Gawker
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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.
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By Owen ThomasComment 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 » | Other threads
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yahoo
Yahoo's mobile social network copies Plaxo
Marco Boerries, Yahoo's inexplicably long-serving wireless thought leader, demonstrated a product, OneConnect, at the CTIA wireless conference in San Francisco today. OneConnect pulls together your friends' online activities. Sound a bit like Plaxo's Pulse? Indeed, it's so unoriginal that part of the service is called "Pulse." [News.com]
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By Owen ThomasComment by macbeach: I can answer that question without having seen the product, but just based on Yahoo's track record: Not well implemented at... more » | Other threads
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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 »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Dweezil: @dingdongditch: I wasn't thinking about pot. more » | Other threads
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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.
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By Owen ThomasComment by haggie: Two companies that will gladly screw over customers to make a buck. They belong together. Expect your private data to... more » | Other threads
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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. More »
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Comment by Owen Thomas: @rohitj: Thanks for the catch. I'll admonish Carlson. more » | Other threads
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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 »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ballmer: You're going to make David Recordon jealous more » | Other threads
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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 »
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By Owen ThomasComment by googoobaby: Joe probably had a previous date with his alien friends and had to get kitted up before the comet passed. more » | Other threads
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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 »
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By Owen ThomasComment by vijaymv_in: Wanted to know what is going to happen to Mark Jen working with plaxo who was fired from Google for... more » | Other threads
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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.
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By Owen ThomasComment by babyjesus: @macbeach: i'm not sure exactly what you mean by receiving a reply, but members on my site have been able... more » | Other threads
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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 »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by sample032: Cheer bear is totally gay, people. more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Is Plaxo ready to sell to Facebook?
It's curious that rumors of a Plaxo sale exploded at the same time that Robert Scoble got his Facebook account suspended using a secret, unreleased tool for extracting data from Facebook. Curious, too, that Plaxo is so eager to milk the incident for good PR. While a battle of words takes place in public, we hear that quieter talks are happening behind the scenes: A sale of Plaxo to Facebook. A clash between the companies' backers, though — the powerful VC Michael Moritz and the rising VC star Peter Thiel — could sink any deal. More » -
great moments in pr
How Plaxo took advantage of Scoble
Did Plaxo exploit blogger Robert Scoble by cajoling him into breaking Facebook's terms of service to test a new feature, temporarily getting his account suspended? Plaxo executive John McCrea would prefer you didn't think so. "Biggest regret? A lot of folks saying/thinking we took advantage of you. Bummer," McCrea Twittered. Note that McCrea didn't say he regretted actually taking advantage of Scoble. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @macbeach: I agree with much of what you say. But does anyone really think that Plaxo is not taking advantage... more » | Other threads
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facebook
Scoble triumphantly returns to Facebook
Facebook quickly reversed its decision to ban egoblogger Robert Scoble. He promised not to repeat the stunt of scraping their site for information about his friends. Facebook, for its part, said that the banning was the result of an automated process — but it's unlikely to give up its data without similar fights. Scoble quickly went live on Mogulus to hold court and entertain questions, support, and criticism. And he's having a grand old time! More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Rock tha Hizzee: "Third-tier social network" is being quite generous. I'm not sure either of your descriptors of Plaxo are accurate. more » | Other threads
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bad ideas
Why Robert Scoble got banned from Facebook
Illustrious egoblogger Robert Scoble, the Paris Hilton of Silicon Valley, has committed the geek equivalent of a DUI. He has, by his own admission, violated Facebook's terms of service, and had his account suspended — 5,000 friends and all. Scoble's sin? He used a script to export his Facebook address-book information to Plaxo, which runs a competing social network. Running such scripts has long been forbidden, though Scoble argues Facebook should open up its information. Unlikely, given Facebook's history. More » -
acquisitions
Plaxo for sale
The New York Times reports that address-book service Plaxo is seeking up to $100 million from buyers. Reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin writes, "Plaxo, which has been overtaken by rivals like LinkedIn and Facebook, has tried to reinvent itself as an aggregate of information from other social networking sites," joining Google's OpenSocial initiative in November. That spiked usage among customers. Selling now may be not desperation, but timeliness.
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By Paul BoutinComment by rikkcarey: I worked at Plaxo from the beginning. For the record, Plaxo has *not* been "for sale for years" and is... more » | Other threads
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joseph smarr
The synching man's rock band
Apparently someone told Joseph Smarr, Plaxo's chief platform architect, that he's a "rock star." Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. They were referring to your programming skills. Smarr does have the rock-and-roll look down, if not the sound. Here's a pic of him striking a hot pose. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by GinaMuchava: The best thing about Plaxo is their new 'opt-out of all future spammings' option. Never be annoyed by another 'Update... more » | Other threads
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lawsuits
Sean Parker was kicked out of Facebook for cocaine-related arrest
There was a rumor floating around last year that Valley bad boy Sean Parker was forced out of startup Plaxo for a cocaine arrest. Turns out that rumor wasn't exactly true. According to a transcription of Mark Zuckerberg's deposition from the ConnectU v. Facebook case, it was Facebook, not Plaxo, which dropped Peter Thiel's protégé from its executive ranks after Parker was arrested for possession while at a house party. A house party Parker attended with a female Facebook employee who was also a Stanford undergrad at the time. Parker earlier told Valleywag that the arrest was "a misunderstanding." We'll say.
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Comment by cowsandmilk: @Rick: transcripts always make people look like blathering morons. That's a well known fact. more » | Other threads
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the chart
OpenSocial turns Plaxo growth chart into a hockey stick
Call Google's OpenSocial intiative a PR scam if you want. Executives from social network Plaxo don't care — because for them, it was a successful PR scam. Take a look at the chart they provided CNET. Since Google announced its "open" alternative to Facebook's developer platform and included Plaxo as a launch partner, growth at Pulse, Plaxo's social network/address book hybrid, took on hockey-stick dimensions. More »
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Comment by lolana: Or maybe it's because AOL Instant Manager is currently trying to force a "mandatory security upgrade" that installs Plaxo on... more » | Other threads
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opensocial
Another minute, another Google Gang member
According to a source, blog-software company Six Apart has joined as another partner for Google's OpenSocial platform. For those of you keeping count at home, don't bother. The list is surely to grow as word gets out. Social network Friendster, for example, wasn't asked to join the Google Gang. The pioneering social network begged to be included after a story leaked on TechCrunch. Google's secrecy is making the whole "open" affair less than transparent, as different names leak to different reporters. Here's a list of media outlets and the OpenSocial partners they list. More »
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Comment by timlonghurst: I've created the closest to a complete list of OpenSocial launch partners that I have seen anywhere. The... more » | Other threads
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the chart
Bunch of losers and Google gang up on Facebook
Google couldn't get a piece of Facebook or its hot apps platform, so now it's building its own. Not that it would like people to call it Google's platform; it's trying to persuade people that this is an open platform. It's called OpenSocial, and it's supposed to force developers to reconsider writing apps solely in FBML, the Facebook platform's proprietary language. The idea is that Google will gather a gang of websites whose users combined, will offer an audience as large as Facebook's. It's a fine theory, but let's see the real numbers behind the Google Gang. More »
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Comment by Figaro: Now that Myspace is in, even the idiotic fanboys like 500 guy have to admit that FB is in trouble. more » | Other threads
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followup
Auren Hoffman's cynical ploy to set your profile "free"
Rapleaf is bragging that founder Auren Hoffman is an early signer of the Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web. That blustering broadside, authored by Plaxo's Joseph Smarr, Macromedia founder Marc Canter, videoblogger Robert Scoble, and TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, wants to set your online profiles and friends lists, trapped on sites like Facebook, free. The central tenet of the Bill? That individual users retain "ownership of their own personal information" and that users have the "freedom to grant persistent access to their personal information to trusted external sites." Which could come in handy as people begin to question Rapleaf's scraping of profile data from social networks — data these networks claim to own and have exclusive rights to. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Julian Bond: You have no privacy, get over it. People are demanding that Rapleaf prove that they don't expose email addresses or... more » | Other threads
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geeks gone wild
Plaxo employee reveals glittery side on Facebook
Pete Curley is a hardcore Facebook user. Which is a curious admission, since he's also the product manager of Plaxo Pulse, the spammy contact-management website's attempt to reinvent itself as yet another social network. Curley's claim: He needs both Facebook and Pulse, since his Facebook profile is too tawdry to reveal in public:I don't want my mom or potential employers seeing the Halloween pictures of me wearing a turquoise tank top that says "Mrs. Timberlake" in pink glitter. She'd have to go to therapy and I'd have to hit up the unemployment line.
Why, Pete, which photo were you talking about? Not, by chance, this one, left public for all to see?
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By Owen ThomasComment by sample032: Would this be any less wrong if he had the body to pull that off? more » | Other threads
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social networks
Plaxo Pulse adds to our social anxiety
In the youth culture of social networks, the worst thing to be is the old guy. Even News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, after shelling out $580 million for MySpace, has tired of the website. And the Facebook frenzy could fade equally fast, if more people follow Jason Calacanis's lead and declare Facebook fatigue. That's why Plaxo has a shot — if a shaky one — at transforming itself from spammy address-book manager to the hot new thing, when it relaunches as a networking site on Monday. More »
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By wagger1Comment by SilentChris: Strangely enough, this privacy problem is exactly what Pulse was designed to solve. You can opt to share your... more » | Other threads
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plaxo
Plaxo: The rat that doesn't really smell
Plaxo's always gotten a bad rap. The contact management site has been working hard to clean up its image and assure users that they've cut down on the number of spammy alerts that get sent through their system. So when we heard that Plaxo is handling email address storage for YouTube video sharing and inevitably pissing people off, we decided we'd give them the benefit of the doubt. Admittedly, we'll turn on them like a rabid dog next time someone "updates their contact information" at us. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Mickipedia: I just had my own drama with them! Down with Plaxo! more » | Other threads
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