weren’t in the initial launch group. These include CNN’s The Forum site, MyBarackObama, Indiegogo, GlobalGrind, ConnectedWeddings and Govit.
So What About The Other 24 Launch Partners? We’ve spoken with many of the announced launch partners to understand if, and when, they will integrate with Facebook Connect. Some are in process now. Others have expressed some concern that Facebook will do a “bait and switch” by changing Facebook Connect down the road to something less interesting, or more onerous, to them (like they’ve arguably done with Facebook Platform). None of the launch partners that we spoke with have told us that they definitively will not be integrating Facebook Connect. But few of them were willing to specify a date they’d be launching. Facebook says more integrations are coming soon. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. MORE » -
great moments in journalism
How to have your layoff spin published verbatim
Got layoffs? Don't spend hours crafting the perfect "Hard Times, Hard Choices" blog post for your leader. Here's how to hack the media to deliver your message: More »
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San Francisco, 12:47 AM
Fri Dec 5
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