AllThingsD » Barry Manilow

In This Episode of "As the AOL Turns": Will Arrington Appear at TechCrunch Disrupt?

Kara Swisher — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:52:05 +0000

With the continuing negotiations between AOL and high-profile TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington likely to come to some conclusion soon, the big question remaining is whether he will appear at its flagship conference, TechCrunch Disrupt, which officially begins tomorrow.

Sources said that seems more likely than not, although the talks between AOL and Arrington are not resolved as yet and his appearance at the highly lucrative conference is part of a whole package.

But it seems unlikely that neither Arrington nor AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and content chief Arianna Huffington wants to damage TechCrunch Disrupt, which makes piles of moolah from sponsors and fees, attracts thousands of attendees, and where a plethora of promising start-ups compete with each other.

And, in fact, some of the slated speakers I have contacted have said that they have not been told of any changes in the program.

A hackathon of those entrepreneurs is now taking place before the main event, where well-known Silicon Valley players will be interviewed on stage by the staff of TechCrunch.

The conference is mostly run by TechCrunch exec Heather Harde, as well as the site’s leading editor Erick Schonfeld.

But, of course, TechCrunch Disrupt has starred Arrington, the larger-than-life blogger now turned venture capitalist.

That shift and how badly it was done is at the center of complex severance negotiations.

As I previously wrote, sources said the company has so far refused Arrington’s bold demand, posted on TechCrunch itself, to either give the popular tech news site “editorial independence” or sell it back to him.

As I wrote last week:

The situation between the popular tech blogger and top execs at the Internet company — which bought his site earlier this year — comes after a week of increasingly testy back and forth between them, after it was revealed that Arrington was starting his own $20 million venture fund called CrunchFund.

The move caused a media firestorm over the ethics and propriety of the move, which was followed by an ugly internal war at the company, with Arrington and TechCrunch staffers on one side and Armstrong and Huffington on the other.

(Full disclosure: Although no one cares what I think, I consider the deal appalling and wrote that it was a “giant, greedy Silicon Valley pig pile.” Now, it seems to be 56 percent piggier!)

After many confusing messages from AOL, Arrington was removed from his longtime job at TechCrunch and placed in its venture arm, after editorial objections from Huffington.

That had supposedly been the the plan until it all blew up, with reveleations about what the CrunchFund deal — which includes $10 million from AOL — meant to TechCrunch and its news gathering.

That seemed clear from a widely cited quote from CrunchFund investor and well-know Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman to me last week:

“TechCrunch will get some real deal flow from entrepreneurs that we would otherwise not see, because they have established a prominent position as the SV/Tech industry information feed. As many tech entrepreneurs read it — both within Silicon Valley and globally — and view the information news feed to be their target for announcing themselves to the world, CrunchFund will have access to deal flow to these diverse and early stage companies. Some of these companies will be the kind of early stage companies with billion-dollar potential that Greylock invests in.”

There you had it: No one can afford to be out of the deal flow in these competitive times, even if it means cutting corners and using a tech news site as fodder.

Arrington obviously has another view of the deal he struck with Armstrong and, sources said, wants his powerful tech news platform back. He has been talking to many Silicon Valley power players about the situation, said sources.

More to come soon from this Silicon Valley soap opera. And, hopefully, it will be a happy — well, happy-ish — ending.

(Full disclosure: AllThingsD also runs conferences that could be construed as competitive to TechCrunch Disrupt, although we both we seem to do just fine. In addition, Walt Mossberg and I are getting along like peas and carrots, although we vigorously disagree over the humongous talent of Barry Manilow.)

Viral Video: "The Muppets" Are Back (and I, for One, Am Thrilled)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:13:16 +0000

As with my deep adoration of Barry Manilow, I am a closet fan of “The Muppets.”

They’re back in a new movie and, apparently, it’s still not easy being green.

Liveblogging the Bing-Facebook Bromance: "Underdog" Search With a Little Help From Your Friends

Kara Swisher — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:46:53 +0000

BoomTown motored on down to the Microsoft campus in Silicon Valley on a fabulously sunny day to liveblog the latest Bing event.

The software giant is updating its search service, announcing deep integration–part of a deal announced last year–with Facebook.

The theme, according to Microsoft (MSFT) SVP Yusuf Mehdi, quoting the Beatles, was search with “a little help from your friends.”

Let’s hope it’s not: “Help, I need somebody.”

11:35 am PT: Mehdi kicks off the show, announcing the line-up, which includes Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Well, it just got 100 percent more interesting here in this nondescript auditorium.

Mehdi talks a little bit about the future of search and making it better. He talks about social being an important part of it.

While I’d have gone with Barry Manilow, he quotes the Beatles.

Mehdi is followed by Microsoft Online Services Division President Qi Lu, who throws more love bombs at Facebook.

“With the partnershop of Facebook and Bing, we will be able to unlock…how people in a social relationship can be first-class citizens in a search experience,” said Lu.

It sounds so lofty, even though it is mostly trading movie review recommendations or good places to take the kids on a rainy Sunday.

Lu thanks Zuckerberg effusively and invites him onstage.

11:54 am: No hoodie.

Zuckerberg is also “honored to be here,” giving us a little history lesson about the origins of the social networking giant and its various and sundry efforts.

I’ll be honest, the lack of donuts is making me distracted.

He’s not actually saying more than bromides about “what would social search look like.”

And looking around at who would be the right partner in the arena. Microsoft! Of course! That giant investment way back when was nice too!

“They’re really the underdog here,” said Zuckerberg in the first interesting comment, noting that overdogs–that would be Google (GOOG), which he does not mention by name–never innovate much.

His take: Underdogs are the best.

12:01 pm: Mehdi is back to show off the wares in a demo.

First, what’s there. Web search in Facebook and Facebook status updates on Bing.

Zzzzzzzz. Get to the good stuff!

First, a module that brings in a Like module from Facebook into the search, with all the other information provided by Bing.

It is, said, Mehdi, particular for a person.

“This is going to profoundly change how we search,” he said of personalized experiences.

Mehdi also shows off a way to differentiate your friends who have names of famous people, who are the ones who come up on search first.

Interesting, but people search is not the biggest problem I have.

He also says more is coming, such as friend experts surfacing in search and Like in every result on a page that it was possible. Yipes!

Also, thank the Lord, the ability to turn it off.

12:15 pm: Now Facebook exec Dan Rose comes up and starts talking about the Facebook-Microsoft bromance.

Apparently, four years is an eternity in Silicon Valley in terms of a relationship.

Actually, four weeks is long, so congrats you two crazy kids!

I’d celebrate with a donut if they were here.

“More and more” social in Bing, said Rose.

It’s a match made in digital heaven!

12:22 pm: Q&A time!

So what more? The press is so unsatisfied! Yes, we are.

Zuckerberg takes the lead. New interfaces! More!

A privacy question. “This is Instant Personalization,” said Zuckerberg, who said that Facebook has five partners in that effort.

He explains Instant Personalization, saying he wants to clear up misconceptions.

It’s private enough, you oversharers!

“Just because it is all public information about you, this is really good,” he said.

But is it by default? Of course, it is. That’s Facebook modus operandi!

Opt-out should be tattooed on employees at Facebook as a requirement.

Bing does put up a warning at the top of the page, but only five times. Then, you need to go foraging to turn it off.

Next: Does Bing search queries get sent back to Facebook? Not necessarily.

But, “everything is going to be social eventually,” said Zuckerberg, as long as it is public.

Public is apparently the new black.

More questions about new Facebook Groups and other deets, none of which is that bracing.

Apropos of nothing, I am considering asking a question about the ever-exciting Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) scandal, just to jack up the volume.

I try to ask a question about Zuckerberg’s underdog comment, but no more time.

But Zuckerberg sort of addresses it, going on about why he has picked Microsoft as the favorite.

While he does not say it, it’s because Facebook is the overdog here and, as you know, every overdog needs an underdog.

Speaking of cartoon heroes, here is the opening of that classic television show:

Video: BoomTown Zings, Dings and Pings (Manilow) at Apple Music Event

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:15:32 +0000

Here is a lovely movie from the Apple iPod, iPad, iTunes, TV and, now, Ping event yesterday in San Francisco.

(Yes, this is a photo of me channeling Walt Mossberg in a chat with CEO Steve Jobs in the demo area.)

It includes the you-are-there shots of Jobs onstage, as well as scenes from the media throng and more, as the tech giant unveiled updates, additions and renovations of older stuff and also launched new stuff.

Such as Ping, the social music service in iTunes 10, which starred Apple (AAPL) PR impresario Katie Cotton’s profile in the demo itself. She was unflappable, even after I told her I was a Fanilow.

It is all in the video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

Inside Ford's App-Happy Fiesta–But No Manilow (and BoomTown is a Fanilow)!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:51:41 +0000

Last week, outside the Facebook f8 developers conference, BoomTown checked out the new 2011 Fiesta model, which will be the first vehicle in which smartphone apps can be voice-controlled via its in-car synching software.

While getting a test, I interviewed the Ford dude–Julius Marchwiki–who has been in all the YouTube videos of late touting its digital prowess.

Ford has been trying to fast-forward its automobiles in the digital space to try to differentiate itself from other car makers, using SYNC AppLink, as well as other innovative Web-friendly features.

In December, Ford (F) said it would make the next generation of its SYNC-enabled vehicles into Wi-Fi hotspots, allowing drivers and passengers to connect to the Internet everywhere much more seamlessly in a moving car.

Presumably, the ultimate in mobile.

One speed bump: SYNC AppLink will work only with Google (GOOG) Android and Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry devices for now, although Ford promises an Apple (AAPL) iPhone solution soon.

Pandora Internet radio, online talk radio aggregator Stitcher and mobile Twitter client OpenBeak are the first SYNC-enabled mobile applications.

Here’s my interview with Marchwiki, as well as Scott Monty, Ford’s social media guru:

[ See post to watch video ]

The MySpace Sale or Spinoff May Be a Nonstory for Now–But My Barry Manilow Badge Is Sure for Real

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:30:01 +0000

Like others, without inquiring, BoomTown got an email–from someone who would know–regarding inexplicably whirling rumors of the sale or spinoff of MySpace.

Read the “pre-emptive” note: “There is no truth, zero, zip to myspace sales report.”

Well, to tell my truth, I actually wasn’t wondering, especially since that was the exact same on-the-record answer I got from MySpace Co-presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Michael Jones when I asked them that very question in an interview last week about the fate of the social networking site within its parent company, News Corp. (NWS).

But whatev!

In any case, what is completely true–and I could not be more thrilled–is that I am now the proud and only owner of a Barry Manilow badge (pictured here in all its glory) from a yet-to-be-released feature MySpace is working on.

It was sent to me by Mike Macadaan, head product dude at MySpace now, after my recent video tour–which you can see below–of the changes being planned to try to revive the troubled Internet service.

[ See post to watch video ]

When shown the badge idea, full of hipster stuff about three decades too young for me, I wondered what there was on MySpace for Manilow fans–Fanilows!–like me.

Hence, my one-of-a-kind Barry badge (which sort of makes the crooner look a little like Carol Brady/Florence Henderson, whom I also love, so no foul).

I am not sure I am ready to take a chance again on MySpace–or if anyone is–but, Mike, you came and you gave without taking, so I won’t send you away.

(A free All Things Digital T-shirt to the first commenter below to name those tunes.)

And, so more will understand Manilow’s bizarre appeal, here is one hysterical video mashup of “Copacabana,” which somehow includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a pimp and dog wearing a pirate hat:

(Full disclosure: News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

Welcome to Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg! Use Your Google Search DNA, Pretty Please.

Kara Swisher — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:55:23 +0000

Now in her second week at Facebook, new COO Sheryl Sandberg (pictured here) probably thought BoomTown was done making suggestions of things she needed to work on at the social networking site.

Not even close! (Although we promise eventually to do a post on things BoomTown likes about Facebook.)

But that day is not today, where the focus is on search. It is a topic you should know a lot about, given those half-dozen years you spent at the Googleplex as one of its top execs.

And while your job focus was on ad operations, one cannot imagine you did not pick up a thing or two about search, which is like oxygen there.

And, I am sorry to say, if this was the case at Facebook, we would all be turning a magnificent shade of blue right about now from lack thereof.

That’s because search on Facebook, which is billed as a place to find friends, is about as bad as it can be. In fact, it has so few features and so little usability that I would be better off tagging some of my friends with those dog-collar homing devices to keep track of them.

Case in point is my email (which I have already whined about here). Last night, I was searching for a particular email from the fall and had to slog through page after page of unorganizable emails to find it purely from memory.

And your new feature to make lists of friends is very time-intensive, even though it is described as: “Now you can easily organize your friends into convenient lists for messaging, invites, and more.”

But it is a lot harder than it seems, with only snapshots and names to use as you are selecting how to organize them.

Currently, for example, I have 661 friends I made before being able to even make lists, with 217 more requests I am ignoring, since the prospect of a massive list I cannot manage is exhausting, even though I know there are people in there I want to interact with and know about without opening up each and every profile.

While it is nice to now be able to add friends to a list, it is still much too crude a way to understand this important social graph.

So instead of being this enlightened ecosystem, my friends list feels like a really good library with all the books scattered on the floor in a messy pile.

That makes things hard, since some friends are real friends and some are people I kind of know and others people who like BoomTown, for example.

It would be nice then to just have a way to drag and drop these names or present me with some more sophisticated way search and sort them.

The same search problems are present all over Facebook, where almost nothing is searchable in an easy way.

I did a universal search, for example, of Barry Manilow–your god of music and mine (Vegas, baby!)–and got 424 mostly meaningless results (as you can see below; click on the image to make it bigger).

And don’t even get me started on trying to search for good widgets–but let’s just say it makes the quest for the Holy Grail look simple.

Thus, I have a very good suggestion with what, what, what you can do with yet another slug of money–$60 million more–that Facebook got recently from Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.

No, not a set of those pricey Japanese massage chairs or automated toilets seats that blanket the Google (GOOG) campus from whence you came. No, not MacBook Airs for all at the startup. No, not even a lifetime supply of Red Bull for the gang-that-likes-to-work-all-night in Palo Alto.

Right now, you have $120 million from Li, to go with the $240 million Microsoft handed over, and I am guessing Facebook breaks even on operations, so you might still have some errants tens of millions left over from earlier investments.

This is a lot of scratch to work with to create a world-class search to make Facebook what your CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg calls a “utility.”

And utility means useful, so get busy on creating a search product worthy of the well-organized profile pages that Facebook is known for.

That, or fork over some dough for Google or Yahoo (YHOO) or Microsoft (MSFT) to do it for you.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Welcome to Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. Free My Data!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:27:25 +0000

On your fourth day at Facebook, my data said to me: Sheryl will surely set us free.

But, let’s be realistic–getting ubiquitous data portability is about as likely as actually finding a partridge in a pear tree.

Still, here’s an issue the new COO can actually sink her teeth into, as the notion of who has the rights to your data on social-networking sites like Facebook and how much control you have over it yourself is a topic that will surely eventually become a political one (and politics was an arena in which Sandberg was involved as a staffer in the Clinton administration).

While I know Facebook this week joined in a Microsoft (MSFT) initiative–along with social-networking sites like LinkedIn, Tagged, Hi5, Bebo–on a new and, well, convoluted, scheme to allow users to move their relationship info between the services, I am sorry to say that it is just not enough. Not nearly enough.

Like the appalling situation in instant messaging, where the key services do not work together because companies put their interests ahead of consumers’ convenience, there should be an industry-wide standard to allow users to move a great deal, if not all, of their data among and between services of their choice.

Obviously, all photos and videos, as well as personal information inputted, should be easy to move. And I do realize there needs to be clear privacy parameters around moving data about your friends (who, in any case, gave you access to the data in the first place).

And I do realize this is a difficult technological issue, but you are all very smart, I am told, and have plenty of money to figure it out.

So why won’t it happen quickly?

In a post I wrote in January after blogger Robert Scoble got slapped by the company for using software to “scrape” his data from his Facebook profile, I noted an even more obvious reason.

I wrote: “More to the point, such an ability would be damaging to Facebook’s business plan around building a robust ad business. The success of that squarely relies on people staying and actively using the service because they have committed time and effort in putting up scads of information, photos and videos about themselves on the service, as well as establishing a complex and personally valuable network of friends.”

While sites like Facebook like to trot out privacy concerns about this particular issue of being able to digitally move friends’ data around without explicit permission (even though a person could physically copy all this data and move it anyway), to my mind, the issue has more to do with social-networking sites wanting to lock you into their services, rather than allowing you to do what you like.

It’s all very parental, but not very realistic.

In fact, I might have several services I use, like Facebook for fun and LinkedIn for work and MySpace to meet, say, fellow fans of Barry Manilow (yes, I am a Fanilow).

Thus, I would like to be able to move data around easily and without having to pick a certain camp to live in to do so.

After all, as the great Barry sings (sort of): Oh, Facebook, well, I came and I gave (my data) without taking.

Now, though, I want to take.