When Tech Reporters Become Irrelevant

In some ways, 2008 has been a great year for TechTicker to launch. The biggest tech story was, after all, the continually botched-then-even-more-botched deal between Yahoo and Microsoft. It was a story we surely had some implicit authority on, and one that allowed us to prove we'd cover Yahoo as reporters not employees. (I have the denied access to Yahoo's intranet to prove it.)

But the bad news is that's been pretty much the only big tech story. Mostly it's been a year of financial news. So, especially lately, TechTicker is looking less "tech" everyday. But, hey, people want to kvetch over the economic crisis, and we are here to oblige. If you haven't been watching Henry and Aaron's excellent coverage from the Nasdaq, you should start. Mostly, to see how excited Henry is about all of it. He is quite literally flying out of his chair in some clips. (Judging from these eye-popping numbers, few of you aren't watching TechTicker. I'm glad I wasn't missed during my month on tour. Sniff.)

In a semi-desperate attempt to have a value-add again-- or at least show off my latest DVF splurge-- I did a few segments with Paul Kedrosky around the crisis, trying to hew to tech as much as possible. If you're one of those people who needs an economy fix, clips are on the jump.

Comments

[Abort]

Hopefully this fake economic crisis will be over and mccain will win.

http://iamned.com/blog/

[Valley Lifer]

I've lived in the valley my whole life and over the last 20 years since I got out of grad school alot has changed.

Just like the great Tech Bookstores Computer Literacy, Staceys and even The Stanford Bookstore (now they sell mostly pens and T-shirts) that have disappeared, the valley isn't so much about hardware or software its about commerce.

Maybe the Energy startups, nanotech or Biotech will get things to take off but the Computer Industry is a commodity business today. Its been headed offshore for years.

Look at IBM, basically an enterprise software and services company. HP and Dell are the only real computer companies. Intel makes chips and does alright. AMD is barely alive. Oracle does software and Google is figuring what they can do to grow.

Then theres the web. How many more social network sites do we need and who is paying for them anyway? The main use of the web is by established companies like Amazon, Macy's and Victoria Secret. They could be located anywhere.

What's the last big idea that had real impact Google? There was Altavista and Infoseek and others before, Google may have a more effective search engine but they also came up with a better business model. That's why there still around.

The web is about commerce and commerce is about making money not technology.

Technology isn't the issue any more. But at least there are plenty of financials to report.