Gawker: valleywag, will.i.am

Help me Anderson Cooper, you're our only hope

Owen Thomas — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST

CNN's cheesy hologram stunt for election night got star power from hip-hop artist Will.i.am, whose 3D image was beamed into CNN's studios for an interview with anchor Anderson Cooper. Will.i.am. compared it to Star Wars; Cooper corrected him, saying it was more like Star Trek. But anyone who remembers Princess Leia's holographic plea for help in star Wars knows Will.i.am had his sci-fi references straight. Can you think of a better caption? Leave it in the comments. The best one will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: theodp, for suggesting Google CEO Eric Schmidt was thinking, "With my $1 salary, I'll be getting a tax cut!"

YouTube goes live after all

Jackson West — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EDT

On November 22nd, YouTube will host a two-hour event in San Francisco, "a celebration of the site's vast user communities." Looks like we can expect performances from Akon, Soulja Boy, will.i.am and a bunch of online video-powered Weblebrities. And it will be broadcast live over the Internet. So, it turns out that Steve Chen was right after all — YouTube will have introduced live streaming video by the end of the year.

And departed Silicon Alley Insider reporter Michael Learmonth wasn't entirely wrong in his article saying that Google had nixed the idea. Google and YouTube won't necessarily be offering live streaming video to users of the site any time soon. Why, when the search advertising company is already stuck subsidizing YouTube and venture capitalists are happy to continue subsidizing sites like Justin.tv and Ustream with their own money?

Webby Award winners a typical mix of celebs and self-promoters

Jackson West — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Another year, another round of nominees who paid up to $475 to be considered for a Webby have been awarded their publicity prizes. The long-running promotional gambit started by early Valley PR pro Tiffany Shlain, now under new management, does give awards to "special honorees" whom I presume don't have to pay. Those deemed "special" provide big names for media coverage and a draw for award winners to shell out for tickets to the awards gala. This year, Stephen Colbert is the biggest name, having won "Person of the Year" for his achievements in promoting himself online when he was unable to do so on air during the TV writers' strike. Michel Gondry got the nod for "Film and Video Person of the Year" for convincing YouTubers to promote his movie Be Kind, Rewind. And Will.i.am's treacly Yes We Can video garnered the musician "Artist of the Year." Who didn't win? Any of the engineers who, you know, build the Web. (Photo by AP/Matt Rourke)