April 2008 Archive

Do You Trust Me?

Interesting post on my friend Charlene Li's blog about trust.  Some findings are not surprising to me. Obviously people trust a friend's opinion on something the most. And sadly, it's not surprising that print or TV has a higher trust factor than online. Part of it is just cultural habit. But honestly, TV and print publications have more entrenched checks and balances and a real fear of liability lawsuits if anything is mis-reported. At BusinessWeek, I had to have very high ranking principals on both sides of a deal confirm, say, acquisition talks before I could report it. Frequently for a blog, a rumor from a well-sourced person in the industry is enough. It'll be interesting to see how that changes over time, as traditional media changes its rules to compete for scoops and blogs become more powerful and get deeper pockets. (You know it's a matter of time before Nick Denton gets hit with a liable slander suit. per comments- I don't even know what it is OR how to spell it, so Denton shouldn't come to me for legal advice clearly...)

Whoa. Even Friendster Thinks Second Life Is Lame?

Yelp: Help My Reporter Cred. Do Something Dumb! Please!

Sigh. Once again I am writing to praise Yelp. Yawn. Just read about their new business services on TechCrunch. At first, the headline made me think they were somehow allowing businesses to manipulate the results and I thought, "Oh no! I just defended you this morning!"

Nope, in fact, Yelp has done something smart. They've created a mini-portal for businesses to measure and properly respond to Yelp reviews, plus make sure their basic stats are up-to-date. (i.e. hours, phone no. etc) This is a smart move on a few levels.

Waaaaaay Better Being on Valley Wag...

...when you can benefit from the traffic boost! why didn't i start my own blog YEARS ago? if i could be this controversial everyday i'd top 100k page views in my first month!

seriously, i'm closing in on my first 30 days blogging on sarahlacy.com and i've just loved it. I just wanted to thank everyone for reading so far, and of course, for commenting! i have a few cool new regular features i'm working on that will hopefully make this a better resource. so stay tuned....

oh! and zappos fans: looks like i'll be interviewing tony for tech ticker soon! let me know any questions you have for him or i can just pass on all of your undying love ;)

Twitter: Not Mainstream, but Seeping Out of the Echo Chamber for Sure

One major flaw in Kara's informal survey: Equating this wedding she was at with "outside the Silicon Valley echo chamber." I've been stunned how quickly people outside the Valley have started following me on Twitter. My in-laws asked my husband if it was an invasion of our privacy to "follow us" and while I was out of town my parents-- who use absolutely zero social networking or social media sites and are doing good if they read anything I write -- sent an email to my husband that read, "What is a Twitter? Is it just like a one-line blog?" I was floored. And, let's not forget international. Every time I travel outside the U.S. I'm stunned by Twitter's ubiquity. After all, mobile apps are much stronger outside the U.S. In my own informal polls, people in Europe and the Middle East rank Twitter among the most global companies in the Valley, well above Facebook even.

In short, Twitter isn't mainstream, but it's getting outside the echo chamber fast. The problem is it's not necessarily in predictable ways. It's in random spurts.

Boston's Deterioration as a VC Hub

I have been fascinated with this story for a while. Boston used to be the only place other than Silicon Valley that had a strong critical mass of startup activity no matter what. It seems that's been deteriorating quarter-after-quarter for a while now. See video on the jump for more. I posed this to the panel, but it hasn't really been answered yet: What does this mean for the balance of power in bi-coastal firms? Any thoughts on this please comment away.

Dramatization of Reporters Watching for Microsoft-Yahoo News Today

What we must look like, on the jump...

(Arrington is the slightly jaded looking one on the left who meows at one point)

More on Why I Don't Work at a Newspaper

Nice that SAI is writing my blog for me this morning...but can't help mentioning that apparently some newspapers are getting the memo on dramatic action being needed. I agree with Henry obviously, that this awaits all-- or best case 99% -- of the industry. I'd be interested to know if journalism schools are retooling their programs to keep pace. My guess is not fast enough.

Impressive Feat by SAI

I'm very busy earning my three-day-a-week keep at Yahoo this way-too-early Monday morning, but I hope to carve out some time to go through Silicon Alley Insider's SAI 25 index today. It's a list of the 25 most valuable private digital companies. Folks, these things are hard to produce. For one thing, getting the real numbers can be an Oceans 11-heist-style feat of reporting. Plus, a private company is typically valued on its potential not its revenues-- or even more subjective, it's valued on what it's worth for others to put money in the company. (i.e. Facebook, Microsoft and that $15 billion valuation)

While Facebook is no. 1 on the list-- at $9 billion, not $15 billion-- there are some surprises.

note to self: zappos drives traffic!

so my blog is young and all, but nothing has driven such volume of emails, comments and traffic so quickly as the lazy sunday post i just wrote on zappos! if blogs are supposed to provoke conversation....well done i suppose!