NickDouglas

But CNET says you may want to double-check that listing: http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6188675.html

Or qraggle.com?

Good article, and even better if you link to the original: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/03/12/5-ways-to-stop-being-late/

You hit my biggest problem with the idea: Gossip already spreads better among networks of people who care. It's not some concept I can just go to a page for. So the topic of the content is not a value add.

As for the technology, we've seen how cheap and reproducible that is. News.yc, Reddit, Digg, Netscape, and dozens of other sites have technology that probably beats that of Truemors. So the company isn't worth buying for that.

Some companies get bought for their employees. Well, Guy's "1.5" employees, if he's talking about a full-timer and part-timer other than himself, aren't visionaries, they're just people who can turn around one of Guy's ideas. Come to think of it, that makes them better potential hires for a big company than most headstrong, visionary startuppers.

So Guy just spent $12k making himself feel good. By doing so, he demonstrated how detached he is from the real world -- which, psychologically speaking, is a fine way to live. If you're like Guy and you can afford to blow $12,000 doing it.

People from both the Merc and the Chronicle talked to me about doing work for them; I've heard both are laying off a good chunk of the staff. The inevitability of this was one of the reasons I didn't pursue either. (I hope I can do enough online video to make the same thing happen with TV networks.)

And according to his comment on this post, he wasn't really "exposed." He's just a bit slow at getting back to the organizers he cancels on.

Hey founder: shut up? http://powazek.com/posts/534 http://jpdefillippo.com/blog/2007/05/16/the-blog-post-i-never-wanted-to-make/

Great points. And back forward!

We did hear it last year; I reported it several times at Valleywag.

Facebook has smaller profits, but the point of the small staff is that their personnel costs are also 100 times smaller than Google's. And yes, they could be making more money, great!

I haven't seen the falloff numbers either, so we both concede that point. Is MySpace's user base actually growing more than Facebook's? Anyway, like you said, Facebook's revenue could grow without growing the userbase.

Facebook is for fun, but more and more it's social in a useful way. That's why my 37-year-old media-minimogul boss is hooking up with VCs, bankers, and other rather influential people (ones not connected to Web 2.0!) on the site.

Side note: Facebook encourages users to track the activities through which they mediate relationships. They can share photos of their real-life interactions, join groups, etc; LinkedIn only has a limited version of this. So I can learn a lot more about my contact's connection to someone I want to meet through Facebook than through LinkedIn. "Anyone dumb enough to mix business with pleasure" is a lot of people. Hell, even Congress works that way, sadly.

I'm confident Facebook can compete in those other countries the way it does in the US: by being more "legit" and "safe" than Bebo, a MySpace-like group with little basis in real-world groups, and Orkut, heavily criticized in Brazil as a pedophile's haven thanks to Google's protection of "user privacy."

Safer being acquired? Ha, yeah, I'd feel safe with Yahoo's execs overseeing me, what with CEO Terry Semel barely keeping his job and two of the top three positions vacant. Facebook doesn't want to commit itself to Yahoo's disappointing ad system (the new Panama wasn't up to snuff); if he joined them it'd be after the company got over its midlife crisis.

It's in Facebook's best interests to mature on its own and partner with the big boys. The company's on a healthier trajectory than Yahoo and Microsoft (and Amazon and eBay, for what that counts), so it should stay under its own roof and play off their strengths without taking on their burdens.

You could test them on their knowledge of Python. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP0sqRMzkwo

Re: My would-be career in journalism:

I should have clarified. After Valleywag, I was courted (briefly; I wasn't too interested and they didn't push THAT hard) by several newspapers that I would have killed to get into back at college.

By the way, am I posting more self-links than is good form? If so, my apologies, and I can cut back.

Not only is this a great post, but most good blog posts could be edited this short and still make sense.

While it's easy to argue against his statement about the ease of monetization (does Warren even put ads on his sites?), I'm grateful for the note that burst culture is NOT killing attention spans, and the evidence is Harry Potter. (I'd say further evidence is three-hour epic action movies aimed at the same kids who watch 30-second YouTube clips.)

Small FYI: Analysts' price targets are usually bullshit.

Yeah, wake me when part 2 is up.

That's a great term, the "de facto mentioned place": "If I had played it right, we might have hit that moment where you become the de-facto mentioned place in articles about a certain topic."

Wait, shouldn't that be "Had enough Justin?" Man, the Chronicle always has the sloppiest headlines.

Mark Zuckerberg stated at his press conference that he's always felt the company should stay independent (maybe the ridiculous $2B price he reportedly asked for from Yahoo was meant to scare them off) and that F8 confirms this.

Facebook pulls in a profit. The site can demand a higher CPM than Myspace (thanks to the higher quality of its pageviews and its more attractive demographics); the company employs only 85 developers; the user base constantly replenishes itself as new students join pre-existing networks; older users are increasingly comfortable connecting through the site as an alternative to LinkedIn; the international markets leave room for growth. I expect Facebook to go public.

Ha, every time someone writes about Craigslist, it's like checking in on the Big Lebowski: "Still abiding?" "Yep." "Anything new?" "Nope." "Should I ask the same six questions every other reporter does, which I'd realize if I bothered Googling your name before I interview you?" "Sure."

Good theory, and a solid basis in the different approaches Facebook and MySpace take to outside development. Facebook is now an OS for social activity, whereas MySpace is a scary gamble and a world that really doesn't want you there.

As an amateur web historian, I wish the author wrote more about why Prodigy is a particularly good comparison.

By the way, "the power...is powerful"?

If you'd followed my Twitter account, you'd know I'm not kidding.

I'm starting a media network by producing weekly news and commentary shows. I know what I need money for, but I'd rather spend my time making creative decisions (writing shows, editing scripts, working with designers) than dealing with investors, accountants, and lawyers. I know I won't avoid that altogether, but I'd feel more confident with a co-founder who had run a startup before, even briefly. Am I right to want this, and if so, where do I start looking?

Whoa, Youtube did what? Link me to that story!

I second the motion for laziness; joining #news.yc on freenode.

After writing for Valleywag for over a year, I want to start a company, so I want to talk to other startuppers. I've noticed a good vibe on YC, and I also enjoy using IRC (most often on #joiito on freenode). Is there a good IRC channel where a lot of startuppers go?

It's hard to want Facebook to fail, since the creators are so great, the brand is classy, and the whole thing just WORKS. (If MySpace did this sort of thing, THAT I could hate.) Zuckerberg seems to actually care about making good stuff happen; if it all has to fall under Facebook, well, I welcome our new alien overlords.

Am I naive, or doesn't this happen to nearly everyone's launches?

Um, I published this exact story at Valleywag last year; they just rewrote a bit of the intro (like, changed "I" to "he") and linked to the original article. I don't think that's even legal under the CC license. Here's the original: http://valleywag.com/tech/myspace/what-news-corp-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-myspace-condensed-edition-199668.php#more

With a few metaphor-explicating labels, that'd make the perfect official Truemors shirt.