AllThingsD » HQ

Whitman to Hold All-Hands Meeting for HP Army This Morning

Kara Swisher — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:25:53 +0000

Meg Whitman, the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard, met investors yesterday after her sudden appointment at the Silicon Valley tech giant. Now she’ll turn to its huge staff, holding an all-hands meeting for HP’s 320,000 employees today at 9 am PT. Whitman will be presenting on-site at the company’s HQ for some workers; others will be able to watch and listen from around the globe.

Viral Video: Yahoo and Groupon Update -- Live From ATD Global HQ (My Bedroom!)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:26:52 +0000

Here are two videos from an appearance I made on WSJ.com’s Digits show yesterday, talking about the situation at Yahoo and at Groupon.

And, by “situation,” I mean big, honking controversy.

In Yahoo’s case, it is the ouster of CEO Carol Bartz this week from the Silicon Valley Internet giant; with Groupon, it is the delay of the IPO of the social buying service and other related issues.

Here’s the video, which I did with my Ray-Bans in my bedroom at home. (Yes, in pajamas, as any good blogger would.)

AOL's Stock Might Be Cold, but Its New Silicon Valley HQ Is Pretty Cool (Video)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:08:22 +0000

Earlier this week, BoomTown took the All Things Digital minivan for a spin down to see the new Silicon Valley digs of AOL.

The Palo Alto, Calif., office is helmed by former Yahoo exec Brad “Peanut Butter Manifesto” Garlinghouse, who also turned out to be a very entertaining tour guide.

While there, I also interviewed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who was visiting from New York, about his dogged efforts to focus the long-struggling company on premium content and advertising. So far, Wall Street investors are not biting, knocking AOL stock down 29 percent year over year.

Still, AOL continues to plug away, and the cool HQ in tech’s heartland is one manifestation of that, so here’s the video tour:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: "When Yelp Came Knocking at My Door"

Kara Swisher — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:19:24 +0000

Here is a cute music video that Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman pointed me to, which is a result of its most recent hackathon.

Set all around San Francisco and also Yelp’s HQ downtown, it’s not its official theme song for the online reviews site. But it should be, as it has a nice indie feel, kind of a geek version of the Moldy Peaches.

Enjoy:

Microsoft Bing's Yusuf Mehdi Talks About Facebook Search Lovefest!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:15:42 +0000

After yesterday’s press event at which Facebook and Microsoft declared their never-ending love for each other via a search integration into the Bing service of a lot of data from the powerful social networking behemoth, I sat down to talk about it with Yusuf Mehdi, a longtime exec at the software giant.

It is the first sign of a major deployment of a deal announced last year between Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook.

The theme, according to Mehdi, who demoed the new social features and quoted the Beatles, was search with “a little help from your friends.”

After execs from both companies spent a lot of time air-kissing each other over the whole thing and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg happily threw some raspberries at search giant Google (GOOG), BoomTown sat down with Mehdi for an interview.

Here’s the video of that, done in an odd fake living room–no idea on the many old radios–at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley HQ:

[ See post to watch video ]

(Ladylike) Fun and Games: BoomTown Visits Sugar HQ for an Update!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:42:23 +0000

It’s been a dog’s age since BoomTown revisited Sugar Inc., the scrappy women-focused content start-up run by Brian and Lisa Sugar.

I first paid a visit to the San Francisco headquarters of Sugar three years ago to check out the flagship PopSugar (celebs), GeekSugar (tech), CasaSugar (home) and YumSugar (food) sites.

Since then, it has moved into a range of other arenas, via acquisition, such as:

ShopStyle.com for Web commerce; FreshGuide, which makes women-aimed city guides that show off daily offers in a wide rage of arenas, such as beauty, health and fitness; and video shopping start-up Shopflick, which is now a Los Angeles-based branded entertainment unit called Sugar Digital Entertainment.

And, most recently, in mid-July, it launched a fashion game on Facebook called Retail Therapy. where you run your own fashion boutique.

While mine would be all jeans, T-shirts and Puma Mostros, it is an interesting idea from a content company, injecting into the content model doses of virality, commerce and user passion.

And, of course, Sugar has launched the requisite Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPad apps.

Last summer, Sugar also cut its ties with NBC Universal by buying back its shares and got a Series C funding of $16 million from Sequoia Capital.

Sequoia has been an existing venture investor, having put $5 million into Sugar in late 2006. NBC invested $10 million in 2007.

And while Sugar has had serious acquisition flirtations with Yahoo (YHOO), it currently remains on the road to building a new media content company of the future from scratch.

Here’s a talk I had with Brian Sugar last week about that and more, as well as a tour of Sugar’s office.

Also below, a very funny video called “The Zoeinator,” which Sugar did for Rachel Zoe’s Zoe Report, as an example of its branded content efforts:

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]

Tonight the Lights Go Down on Netscape's Silicon Valley HQ

Kara Swisher — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:04:30 +0000

With a flick of the switch today at 5 pm PT, a critical chapter in Silicon Valley will finally go dark.

That’s when AOL (AOL) officially moves out of the legendary HQ buildings of Netscape Communications in Mountain View, Calif.–along Ellis Street and East Middlefield Road–to new, snappier digs it is subleasing from Google (GOOG) in Palo Alto on Page Mill Road.

AOL will occupy one floor in the new space, while the first floor will be dedicated to start-ups and entrepreneurs.

AOL bought Netscape in late 1998 for $4.2 billion and located its office where the iconic but doomed browser company had made Internet history.

It was the spectacular August 9, 1995, IPO of Netscape that heralded in the dot-com boom for the Web, showering down wealth and fame on its employees, such as co-founder Marc Andreessen.

BoomTown came out to visit Netscape then, right in the middle of those glory days, and I will always recall its vibrant campus as a hubbub of activity and games that were the template for all other digital companies to follow.

No longer–AOL’s new location, said the company’s man-in-Silicon-Valley Brad Garlinghouse, is better for the future as it seeks to reinvent itself.

Netscape, as most know, is no longer used by AOL as a brand or supported technology.

“Fundamental to change at AOL is a cultural change,” Garlinghouse said in an interview yesterday. “For good or bad, those buildings are full of ghosts and we need a new space to start a new chapter.”

Plus the new space is closer to the train and a lively street life (you can see a rendering here).

“AOL is trying to reestablish its tech presence as we grow,” said Garlinghouse of the more than 200 employees in the area. “This is part of that.”

AOL’s new HQ is the former headquarters of Agilent Technologies (A), and Garlinghouse said Symantec (SYMC) will take over the old Netscape space.

The beat, as they say, goes on.

Yelp's Stoppelman Talks About Geo-Location, International Expansion (And Not Google)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:35:35 +0000

Earlier this week, BoomTown headed to downtown San Francisco to the hip HQ of Yelp to talk to its CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, about a range of issues related to the local business review site.

That included his thoughts about the explosion of social location services such as Foursquare, Yelp’s burgeoning mobile efforts, controversial lawsuits alleging questionable advertising sales practices, future features to come and more.

What he declined to discuss in detail was what happened with failed acquisition talks with Google (GOOG) late last year.

Stoppelman also opined on Yelp’s international expansion efforts, including its entry into Germany, a service announced earlier this week.

Here’s the video of the interview, which includes a quick tour of Yelp’s offices:

[ See post to watch video ]

Booyah CEO Keith Lee Talks About Social Gaming, Moolah and More (With Accel's Jim Breyer as Sidekick)!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:15:19 +0000

Earlier this week, BoomTown motored on down to the HQ of Booyah in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., for a chat with its CEO and co-founder, Keith Lee.

Also there: Jim Breyer, the Accel Partners moneybags who recently joined the board of the mobile social gaming start-up, forking over $20 million in new funding for the privilege.

Best known for its MyTown iPhone app, now with upward of two million users, Booyah is made up of a team of gaming industry veterans, especially from Blizzard Entertainment, which is now part of Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

Started in 2008, the company had previously raised $9 million in venture funding, mostly from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers $100 million iFund, as well as from DAG Ventures.

MyTown, which is about to come out with a new version, is one of the most popular and innovative location-based social games on Apple (AAPL) mobile devices.

That compares with other social check-in services, such as Foursquare (just over one million users) and Gowalla (250,000).

MyTown is slightly different from these services, though, focusing on gaming in its check-ins and virtual goods versus emphasis on a discovery element.

Lee and Breyer talk about all this and more in the video of my interview, which includes a short tour of Booyah’s Silicon Valley HQ (it is soon moving to San Francisco):

[ See post to watch video ]

Zappos's Tony Hsieh Talks About His New Book, "Delivering Happiness" (Get It?)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:34:43 +0000

Tony Hsieh is unusually quiet in person, especially for someone whose innovative company is well known for its incredibly friendly customer service.

He has a new book, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose,” which comes out in June, so I chatted with him outside the Zappos HQ in Henderson, Nev., about this and more.

Zappos was bought by Amazon (AMZN) last year, but Hsieh still runs it pretty independently of the mother ship, employing a set of “core values.”

Here’s the video interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

Twitter's Biz Stone Looks Back at 2009 and Forward to 2010: We're Now an Information Network, People!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:25:40 +0000

While conducting a video tour of Twitter’s hip new HQ in San Francisco, BoomTown sat down to do a video interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

I did a similar interview with Stone, as well as CEO Evan Williams, in the spring, which now seems like a bajillion years ago.

In the video below, Stone–who has been traveling the globe of late, taking the Twitter message hither and yon–talked about where the much hyped start-up has been and where it is going.

He called the current period “the end of the beginning” and noted that 2010 will be all about “building a business.”

You think? In the past, I have dubbed him: No-Biz-Like-No-Biz-Plan Stone. But in 2010, I might have to change that to Down-to-Biz Nose-to-the-Grind-Stone.

Stone also said that he wants everyone to start calling Twitter–which has close to 60 million unique monthly visitors globally–an “information network” and not a microblogging service.

You got that one, folks! Information network! Nix on the microblogging, which does sound kind of puny.

It’s probably a good idea, given the social networking comparison to Facebook is growing much faster than Twitter.

In addition, Stone discussed the appointment of COO Dick Costolo, the DNS attack last week, the possibility of flattening traffic and the recent data deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG).

While he did not really give up much information about the finances of those partnerships–and I did not really press, since I was apparently in an unusual holiday mood–Stone said they are the kind of “framework that makes sense” for Twitter’s future revenue.

Check it out for yourself:

[ See post to watch video ]

The BoomTown Movin'-On-Up Tour of Twitter's New San Francisco HQ

Kara Swisher — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:54:38 +0000

Why Twitter invited BoomTown back for another visit to its latest HQ after my last one, I will never know.

But the masters of microblogging did and here is my video of the lovely new digs in San Francisco.

Designed by CEO Evan Williams’s wife, Sara, it is an understated, classy and very hip–but definitely luxe–affair, with cream, celadon, lemongrass and azure, among the soothing colors.

It also broadcasts green living, as long as there is also a pricey espresso machine present and accounted for.

Well, Twitter has raised $155 million in funding, so it is probably good for it.

A little over 100 employees toil–although it’s pretty pleasant toiling, with room for about 200 more–in offices most recently occupied by the now-banished Bebo social networking site, owned by AOL (AOL).

Well, the karma of that Web 2.0 stumble seems to have been feng-shuied out completely, as you will see below.

In fact, Twitter seems to be giving Google (GOOG) a run for its money in workplaces that treat their workforces well, which include Facebook, whose new HQ I toured this summer.

Some Twitter highlights include the same freaky pair of green deer from the company’s smaller previous HQ nearby, a Twitter employee I dubbed “Snuggie Boy,” a tricked-out DJ booth, too many giant “war rooms” to count, more bird images than that, a spate of comfy couches and a very odd but compelling stool made of wood dowels.

And, of course, a free and tasty organic lunch, which is de rigeur for Internet companies.

Oh, before I forget, also Twitter employees.

The person who drew the short straw to be my tour guide was Jenna Sampson, Twitter PR–oops, communications–staffer.

She used to work for Flickr at Yahoo (YHOO), by the way, so Sampson is definitely moving on up to a deluxe HQ in the sky.

Here is a link to video interview I did with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone too.

And here’s the office tour video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Finally, here is my favorite version of the classic television theme song, “Movin’ on Up,” from “The Jeffersons,” appropriately done by Rhett and Link with an Apple (AAPL) iPhone Leaf Trombone app:

Questions Please: BoomTown Revisiting Twitter's HQ (The New Swanky One!) Later Today

Kara Swisher — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:04:39 +0000

BoomTown is ankling over to Twitter’s new HQ today at lunch to check out its new digs in San Francisco and meet with whichever execs don’t run away from me screaming (I’m talking to you, COO Dick Costolo!).

Please send questions you would like me to ask the Twitter execs about Twitter to me via Twitter–@karaswisher.

No query is too silly or prying!

Here are some to get you started about the microblogging phenom:

If you had to marry one, would you pick Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT) or Facebook (oops, we know the answer to that one already!)?

Which is prettier? Smarter? A better conversationalist?

Could you show me the giant pile of funding you have (and can I jump in it)?

And, not to be all skunk-at-a-garden-party, but how’s the moneymaking coming along? (Dick Costolo, I am still talking to you!)

Until I post the inevitable new video, here are two from my last visit to Twitter in April–which seems like an eon ago–as well as the interview Walt Mossberg and I did with Stone and Williams at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference in May.

Here’s my tour of the former HQ, to which I brought the gift of pie:

And here’s my last video interview with co-founders Biz Stone (yes, that is a bird sitting on his head) and Evan Williams, who is also Twitter’s CEO:

Finally, here’s the D7 interview:

BoomTown Visits AOL's NYC HQ on Eve of Spinoff: CEO Tim Armstrong's Fabulous Cheekbones and More!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:38:11 +0000

BoomTown is in Manhattan today and my No. 1 stop had to be the AOL HQ downtown.

The iconic Internet company–which has gone through more lives than a dozen cats–is poised tomorrow to officially spin off from Time Warner (TWX) in yet another episode of the longest running corporate soap opera on the Web.

Less than a decade ago, AOL was the most powerful Internet property in the world, its dominance culminating in a merger with the media giant that was touted as the next big thing.

Well, it was certainly a thing.

As everyone knows, the union did not turn out well, and now, after years of struggling within Time Warner, AOL is being let free to resume its journey alone.

It will start trading tomorrow on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “AOL.”

I am about to head out to a party for AOL on Wall Street tonight and will also be there when AOL rings the opening bell in the morning, after which investors will cast their vote on its fate. (I’ll post on all that next.)

Until then, here is a video tour I did this afternoon at AOL HQ on Broadway, including an interview with CEO Tim Armstrong–whose Don Draper executive cheekbones are admired by partners and rivals alike–as the former Google (GOOG) exec heads into the big day:

[ See post to watch video ]

Liveblogging the Google Search Event: Gutenberg, Goggles and Scrolling Real-Time Search!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:08:53 +0000

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Right now, BoomTown is sitting right behind the very affable Jason Hirschhorn, chief product officer of MySpace, who is here to make one of the many partner announcements with Google at its “search event” in Silicon Valley today.

I also ran right into Twitter’s Biz Stone at the coffee stand. He is also here to talk about the new features Google (GOOG) is adding to its search repertoire, although he is remaining mum until the program starts in five minutes.

It’s about real-time search, of course, given that the partners visiting today are all real-time search folks.

The confab–being held at the Computer History Museum near the Googleplex HQ–is essentially Google’s rejoinder to last week’s event by Microsoft (MSFT), which announced a bunch of new features for its Bing search service, including mapping updates.

Of course, because it is Google, the sound system rocks, the food is better and it is more overproduced than “Dancing With the Stars.”

10:13 am PT: The event is opened by Marissa Mayer, who runs search products and user experience for Google.

And it takes exactly 13 seconds for there to be a classic Silicon Valley buzzword. Modes! Translation: It is how we use the Web.

Mayer is outlining Google’s key components in the future of search. Along with modes, they are media, language and personalization.

“We are a company that likes to launch early and often,” she said, adding that Google has launched 33 search innovations in 67 days.

In other words, take that, Bing. Oh, dear, giant Google just boasted about its innovation cred and is apparently a little worried about weensie Bing.

10:18 am: Mayer welcomes Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering, who will talk about mobile search.

He begins by noting that no one knows where all the new innovations in computing will lead, much as no one got the Gutenberg press way back in the olden days.

Professor Gundotra then launches into a computing history lesson, with stops at Moore’s Law (better, faster, cheaper) and how one understood all the zillions of computing connections that would occur.

The “missing ingredient,” noted Gundotra, is the cloud.

Next, he moves to a demo to show where Google is headed. Gundotra nails a voice query on an Android phone about President Obama at the G8 Summit with the French president. Everyone cheers.

Gundotra now tries to top himself with a Mandarin query for McDonald’s in Beijing. He sticks it.

He then announces support for the voice search on mobile devices for Japan, bringing up a Japanese speaker.

One voice query is a very long one for a favorite restaurant in Tokyo near the Google office there. Does Google find it? Of course Google does.

“Our dreams at Google go way beyond what you just saw,” says Gundotra, who opines on a real-time interpreter on the phone. Of course, he demos the interpreter, which he said will show up sometime in 2010.

It works, again. Natch! These are big-brained dudes here at Google, so don’t mess with them.

10:30 am: Gundotra moves to locations, which he says will be a key element of future versions of Google search. You know, Red Sox comes up in Boston, data appear for nearby stores for digital cameras.

He shows off the “Near Me Now” feature, which is kind of like those many Apple (AAPL) iPhone apps, like Yelp. It explores stuff nearby. It will be available on Google mobile maps for Android right away.

Next, he announces a Google Labs project called Google Goggles, which takes pictures of something and then identifies it. I have seen this kind of thing in a lot of labs at various tech companies.

Gundotra, who is a slick dude at presentations, uses the example of being a wine expert without being one. He scans a wine bottle and then Google quickly shows info on it.

Oooooh, aaaaaah.

Gundotra uses the service to identify a Japanese landmark successfully.

Someday, he predicts, your phone will be a “mouse pointer” to the world.

10:42 am: Back to Mayer, who talks about media relevancy in search. Google Fellow Amit Singhal is the man on deck.

“What we’re going to announce today is one of the most exciting things in my career,” said Singhal, who first launches into a short history of information flow.

Campfires, more Gutenberg! Also some pictures of old Google servers. I feel so educated; plus, Singhal is pretty funny for a supergeek.

Now, he gets to the news: “We are here today to announce Google real-time search.”

The demo is launched and it shows news scrolling as it is produced. “This is the first time ever,” enthuses Singhal.

It looks cool, but reminds me a lot of old tickers that used to be in the newsroom at the Washington Post. You know, the kind of newspaper that Google is often accused of killing off.

Irony alert! I wonder if that will scroll up soon.

The scrolling also includes Twitter updates. One tweet by Googler Matt Cutts about the Google real-time search launch showed up immediately.

The latest results will be available on the search options and in preferences and will also be hyperlocal and mobile on the iPhone and Android.

“Real-time search becomes incredibly powerful, since it shows you exactly what you need in your geography,” said Singhal.

Singhal is a font of news. He also announces that Google Trends is moving out of the labs and will also show real-time results.

He launches into the “how” of how Google did all this. Well, it was really, really hard, said Singhal, because there are a badillion real-time pieces of data out there to analyze and render.

And which company, with its massive computing power, can make this relevant and hand over the info quickly? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

Recap: Real-time search, latest search option, update option, mobile real-time search and Google Trends in the real-time world.

“At Google we will not be satisfied,” said Singhal, until Google can get you info at the speed of light.

11:07 am: Just to stick a true fork into anything Microsoft could come up with, Mayer comes back up and announces Google’s Facebook, MySpace and Twitter partnerships as part of the launch of real-time search.

Facebook will be sending in public feeds and MySpace is providing all of them, as is Twitter.

Google now has eyes and ears, says Mayer. When it gets a whole body, get ready to run for your life.

Q&A time!

The first question is about whether Goggles could have facial recognition. Gundotra says Google could do that, but will not until the privacy issues are worked out. Operative thought here: Google is capable of doing this. Eek!

The next question is about advertising opportunities in these new features. Singhal does not really answer, but says businesses will develop.

The next question is about how much content Google is crawling. Answer: About a billion pages a day.

Gundotra adds that the first launch is only available on English-speaking locales. But it will move into other languages next year.

What about spammers taking advantage of real-time search? Oh, says Singhal, they will get a beat-down from Matt Cutts, who is in charge of spam-killing at Google.

Wouldn’t that make a good reality show? “The Spam Hunters!”

About questions on real-time partnerships, Mayer said Google wanted to be comprehensive.

Mayer will not disclose the details of any financial payments for these real-time feeds. Of course, Google is paying up.

And now a question about whether Google will limit development on non-Android phones. “Absolutely not,” says Gundrotra.

At last, a zinger question: Do you feel that Google will be responsible for the death of journalism and doesn’t that make Google a scary black hole of, presumably, evil?

Awkward!

Singhal casts about for an answer, which is mostly about bringing info to users, which is not an answer.

“It’s really about user empowerment,” he says. Uh-oh, we’re doomed!

Mayer jumps in nervously to shoot this meme down and says Google is about facilitation and not decimation.

The PR dude onstage also throws in the boilerplate about Google sending gazillions of clicks all over.

But the point is made: Today Google–which owns universal search–just made its big move in real-time search.

The next question is about the difference between Google’s practice of wanting people off the page and onto the Web and Microsoft Bing’s focus on topic pages of rich information.

Mayer is sticking with quick on and off for Google.

And what about junk information on the silly side that comes with more real-time search, like dead celebs who are not dead, or really untrue information on important issues?

It’s a hard problem, says Singhal, who says Google is working on it.

What about disabling the real-time updates rather than just being able to turn them on and off. Nope, says Singhal. Mayer notes that this may change.

But the truth is: With the big search giant jumping in, real-time search is most definitely here to stay.

Kara Visits Guitar Hero HQ (for a Sneak Peek of GH5, Band Hero and DJ Hero)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:01:11 +0000

Despite the challenges the music gaming industry has been facing of late–such as sales dropping, yipes, almost 50 percent in the U.S. this year–the top companies in the field are still churning out new products like it’s nobody’s business.

Well, actually, they are hoping it is going to be somebody’s business–namely, theirs–as they seek to reinvigorate the category, which has been one of the most innovative over the last several years.

Case in point is a spate of new products from the Guitar Hero division of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), which is coming out this fall with three separate major launches.

The fifth version of Guitar Hero arrives tomorrow with 85 tracks, more famous player characters and new features; the family-aimed Band Hero comes out soon after that; and then–in what is probably the most important debut of the three–DJ Hero will be released on October 27.

In that game, a player can turn into some kind of club king, scratching along with unusual mashups that Guitar Hero provides with the new game, which are heavy on hip-hop (versus Guitar Hero’s more typical rock and roll vibe).

[In related news, one of the key player characters in DJ Hero--DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Goldstein--was found dead in his apartment in New York on Friday night.)

Nonetheless, the show will go on.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of DJ AM," said Tim Riley, Activision VP of music affairs, in a statement. "We hope that his work on the game will be a fitting tribute to his creative spirit and musical talent."]

Does this burst of energy coming from Guitar Hero, which has heretofore dominated the music game space, have to do with the Sept. 9 debut of a new Beatles title for Rock Band, the music game from Viacom (VIA)?

As the Fab Four might sing: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it also has to do with both music game rivals trying to keep consumers from getting weary of the entire genre.

In that vein, for example, the makers of Beatles: Rock Band are telling consumers to use Guitar Hero controllers to play.

In anticipation of these rollouts, BoomTown visited Guitar Hero’s HQ in Mountain View, Calif., to get a look-see at the new stuff (tomorrow, I will also post interviews I did with Guitar Hero division CEO Dan Rosensweig and its brother founders).

For today, though, here’s the video of the tour, as well as the Playboy Playmates television advertisement for Guitar Hero 5 (I do believe they are aiming at a male demo, so don’t blame me–and it is kind of funny):

[ See post to watch video ]

BoomTown Is Back (Just as Everyone Leaves for Burning Man)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:01:38 +0000

From vacation, that is–an activity that I highly recommend (and getting toasted at Burning Man this week does not count, although that is also apparently highly recommended in order to endure that digital dustfest).

In any case, we begin Yahoo memo-bombing in five minutes.

That is all.

Well, except for all that there is to check in on, such as the state of the regulatory approval process in the Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) deal, the upcoming Apple (AAPL) confab next week, figuring out if Twitter has either made some money or decided to sell out, ditto for Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL and, of course, discerning whatever evil plot Google (GOOG) and Facebook are cooking up .

Also this week: BoomTown visits Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Guitar Hero HQ and Adobe (ADBE), considers the online document space, chats with some VCs in Silicon Valley, checks out some new start-ups and more.

Jobs Back on the Job?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:37:57 +0000

“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say.”

– Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton

A quote from Steve Jobs in an Apple press release this morning and a handful of media reports claiming he has been spotted at Apple HQ over the past few days are raising hopes that the CEO may have officially returned to work.

It’s not clear yet whether these sightings are freak occurrences or if Jobs has indeed come back to work full-time, but we are nearing the end of June, the date at which his medical leave from the company was to conclude. Certainly, it’s conceivable that he’s slowly ramping up for a formal return.

Apple (AAPL) has not yet returned a request for comment.

Kara Tours the New Facebook HQ (And Gets Ripped): The Uncut Video!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:32 +0000

Last week, in anticipation of Facebook’s Press Open House tonight for its spanking new HQ in Palo Alto, Calif., BoomTown hightailed it down there for an early look-see at just what the social-networking site is doing with all that dough it collected from Microsoft (MSFT) and the Russians.

Moving into a new crib, for one thing!

Thus, I got a an extra-special tour of the 150,000-square-foot new building, which brings more than 900 employees together at last, by Facebook’s long-suffering–mostly due to my being annoying, I know!–PR honcho, Brandee Barker.

Previously, the fast-growing Facebook staff had been spread willy-nilly throughout the downtown of Palo Alto, where they irked pretty much everyone by stealing all the good parking.

So, much like the tour I did recently with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone of its San Francisco HQ, here is a video of Facebook’s new digs in the heart of Silicon Valley.

It includes the whole place, which used to be a Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) facility, from the front door to the cafeteria to the evil lair of VP of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy, Elliot Schrage.

While he did not deign to be on camera (although he did shellac me in a quick game of ping-pong, in spite of my smack talk), I did get to chat with folks like marketing exec Randi Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Also, Barker tries mightily to show that she can ride a Rip Stick, which is apparently Facebook’s version of bikes at Google (GOOG).

At the very least, she gets an A for effort.

Here’s the video of my tour:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits Hollywood News Blog, TheWrap.com (Complete With Cottage HQ Like ATD!)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:00:02 +0000

While the current meme is that traditional journalism is getting the stuffing knocked out of it by the digital onslaught, it neglects to notice that a lot of really sharp news reporters are actually getting some real traction by finally starting to be serious about creating online sites designed to compete.

As case in point, BoomTown recently went to visit the offices of TheWrap.com, a Web blog aimed at dominating breaking news about the business of Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

Funded by Seattle-based venture firm Maveron, it was founded by former New York Times and Washington Post reporter Sharon Waxman.

With a small team of writers, editors and one single business person–and run out of a cottage in back of her house in Santa Monica, Calif.–Waxman is trying to combine the high standards and ethics of journalism, the news-breaking abilities of longtime pros and a low budget.

The business plan is, no surprise: Advertising.

(Hey, just like All Things Digital! Except Waxman is near a pretty beach and our San Francisco-based World HQ–also known as a cottage behind my house–is foggier.)

In any case, innovative efforts like Sharon Waxman’s might become the rule rather than the exception in the future of the news media.

So far, on her own since its launch in late January, TheWrap.com is garnering several hundred thousand daily visitors each month, moving close to the Web sites of trade publications that cover the industry.

Here’s my video interview with Waxman, in which she gives the who, what, where and why:

[ See post to watch video ]

Ignore the Twitter Buyout Rumors: Here Are the Facts in Five Beyoncé-Madonna-Approved Steps

Kara Swisher — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:00:25 +0000

Was it more than a month ago that Google was rumored to be in “late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter”?

Not so much late-stage, I guess, with a gestation period that seems interminable (and BoomTown has been there, so can speak from experience about interminable pregnancies).

In fact, I’m still waiting for the Google (GOOG) takeover news floated inaccurately back then to cross our desk at All Things Digital HQ, although it’s more likely Godot will show up first.

So I guess it should come as no surprise that it was time to fob yet another rumor that yet another moneybags of a company–this time, Apple (AAPL)–is in “late-stage negotiations to buy Twitter.”

You could set your broken-but-right-twice-a-day clock by it, in fact.

But despite very serious interest in Twitter by every company that can afford considering such a thing, getting across that late-stage line would require major investors in the microblogging service to be involved, and they are not as yet.

In fact, both Twitter co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, are in New York today to attend the 2009 “Time 100″ dinner, which fetes this year’s influential people honorees selected by the magazine. Which they are.

So, if they are in serious talks with Apple, they better grab that award and head on home tout de suite.

In point of fact, talks with Facebook last year were actually the only truly deep sale discussions that Twitter has been involved in, and those went south.

Oh, the very notion of Apple and Twitter is a Techmeme dream-ticket, sure to be chewed over for days on end. (I once considered doing a post that just said “AppleTwitterAppleTwitterAppleTwitter…” for 1,000 words to see how much idiotic traffic I would get.)

But given that it is too good to be true for now, rather than be on the edge of your seat about all these endless, alleged late-stage high jinks, here is a five-step list to cut out and keep when the rumors of “late-stage negotiations” with Microsoft (MSFT), News Corp. (NWS), Verizon (VZ), Yahoo (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL, Comcast (CMCSA), Cisco (CSCO) and more inevitably show up.

1.) Belle of the Geek Ball

Everyone is indeed actually interested in buying Twitter and each has expressed a proper level of interest to the company’s execs–especially to over-contacted CEO Williams–about said interest.

And, because this is America, a bid for Twitter could come at any time and in any amount.

That’s why Apple has indeed said hello. Why Microsoft’s business development team has been busy formulating a valuation. Why Google’s M&A guy, David Lawee, has called into Twitter’s HQ many times with kind expressions of desire. And why News Corp. execs, including Rupert Murdoch himself, have murmured tweet nothings to the Twitter team.

Please note: This is not the same thing as “late-stage negotiations.” Not at all; so don’t believe such things, as you will see this one coming down the pike for miles (see Step #4 below).

If there ever were an Apple deal to be done, it would not be living in some tidy vacuum.

For example, does one imagine Google CEO Eric Schmidt–who is on the Apple board, much to the FTC’s chagrin, it seems–would decline to enter the fray? Oh, he’d be up to his conflicted eyebrows in it at this point.

(Full disclosure: ATD is also considering making a bid for Twitter, but only if I get to name who is called Chief Twit.)

2.) We Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Twitter’s Williams, as well as Stone, do not really want to sell just yet, given the huge traffic over the last year, goosed even further by the whole Oprah-Ashton Kutcher axis of Tweetvil.

Twitter is growing and growing and growing. Does that mean it has peaked or is just crossing over into the mainstream?

I would say the latter and so would its investors and execs.

I have done a lot of reporting and have found that most of them would like a chance to ride this rocket ship and see if they can prevent it from being a shooting star by figuring out some viable, innovative and lucrative business plan.

“Twitter really could make a lot of money,” said one investor. “And we are not just making that up either.”

Well, phew, because I have been a little worried about that.

3.) We’re Living in a Material World, and I Am a Material Girl

That said, as Madonna sings, a pile of cash is a pile of cash and if one of the suitors makes a big move with $600 million or more in cash, it would be hard for Twitter to completely ignore such an offering.

But, in any case, there will be no late-stage negotiations with one player.

Instead, an epic free-for-all wrestling match to the death would break out among all of them, especially Google and Microsoft.

This will be great for me and all the other tech writers as it will be ugly, competitive and tailor-made for breathless reporting.

Google is the likely winner here, although Microsoft is quite intent on the possibilities of integrating Twitter technology with its business offerings.

Someone will, I can predict with certainty, lose an eye.

4.) All the Single Ladies…Cuz if You Liked It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring on It

And, even with that kind of offer–which I would take in a New York minute, as would some Twitter investors–there is a sense when you talk to Twitter’s founders and investors that they truly believe they are onto some very important interactive communications paradigm shift in the Internet arena with their start-up.

I would have to agree given that the real-time and status-update concepts that Twitter has perfectly touched on are a very important one.

Thus, Twitter would prefer to remain independent for now.

Whether Twitter will prevail or not is never assured, but it would be really a shame if it gave up before the story was over.

5.) And They Lived Happily Ever After

Let’s be honest: There is no real downside here for Twitter.

If the service turns out to be be a flash in the pan and it is not sold for big bucks, Twitter still has heralded a very important new era in the digital industry.

And, if it grows like crazy even more, better still.

Also, Stone got to go on “The Colbert Report” and Williams on “Oprah.”

Best of all, in a shameless plug, they will both be captive on stage with Walt Mossberg and me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference exactly three weeks from today, where we can ask them about all this and more.

So, I am thrilled too.

Who says there are no happy endings?

Until that D7 interview, here is my recent video with Williams and Stone at Twitter’s funky San Francisco HQ:

[ See post to watch video ]

Twitter Co-Founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone Speak!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:30:24 +0000

BoomTown visited Twitter’s San Francisco HQ for a pie-filled tour yesterday.

But I also got a chance to sit down to have a chat with two of its founders, CEO Evan Williams and Biz Stone (pictured here, right to left), about all the doings at the wildly popular microblogging start-up.

For the record, Williams is the quiet one, while Stone is more voluble–but don’t let appearances deceive you, as both are ambitious and aggressive entrepreneurs.

I asked a lot before I did the video–so don’t give me a hard time for not pushing too hard on it–but neither deigned to talk about the swirl of rumors about which giant Internet behemoth–Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT)–was going to get its wealthy mitts into the innards of Twitter (or not!).

Nonetheless, the pair actually took time to talk about what they think is behind the surge in growth and awareness of the simple-to-use service, as well as the state of innovation in Silicon Valley.

As hard a time as I have given them for Twitter’s defocus on an actual business plan, there is no question that the pair have an unusually compelling product on their hands that has many more possibilities than it does pitfalls.

Both Stone and Williams, in fact, are going to be appearing onstage at our upcoming D: All Things Digital conference in late May to talk about all that and more, so here is a taste of what is to come.

And, yes, that’s a bird–Get it? Tweet!–over Stone’s head, etched in the glass of the conference room door.

(I also did a video tour of Twitter’s HQ with Stone, which is here.)

Here are Williams and Stone:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Photo taken by Mai Le, posted via Flickr, uploaded to Wikimedia and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0]

Kara Visits Twitter's San FranTwittCo HQ!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:31:50 +0000

Maybe you’ve heard of Twitter?

Fooled you! Just testing to see if you’re paying complete attention to the relentless media attention on the Silicon Valley start-up of the moment!

Well, BoomTown is too, and that’s why I fired up the MINI and motored top-down on over to Twitter’s San Francisco HQ yesterday to get myself a tour of the place by none other than co-founder No-Biz-Like-No-Biz Stone.

(I am quite enjoying making up various biz puns names for him, related to the fact the the well-funded microblogging start-up has not yet settled on a business plan, which Stone quite sportingly takes with very laudable equanimity.

And my new game is to name the burgeoning empire of Twitter. Some ideas: San FranTwittCo. Twittaly. Twittonia. The People’s-With-a-Lot-of-Time-on-Their-Hands Republic of Twittopia.

Until the United Nations weighs in, here’s a patented shaky-cam Flip video of my visit to the office, to which I brought pies as a guest–I was brought up right!–and where I found no Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT) folks hiding in the closet with big bags of money to hand over to Twitter.

Well, not yet.

On the visit, I also did a video interview with Stone and Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams here.

Here is Stone’s tour of Twitter HQ:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits the NYT's Saul Hansell (and Gets the Non-Mortgaged Tour of the New HQ)!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:01:12 +0000

If BoomTown had known on my recent visit that the New York Times (NYT) was trying to borrow money, using its spanking new building as collateral, I might have brought a big bag of greenbacks with me just to say I held a mortgage on the stunning edifice.

No matter, as I got a most excellent free tour of the Renzo Piano-designed building at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and lunch last week from the Times’s longtime and sharp tech reporter Saul Hansell, whom I have known since AOL reigned supreme over the Web landscape.

(Apparently, his link-averse boss told him to watch me like a hawk on my visit, in case I might shoplift some secret tech news stories they were working on. As if the tiny but crack ATD blog team needs any kind of help from the big, bad Times!)

And, because I aim to annoy, I prodded Hansell into waxing a bit on the state of the Internet and the tech sector, from his new cubicle on the lower news floors of the really impressive Times HQ.

(Having worked in the sad-sack, grimy offices of two major newspapers, it is a revelation of what the newsroom of the future should look like.)

Listen up to what Hansell has to say, because while he is indeed worthy competition for ATD, the veteran reporter has been around the block and has picked up a thing or two.

Most importantly, he has also done an amazing job transforming himself in his new life as a blogger for the Times’s Bits blog.

Here’s the video interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

They Grow Up So Quickly: New Central HQ for Facebook Coming Soon!

Kara Swisher — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:01:27 +0000

It looks like Facebook will definitely be moving from its funky multi- building setup in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., to a centralized campus in Silicon Valley by early next year, said several sources.

The high-profile social networking company–which has been undergoing a major managerial shift of late, as it matures from its start-up status to that of a more established Web player–has been growing quickly–to almost 600 employees today from a couple hundred last year.

It is not clear when the move will take place, but sources said it is likely to start by the beginning of next year, as there are multiple permits, design issues and other logistical issues to resolve.

But, one thing is clear: Facebook will relocate its Palo Alto-based HQ–scattered in about five buildings throughout the suburban town–to a single location.

New HQ possibilities include, first and foremost, the old Hewlett-Packard buildings on Page Mill Road, nearby to the west of Palo Alto.

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg prefers to remain near Palo Alto, sources said.

But Facebook has also been looking at locations in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, further south, as well as also considering a San Francisco location in the city’s recently redeveloped Mission Bay area.

Until now, Facebook has expanded by filling up rented buildings throughout Palo Alto, the picturesque town right next to Stanford University.

The appeal of being located in Palo Alto–full of shops, restaurants movies and also within walking distance of the main train station into San Francisco–has been a draw for its employees, who have, until recently, gotten some rental subsidies for being located near its offices.

But–as it has grown–Facebook’s presence in town has also become a problem for it and also the town’s citizens, as its swarms of employees have taken up too much space and parking in the increasingly crowded streets.

Growing further in Palo Alto is almost impossible, given the lack of office space and the higher expense, compared to the more typical office-park setups off Highway 101 in Silicon Valley that most Internet companies settle into.

Given Facebook’s plans to grow to 1,000 employees by the end of this year, it’s not a surprise that managers would be thinking of the next home for the company, making a move that is typical for most start-ups.

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO brought in from Google (GOOG) recently, saw such a thing happen to the search giant, which now has a large campus called the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif.

Over the past six months, there has been a lot of upgrading of Facebook’s looser culture to bring it up to a more professional operation it needs to be if it wants to IPO at some point.

That has meant a lot of internal rejiggering, as well as what BoomTown can only describe as a maturing of its frat-like culture.

There have also been departures of several of its early employees, which also always happens as start-ups mature. Those who have left include: former top exec Owen Van Natta and CTO Adam D’Angelo.

And, just last week, Matt Cohler, its VP of Product Management and longtime adviser to Zuckerberg, announced he will leave Facebook in the fall to become a venture capital partner at Benchmark Capital.