Has anyone done the work of looking at last year's crop of Demo and TechCrunch companies and asking "where are they now?"? - Michael Markman
Michael: I have been asked by a group of companies to stay quiet because they are going to either TC50 or Demo. The companies I talked with say they'd rather go to TC50 and the better quality companies that I've seen are at TC50. Jason, based on the companies I've seen, I can understand why socialmedian didn't get picked. Socialmedian is pretty nice, but isn't as nice as the companies I've seen that will be at TC50. - Robert Scoble
Michael: you bring up a good point. Out of all the people who won last year I can only remember Mint, which is doing very well. I had to go to Google to remember the rest of the list. - Robert Scoble
wow.... that's very exciting for TC50 -- sounds like there will be a lot of great stuff there. FYI. socialmedian (I'm told) didn't get picked because we were out of stealth mode too early for the rules for TC50. - Jason Goldberg
"Pandora is one of the nation's most popular Web radio services, with about 1 million listeners daily. Its Music Genome Project allows customers to create stations tailored to their own tastes. It is one of the 10 most popular applications for Apple's iPhone and attracts 40,000 new customers a day.
Yet the burgeoning company may be on the verge of collapse, according to its founder, and so may be others like it." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet
"As for Pandora, its royalty fees this year will amount to 70 percent of its projected revenue of $25 million, Westergren said, a level that could doom it and other Web radio outfits." - Bret Taylor
I hope Pandora survives- I still think it's the best, easiest to use offering. - Brian Carter
Now there's something: the product meme is already down track before the product itself gets out of the gate. Not so 'Cuil' in this case. - Chris Kim A
i had a similar experience with a not so techy friend.... he said he saw it on TV - Azeem
Ha! Lots of newspapers and websites in India carried the supposedly 'Google Killer' and I took the bait only to be extremely disappointed! - chendur venkatraman
I was with a bunch of real people (non geeks) tonight. What did they talk about? Facebook. - Robert Scoble
Ironically enough, I found this very article at "socialmedian" this morning, posted to "twitter" then commenting on "friendfeed". Are we real? - Kenichi Matsumoto
I was with a bunch of real people tonight. What did we talk about? Our jobs, relationships, movies, food/restaurants... you know, things that regular people talked about before the social media timesuck. - Louie
Real people hardly have time to do anything. - Chris Kim A
Louie is one of those guys who always ruins a party. Sigh. Today I saw Dark Knight, which was OK, but Maryam thought it sucked. Argued politics at one party. Talked about all sorts of things at another party. Now am working on a column about the future of journalism. - Robert Scoble
Ummm why the early 90's have to register to read the article?? - Justin Yost
this reminds me very much of when girls would give us a hard time for talking sports all day. The sentiment is captured well in City Slickers. What's important to some folks just isn't to others. - Morgan
Damnn Robert you are (quite literally) the first person I've heard from who didn't like The Dark Knight. - Mohit
Chuck Norris doesn't have time for social media, nobody lives long enough to comment on his fighting skill anyway - Antoine Bertier
Robert, I think FB is the one social networking app that most "normal" people have learned to love. Just not sure if they have room for more than one. - Kate
Even overhearing folks at church talk about Facebook and MySpace. - Todd Jordan
if FB is the social media for "normal people" then I NEVER want to be normal!!! - Dieter Schwarz
I can't seem to access the article, but I get the drift. I like Clay Shirky's talk on video discussing where we find the time: http://tinyurl.com/5o79x3 I tell my colleagues that, yes, a lot of people are busy, but then a lot of other people also just watch TV. I spend hours online instead of (or often in addition to) watching TV. Television has made our minds very inactive over the years. - Connie Crosby
So true. That's why most of my non-geek friends have a Facebook/MySpace account. I guess we all must be living in the Matrix. - darnell
I personally spend 8-10 minutes a week on Myspace and maybe 15 a week on Facebook. So just haveing and account doesn't mean you "have time" for social media. - Brian Norwood
I use Social Media quite a lot, but I probably watch less than an hour's TV a month. I'd rather interact with 'real' people - geeks or otherwise, online, than suffer the largely mindless dross and BS pumped out of the idiot box, which I can't answer back. - Ian May
Hmm, when I try to click the 'About SocialMedian' page, I get that signup prompt. So I have to sign up and then find out what you are about? Weak sauce. - beersage
@beersage -- we agree. we haven't had a chance to get rid of some of the remaining registration requirements we put in place during alpha. Will be cleaning that up soon. - Jason Goldberg
I would spend more time with Social Media if I didn't keep getting headaches from reading. - Shelly Weiss
Well, if you look at the entire population of the world and how they spend their time, "real" people are mostly engaged in backbreaking labor in filthy conditions and wondering where their next meal is coming from. So can I be fake please? Thank you. - Karim
It also depends on age demographics. Being 27 - everyone my age and below spends hours on Facebook/Myspace or both. My housemate is just two years old and has a Myspace account but barely uses it. I think Social Media is something the younger generations have as a part of their life and devote their time to it like it was any other entertainment vessel.... - George Smith
George - is that a typo or does your two year old housemate REALLY have a Myspace? - Shelly Weiss
I'd like to know how the 2yr old pays rent. My daughters gettin to that age, and I'd like to put her to work. - Brian Norwood
It truly is a shame the company built so much hype. The irony was that people expected results right away. Even Google wasn't built in one day. - MySites
a little ironic that we're so quick to hammer Cuil for not living up to its hype, as though it's now 100% and for all time doomed. - Scott Cederberg
We don't think its doomed but it could have waited to launch instead of unveiling a product that was clearly not up to a good standard. I mean, if you're going to have pictures beside results why source them from different URLs - anecdotal evidence suggest this is almost always resulting in inaccurate pictures. A firm I know is considering legal action following a picture/logo of a rival company being displayed alongside their website. - Marie Boran
32500 mentions for MAXroam on Google, zero on cuil, tell me why? - Patphelan
“I met the 12seconds.tv founder at the TechCrunch party. I only gave him 12 seconds of time to have a conversation. Yeah, we barely got past the "hello" stage. :-)”
haha.. we've actually got a pretty decent 12second pitch I think. We were actually talking about something like TechCrunch's elevator pitch idea, but you only get 12 seconds :-). Don't know if someone has offered you an invite yet, but let me know if you want one. - Jacob (1 of the 12second Founders) - Jacob Knobel
i just realized how awesome that'd be to meet him. I wonder how long before he would get sick of people running away from him after 12 seconds. - Bartek Gniado
Chris: I already read TechCrunch so didn't need a pitch. But, seriously, we talked about this service on our Photowalk on Friday. Consensus is that this might be interesting to watch. I will watch it once the hype dies down and see who uses it for what. - Robert Scoble
I hope for his sake that nobody comes up with the idea of "11seconds.tv". Why waste an extra second? - Joni Moilanen
Joni: I'm pretty sure we bought the domain name just in case :-) - Jacob Knobel
Imran: 2 main ones and then me - I've been there from day 1, but I head up the tech side of things. - Jacob Knobel
Not a bad idea if they can move the user base past the usual SV early adopters. Cool that you can upload from a cell phone. Another device agnostic platform - smart. Mobile is very early, but if they can keep up the business and make the audience grow, they could well position for future success/exit. - Patricia
Wouldn't 12 seconds be in direct competition with Qik for mobile? - Imran Hussain via feedalizr
Robert: I agree -- it will be interesting. Like you, my first thought was, "Twelve seconds?" Jacob: great to see you pop in. If I'm you, nobody gets to work on the project if they can't reliably pitch it in 12 seconds. :-) - Chris Baskind
I love 12 seconds. More fun than seesmic - David Jacobs
Imran: Not really.. qik is live streaming.. you're specifically going there to watch an event, interview, or something else happening. We're more short updates. Updates vs events - not really the same thing. A few of us here have or had qik compatible phones and we love the service! - Jacob Knobel
David: Glad you're enjoying it. On that note -- i don't even think we're in direct competition with Seesmic either - in the same way that traditional blogs aren't in competition with twitter. Rather, they compliment each other and serve different purposes. - Jacob Knobel
Liking this purely because a founder is taking part in the discussion! - MiniMage via NoiseRiver
MiniMage: i've been a light twitter user, had a friendfeed account for a while, but never really used it. Today has really made me aware of how cool this service actually is and I hope to be on it a lot more. There's something really cool about being able to start conversations (usually with Twitter) and continue them with people that otherwise would be pretty hard to get in contact with. - Jacob Knobel
David: the feeling is mutual :) I've just started using my FriendFeed account today as well, and so far I'm loving the experience here. I'll give 12 seconds a try too, i think we had gotten 100 invites from you. - Imran Hussain via feedalizr
Oh you're so cleaver. I'm sure he's never had that happen before. - James Tenniswood
1seconds.tv is launching soon for the add and mtv demographic .. look for it soon - Gregory Lent
I'd be very interested in 12second's pitch. I've been in web video probably longer than most people in the internet business because of the IP telecom engineering background, and doing a ton in entertainment now. It'd be very interesting to hear it. - Patricia
Geoff: It's coming. It didn't make it into the feature set for launch, but we will be offering this feature at some point. - Jacob Knobel
i'm totally with you, scoble...i have a really hard time imagining any kind of widespread appeal for a video service with such a huge restriction on it. even back when i had a phone that supported immediate video upload, my videos were short...but considerably longer than 12 seconds! i really don't get it at all... then again, twitter seemed silly to me at first too. - Shawn Reed
hey robert... i'm the founder you didn't meet that night :) funny thing is I was waiting to have a conversation with you but you were being interviewed on camera and it was taking too long, so I split. ;) either way i'm totally stoked that this conversation is happening on FF. 12seconds is about video that's easy to make and easy to consume. It's about showing and telling your friends what's going on with you. That's it. Video should be accessible. Anything and anyone can be interesting for 12seconds... - David Beach
as long as there is bandwidth... it is like the supermarket, if it takes longer to pay than it does to shop, i am out of there - Gregory Lent
Well, if they talked as fast in person as I usually do, you could have gotten the guy's life story in 10 seconds and had an extra 2 to wind down in! ;) - Lucretia Pruitt
12seconds is a good idea, but where's the timeline? I want to see what everyone else is saying ... - Ivan Pope via twhirl
I think worrying about Steve Jobs' health as it relates to Apple's stock price is crass. Yes, he's a CEO, but he's a human being and a husband and father first. - Dawn
I wonder how much of the demands for information is based on the fact he is a celebrity and how much is truly in the name of 'the interest of the stockholders.' Can you name the 14 current serving CEOs of Forbes 500 companies who are living with cancer at this exact moment? No. In fact, there might be more than 14 (I made up that number, just to prove the point--I have no idea how many do or do not have cancer). I think the biggest reason there is interest is his celebrity status, not the stockholders. - Andrew Leyden
I find the journalists obsession with people's medical information rather distasteful. A few minutes research on the topic would tell them all they need to know instead of prying and whining. Basically, anyone who has that sort of surgery will require a colostomy bag, which will inevitably lead to infections and loss of weight. That's not something I would want to talk about in public and few probably would either. I wrote an alternative view here http://oncologymarkettrends.bl... - Sally Church
Again, no need to read the article. The headline says enough. - Meryn Stol
1:38 PM PDT At this point, we are accelerating progress on restoring internal communication as all signs continue to look good. http://status.aws.amazon.com/ - techbubble
sounds like a job for Captain Kirk...rescue two endangered FailWhales and return them to the Bay Area... - Andrew Feinberg
Seems like the Fail Whale took all the avatars with it too! - Daynah
"Yes, it's me, abusing my baby pictures quotient on FriendFeed again. But in case you wanted to get a visual on Sarah's size, here's one item for comparison - the iPod Touch. Also included, Matthew, sleeping next to the iPod Touch, TiVo remote and Blackberry. It's better than using a ruler!" - Louis Gray
one day these kids are going to say, 'dad used us as props for his gadgets!'...and then there will be blood! lol - .LAGizmoto
@.LAG, then I'll remind them how when we parked in what I thought was acceptable shade outside Babies R Us today, they both went nuts, and I had to extract them from their car seats and walk into the store (using the exit), with the pair held tight to my chest, to commiserate with their mother. I'm sure I was quite the sight. "Hey! Look at that guy! He's in over his head!" (fingers pointing) - Louis Gray
Hey! Someone should say you - this is really unhealthy!! : ( - Erhan Erdogan
@Louis - You definitely look in over your head. However, I was that way with only one. Now my children are 21 and 18 and I still remain in over my head. ; ) - Rex Hammock
This made Maryam crack up and say "that's cute!" - Robert Scoble
in terms of Product Design i still think GOD(Evolution) did a better job than jobs ...:-) - Hakim
@Rex, I look in over my head? Definitely? Where's the proof on that? I disagree. :-) - Louis Gray
Maybe good idea to get the RF away from the newborns? Just sayin'. Amazing scale comparison pics though Louis. Thanks for sharing. Now get those radio wave emitting devices away from the generation that will hopefully save us all :) - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I don't believe you all - Robert, Louis, Maryam, all likes, comments - i urgently need a judge for this photos! : ) Your tech love is get out of control!! - Erhan Erdogan
now let's see the Touch duke it out with the Blackberry - Paulo via twhirl
I'm so going to do this one day when I have one. haha - Daynah
@Erhan and Brian, 1) They're not sleeping with the gadgets in their cribs (yet) and 2) I am not worried about that nonsense. I might as well unplug the microwave and TV while I'm at it, no? - Louis Gray
We always left a computer keyboard in our kids cribs as a toy -- they loved it. - Jay Tannenbaum
The important thing to remember is that if Louis were forced to choose between his children and his gadgets,,,well, I'm sure the kids would find a good home. (JUST KIDDING!) - Ontario Emperor
Yeah, I know I know Louis. I'm just waiting for the time I go to the Dr. to get the "news" after having gone through life carrying 3+ mobiles around in my pocket. It's safe to carry 3+ phones + EVDO + Cradlepoint wifi in my pockets right? - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
@Louis: Yeah...and might as well not have had a kid to begin with...I mean, Radio waves bombard this planet CONSTANTLY...if RF signals are THAT dangerous, none of us should have kids. [/sarcasm] On a more serious note, love the pics...I have one on the way myself...my wife is due 10/21. - Sean McGee
lmao I'm so reporting you for this. Too hilarious - Corvida
Again with the cute overload! They're so tiny which makes them even more cute! - Candace Holly
OMG! that's priceless! I <3 it! Put the device on vibrate and see what happens! I bet it would sooth any crankiness. Can you say iTunes visualizer? Better than Baby Einstein. Makes us AND them drool into relaxation. My son has gumdrop iMac in his bedroom specifically for that reason (glorified nightlight). Hey! We have to do what we have to do, right? Why not have some fun with it? Hellz ya! - TheMacMommy via twhirl
You know Louis, most parents use a wall and a pencil to show height and growth, you choose electronic equipment, what comes next? comparisons to the wii and ps3? then a macbook, then macbook pro, then dell blade server, where will it end?!!?!? - Allen Stern
Oh what beautiful little souls! I'm sure they are very precious to you :-). - Heather Colman
Total weirdness - the cuteness overload causes the pics to show for me even when S3 is down! It might be just my cache, ofcourse, but I like the first theory better :) - Yuvi
I'll take the electronics when the kids are all grown up. It won't matter to me that the stuff is decades old. - possible248
I think they should stop working on new features and start opening up their audience options outside the US. I know Canadians would freak out if they did. - Lisa McMillan
Get some valium before you get into MRI machine - john coffey
It took me 15 years to quit. If I can do it, you can too. You can always die of something else later. Why be all fashionable about it? - TheMacMommy via twhirl
At least you saw a doctor. Quite smoking, you fool! - Francine Hardaway
Get some valium before you try to quit smoking - Charlie Anzman
Hardest thing I ever did. I would have 10 more babies before I would try to quit again. 14 years free of smoking. - Adrienne Van Houten
Smoked from Jr High until last year. Hardest thing I've ever quit doing. - Leslie Poston
3 or 4 folks where I work have all recently quit smoking with the aid of Chantix. Docs say it has horrible side effects, but nothing as bad as smoking. ;) - Tad - just Tad
Ya know, quitting is the new smoking. People like 2 things in this world: babies and nicotine quitters. Think about it. Dude, you can't lose. Ok, I'll shut up now, but I'm here for ya, ok? - TheMacMommy via twhirl
I'm almost 8 months smoke free after being pack a day smoker since 18. Stay the course Aaron! First couple weeks/months suck. It does get better. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Thing is, I'm not sure if it's laziness, stupidity, craven pandering, or all of the above. Personally, my vote is on craven pandering. Selling to the extremes, well, sells. - Adam Lasnik
Extreme headlines get read. Headlines that state the truth do not. - Robert Scoble
Would you prefer P send a shot over O's bow? - Erica Baker
Adam - we'll never get rid of these types of stories. Sometimes arguing the extremes crystallizes thinking in people. I personally like the nuances, because that's where future trends emerge. - Hutch Carpenter
Adam I think probably craven pandering plus high frustration level with Twitter. But Scoble is right. Jason's post will get wayyyy more views than my own honestly headlined one: http://tinyurl.com/honestheadl... - Robert Seidman
I think most of us thoughtful folks would really appreciate more nuanced reporting. But what's to be done about it? We're clearly in the minority. Fox News rakes in the dough, far more than, say, NPR. When people want to be pandered to rather than challenged, what's the solution for us (dare I say it) elite? :D How do we improve the discourse online, at least? How do we start? - Adam Lasnik
Fox News rakes in the dough even more than CNN. Interestingly though when there is "real huge news" (which doesn't happen often) people tune (en masse) to CNN, not Fox News. You ask good questions Adam. Hopefully FriendFeed is a good start to improving the discourse? - Robert Seidman
Thanks, Robert! And I do think Friendfeed is off to a great start. Lots of collegial give and take, lots of thoughtfulness. I have only blocked two people (for being extreme jerks), and that's not much given how much time I've spent on here and how many threads I've read :). And btw, excellent commentary on FriendFeed/Twitter! - Adam Lasnik
I vote for greed. Friction creates drama which creates viewers which creates advertising revenue. Manufactured partisanship sells more new and improved Clorox 2. - AJ Kohn
I recomment really to everyone the book by Gene Schwartz: "Breakthrough Advertising". The whole first chapter is about this kind of headlines. BUT, a sensational headline is generally not enough to catch attention. You need a promise - directeur via NoiseRiver
Okay, directeur: "10 Ways Friendfeed Gets You Better Sex Than Twitter, Guaranteed!" It's got everything. A number, a comparison, sex, and a promise/guarantee. Damn, I shoulda been a journalist :D. - Adam Lasnik
Adam: I would have liked that story. :-) - Robert Scoble
Adam: A copywriter you meant ;-) And yes, this is the type of headlines :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Honestly, what does Twitter offer me that Friendfeed doesn't already take care of? The benefit of twitter was the ability to have mass conversations and those are near impossible. FF is so much easier to track. - tsudohnimh
I'll tell you a BIG difference: friendfeed seems to take itself very seriously. This can help facilitate a certain type of conversation, which has its place. I feel like twitter gives me space to say whatever I want, without it falling flat. - rambn
i don't see why it's one or the other. they both work in different ways and have a different reach. twitter can perhaps work to enhance friendfeed. it doesn't work so much the other way around, as friendfeed just offers more flexibility not to mention the ability to write more than a limited amount of words like i'm doing now. - Cee Bee
Cee Bee, I'm guessing if you play a lot of zero-sum games, you tend to see the world as one "x vs. y" after another... - Karim
I agree that the Twitter dudes are too lax at sensing user dissatisfaction. The relaxed California attitude, (Twittering about soy lattes after being down all week), is foolish. And the arrogance of listening to their $15,000,000 VC friends telling them 'don't worry about current defections, there will be a crowd there when you get there', is equally foolish. It was the excellent attitude of the original shop 2 years ago, that got them here. - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
Man let this whole FriendFeed vs. Twitter thing go! They don't even compete in the same space. FriendFeed has a completely different objective. FriendFeed benefits from Twitters or other services. I can't believe you are even comparing the 2. I'm getting tired of all these Twitter vs. FriendFeed comparisons. The more people who join Twitter, FriendFeed doesn't care, in fact it benefits. FriendFeed is like those multi-service instant messaging clients. - Michael Narciso
rambn: Twitter gives you the space to say whatever you want without anyone listening. :-) It's no place to have a conversation. Half life of conversations on Twitter are about four minutes. On FriendFeed? A conversation can go on for hours. - Robert Scoble
BUT!!! One of the real ills of society, indeed the latest generations, is the lack of staying power and loyalty. A shallow, superficial, impatient human condition serves none of us well. There are terrific hardworking inspired people inside Twitter. And perhaps Evan, Biz, and Jack had to shut out the signal for the noise, But they do need a better sense of reality. This ain't new. - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
Robert, in other words FriendFeed is like a newsgroup or forum conversation...but feels broader in cross-section. Twitter is more positional - people do not converse, they simply state positions. - Craig Thomler
how many of those followers on FF are overlapped with followers on Twitter though? I know Im one of them, relatively late to the twitter game but got on to FF fairly quickly after it launched. - Devlin Dunsmore via twhirl
I think it shows more of a trend in which twitter was an early entrant and the space slowly took off whereas FF joined the space after services like twitter paved the way. - Devlin Dunsmore via twhirl
I find it amusing how people always come back to number of followers. I think we have already established that FF is great for having a conversation and Twitter is great for starting one but how many people do you want to talk to at one time? Even if you have 50,000 friends on FF. How many of them actually actively participate in what YOU have to say? - Dedric
“Scobleized! Although I know Robert Scoble is following over 21.000 (!) Twitter feeds and I guess its similiar here on FF, I am proud that the uber-geek and famous tech blogger himself subscribed to me today”
I manually subscribed to about 3,000 people. I watch the "everyone" tab for smart people saying smart things and follow the best. Thanks for improving my life. - Robert Scoble
@scobleizer: wow, what can I say except that following you has improved my prof. life a lot of times and now you really made my day ;-) - Gaby Benkwitz
Andre: beats me! I guess I like playing around and trying out new stuff a lot and have a few passions - Gaby Benkwitz
