<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, new york]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, new york]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/newyork http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/newyork <![CDATA[The New York Times Solves Sarah Jessica Parker's Park Slope Mystery, And The Answer Is "Google"]]> Speculation regarding Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick moving into ginormous Park Slope digs was wrong! Via some crack NYT investigative reporting, Brooklyn teasing, and reportage bragging, the occupants who ended up in it are just as interesting: Google Bazillionaires.

Okay, so maybe not Bazillionaires, but they were definitely around before the Google IPO. Reports the Times on who actually ended up on what was rumored to be the pad SJP and Matthew Broderick were migrating to from the West Village: Google employees who declined to be named. And why all the anonymity?

The buyers asked that their names not be published - not to keep autograph seekers at bay, but because of the office culture at Google. It seems that the first generation of employees, who earned millions from stock options awarded when the company went public, sit side by side with colleagues who were hired later.

Ouch. Somewhere in the Google offices, someone who lives in a mansion is sitting side-by-side with someone stuck in a one-bedroom in the land of the hoi polloi. Meanwhile, the Times took this time to stick their tounge out at, uh, lesser outlets who rested their reporting on purely speculative efforts:

Ina Treciokas, a spokesman for Ms. Parker, said that as of last week she had received only two calls about the town house, and had unequivocally denied that Ms. Parker had any connection to it. She also said that none of the scores of entertainment and real estate Web sites that picked up the story bothered to call to ask about Ms. Parker's real estate plans.

In your face, entertainment sites! But it gets better: the Times also took a moment to swipe at what's - truth be told - another borough that isn't Manhattan. Clearly fit for a Google employee, not movie stars. Duh.

In the last few days, real estate and entertainment bloggers and columnists have been twittering en masse over rumors and reports that the ultimate Manhattan girl, Sarah Jessica Parker, and her husband, Matthew Broderick, had decided to abandon Manhattan, and their 20-foot-wide West Village town house, for a larger place in what, truth be told, is still an outer borough.

We may be a speculative entertainment blogger, but the reporters at the Times are still, truth be told, kinda assholes. No matter where they live.

Further reading: Brooklyn Loses Sarah Jessica Parker, Gains a Super Rich Googler [All Things Digital]

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<![CDATA[Yes, Facebook Users Are Revolting — Next Question?]]> Facebook will be so over one of these days, and Vanessa Grigoriadis, New York's scribe of the self, is ready to quit. She's totally done with Mark Zuckerberg's creation. Just one more status update, promise!

In her cover story, Grigoriadis trots over the familiar ground of Facebook's revolting users: Julius Harper, the fellow who started a group to protest the site's information-grabbing revision to its terms of service; those outraged by its redesign; and her anonymous New York friends, who exposed themselves to personal trauma through oversharing. (One tried to hit on a former crush, only to discover, courtesy of his freshly exposed Facebook profile, that he was married.)

That's the biggest weakness of Grigoriadis's piece: In attempting to understand Facebook, she never really leaves her circle of friends. But isn't that what the site does to all of us? By charting our messy circles of acquaintances into a clean "social graph," it makes our social lives anodyne and safe. Grigoriadis wonders what will happen when we all get sick of Facebook. Shouldn't we be more worried about what happens if we don't?

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<![CDATA[23andMe geneticists want to knock off Fashion Week cheekbones]]> Google-backed startup 23andMe is working on fixing the Bay Area beauty gap by convincing the pretty people at New York's Fashion Week to submit genetic samples for the new, low cost of $399. As non-California residents, Manhattanites represent a genetic talent pool untouched by regulatory agencies in the startup's home state. 23andMe cofounders Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, pictured here, see fashionistas as runway dilettantes, and therefore brick-dumb.

But by figuring out the single-nucleotide polymorphisms which lead to chiseled features and a high-powered metabolism, Wojcicki might figure out how to make sure her next child with Google cofounder Sergey Brin is healthy, smart and ravishingly beautiful according to media norms. My suggestion? New York's models should be making 23andMe pay them for saliva samples. It's not like Wojcicki, whose startup is already backed by her husband's employer, can't dial for more dollars from Google's new venture investment arm whenever she feels like it.

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<![CDATA[Google's Secret Lego-Made Logo]]> Intrepid Jennifer 8. Lee has defied Google's blackout on photographs of the lego sculptures at its offices in New York's Chelsea. The New York Times reporter, stymied by Google's publicists, obtained images from a brave insider—who will no doubt soon be sweeping the floors at one of the internet monolith's server farms.

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<![CDATA[23andMe admits personalized genetic test serves no medical purpose]]> Facing possible fines and jail time, local gene sequencers Navigenics and 23andMe will have to get permits if they want to continue testing resident of New York state. Meanwhile, California is investigating 12 complaints against unnamed gene sequencing companies, with officials noting that "all genetic tests must be ordered by a licensed physician." Trying to distance themselves from health regulators, 23andMe spokesman Paul Kranholdt told Forbes that "23andMe's services are not medical ... they are educational." In other words, getting tested amounts to a $1,000 exercise in vanity. No wonder people in the Valley love it.

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<![CDATA[Calacanis + Cuban to open New York studio?]]> More details on the major podcasting-video venture from Jason Calacanis and Mark Cuban. In addition to the much-discussed Los Angeles studio space, rumor has it there will also be a New York franchise, run in partnership with an as yet unnamed media entity. This location would allow for block closings and live concerts, recorded for release both on Cuban's HDNet and (at lower quality) other online venues. The sets will be constructed around built-in advertising as a way to defray production costs and allow for free distribution under the auspices of Creative Commons. Looking forward to that first off-the-hook podcast block party.]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=243430&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Google NYC as Shangri-La]]> If you're reading this, you're probably at work today, so you don't need any more confirmation that your job sucks. But you can always stand a cruise through Information Week's gallery depicting Google's New York headquarters and accompanying article. Balls, easy chairs, massages, scooters, free food, it's all there. No sign of Google's co-option of the Luther Burger, a fine Southern gustatory tradition that places a bacon burger between two Krispy Kreme donut halves. And if you're still not septic with jealousy, back at Palo Alto, that "Can Google Hear Me" guy will probably make shitloads of money very soon. Happy hour still loves you though.]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=237870&view=rss&microfeed=true