Well-known pundit and entrepreneur John Furrier has a new blog called siliconANGLE, which went live yesterday and which he said will be a “collaboration blog for friends and colleagues.”

The site will cover the social Web and also tech trends, but Furrier (pictured here) said it will try for “deeper” analysis of the news.

Furrier–who founded and once ran the PodTech online video start-up–said he will be hiring a full-time blogger soon, and contributors will be vetted by him.

In an email to BoomTown last night, Furrier said: “This is an open blog project designed to attract smart quality people that want to blog without the hassles of blogging–it’s about quality opinion and analysis a collaborative approach. The longer term goal it to develop an audience to create a collaborative research model.”

Here is his post about the new effort on his Furrier.org site, where he has been blogging regularly most recently.

And here is Furrier’s inaugural post on siliconANGLE.

I, for one, am hoping for some well-written sharp-cornered posts from Furrier and those he manages to assemble on the continuing circus of Silicon Valley.

[Image credit: Brian Solis]

Here is a video I did while I was attending and liveblogging the Google launch of and press conference for its new “not-a-Windows-killer” Chrome browser, held at its Mountain View, Calif., HQ yesterday morning.

Google (GOOG) released its own software to navigate the Internet yesterday, setting itself up in yet another bruising competition with Microsoft (MSFT).

In the video, I reveal my secret Google parking spot, survey the media scrum, bother a Google PR guy, check out snacks while discussing Chrome with blogger John Furrier, listen to various Googlers–including Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin–talk about the effort, interview Chrome project honcho Google VP Sundar Pichal (and ask him about when the Mac version is coming) and make fun of Google furniture.

All in a day’s work for BoomTown!

Here’s the video:

Also, here are the links to three blog posts I did live from the launch yesterday, in order:

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Sundar!

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Toe Fungus and Pinocchio

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Larry! (Wake Up, Sergey!)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Maybe it would be easier to sell Facebook to Microsoft for billions and billions, even though it is not likely you will.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s take the opposing position about the best future for the hot social-networking site.

In other words, make a friendly Microsoft takeover of Facebook your own version of an IPO, as John Furrier has suggested here, and walk away a Silicon Valley legend.

Because such a sale to Microsoft could happen, you know, with or even without you.

Here’s one scenario to think about while on your current worldwide “Vision Quest” trip:

Microsoft (MSFT) somehow screws up its courage again after the Yahoo (YHOO) rejection and makes a concrete offer anywhere above $10 billion for Facebook. And it gets on the record, as it must, at your next board meeting.

Say you refuse, as you have the power to do (and have done before) as founder, due to the voting structure.

But minority shareholders find out (they always do), then some employees and, inevitably, the press.

Mayhem will surely ensue.

Sure, they all stuck with you when you turned down previous offers for Facebook at more than $1 billion from Yahoo, $5 billion from Microsoft, sniffs in that range from Google (GOOG).

That was definitely gutsy for you to do, in your first job and in your early 20s.

But $10 billion, when you have not yet proven you have a truly sustainable and explosive business model of the kind Google luckily found before its IPO?

And what if the Microsoft offer was $15 billion? $20 billion?

BoomTown will tell you exactly what:

Possible lawsuits–ask any good corporate governance lawyer about it–from any number of aggrieved minority investors for not grabbing the Willy Wonka-esque golden ticket when it was offered to you.

Growing pressure from the media–which you are, to be certain, very good at completely ignoring–asking incessantly whether you have just made too big a bet this time.

And, most importantly, from your own employees, the growing worry that even you, especially in a weak economy, cannot spin up a shinier IPO than the money Microsoft is offering you. Stayers can turn into sellers very quickly.

You need to be prepared, BoomTown speculates, for this very possibility and need to have answers when and if the time comes.

That requires asking some questions, which I am guessing a smart young man like you is already asking of yourself.

Such as: At what price should I consider a Microsoft buyout? Could Facebook still be run independently? And, if not, how long would I have to stay at a Microsoft-owned Facebook?

Most importantly, how many other entrepreneurs like me have refused the big buyout and done better?

(The list is long and varied–some like Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin refused and won, but others like former Netscaper Marc Andreessen did not and also did just fine.)

You’re lucky for now, of course, because Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will likely not make a definitive offer after the Yahoo debacle, without knowing you are firmly on board to at least consider it with a friendly frame of mind.

And, I am guessing, you won’t dangle a price to Microsoft either.

Thus, a chicken and an egg conundrum. Which comes first?

BoomTown is also guessing the bankers are working hard at solving this ancient philosophical causality dilemma–in this case, who can and should move first?

But no matter how much they huff and puff–expensively, of course–the only one who can solve this puzzle is you, at least at this juncture.

And that requires just one basic question for which you need to have an answer ready: Do you truly believe you can do better?

Well, do you?

Furrier thinks not: “Risk losing it all in competitive warfare where you’re undermatched and overgunned. … It’s about basic risk management.”

Of course, all BoomTown can offer to say is this: There is absolutely nothing basic about it.

And, for your viewing pleasure, there is also nothing basic about this delightful man lip-synching to the classic movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” ditty, “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket” (along with the real clip from movie below it):

If wishes were horses, all Facebookers would ride!

But alas, even though BoomTown is also intrigued by the idea as much as tech bloggers Robert Scoble and John Furrier, Facebook is not about to be bought by Microsoft (MSFT).

Unless that is, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stands in front of Facebook’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ, starts loading up an air cannon of money that never ever ends and aims directly at it.

And even then, I expect CEO and Co-Founder Mark “Just Say No” Zuckerberg might say no to that, as he pretty much said today from Tokyo about past rumors of a sale to Microsoft.

He shouldn’t, as this might be the social-networking site’s golden–and I do mean solid golden–opportunity. (Furrier argues this Microsoft-as-Facebook-IPO here.)

And while Zuckerberg would not comment on selling to Microsoft specifically, he was pretty definitive on the subject of Facebook’s independence, as quoted by Reuters, while in Tokyo to launch a Japanese version of Facebook:

“You can tell, from our history and what we’ve done, that we really wanted to keep the company independent, by focusing on building and focusing on the long-term.”

A strong sentiment the 24-year-old Zuckerberg has been firmly voicing since he was, well, 22 years old!

And while “wanted” is in the past tense–a Blue’s Clue for conspiracy-minded tech bloggers, perhaps?–Microsoft bankers querying Facebook execs does not a deal make.

Many sources inside and outside Facebook with knowledge of the company said a sale was unlikely and pointed to an IPO as the exit for its investors.

Not that some Facebookers don’t wish that Zuckerberg would change his mind and sell now.

That’s especially true given Zuckerberg’s mind is the only one that matters in the current balance of power at Facebook.

Why? Well, some people I talk to there are worried about a variety of things, especially the prospect of a big, fat cash-out now versus the very slow road to IPO.

While Facebook investors and even the company have once pointed to 2009 as the earliest for such a liquidity event, many sources both inside and outside the company I talked to said Facebook needed to establish a strong and sustainable business model before it can contemplate that move.

Thus, 2010, 2011. Joked one person close to the company: “Try 2021!”

Ahahahahaaa. (Not quite as funny, of course, if you are now holding a private-plane’s-worth of Facebook shares.)

That’s not to say Facebook and Microsoft aren’t friendly or that Microsoft has been uninterested in grabbing hold of the whole company.

They have been for a long time, as BoomTown reported here.

And top Facebook execs recently visited with Ballmer.

Of course, the company is still swimming in the $240 million in cash from the investment Microsoft handed over and collecting those payments from its guaranteed ad deal with the software giant.

And, best of all, Facebook just faced off with Google (GOOG) over data portability, which Google-hater-in-chief Microsoft doubtlessly is cheering on.

So, while all signs point to close friends with some affectionate hugging, marriage is still not in the cards, if it ever will be.

I have the best CIO job in the world. It used to be the case that the CIO existed to bring technology to business, but it’s our belief that’s vanishing. Increasingly now, the way our technology works is driving the business. The CIO of tomorrow is not a business service person; the CIO of tomorrow is a technologist who understands business in a different way.

- Former Google CIO Douglas Merrill, February 14, 2008

Google CIO Douglas Merrill is resigning from the company, reports PodTech founder John Furrier (And yes, we did independently confirm this. Twice.). He’ll join EMI Music as president of digital. Guess “the CIO of tomorrow” is the EMI president of the future …

Now why would a senior Google (GOOG) executive with no music-industry experience join the world’s fourth-largest record label, a label whose lousy digital licensing strategy sent Radiohead fleeing into the woods and inspired its pay-what-you-like pricing experiment? And beyond that, why would EMI hire him – aside from his unique taste in music (Nine Inch Nails and Megan Slankard?)?

Well, EMI is clearly desperate for someone, anyone who might help it more skillfully navigate the transition to digital distribution. And Merrill? No idea, really. He was a pre-IPO Google employee, so money is probably not an issue. Perhaps he’s looking for a challenge. If he is, he’s certainly found one in EMI.

I have the best CIO job in the world. It used to be the case that the CIO existed to bring technology to business, but it’s our belief that’s vanishing. Increasingly now, the way our technology works is driving the business. The CIO of tomorrow is not a business service person; the CIO of tomorrow is a technologist who understands business in a different way.

- Former Google CIO Douglas Merrill, February 14, 2008

Google CIO Douglas Merrill is resigning from the company, reports PodTech founder John Furrier (And yes, we did independently confirm this. Twice.). He’ll join EMI Music as president of digital. Guess “the CIO of tomorrow” is the EMI president of the future …

Now why would a senior Google (GOOG) executive with no music-industry experience join the world’s fourth-largest record label, a label whose lousy digital licensing strategy sent Radiohead fleeing into the woods and inspired its pay-what-you-like pricing experiment? And beyond that, why would EMI hire him – aside from his unique taste in music (Nine Inch Nails and Megan Slankard?)?

Well, EMI is clearly desperate for someone, anyone who might help it more skillfully navigate the transition to digital distribution. And Merrill? No idea, really. He was a pre-IPO Google employee, so money is probably not an issue. Perhaps he’s looking for a challenge. If he is, he’s certainly found one in EMI.