9 posts and columns on superpoke

Slide's Max Levchin Talks About Web 2.0, Redux!

in News on July 20, 2009 at 2:27 am PT

Almost two years ago, just as Web 2.0 was heating up, BoomTown did a video interview with Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin. Soon after, the popular maker of widgets and other social networking applications grabbed a big pile of cash from new investors, which put the value of the company at $550 million. But that was before the recession hit, as well as a generally more sober outlook for a lot of high-flying Silicon Valley darlings like Slide, which have had to wise up a little and get down to business. So, it was time for another chat with Levchin to find out what’s what.
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Cat Fight, Internet-Style: Perez Hilton Slaps the Face(book) of Not-BFF Mark Zuckerberg

in News on February 17, 2009 at 3:36 am PT

In a BoomTown post last night noting that users should just get used to not having much control of their privacy and posted content online, in the wake of the controversy over Facebook’s Terms of Service changes, how could one leave out this gem of a digital diatribe on the issue by gossipmonger supreme, Perez Hilton? In an item yesterday, Hilton–who has gotten into a lot of copyright infringement legal trouble himself–asked his fans to boycott the fast-growing social-networking site anyway in one of my favorite pot-calling-kettle-black cyber-tussles yet.
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Slide Sidles Up to Old Media in Search of New Revenue (Apparently, Max Cannot Live by SuperPoking Alone!)

in News on October 1, 2008 at 12:04 am PT

You almost have to admire the shape-shifting–if not a wee bit slippery–stylings of Slide CEO Max Levchin. The serial entrepreneur and widget king has signed distribution deals with media giants, such as Time Warner’s Warner Bros. unit, CBS and Comcast’s E! Entertainment channel, to allow users of its FunSpace video service to look at clips from shows. To make money, Slide will get a cut of ads sold by its media partners. Oh my, how incredibly traditional of Levchin. But it should probably come as no surprise that Levchin is now singing a bit of a different tune these days, as the daunting task of actually building a sustainable business model and attracting long-term advertisers has dawned on him and probably many other Web 2.0 wunderkinds.

LinkedIn: VC Relationships Matter

in News on June 18, 2008 at 11:00 am PT

Slide-ing into the Big Apple

in News on June 4, 2008 at 10:32 pm PT

In its ongoing bid to prove there is a robust and sustainable ad business in the social networking space, widgetmaker Slide opened a New York office and hired a big deal online ad exec. Of course, because it has to be hip, the office is in the always trendy West Village, instead of uptown on Madison Avenue.
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Stampede! Facebook Opens Its Profile Doors

in News on May 21, 2008 at 1:02 am PT

This morning, Facebook is planning on showing a little leg to the press, throwing a “casual Open Door session… to learn more about the upcoming New Profile Design.” You know, the long expected renovation of main Facebook pages consumers use daily, which has third-party developers in a hubbub and is likely to cause an even bigger one among users no matter how good it is?
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Twitter Down! Scoble's Knickers in Knots!

in News on April 22, 2008 at 12:42 am PT

OK, I like Twitter a lot, but what is up with all this tech news coverage of its outages? With the Twitter service being glitchy all weekend, for example, the jump-to-the-next-big-thing champ Robert Scoble wrote another piece yesterday smacking his old amour and praising his new love: FriendFeed. You know, the new pretty young thing [...]

The Children's Hour: Facebook Apps Are for Toddlers (There, We Said It)

in News on October 9, 2007 at 11:37 am PT

Fine, call me a grumpy old lady, because I don’t want to pass around a toasty complex carbohydrate globally. Right now on Facebook, I have been trying to decide what to do near on two weeks or more, after receiving a “Hot Potato” tossed to me by my old boss, Washington Post Co. CEO and Chairman Don Graham. For those who don’t know what a digital Hot Potato is: It is an widget (also called a third-party app) created by a very nice-looking group of guys at a design outfit called Hungry Machine for the Facebook platform. “You have to pass it on and watch it travel around the world. 27,012 other people did!” With all due respect to Don Graham (who is a mentor of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, by the way), Hungry Machine and all world-trotting spuds, I don’t think so.