<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, tailrank]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, tailrank]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/tailrank http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/tailrank <![CDATA[Kevin Burton appears to be on drugs]]> Kevin Burton, the snooping entrepreneur with a buggy website, has a new problem: Tailrank, his Web news aggregator, is supposed to deliver users the latest dope. But recently, it's been doing so a bit too literally, serving up drug-spam ads rather than the usual assortment of tech headlines. Tipster Micah Lerner writes: "If I funded Tailrank, I would be very upset right now. How will they get investors now?" Oh, I don't know, Micah: Will his investors really be that mad? Or just grateful for the leads on where to score?

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<![CDATA[In an otherwise mostly geeky email interview...]]> The feeling is far from mutual. [TechWag]]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=279572&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[To-Do tonight: See embarrassing pre-production Pixar sketches]]>
  • Startupper Kevin Burton's so proud of launching Version 2 of his Tailrank news aggregation site that he'll let you buy yourself a drink. Join him (and his core crew of cynical Web 2.0ers) at 21st Amendment, 7 pm. RSVP to burtonator at gmail.
  • Should someone be proud of holding "a slew of interim CEO gigs" at the 90s startup incubator idealab? (Hint: No.) Go heckle Bill Trenchard ($15 in Palo Alto at 6:30) as he shares the lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur. [Upcoming]
  • Oh sweet! Pixar talks about the making of Cars at San Fran's Academy of Art, just $9-12 for the public. [Upcoming]
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    <![CDATA[Remainders: It's New Year's in July]]>

    • Batting .000 on his New Year's predictions, Firefox developer Blake Ross rushes out a second batch:
      Citizen journalism will finally topple Old Media, ushering in a remarkable new age of incisive journalism—"That Dude Across the Street Walks His Dog;" "Local Mail Arrives Ten Minutes Past 4." Illegal immigrants will protest the discriminatory name, forcing the blogosphere to rechristen the new model "Asscasting," short for "Broadcasting while sitting on my ass, which will never leave this chair."

      [Blake Ross]

    • The new site Relishio does a cannonball into the news-aggregation-site pool that's already full with Digg, Netscape, Newsvine, TailRank, and TechMeme. Its founders are either clueless, arrogant, or — oh, the founder is 14-year-old Jake Jarvis, son of blogger and entertainment pundit Jeff Jarvis. We're not going to make fun of an eighth-grader, are we? [Relishio]
    • Why is it hilarious that IT titan EMC bought security titan RSA? Because I know at least one RSA employee who quit the company months ago and joined a startup that RSA bought. Life wants some people to work in huge corporations. [EMC]
    • Is the Internet down? [Internet Status]
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    <![CDATA[Fox flipmeat: Kevin Burton, come on down!]]> burton-not-bought.jpgBy the way, whomever Fox bought, Kevin Burton swears it wasn't his aggregation site, Tailrank. But under an hour after he jokingly said "Okay, it was me," on TechCrunch, he got a solicitation (which he passed to me) for the management of his newfound wealth:

    Congratulations on the sale of Tailrank! I should have seen this coming after following you through TechCrunch. This must be a very exciting time for you. Due to the success you may have enjoyed from this transaction, a conversation with our team may make sense.

    I lead a [name redacted] practice and we advise and manage assets for a select number of high net-worth individuals/families.

    No fair, Mr. Asset Manager, teasing Kevin about the dough he ain't rolling in.

    Comment by Kevin Burton [TechCrunch]

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    <![CDATA[Flip trifecta: the race to sell out]]> After the New York Post reported that Google would buy Napster, a Google spokesperson denied any such plans. Looks like someone's trying to float a rumor and sell their stock. Meanwhile, Technorati's looking to sell its search tools, Six Apart might stay solo, and Digg.com is fighting lucrative sale rumors.

    Time to predict who sells first. We'll pick our top three favorites to win the race to flip (and show you some other flip-ready companies).

    Then you pick three of the companies below and e-mail them, in the order you think they'll sell, to editor@valleywag.com with the subject "Flip trifecta." The contestant whose top three picks sell first, in the order they choose, wins a prize. In the case of a tie, the winner's chosen randomly.

    Flip Trifecta: the race to sell out

    1. Digg: Kevin Rose denies a Yahoo buyout, but commentators (like TWiT's Leo Laporte) say "if he sells, he's buying dinner."

    2. Newsvine: The citizen-journalism-slash-real-journalism site hasn't even publicly launched, but it's already earning accolades from beta users. Already fresh, but still ripe, this would make a trendy purchase for Yahoo.

    3. Tailrank: Kevin Burton's tiny aggregator could become a one-man merger — but only if Kevin drops his dream of a user-funded startup.

    4. Odeo: A natural acquisition. None of the portals have a good podcast play. And it's not taking off all by itself. Biz Stone just left Google to work at this startup; could he find himself back on campus?

    5. Riya: The facial recognition software is a perfect technology to complement Flickr. On one round of funding, Riya has already developed smart recognition algorithms — for example, it recognizes founder Tara Hunt. But one search giant already took a look at Riya and passed.

    6. Six Apart: The blog platform developer is suffering downtime as it struggles to handle a growing user base. Would anyone buy a company that's a mishmash of publishing software, hosting services and a free community site? Or will Six Apart patch itself up and run solo?

    7. Technorati: CEO Dave Sifry told the Red Herring two years ago to "watch this space" for the blog tracker's exit strategy. This year, BusinessWeek predicts a flip to Microsoft. But in those two years, Technorati's piled on a lot of VC funding. Will its investors force it to take a lowball offer?

    8. Napster: Not selling any time soon, and definitely not to Google. This sucker's losing money fast.

    Make your pics and mail them in. The usual Gawker Contest Rules apply.

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