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Q&A With Survivor Host Jeff Probst On Surviving Social Media
Apr 24, 2:00PM
This Q&A with Survivor host Jeff Probst was conducted by guest writer Narendra Rocherolle, CEO of The Start Project. He and his partners hold the curious distinction of selling their company, Webshots, twice. Narendra is an occasional contributor to TechCrunch, you can read a Q&A with Lance Armstrong here. He is @narendra on Twitter. The CBS show Survivor is completing its 22nd season—a run with a business and social impact that are reserved for extraordinarily few productions in Television history. Survivor launched the Reality TV genre and has managed to continue to do well during a decade where the very foundations of TV have been shifting. The show's host Jeff Probst has been a mainstay and a driving force behind the show's continued innovation in storytelling. I recently caught up with him to get some unfiltered thoughts. If you have questions or comments you can direct them to @jeffprobst on Twitter! Survivor is a deceptively complex media property because you have multiple narratives: the game, behind the scenes details, and deeper looks into the actual participants. Building on these narratives, you are now live tweeting during Survivor shows (both East and West coast feeds). Where did you get the idea? I am a big Howard Stern fan and one weekend he tweeted while watching a re-run of his movie, Private Parts. That was the inspiration for me to do the same thing with Survivor fans. I wanted to continue the conversation and give them more of what they crave, which is behind-the-scenes information and personal insight. In addition, I learn valuable information about what is and is not working for the show. It's a very satisfying, albeit time consuming, effort.
We're In The Middle Of A Terrible Blubble!
Apr 24, 7:16AM
If you're an early stage venture capitalist or angel investor there is no time like the present to declare a bubble, say valuations are out of control and predict the demise of the tech industry in the very near future. Since they're in the business of buying low and selling high, any angle that suggests that the buy price should be even lower sounds great to them. If there's any evidence of said bubble all the press will eat it up. Mostly because they were out buying Internet stocks in 2000 instead of doing their jobs and reporting on the fairly obvious signals that the Nasdaq was about to implode. They won't get caught with their pants down and their hand out again. Declare a bubble early and declare it often. And there is some evidence laying around. Valuations on a few select private tech startups are pretty darn high right now. And valuations on early stage "Series A" startups have surpassed the all important $4 million line and are now averaging in the $6 million - $8 million range. That's bad for seed fund economics. Which leads to paragraph 1 above, followed by paragraph 2 in the press.
(Founder Stories) The GroupMe Guys Reveal How To Land A Job At A Startup
Apr 24, 4:22AM
All week long we've been running clips from the Founder Stories interview with the GroupMe Guys, co-founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci. In the video above, they answer some rapid fire questions about how to impress startups during an interview (give great product feedback), what do they look for in "social engineers," and what is the hardest part of running a startup (delegating and hiring). Host Chris Dixon mentions Paul Graham's essay on how founders should split up their time into a Maker schedule and a Manager schedule, and how in practice that turns out to be impossible. "Balancing the founder stuff on top of your actual responsibilities" is really tough, says Martocci.
Q&A With Geoff Cook: How We Solved The Chatroulette Porn Problem
Apr 23, 11:54PM
At the end of last year, social networking site myYearbook shifted its focus more towards games and introduced a live video chat feature which could have completely backfired. But instead of turning into the next Chatroulette, the site has managed to keep the unwanted live porn vids to a minimum. While Chatroulette still has an estimated nudity rate of 1 in 50 videos, myYTearbook was able to cut its nudity rate down to 1 in a 1,000. In a Q&A with myYearbook CEO Geoff Cook, he explains the strategies he used to get there. Q: When you decided to add live video chat to your site, what were you thinking? I mean, seriously, what were you thinking? When we decided to build a Live Video gaming platform, the best example of Live Video at scale was Chatroulette, and it was full of porn. At the time, 1 out of every 10 video streams on Chatroulette was obscene. Chatroulette was growing in part because it was obscene—it was the accident victim and the public was the rubbernecker. Chatroulette's traffic peaked in March 2010—the same month that Jon Stewart screamed into the camera "I hate Chatroulette!" to end a segment that would be the service's high water mark.
Obama-Zuckerberg and Expeditionary Economics
Apr 23, 7:20PM
Thanks to the revolutions happening in the Middle East, our leaders have been touting social media as the new force for democracy. President Obama went out of his way to schmooze Facebook employees this week. He told them that when it comes to solving the challenges our country faces and to precipitating changes in the rest of the world, they were "at the cutting edge of what's happening". It's great that Silicon Valley is getting all this love and affection. But could this attention end up killing the golden goose? Think about it: if you are an evil dictator, looking for an excuse to block Facebook and Twitter, what better propaganda weapon than a picture of President Obama getting chummy with Mark Zuckerberg? Yes, I know that the U.S. government didn't invent Facebook or even figure out how to use it until recently; and that it doesn't control Facebook's policies. But don't those pictures and video clips tell a different story?
Gillmor Gang 4.23.11 (TCTV)
Apr 23, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Danny Sullivan, Doc Searls, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — endured technical glitches and a dissection of the disruption formerly known as TV before settling into a debate about privacy. I know, sounds like the usual nonsense, but this show was high quality nonsense. I forget who brought up the famous iPhone/Android hidden recording file crisis, but things quickly got out of hand when one of us suggested that was a feature not a problem. It turns out that not that many people are aware that when we are on the Internet, everything is recorded. For those who seem surprised by this, all those free apps are actually there to harvest our clicks, searches, and other gestures of our intent. As Doc Searls pointed out, how else does Google make money except by random clicks on Adsense adding up to billions. It's only when we can't figure out how to delete our wanderings that people get upset. Me — I count on being surreptitiously tracked so I can go back and figure out where I was last week.
TC Cribs: Meebo's Headbanging, Rocket-Flinging Office (With Magical Passageways)
Apr 23, 3:30PM
We're back with another episode of TC Cribs, taking you inside the offices of some of the tech world's hottest companies. This episode features Meebo, which rose to popularity as a multi-protocol web-based chat client, and has since gotten tons of traction with their Meebo Bar (not to be confused with the numerous drinking holes located in the office, as you'll see in the episode)). Tune in to learn about Meebo's traditions, their giant cookies, their hidden staircase to the happiest place on Earth, and the wooden board they call a 'rock wall' that is much, much harder than it looks. Seriously, it's really hard. You'll see. And do be sure to watch til the end. 
Hack Attack: Sony Confirms PlayStation Network Outage Caused By 'External Intrusion'
Apr 23, 8:42AM
Unfortunately for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services users, it looks like the widespread network outages will continue. Since Sony's PlayStation and music networks went down two days ago, there has been a fair amount of public speculation over the cause of the outage. (Largely due to Sony's tight-lipped handling of public relations.) Many blamed vengeful gremlins loose in Sony's server clusters and datacenters, while others immediately pointed the finger at Anonymous, the merry band of hackers that metastasized out of 4chan. Thankfully, after 24+ hours of communication silence, Sony has updated its blog and ended the speculation. According to the electronics colossus, "an external intrusion" is responsible for the ongoing outages of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. (It probably sounded like this at Sony headquarters. Or this.)
Firefox 4 Hits 100 Million Downloads After A Month
Apr 23, 6:59AM
Mozilla released its new Firefox 4 exactly a month ago today and within a day had more than twice as many downloads as Internet Explorer 9 after its launch. Some where around midnight tonight the browser build will hit 100 million downloads after one month in existence, according to the Firefox download stats ticker. What's more impressive is that the browser has now taken over 7.94% of the worldwide browser market according to StatCounter, with Internet Explorer 8.0 at 29.99%, Firefox 3.6 at 24.43% and Chrome 10 at 15.35%.
Y U NO HAVE LAME BILLBOARD HIPCHAT?
Apr 23, 5:40AM
Enterprise chat platform HipChat has entered the 101 Battle of the Billboards, putting up the above memetastic masterpiece on the 101 North after the Whipple exit this past Friday. For the uninitiated, the "Y U NO USE HIPCHAT" billboard is a take off of the startup friendly Y U NO guy meme, which has already spawned at least one parody Twitter account run by YCombinator hopefuls. 
Tim Armstrong, Dennis Crowley and Chris Dixon To Be At Disrupt NYC
Apr 23, 12:11AM
We couldn't wait any longer to announce another batch of special guests for this year's Disrupt in NYC. We had around 80 speakers last year and we have even more this year. We are pleased to announce that Tim Armstrong, Dennis Crowley, and Chris Dixon will all be with us on stage at Disrupt NYC. They will join the guests we announced yesterday—Charlie Rose, Ron Conway, Roelof Botha, and Arianna Huffington. As you can see, we are not messing around. We said Disrupt would be big this year and we meant it. Tickets are still on sale and you can find the best deals here. As we said before, make sure you purchase them as soon as you can since prices will go up as we get closer to the event. We are giving away 1 free ticket each week, and our giveaway for this week started this morning at 10am PST. We will be picking the winner tomorrow, so if you want to enter make sure you do so soon!
Senator Al Franken Thinks My Future Is Bright, And I Have The Letter To Prove It
Apr 22, 11:28PM
As if my ego needed another boost. Last month at SXSW, I had the opportunity to interview Senator Al Franken, who was speaking at the conference to discuss the importance of Net Neutrality. The interview went well (I doubt you can tell he was my first Senator), and as I walked out of the room Senator Franken slapped me on the back and said I had a bright future ahead of me. Instead of responding with one of my famed witticisms I mumbled something about keeping my fingers crossed and went on my way, only to begin cursing myself a few moments later. One of the most level-headed members of the United States Senate had just complimented me — and I had failed to ask for it in writing. Bright future, indeed.
How Twitter Can Save $50 Million: Forget TweetDeck, And Go Freemium On Its API
Apr 22, 10:21PM
I've been puzzling over Twitter's recent tactical moves around their API, Ubermedia and Tweetdeck, for a few months now, and it just doesn't add up. In fact I think Twitter's current strategy may take them in a direction where they end up missing out on their biggest potential win. If Twitter continues to go down the media company path, without incorporating their API into the plan, that could not only force a large part of their ecosystem to go elsewhere, but it could deprive them of a much larger potential infrastructure revenue opportunity, and could even end up costing them the company. After all, Silicon Valley is littered with the burned out wreckage of once-great media companies that failed create and keep third-party app ecosystems: AOL, Friendster, MySpace, Yahoo – to name a few. It's very hard to maintain leadership as an online media company without an ecosystem of outside apps increasing reach, innovation, and stickiness. In light of this, I've been exploring an alternate path for Twitter that leverages their API in a much bigger way, and this path appears to be a better strategy. According to my own experimental revenue projections for Twitter, this alternative path is not only a good tactical move, but it's a good business move because it increases Twitter's reach, number of active users, and revenues massively.
Act.ly Weathers Amazon Cloud Disaster On Earth Day
Apr 22, 9:28PM
Everyone's favorite under-estimator of social media, Malcolm Gladwell, might get a chuckle out of Amazon's EC2 problems this week. First, they took out Foursquare, Reddit and Quora service, as TechCrunch's Mike Butcher reported yesterday. The disaster in the cloud also put a stop to those who would Tweet the revolution via Act.ly, a site that gets petitions going virally, online. The site and service was still out of order as of publication. Act.ly founder Jim Gilliam said: "We usually get several thousand activism tweets a day. That hasn't happened for 36 hours, because of these issues with Amazon and...
Donald Trump Is Not An Anonymous Internet Commenter
Apr 22, 9:19PM
Let me start of by reiterating how much I hate Donald Trump. Hate is, of course, a strong word. But then again so are "liar", "crypto-racist" and "criminally-irresponsible publicity whore". And there can be fewer more hateful blots on the current landscape of American politics than that of Trump - looking for all the world like a pugnacious Oompa-Loompa with a combover - dog whistling to the racist "birther" movement in order to promote his crappy reality TV show. And yet, for all that I despise Donald Trump and everything he represents - including his range of ties, and his Vegas hotel - there is one aspect of his recent behavior for which I need to give him unqualified credit. For all of Donald Trump's faults, at least he isn't an anonymous Internet commenter.
One Tax Break Later, Twitter Announces Plans To Move To Central Market SF Office
Apr 22, 9:03PM
It's finally official: Twitter has just announced on its blog that it will be moving to Market Square in SF's Central Market neighborhood, just on the edge of the Tenderloin (one of the city's most blighted areas). Twitter says it expects to move into the new office in mid-2012. The announcement has been a long time coming: Twitter was engaged in much-publicized negotiations with San Francisco's Board of Supervisors over a proposed tax break incentive that would give a six year payroll tax deferral for net new jobs (the city approved the agreement earlier this month). San Francisco typically requires businesses to pay unusual taxes on payroll (including stock options), causing Twitter, Zynga, and other tech companies to threaten to leave the city and take thousands of jobs with them. The tale is perhaps best illustrated by the goofy video below.
Conde Nast Taking A Breather On Tablet Editions Of Its Magazines
Apr 22, 9:00PM
Despite enormous sales of the iPad and iPad 2, it seems like the digital publishing world isn't quite ready to support the digital magazine editions coveted by media giants like Conde Nast. This is the company, if you'll remember, that was busting to get iPad editions ready before the iPad had even been announced. It seems, though, that these well-laid plans, or at least extravagantly-laid, aren't quite paying out just yet, according to a report at Ad Age.
ValueClick To Acquire Mobile Ad Network Greystripe
Apr 22, 8:42PM
The value of mobile advertising networks is well established at Google and Apple: Google bought Admob for $750 million and Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $275 million. So far though the independent ad networks have stayed on the sideline. Until now. A source tell us that ValueClick (NASDAQ: VCLK) has acquired mobile advertising network Greystripe for $75 million in cash. Greystripe has raised $18.1 million in funding to date over four rounds. They have a direct sales force that sells rich mobile ads directly to brands, and are on pace to bring in $25 million - $30 million in revenue this year, with about $6 million in gross profit.
Vayable Is A Marketplace For Unique Travel Experiences
Apr 22, 8:17PM
Like an Airbnb for travel experiences, secondary market place Vayable launches today to offer travelers the opportunity to buy experiences in exotic locales all over the world, from Rome to Rio as the well worn cliche goes. Founders Jamie Wong and Samrat Jeyaprakash tell me that the key difference between Vayable and the other "Airbnb for experiences" Skyara is that Vayable is targeting travelers specifically, especially those who are tired of the relative banality of activity offerings from sites like Orbitz and Expedia.
As Greenpeace Knocks IT Sector For Bad Energy Habits, Google Buys More Wind Power
Apr 22, 8:07PM
On Thursday, Greenpeace published a study on energy consumption and choices made by IT companies including Akamai, Amazon.com (Amazon Web Services), Apple, Facebook, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo, entitled "How Dirty Is Your Data?". The study roundly criticizes the sector, especially Facebook, for using "dirty energy" — power produced from hydrocarbon based sources, especially coal — to meet growing IT demand. It also criticized companies for concealing details about their own, overall energy footprint and practices. Greenpeace specifically noted (excerpt from the environmental activists' own summary): Data centers, which house the explosion of virtual information, currently consume 1.5 to 2 percent of all global electricity and are growing at a rate of 12 percent each year; Companies in the sector, as a whole, do not release information on their energy use and its associated global warming emissions...
Google Responds To Smartphone Location Tracking Uproar, Says Android Is Opt-In
Apr 22, 7:41PM
Over the last few days there's been quite a hubbub over the location tracking going on in the background on iOS devices, namely the iPhone and iPad 3G. The report that sparked it all focused on a database file stored on iOS devices that stores a record of the rough location of the device over long periods of time — and is unencrypted. Senator Al Franken subsequently sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking for an explanation. Then, last night the Wall Street Journal published an article with a new revelation: Apple and Google (with its Android devices) are both sending some location data from these devices back to their home servers. That sounds pretty sinister, but as a long-time Android user it didn't ring true to me — I vividly remembered a checkbox that asked if I wanted to allow Google to collect anonymized data, which means it isn't really a secret, and you can opt-out of it. Unsurprisingly, Google confirms that this is indeed the case.
Beer Gardens NYC App Goes 2.0 For Beer Garden Season
Apr 22, 7:38PM
Beer, the sweet elixir that draws me to the doom of oblivion, is apparently available in places called "Beer Gardens" here in NYC (and in various other locations, but this is NY-centric.) These "Gardens" are not actually gardens at all but are, in fact, large patios where people can sit and drink beer until they reach a heightened level of joviality and fun and convivial relations (until, of course, you have to fight your way to the bathroom.) But how is one supposed to find these "Gardens?" Are they secret, like in that one movie? Or are they like a mysterious Brigadoon, appearing and disappearing every few eons? Nope. They're real, and thankfully, there's an app for finding them.
Lightbank Leads $1.2 Million Round In Enterprise Mobile Startup DoubleDutch
Apr 22, 7:36PM
Enterprise mobile startup DoubleDutch has raised $1.2 million in funding, led by Lightbank, with Charles River Ventures, Launch Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Venture51, Zig Capital, and angels participating in the round. DoubleDutch allows companies to essentially build their own Foursquare, enabling the development of mobile, location aware apps that connect employees, customers, and communities. It's kind of like the Ning of geolocation apps.
Keen On… Scott Harrison: Water Changes Everything (TCTV)
Apr 22, 5:49PM
Happy Earth Day everyone! And to have a good Earth Day, and I mean a really good one, you need to watch a three minute video that was released today. It's called Water Changes Everything and it's been made by charity: water, an amazing non-profit organization founded by the incomparable Scott Harrison and actively supported by many Silicon Valley notables including Michael Birch, Jack Dorsey and Chris Sacca. And then, after you've watched Water Changes Everything, please watch three short Earth Day interviews I conducted with Scott Harrison in which he talks about ways that we can both save water and help solve the water crisis afflicting a billion people around the world. Did you know, for example, that 50% of schools in the world still don't have clean water or that a $5,000 donation can finance a well which will provide water to an entire village?
TechCrunch Giveaway: Another Chance To Win A Ticket To Disrupt NYC #TechCrunch
Apr 22, 5:13PM
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