Forgive, But Remember - It Never Pays To Hold a Grudge

The saying is to "forgive and forget", but people aren't built that way. Once you feel you have been wronged, whether in a critical manner or one that is relatively trivial, it is practically impossible to erase the memory. But that doesn't mean you need to hold on to it - because for the most part, time does heal wounds, and the truth is, you never know the full story from the other person's perspective. Often, there will come a time when you will cross paths with that person again, and the next time, it just might be different.

Last month, I was asked by a well-known blogger if two of the public flare-ups we had on this site (with Mashable and Duncan Riley) had been for show, ostensibly for short-term traffic. I said that they were not contrived, but that we had come to terms quickly. Since the flare-ups, Mashable altered their editorial focuses, I've gotten to know some of the authors better, and others have moved on. Meanwhile, Duncan is a sharp guy who I often see on social networks, and bounce e-mails off of when we have ideas.

I was thinking of this again when I learned the news of Valleywag's changing of the guard today. As Owen Thomas departs, the void is set to be filled by Ryan Tate, previously the night editor at Gawker.

Eighteen months ago, I highlighted Ryan's launching of a new blog, called "The Hack", and at the time, I mentioned we had "occasionally clashed politically" more than a decade ago when we were both staff members at the Daily Californian student newspaper at UC Berkeley. He and I started working together back in 1996, both on the news authoring side, and the online publishing side. By the 1997-98 year, he was Editor In Chief at the newspaper, and by the 1998-99 year, I had moved on to work in the Silicon Valley (where I've been since).

Ryan and I had a lot of positive overlaps, as we collaborated on breaking news stories, longer investigate pieces, special sections and the online site's layout and focus. But of course, we bumped heads too. At the time, our clashes seemed critical, and now, they seem trivial. We both let those wounds heal and fade into the history, which is exactly what it was. And now, I am excited to see Ryan promoted to his new post, seeing it as another peer who emerged intact from the crucible which was the daily paper, where journalists and future bloggers were forged. One of these days, I should chase down all the names who were there when he and I shared spots on the editorial board, but they dot some of the top news media sources in the world.

I could have stayed ticked at Ryan, and he me. I could have turned my back on Duncan and Mashable too, but that's not fun, and it's not healthy. It's a small industry, and we're all working toward shared goals - to find interesting news quickly, and post with quality. Now, when the tendency is to get ticked, take things personally and go off on some rant, I know to hold my breath and pause. It's less exciting, and it doesn't get tons of traffic, but you won't see rants here, and I'm not carrying a grudge. You never know when you'll need these people again.

Congratulations, Ryan. I wish you well at your new post. But remember, if you come after me, I have 14 years of e-mail backed up. :)

Yahoo! Co-Founders Quietly Come Out Against Prop 8

Last week, Apple and Google made headlines for announcing their opposition to California's Proposition 8, which aims to restrict marriage to couples of different genders. At the time, following Apple's announcement, some, including Valleywag, asked why Yahoo!, still a thought leader in the Valley despite their many troubles, was remaining quiet on the issue. The company's Pride page features a "Vote No on Prop 8" link, but the company's leadership hasn't made the same headlines as Apple and Google have with their visible opposition.


Yang and Filo Both Donated $15k Against Prop 8
Without drawing attention, Yahoo! co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo have both donated $15,000 apiece, opposing proposition 8, according to public contribution records. (See: San Francisco Chronicle) In fact, the $15,000 donations make each of them the highest level donations in the city of Sunnyvale, almost double the third highest entry, which provides $8,000 in favor of the initiative passing.


The Pair's Contributions Lead Sunnyvale Donors
The controversial initiative is seeing money flow into the campaign for both sides, and recent polls have the initiative running with an even chance of passing, despite Silicon Valley's vocal opposition.

While Yang and Filo have made personal contributions against Prop 8, Yahoo!, aside from their Pride page, has made no official statement. My previous discussion on Prop 8 can be found here. And while I have heard some small buzz in the "Yes on 8" circles that they will boycott companies that oppose the initiative, at the rate it's going, they might not be able to search the Web or even use an iPod, so maybe they should at least rethink that strategy...

The full database of donations for and against Proposition 8 can be found at the San Francisco Chronicle's special page: http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/

Selling Ourselves Short as Women In Tech

By Cyndy Aleo-Carreira of Shakespeare I Ain't (E-mail / Twitter)

More than a few friends sent me a link to one of Loren Feldman's videos, assuming, I suppose, that I would be set to grab my torch and pitchfork and go after him yet again. I can't remember a video that he's done that I've agreed with, and have, on many occasions, found his videos in poor taste, yet his commentary on the now-infamous "Cypress" video was, while still a bit over the top, dead on the money.

There are several journalists and bloggers I look up to, and Kara Swisher is usually at the top of my list. Kara is who I'd like to be when I grow up, mixing an irreverance with an unflinching eye. I've mentioned her code of ethics statement in posts on more than one occasion, because she manages to walk the fine line of socializing in the industry with grace. Her commentary on the video, however, seemed to shy away from the issue of ethics, and whether that was because the journalist in question worked for her employer or not, I'm unsure. It left me disappointed.

In the echo chamber of the tech industry, impressions are everything. While the Silicon Valley crowd meet and greet all the time, and most of the big players interact at conferences, for many of us, the only interaction we will ever have with each other is online, and without that in-person interaction to base personalities on, those impressions left online are crucial. Even my writing here on the occasional basis is a shock. I told Louis, when I met him at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this year, I like him a lot better in person than I did based on the impression I had of him online.

The problem that we are running into is that tech has attempted, in nearly every way, to reimagine itself as a mini-Hollywood. The companies who have gained a lot of press are the ones being run by young, attractive people. It's become just as, if not more, important to look good than it does to be running a company that actually makes money in this climate.

In that same vein, it's become important to throw young, attractive reporters at those entrepreneurs. Tech still hasn't lost its male-dominated culture, and let's face it, when wooing young male entrepreneurs to spill their inside secrets, nothing works better than a pretty face. In some (but not all) cases, that young, pretty girl doesn't have the background or the experience necessary to really work the beat and remain objective. I'm in no way saying this is the case based on the Cypress video, but impressions are in the eye of the beholder, not the people who know the actual people involved.

It's disappointed me, time and time again, to see the parties and the groupies (for want of a better word). It's easier for girls (I just can't bring myself to call them women) to cozy up to an entrepreneur than a Hollywood star, and sites like Valleywag have made them famous in this tiny little realm. It's the wannabe Hollywood, complete with wannabe starlets.

But every time a story like this one comes out, with people questioning the principles of a journalist making silly videos with friends whose company she covers, or someone makes the front page of Valleywag as she climbs the social echelon of Silicon Valley, it reflects badly on all of us. For every woman in tech I respect like Kara or Orli Yakuel, there are more who are happy to skate by, regardless of the disrespect they receive. I can't imagine taking pride in gaining notoriety by what I'm wearing or who I'm dating rather than gaining respect for my knowledge and insight, and I wish that the women who do would think better of themselves than they do. We don't need to sell out to make it in tech.

Read more by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira at Shakespeare I Ain't.

Techmeme and TechCrunch's Detractors Prove It's Hard to be On Top

One downside of being in a visible leadership position is that you often have a bulls-eye on your back. Sometimes it's from your competition. Sometimes it's from people who feel what you offer isn't benefitting themselves personally, and other times, it can arguably be your biggest fans, who want to change what it is you do to serve their whim of the day. In the tech blogosphere, there is no single blog more influential and visible than TechCrunch, and there is no single aggregator or news site more influential and visible than Techmeme. That the two's fortunes are at times seen as being closely linked only helps to fuel the flames of frustration by those eager to see change, be it through finding alternative sources for news, or, instead, asking for either site to change its tone, its breadth of coverage, or its methodology.

From a third party point of view, it seems the day in and day out potshots against both Techmeme and TechCrunch have taken their toll on the most visible representatives of each site. Techmeme's Gabe Rivera is well-known for his sarcastic, evasive, answers when his site's reputation is questioned, and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is often described as short-fused and sleep deprived. Recently rumors have circulated saying Arrington wants out of the blogging business, and is looking to sell, no doubt in part due to stress of the "always on" atmosphere and ruthless competition. Of course, rumors are simply rumors... but given most PR firms have gotten to the point where reaching out to TechCrunch is part of their standard shtick, it's likely not as fun fielding all the inquiries and sticking to others' schedules as openly writing once was. And TechCrunch has burned through its share of strong writers, with talents like Marshall Kirkpatrick and Duncan Riley leaving, one on good terms, and the other, not as well, as it turned out. (See: On Arrington, My Final Word)

The two sites' major detractors tend to rail on common topics. TechCrunch can be seen as egocentric, and Arrington is perceived to have a bee-line on exclusives. Techmeme similarly has been described as elitist by those who don't get included, navel-gazing by those who think it's too insular, biased by those who feel they have been overlooked, or a single person's playground, by those who feel Gabe's claims to automation are overblown. And some industry blog veterans who regularly appear on Techmeme have even taken to saying it's not as relevant and influential as it once was, replaced by other sources of news.

The complaints around either service became so commonplace that a new word, bitchmeme, was made, loosely defined as "bitching about Techmeme", usually on the weekend, when some tech bloggers had no news to write about. The phrase since took on a life of its own, meaning any silly conflict between blogs that took place on the weekend.

TechCrunch and Techmeme get as much grumpiness tossed their direction as they do because they each own a valuable niche in the blogosphere, and are expanding their lead, rather than relinquishing it. While you could say that TechCrunch competes with ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, GigaOM or others, they have cemented themselves as the go-to site for new services entering the market, and even their opinion pieces are widely read, with almost a million unique RSS subscribers taking note. Techmeme's best competition at this point is BlogRunner, with Hacker News, Dave Winer's TechJunk, Duncan Riley's QMeme and more organic sites like RSSmeme or ReadBurner coming up in conversation. But Techmeme's original perceived competition, like TailRank and Megite, are mere shadows of what they initially promised. Meanwhile, TechCrunch is bringing on new writers, and posting more stories than ever (See: The Statbot: TechCrunch Statistics A-W), and Techmeme is going more mainstream, with news sources like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times featuring more prominently than most individual bloggers.

And with this leadership position, the sites don't have the luxury of acting without criticism any longer. Gabe almost has a part-time position made for himself just to go from blog to blog and explaining that in fact, Techmeme is not evil, and that it is relevant, explaining that TechCrunch has built a reputation as a reputable source for tech news, and therefore, is adequately represented on his site and in the leaderboard. Seemingly every day, Gabe is having to answer questions on Twitter or FriendFeed from people like Robert Scoble (or me in one example, when I wondered why a hot topic wasn't getting airtime). Meanwhile, Arrington gets called nasty names, mocked by Valleywag, and yelled at on Twitter.

But if you take a step back, TechCrunch's goal is to be a technology blog focused on Web 2.0, and it's doing that. Techmeme's stated goal is to be like the front page of the memes that are happening in the tech blogosphere at any given time, and for the large part, it does do that. While there is some uncertainty as to all the criteria that makes up being part of Techmeme, or rising up and down the page, or when something makes the site, it typically takes discussion, not only on the original site, but through links from other blogs, on Twitter, and other sharing sites.

The argument could be made that you could possibly find your technology news faster in another way. Maybe you could find it on FriendFeed, and get a broader scope of sources. Maybe you prefer the democratic approach of ReadBurner and RSSmeme. Maybe you want to go through Google Reader yourself, or rely on others' shared link blogs. But there is no question in my mind that Techmeme is relevant, as is TechCrunch, and being mentioned on either site continues to drive traffic today.

I also believe that Techmeme does a very good job at being available to those bloggers who aren't elite household names. Just tonight, we saw a blog that was born only three days ago make the site, and Yuvi Panda's work on The Statbot shows one third of all Techmeme headlines come from the "Long Tail". Techmeme is accessible to bloggers who write quality content and spur discussion. While I'm absolutely active in places like FriendFeed and Twitter, I don't believe that discussions from FriendFeed belong on Techmeme any more than do popular Twitter posts or popular YouTube videos. Techmeme has specialized in bringing us top tech blogging news, and it's doing it.

The bottom line? If you don't like Techmeme and you don't like TechCrunch, stop reading, or go out and make your own. The best way to show they're no longer relevant is to take them down yourself through competition. But today, they are both standing strong whether you like it or not. I just hope Mike Arrington and Gabe Rivera are enjoying what they do as much as when they first started, and that the daily body blows haven't gotten them so jaded that they want out, for that would be a big loss.

10 Predictions for 2008 In the World of Tech

1) Google Will Trump Both TechMeme and FeedHeads

Amid the discussion of Google's sneaking in a social network, little has been said about Google Reader potentially tabulating and reporting the most commonly-shared items and most popular feeds. I believe that in 2008, Google Reader will start reporting the most popular feeds, clicked items and shared items. By the end of 2008, it will become equally important for bloggers, if not more so, to be atop this list, instead of on TechMeme. Google will also integrate this information for both Facebook and iPhone, competing head to head with Mario Romero's excellent Feedheads application.

2) Facebook Will Buy Digg in an All-Stock Transaction

With the company being valued at $15 billion, Facebook can offer around 5 percent of the company to Kevin Rose and team at Digg and net them pre-IPO shares of what's sure to be a white-hot 2009 offering. The all-stock transaction would value Digg above $500 million, the highest possible exit for the company. Public companies, including Microsoft, will counter with $300 million of real money and be rebuffed.

3) eBay Will Sell StumbleUpon to Yahoo! or News Corporation

eBay has done absolutely nothing with StumbleUpon since the service's $75 million acquisition. Unlike PayPal, which was a natural fit, StumbleUpon has no fit within the ecosystem of eBay. A more acquisition-savvy businesses, like Yahoo! or News Corp, will end up with the property by the end of the year. Expect this to accelerate alongside management changes at eBay and continued fallout after the Skype disaster. What it will do is pocket eBay some serious cash. This time, StumbleUpon goes for north of $200M.

4) Twitter Will Add Video, Photography Support

Moving outside of its 140-character niche, Twitter will enable bored microbloggers to show exactly what they are doing with still photos and 15 second video clips. Despite the novelty wearing off, many will continue to do so, gaining us precious photos of the window over their computer desk, overexposed facial closeups and pictures of their breakfast. The service will be integrated with Picasa, Flickr and Photobucket.

5) Apple Boot Camp Will Morph to Be Like Parallels, VMWare Fusion

Some time in 2008, Apple's Boot Camp application will no longer require a restart to run Windows applications. Users will be able to natively run Microsoft Outlook, Project, Access and all other Windows-only applications alongside their Mac OS X applications on any new Mac. While developers may decry the competition to Parallels and VMWare Fusion, Apple will remain quiet, and slowly take over the market.

6) At Least One Major Browser Will Embed Ad-Blocking

By the end of 2008, either Firefox, Safari or Opera will natively ship with the ability to block all ad banners and Google AdSense. Publishers and bloggers will make a lot of noise about it, while secretly avoiding ads themselves. A significant percentage of early adopters will change browsers solely for this feature.

7) Assetbar and FriendFeed Will Gain Early Adopter Audiences

Early adopters always looking for an edge will move away from Bloglines and Google Reader in search for something more cutting-edge. Many will turn to FriendFeed and Assetbar, following the latter's launch, to find a rich feed reader with social networking features. However, neither service will enjoy a significant market share prior to the end of 2008, and neither will be acquired by the end of 2008.

8) Video Blogging Will Remain Unpopular, Unprofitable

Despite advances in video capture and broadband speeds, Web users will not gravitate toward long-form video blogs, choosing instead to stick with text and photography. Only the rare extreme niche businesses will find any success with utilizing video for blogging.

9) iTunes Video Rentals Will Decimate Netflix, Blockbuster, Hurt Box Office

The introduction of video rentals on iTunes will not only force a dramatic subscriber exit for Netflix and reduced rentals at Blockbuster, but will also further slow attendance at movie theaters nationwide, as consumers find the service good enough, and much less inexpensive than a night out.

10) Fast Company Will be a Fast Stay for Robert Scoble

After joining FastCompany in early 2008, Robert Scoble will be at first jubilant, have initial success, and then plateau. While he will remain tremendously popular, there will already be discussions by the end of 2008 as to where he will end up in 2009, giving ValleyWag and Uncov, among others, plenty to gossip about.

Other 2008 predictions:
Jeremy Toeman: Technology Predictions for 2008
Paris Lemon: The Year Ahead 2008: 17 Predictions
The Economist: Technology in 2008
Mahalo: 2008 Technology Predictions
Center Networks: 2008 Predictions from CenterNetworks

In Defense of Calacanis' Bulldogs

There's no love lost between Silicon Valley gossip rag ValleyWag and Mahalo's Jason Calacanis. Wherever possible, Valleywag does what it can to try and embarrass or misconstrue Jason's efforts, to undermine his goals, or generally, make him look aloof. And he's in good company. The publication does the same to Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and others, in a typical fashion the hacks jealously going after those who have the limelight.

But Valleywag's recently taken a new twist in the Calacanis bashing, teasing him about his occasional posts on his own site featuring his two bulldogs, Taurus and Fondue. No, I didn't look those names up. We know them by heart in our household, as we're avid dog lovers, and bulldogs rank highly on my wife's list of favorites (though behind our beagle, of course).

Today, Valleywag tosses another stone with "Bulldog pup photo shortage rocks Silicon Valley", not their first volley, following Bulldog pups only cure for week of crazies and other bulldog references.

But you know what? We begged for bulldog pictures. The first time Jason showed Taurus and Fondue, I demanded more and wanted his Flickr URL. He came through. (See one collection here)

This morning, I woke my wife up with Veronica Belmont and Mahalo Daily. Why? Because Taurus and Fondue were featured of course! (See: MD023 - Dog Training) We wouldn't have been watching otherwise.

Whether Valleywag likes it our not, some of us tech geeks enjoy the bulldogs. We like dogs, period. That Jason gets to share them with us is all the better. We say, please, show us more!

Fun With Technorati Chart Matchups

A week ago, Technorati turned over a new leaf, with the return of charts throughout the company's blog search service. Very quietly, the company also has enabled Web surfers to compare trends between keyword pairs, by using the VS command.

This "officially unsupported" command (per ex-CEO David Sifry), allows for comparisons of what's hot and what's not, over a specific time period, to a stretch as long as six months.

(The code: http://www.technorati.com/search/TERM1+vs+TERM2?authority=n&language=en)

Running a few comparisons myself, we saw more people are blogging about Slashdot than I had anticipated, especially relative to Digg, that the iPhone shot like a meteor to eclipse the iPod, and that a battle for higher profile between Robert Scoble and TechCrunch or Jason Calacanis and ValleyWag just might never be resolved. It's that close.

For all charts: Note the peaks and dips for weekends, as well as the scope of the chart. The most popular keywords register in the thousands, while less frequently discussed items just crack triple digits.

First Up: iPod vs. iPhone



In the Search World: Yahoo! vs. Google



Building a Community: Digg vs. Slashdot (Big surprise here!)



Social Networking: Facebook vs. MySpace
(MySpace plunging, with Facebook eking up...)



Long-Time Tech Titans: Apple vs. Microsoft



New Age Blog Titans: TechCrunch vs. Scoble



Let's Be Friends Edition: Calacanis vs. Valleywag



Mix and match the terms and see what you come up with. Others I tried included "baseball vs football", and Plaxo vs LinkedIn. What can you come up with, and do these charts accurately track the blogosphere's momentum as you see it?

Valleywag Thinks My Old Posts are Breaking News

Valleywag at first sounded like a great idea - a rumors site focused on the Silicon Valley, covering all things geek, mixed with a flair for gossip, sex and innuendo. What could be more fun?

But, to be honest, the site's daily postings are getting tired. Rather than posting one or two stories a day of really good, insightful stuff, backed by anonymous sources, inside scoops and top-notch writing, the site has gone flaccid. Valleywag now is posting items to the tune of six to eight posts a day, and with the added frequency comes a complete void of new information. Today, I was slightly amused to see they took a pair of stories I covered over the last year and blasted them to their front page as hot off the press scandal.

Exhibit 1

In August of 2006, I commented that Web 2.0 companies were "playing with error messages", covering a few choice errors from YouTube and MySpace who toyed with users during downtime:

Web 2.0 Companies Play With Error Messages

January 31 of 2007, I specifically called out Technorati for not scaling to beat Google, instead entertaining customers with fun graphical error messages.

Scoble's Right: Technorati Isn't Scaling to Beat Google

I also noted other Web 2.0 error messages on January 24 (Silly YouTube - Where's The Redundancy?) and on March 2, when LinkedIn pulled a similar stunt. (LinkedIn Provides Another Silly Web 2.0 "Error" Page)

Yet, today Valleywag pulls a banner story, trumpeting "Error messages", saying "Could we all make a resolution? When a site is down, as Technorati is right now, please cut the cute jokes." Wow - Technorati plays with error messages. Shocker.

Exhibit 2

On Saturday, I noted how Steve Jobs had endorsed Al Gore for president in a rare interview with Time Magazine, where he wasn't promoting Apple, but instead his good friend and board member. (Steve Jobs Nominates Al Gore for President)

But again, Valleywag follows along, saying "While Apple fanatics usually jump on every word out of Jobs' mouth, they appear content to keep this political endorsement as quiet as... well, as quiet as Al Gore kept the internal Apple options investigation..." 'We need somebody who knows how to build a ladder'

I'm not used to seeing a breaking news rumor site be so far behind my pedestrian notes. So, Valleywag, if you want to be a little faster on the draw, simply subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up via e-mail, so you can keep getting those scoops!