TechMeme

Google’s Extreme Makeover: Homepage Edition

Peter Kafka in Media on June 10, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

Bored out of your skull? Google has a solution: Kill a few seconds by redecorating the search giant’s homepage. Want to kill a few more seconds? Compare Google’s new look with Microsoft’s Bing.

Yet Another Media Aggregation Site? Yup. And You’ll Read It: Techmeme Unveils Mediagazer.

Peter Kafka in Media on March 8, 2010 at 8:01 am PT

Does the Web need yet another outlet dedicated to media coverage? Nope. How about another aggregation site? Plenty of those to go around too. So what if you combined the two? Exactly. But here’s a not-very-brave prediction: Mediagazer, which launches today, is going to do pretty well.

Let the Navel-Gazing (and Grumping) About Vanity URLS Begin–Can Facebook Soothe the Savage Media?

Kara Swisher in News on June 11, 2009 at 2:34 am PT

Exactly how is the introduction of vanity URLs on Facebook going to go? At 9:01 p.m. PDT on Friday, the giant Silicon Valley-based social-networking site will allow its 200 million members to log in and claim a friendlier username for part of their URLs instead of the long string of gibberish that is now there. But, because it is about people’s names and because it is certain to be chaotic in its execution, I think we can pretty much slap the moniker “URLgate” on this one and just call it a night.

The AppleTwitter-Equals-iBrangelina Experiment*

Kara Swisher in News on May 6, 2009 at 4:05 am PT

Yesterday, in a BoomTown post about the latest unproven rumors that the world’s most iconic computer company, Apple, was in “late-stage” negotiations to buy Silicon Valley’s latest pretty young thing, microblogging service Twitter, I wrote: “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.)” Well, I reconsidered.

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

Kara Swisher in News on May 5, 2009 at 4:00 am PT

Was it more than a month ago that the Google was rumored to be in “late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter”? Not so much late-stage, I guess. 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–is in “late-stage negotiations to buy Twitter.” But despite very serious interest in the hot microblogging service by every company that can afford considering such a thing, including Apple, getting across that late-stage line would require major investors in the hot start-up to be very involved, and they are not as yet. So, 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 questionable rumors of “late-stage negotiations” with Microsoft, News Corp., Verizon, Cisco and more inevitably show up.

Meet Ms. Techmeme: Megan McCarthy Explains All

Peter Kafka in Media on March 14, 2009 at 7:37 pm PT

The tech news aggregator used to rely solely on algorithm to divine what was important on the Web. Now it’s added a human, who happens to be a lot of fun to chat with.

TechCrunch's Yertle the Turtle Tantrum Over News Embargoes

Kara Swisher in News on December 18, 2008 at 11:48 am PT

Yesterday, the one-man-band of a tech blogger, Michael Arrington, let loose with yet another outrageously indignant diatribe–this time that he and his TechCrunch site would forthwith break all news embargoes. Not content with the traffic generated last week by his obviously faked Wrestlemania bout with French entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur about the lazy-lunching Europeans, he moved on to a riff on PR people versus journalists. (What next for the Geraldo Rivera of investigative tech blogging? A withering prosecution of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in the HOV lane on Highway 101 in Sunnyvale without a hybrid? Quelle scandale!)

Riveting Tragedy=Boring Twitter Debate

Peter Kafka in Media on November 27, 2008 at 9:56 am PT

This is now clockwork: Some kind of calamity happens somewhere. Shortly after, an Internet debate breaks out about who did a better job of breaking and/or covering the story–citizen journalists/bloggers or boring old mainstream media. But if you want to find out why the Mumbai attacks happened, or why India is seemingly beset with terror attacks, you’re out of luck no matter where you turn.

Apple, Apple All Around, but Not a Drop of Thinking

Kara Swisher in News on October 14, 2008 at 7:13 am PT

Hey, did you hear that Apple is launching some sort of new notebook thingamabob today? If you didn’t, it can’t be because the Apple-product-release-hyper-hype cycle let you down. AllThingsD.com’s Johnny Apple-blogger John Paczkowski of Digital Daily will be there, of course, posting at the media-clogged launch, as it happens, and contributing mightily to the blog-smog that will start collecting over Cupertino at 10 a.m. PDT. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!