Gawker
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technorati
Draper Fisher Jurvetson's big blog mistake
Technorati has raised another $7.5 million from existing venture-capital backers, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company has raised $30 million to date. Anyone know the valuation? Given Technorati's fall from Web grace, and the loss of founder Dave Sifry, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a "down round" — an investment that values the company at less than previous rounds did. [PEHub]
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By Owen ThomasComment by MosseyCade: I am prepared to offer a $5 million Series A financing for this pair of 20-sided dies. more » | Other threads
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leaks
Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?
Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sggrf: is this a joke? any list that michael arrington, with his tiny blog, as the most successful makes me very... more » | Other threads
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jobs
Technorati needed a new systems adminstrator, like, yesterday
Rocketboom's Andrew Baron is fed up with Technorati, and switching to Google. Could the blog search engine's problems be due to the fact that there's no one minding the servers? Because the company is offering an "IMMEDIATE" postition as a contract senior sys admin. Considering how long it took for the company to find a new CEO, this could get ugly. Managers are a dime a dozen — competent sys admins are a much rarer breed.
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By Jackson WestComment by xtechnoratite: Rumors are flying that Technorati is running out of money. Last September the executive staff informed the rank and file... more » | Other threads
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forecasts
Valleywag's 25 predictions for 2008
Valleywag is of course known for its dead-on accuracy, so our predictions for 2008 need no introduction. Inside, my 25 predictions (made without inside information) cover the futures of Facebook, Google, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, Apple, Yahoo, Gawker Media, AOL, Dell, LOLcats, the president, and more. More » -
fail
Sometimes a screenshot is worth 1,000 words.
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hires
Technorati attempts to regain relevance
The blogosphere was thrown into chaos when its search king, Technorati's David Sifry, abdicated his throne in August. The search for a new CEO went on for months. Who, after all, wanted to venture into a market increasingly dominated by Google, whose Blog Search was making Technorati increasingly irrelevant? But Technorati's board, at last, has found their patsy.Richard Jalichandra, a former business development guru at IGN Entertainment and Fox Interactive Media, whom insiders believe had a hand in the merger been game sites IGN and GameSpy, the acquisition of film site Rotten Tomatoes, and the company's acquisition by News Corp. for $650 million. Or not. More » -
hires
The fall of the evangelist CEO
The chaos at Technorati and PodTech, two startups which saw outside CEO searches end in failure last week, should be instructive to company founders everywhere. If you're asking yourself if it's time to step aside, it's too late. Entrepreneurs are often excellent evangelists — the peculiar Silicon Valley breed of marketer who seeks to create fervor for a product few even understand, let alone think they need. Sifry and Furrier are both typical of this kind. But the career of evangelist bears a particular occupational hazard: The risk of starting to believe your own preachings, and of thinking that no one else is fit to deliver them. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Hraesvelg: Jobs be a megalomaniac, his way or else. Larry is a Stalinist tyrant. Bill Gates be Keynote Speaker Sales Ooze,... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Blog search CEO steps down amid declining relevance
Dave Sifry, the founder and CEO of Technorati, is immediately stepping down from the role of CEO as the blog search pioneer continues to burn cash and fails to find a working business model. CFO Teresa Malo, VP of engineering Dorion Carroll and VP of marketing Derek Gordon will govern by committee until they find a new CEO. The company's search for an outside leader, which began last spring, has failed to find any takers. Eight other Technorati employees were also fired "to adjust our expense structure to be more appropriately aligned with our priorities moving forward." In other words, they're running out of cash, despite several small rounds of funding meant to keep them afloat. Technorati pioneered and had an early lead in blog search, an area where Google should have excelled. Since then, Google's Blog Search has improved while Technorati's has gotten worse. And as the lines between mainstream journalism and the blogosphere continue to blur, dedicated blog search has increasingly become irrelevant — a fact that's surely not lost on any CEO candidates Technorati might find.
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Magister: If I may be so bold, but this news coupled with a previous entry from Tim caused me to think... more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
San Francisco datacenter renamed "364.98 Main"
365 Main, the troubled datacenter operator, has finished its investigation into the failure at its San Francisco facility that knocked some of the Internet's most well-known websites, from Craigslist to LiveJournal to Technorati, offline back in July. Ridiculously, the company first tried to blame PG&E for the failure, knowing full well that its clients pay it for reliable power even in a blackout. (Equally ridiculously, I ran a suspect tip that a drunk employee had wreaked havoc in the datacenter.) Now, the company has completely exonerated itself, pinning the blame on a component in its generators. Here's why you still shouldn't believe a word the company says. My analysis, and the company's press release, after the jump. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nagle: There's more detail at [www.365main.com] What seems to have happened is that they had a utility power surge followed by a... more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
Drunk editor kills the gossip item you care about
I'm a dunce. I was wrong. There, I said it. In running a tip on Tuesday that a drunk employee brought down 365 Main, the San Francisco datacenter which hosts servers running some of the Web's most important sites, I trusted a source I shouldn't have. Here's the story behind my 365 Main post. A warning to readers of sensitive dispositions — I'm about to take you inside the sausage factory, and it's a bloody mess. More » -
breakdowns
365 Main's credibility outage
After killing most of the websites you care about on Tuesday, 365 Main, the troubled datacenter in downtown San Francisco, is back to business. The business of making excuses, that is. Cynthia Harris, the same flack who issued an immaculately timed press release Tuesday morning crowing about how RedEnvelope moved all of its Web operations to 365 Main, only to have them taken down by the outage, is going around telling everyone who will listen that nothing untoward happened. To which any user of Craigslist, Technorati, Six Apart's LiveJournal and TypePad, and AdBrite might respond, rrrrright. Data Center Knowledge has a detailed report. Here's what else I've learned — and why 365 Main's performance remains highly suspicious. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by happypete: Sadly, the stories we are sold about the reliability of uninterruptible power make it sound horribly unlikely that a grid... more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
A drunk employee kills all of the websites you care about
365 Main, a datacenter on the edge of San Francisco's Financial District, is popular with Soma startups for its proximity and its state-of-the-art facilities. Or it used to be, anyway, until a power outage took down sites including Craigslist, Six Apart's TypePad and LiveJournal blogging sites, local listings site Yelp, and blog search engine Technorati. The cause? You won't believe it. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by LotsOfLulz: A bigger bunch of fuckin' pussy ass, no life, living only for the Lulz hater, drama creating zeros I never... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Three Technorati Monsters escape
DO NOT WANT indeed. Troubled blog search engine Technorati has suffered another blow with today's triple resignations of key personnel, a surprising move so quickly after the completion of its long-awaited update. Outgoing CEO Dave Sifry announced the departures of Chief Technologist Tantek Celik (pictured above) and Vice President of Engineering Adam Hertz, but snubbed Product Manager Liz Dunn in the official post and left her to blog about her own resignation. Director of Product Development Dorian Carroll will be promoted to Engineering head, but no replacement for either Celik or Dunn has yet been announced. It remains to be seen if the niche site, bolstered by a $1M influx of capital just six weeks ago, will be able to overcome this talent vacuum and attract high-enough caliber replacements to satisfy investors. Photo (CC) Adactio (And, yes, stolen from Nick's previous post, but quite appropriate, don't you agree?)
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Comment by raincoaster: How do you fuck up a monopoly, really? That must have taken hard work. more » | Other threads
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By Nick DouglasComment by BurritoFueled: Flamewars are good for business! more » | Other threads
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internet famous
Who's Really The Most Famous Blogger?
NICK DOUGLAS — Forbes 25 Web Celebs! Technorati 100! Never have so many lists given so little information about who the real top bloggers are. Why is this Jeff Jarvis dude so high up on Technorati's list if you've never actually read his blog? Why does Forbes think Nick Denton is so goddamned important? Here's a simple explanation of what these "top blogger" lists really mean (short answer: less than you think). More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by dejudicibus: I would recommend reading [lindipendente.splinder.com] All those rankings are English related, but what famous really mean? If you open an erotic... more » | Other threads
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diggbait
Behind the Geist: The Top Search Lists You've Never Seen
NICK DOUGLAS — A Business 2.0 blogger yesterday blew up Google's tweaked Zeitgeist (which tracks gainers, not top searches). He also deconstructed the PR-friendly "top" lists made by AOL and Yahoo (revealed: AOL's real top searchword is "google"). But what are the top searches on sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Craigslist? More » -
google
Industry news: Google's News
- Today's top deal: Google will start selling ads for over 50 newspapers. [NY Times]
- MySpace goes to Japan, rejects our suggested name (2 MySpace: Tokyo Drift). [CNet]
- The National Federation of the Blind is suing Target for not making its website accessible to the blind, in a case that decides whether Web sites must be accessible just like physical stores. [NY Times]
- Technorati chief Dave Sifry explains how some of his blog search engine's ranking systems work in his quarterly report on the State of the Blogosphere, [Technorati]
- While publisher Tim O'Reilly maps out the subjects that sell well in his State of the Computer Book Market report. [O'Reilly Radar]
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By Nick DouglasComment by Magister: Though I may be speaking at personal risk to myself and the Technorati thing is all well and good, but... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Memoirs of No One I Want To Know
A tipster sends this note to Valleywag concerning today's Technorati email newsletter. More » -
technorati
Hey! Technorati's new video blog is cute today!
Leading blog search site Technorati has already come a long way from its first awkward, two-talking-heads-in-a-kitchen episodes (which we viciously reviewed here and here). Today's show ain't perfect, but unlike the old shows, it's up to date, tells us something we didn't know (That German Gizmondo game exec won't plea bargain about stealing the Enzo that he later crashed? No way!) and is very nearly not boring in its staging. And the last story in this little news show, a bit about the latest viral video, is cutely played out by host Aaron Krane. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by centernetworks: you have got to be kidding me frankly. This video is completely a waste of time, they are pushing the... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Loose Wires: How could a guy named Sparky Rose have a work history?
- Man, this is not the New York Times's best weekend. Their latest gaffe: calling Peter Hirshberg, chairman of blog search company Technorati, the CEO. Poor tech blogger Om Malik was afraid CEO Dave Sifry had been ousted. But Sifry replied on Om's blog that he's still in charge. He tells me the mix-up was probably an innocent mistake by the Times; no one interviewed Sifry for the article. [GigaOM]
- The campaign blog to free imprisoned medical marijuana dispenser Sparky Rose says that his prosecutors claim he had "no previous work history prior to the pot club." Rose was a high-rolling dot-com founder — same thing? [Free Sparky]
- CNET launches a new title called Crave, because the world needs yet another gadget blog. [Crave]
- Who wins the battle of YouTube vs. MySpace, now that the latter is aggressively moving into online video and breaking YouTube vids embedded on MySpace? Google wins, of course. [BusinessWeek]
- NY Times columnist Joe Nocera says Carly Fiorina's memoir of her time heading Hewlett-Packard is a revisionist history — she lies about earnings, he says, and her book should be called "It's All About Me." [NY Times Select]
- Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner will pay all his journalists to run their own blogs — presumably so no one else leaves like B2 writer Om Malik to start their own media empire. [I Want Media]
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technorati
Technorati watching: Can't...tear...eyes...from...vloggers
After ripping apart Technorati's first video blog, I avoided watching for two, maybe three episodes of this attempt at a news show by staffers at the leading blog search engine. Then someone sent another clip. Damn it, here we go with: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by academik: This reminds me of a story about the reason Christopher Walken delivers his lines in such an interesting manner... he... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Technorati's new daily vlog: Less talk, more techno
Technorati, the leading weblog search engine, entered the video news "space" (ugh) today with the Technorati Daily Vlog. Sadly, it's all last week's news with a few blog URLs thrown in. Below is the video, but after that are six reasons you shouldn't bother watching. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by hp: It's a shame that Technorati is forcing Liz into such a staid host format because she is a master of... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Technorati, explained in its own words
Ever wonder how Technorati actually works? (Or how charming engineer Kevin Marks's accent sounds?) Some friends of the blog search company videotaped Marks (pictured) and fellow Technorati employees Ryan King, Tantek elik, Liz Dunn, and others explaining inbound links, tagging, how a blog gets ranked, and other technical intricacies. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Conrad: The most telling thing from that video was the background - some tiny, dingy room with about a dozen techies... more » | Other threads
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By Nick DouglasComment by Prolific Programmer: In the last 3 years, if Sifry is to be believed, the blogospher doubled in size 6 times (every 6... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Technorati rewrites history of blogging
As part of his duties running Technorati, Dave Sifry writes a seasonal "State of the Blogosphere" report. One purpose is to demonstrate the blog search engine's growing importance as the blog world explodes. Sure, it's exploding, but Dave can't decide how quickly. Watch him magically change the past: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by ResearchZilla: amazing...what kinda magical maths are they using over there? i heard - and this is extremely confidential - that technorati actually... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Breaking: Another Technorati god leaves the company
So far, the latest top-level engineer to leave Technorati has only announced his move in his Flickr photos. Ben Jenkinshandled Flickr photo integrationhandled all CSS and HTML for the blog search company; now he's heading to Yahoo's Flickr team. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by ResearchZilla: my guess that since they formed during the downmarket, these founders have forward vesting clauses and so just bailed now... more » | Other threads
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myspace
Series of Tubes status report: Technorati be pretty one day
The Internet is behaving well this morning. So far: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Christopher Carfi: AdAge nailed it. More thoughts on the WalMart debacle here: http://www.socialcustomer.com/2006/07/i_want_to_be_a_.html... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Why is Technorati acting desperate?
Among all the Web 2.0 flipmeat, blog search engine Technorati stood out as a winner with a real potential for profit. So why is it behaving like a dying startup? More »
140
By Nick DouglasComment by Conrad: Technorati needs to improve its servers - that should be number one priority at the moment. But yeah, it doesn't... more » | Other threads
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technorati
Technorati belongs to the VCs now
Technorati took $7.6 million in Series C funding, according to PE Week Wire. Let's see what that means. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Nick Douglas: So I'm guessing, Jason, that you two aren't drinking buddies. more » | Other threads
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techmeme
What we're arguing about today
Every day's debate day in the blogosphere! Here's what blog aggregator Techmeme says is important. More » -
valleyspeak
Valleyspeak: FrieNDA, crowdserfing, and lol factor
The growing Valleyspeak phrasebook — a translation of Silicon Valley's language into English — gets three more entries: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by singe: Crowdserfing - nice one, comrade. With the growing backlash against Asian/Indian outsourcing (distance, language barriers, etc.)driving demand for Eastern European vendors,... more » | Other threads
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apple
Over the weekend: Apple emergency 24-hour depot opened
Here's what happened this weekend, while you were out in San Fran, running Bay to Breakers: More » -
morning news
Morning news: Free Napster, Poor Gates, $2.6 billion Vonage
- Lloyd Braun comes out swinging today with what the NY Times calls "the most extensive of his initiatives to get final approval:" Yahoo Tech. The top-story panel is sometimes overlaid with an interstitial ad. Should've stuck with puppet-anchored news, Lloyd. [Yahoo Tech and NYT]
- By accusing Microsoft of playing dirty by making MSN the default search tool for Internet Explorer, Google's Marissa Mayer takes a stand against default search engines in browsers. Oh, don't worry, Google's still the Firefox default. Let's clarify: Google's Marissa Mayer takes a stand against default search engines other than Google in browsers. [NY Times]
- Dave Sifry of blog index Technorati reminds everyone that the blogosphere doubles every
55.56 months (it doesn't). [Sifry's Alerts] - Napster now offers free songs, five plays each, supported by ads. Bittorrent, IRC, Soulseek, Usenet, and LimeWire continue to offer free songs, infinite plays each, supported by RIAA lawsuits. [CNET]
- Bill Gates is still $3 billion poorer one weekend after a Microsoft stock drop. [MSFT on Google Finance]
- A shame. With that $3 bil, maybe he could've bought Vonage. [Financial Times]
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facebook
Fakin' it: The Law of Fabricated Returns
Hey, entrepreneurs! In the New Boom, anything but explosive growth is unacceptable. Take a tip from three leading dot-coms and cash in on the Law of Fabricated Returns. More » -
technorati
China blocks Technorati
China blocked Technorati, theoncethriceonce-funded blog search leader, today. The company says it's getting reports of this and that it's investigating; no further comment about their plan of action, their attitude toward the Chinese market, or what the VCs think about getting banned before getting bought (they think it's brilliantly precocious, right?). More » -
technorati
Richard Ault: Still leaving Technorati.
A day after he told the world, Richard Ault told his friends. Technorati's product marketing director finally e-mailed his contacts about his new job at Metroblogging, even though he blogged it yesterday. I can only imagine Richard spending the day asking folks: "So how about my new job, isn't it gr— What? You didn't hear— DOESN'T ANYONE READ MY BLOG?" More » -
technorati
So long and thanks for all the equity: Richard Ault leaves Technorati for Metroblogging
Did someone's stake in Technorati just vest? After two years at the blog search company, Richard Ault is splitting to do product development at Metroblogging. More » -
geeking out
Geeking out: ETech 2006, Tuesday
ETech 2006 rolls on, and Scott Beale keeps photographing the folks who make the Internet. Tuesday's highlights include Tim Bray's Indy outfit, Esther Dyson's spelling, and Jen King's primal scream. More » -
geeking out
Geeking out: ETech 2006
The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (or ETech for the impatient) is in full swing today, after a rousing start on Monday. The event sold out ages ago, but through the magic of Scott Beale's photography, we can pretend we made it in. (If you want to pretend you met Cory Doctorow and he loved your sci-fi story idea, have that fantasy on your own.) Here are highlights from Scott's meticulous Monday photojournalism. More » -
technorati
Dave Sifry is proud of "brrreeeport" results
Dave Sifry examines Robert Scoble's "brrreeeport" experiment. (Scoble asked everyone in the world — no, really — to write "brrreeeport" in a blog post and let the search engines race to catch the posts.) More »
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Fri Jul 10
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