Technically Speaking

TechCrunch, the tiny blog that went big time for Mike Arrington looks to be on the verge of a deal of astronomical proportions. Now if the deal is true, this could make TechCrunch another thing that CNET destroys. I think that the offer is probably going to be hard to refuse, and for Mike maybe it’s time he cashes out and leaves the rental he lives in.

CNET’s growth has stagnated, while TechCrunch is growing like a weed. And so are SeekingAlpha, GigaOm, Huffington Post and other new media companies. These companies have filled a niche that appeared when traditional media began cracking apart–and they’ve taken full advantage of it.

The main question is why have big sites like CNET have supposedly stagnated? Well the answer is that Mike worked his nutz off making TechCrunch work. He put in the time, the hours, and did what it took to make it work. CNET rested on it’s already established place, and that my friends is the reason TC took off like a rocket and surged in growth like nobodies business.

The blogs I look to do the same very soon of course are Allen Stern’s CenterNetworks, often overlooked but out of nowhere he is going to drop a DDT before you know what hits you. Than of course there is Read/WriteWeb, who has had tremendous growth over the past year. RWW is another contender for the crown. We mustn’t count out VentureBeat, the scrappy true journalism integrity site left in the blogosphere. If you want the complete story, you go there. Matt Marshall is one heck of a reporter and person. GigaOM, well Om already has his money and he is building a fine network of blogs; GigaNET if you will. Lastly we must not forget the blog that posts 900 items a day of course - Pete’s Mashable.

Technically Speaking, there are a lot of great blogs that have the news when you want it. TC becoming a CNET property is interesting and for one thing, it will free up the blogosphere and put in a new fight for #1!

It’s been quite a busy day for me. I just went through and updated my Link Blog for only the 2nd time today. What I’m doing these days is fun, exciting, and at the same time frustrating at times. You know that being said, I wouldn’t trade it for any day job that I’ve done. Even when I worked in the IT industry full time, I will have to say, this is still 120% more fun.

Well I just went through my Link Blog, as I stated above, and one of the articles that jumped out at me of course is from CenterNetworks. One thing about Allen, he has a great way at putting across the news of the moment. I saw a bunch of articles about the twitter money grab, but he put it across in an engaging and interesting manner. One that grabbed my attention, and made me want to read it. Any article that finishes with the line

I am sure the cats who handle the servers are eating some fine Kibbles ‘n Bits tonight!

deserves to be read.

I will however have to say, even though the article he posted the other day on a great blog that talks about VC funding, I am going to have to lean to what I have always stated. Any freakin’ idea will sell to any VC if you know the right people. If you know how to grab someone’s attention, and hold it for at least 7 minutes, you can sell them another social network. Don’t believe me? Look through any of the major sites to see how many social networks have received $millions in the past 30-45 days.

So where do I stand as far as executive summaries, biz plans, and all that tree killing stuff? Well as a traditionalist I would say “Yes, you should have all of that ready to roll.” As a person that hates to kill trees for any purpose but to burn wood over an open fire, I would say, if you can talk the talk and get in front of some people; show that your product just “works” (twitter), all that stuff can be reserved for an open bonfire on your camping trip.

Another interesting item that I have yet to see is Om’s new show. GigaOm TV. Nice. Now again, I did read Allen’s review of the show earlier today (see guys/gals, I may not be blogging as much, but I am reading and taking note when I get a second!) - and I will have to say, I am still intrigued at watching. That just proves that a bad review or middle of the road interview is not a show stopper.

I agree with what Om said, all that production stuff is hard to deal with. When I was doing the podcast thing last year, 4 nights a week, I will say that was the worst part of it all. I can walk in and plain lay it down. Perform. That’s me. When it comes to producing a show, now that is another story entirely. As many have seen, I forgo any production these days with my occasional video web cam casts. Why? Because I would rather be the talent, and let someone else do the producing stuff. OR, I’d rather just produce and let someone else be the talent. Either or, but not both.

When you have the crew of Revision3 behind you, anything can be cool looking. Unlike the videos that I was in earlier this year that I did produce. The Technically Speaking Live shows, and the Friggin’ Break Reports. Yup, Rev3 could have probably made those shows rock. Unfortunately, being the talent as well as the producer takes quite a bit of time. All of these shows I speak of, podcast or video can be found on my media page.

Finally a “just this in“, well not really. It’s been in for a bit now, but looks like Microsoft is going after anything that strengthens their stake in the world of online advertising. They just acquired this Santa Barbara startup called AdECN Inc. I’m not the first to say anything about it, as I saw the smattering of stories as I went through the Link Blog, and it’s quite interesting to see their focus now on the advertising world.

One that I posted earlier in the Link Blog, that everyone that is in a startup should look at. It’s called, when it’s time to move on from your startup idea. I agree with the 3 points it made. For those that are in a failed startup, maybe it’s time you read this article that pretty much lays the facts out there. What was that saying? Oh yeah, “Lie to yourself, Lie to your mother, but don’t Lie to Rex Dixon.”

Technically Speaking, yes, I can be a goof ball - but when you live like I do, you have to have a weird sense of humor to keep your sanity some times day to day. Oh, and why it’s almost a total full time job being a blogger - this just in for real - Alesis iMultiMixer - now this is just plain COOL! I think some Wilmington NC real estate might be the plan someday.

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/21″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 21!

Episode 21 notes:

Warner-Imeem settle

Warner Music Group has dropped its lawsuit against Imeem, the music sharing site, and in an interesting turn of events, has instead decided to offer up its entire music and video catalog in a revenue-sharing agreement.

VentureBeat coverage

Warner Music Group is offering its entire music and video catalog for free streaming on imeem, a Web site focused on letting users share music playlists.

thefind - clean shopping site - $15 million

TheFind is a comparison shopping search engine that is unusually clean — it doesn’t ask merchants to pay for their products to show up in results. TheFind’s traffic is growing.

This purity is one reason it has just won $15 million in fresh backing from big-name investors Bain Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

UPS embraces technology

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Worldport, the United Parcel Service hub at the airport here, gives new meaning to the phrase “hub of activity.” On a peak night, workers have less than four hours to process more than a million packages from at least 100 planes and probably 160 trucks.

MySpace

All this attention on Facebook must be getting under MySpace’s skin.

Despite posting good growth, the company is being treated as a carton of milk left in the open overnight. While Facebook is a rocket whose upward trajectory cannot be denied, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of MySpace’s death are highly exaggerated. To counter the perceptions, MySpace is going to launch a PR offensive tomorrow, touting its recent growth.

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Many of you already knew this, but I have been in San Francisco since Tuesday. I came here for a meeting with Criteo on Wednesday, but have stayed over to meet other people as well as just to do the tourist thing. That is why I haven’t updated the blog as well as I usually do. I have enjoyed my stay here, and seriously considering relocating here; well if someone would hire and pay me a California salary!

Should I be in line down at the Apple store around the corner? No. I don’t like standing in lines. One of my biggest pet peeve’s is to “stand in a line” for anything. One of the things that sort of really irritate a person who has spent anytime in the military.

One of the goals I had when I left the service many moons ago, was to never stand in a line unless absolutely necessary. The iPhone will be there tomorrow, and the next day, and probably for many days to come. If I want to buy one, I’m in no hurry. Additionally, since I am a social media person, if I did get one today, I’d have to blog about it!!

I read two good articles this morning. Sad, right? TWO! One almost shocked me. It was on CenterNetworks of course, and I thought for a moment, “Well, well… Allen fell for the iPhone push today.. ” — Glad to see he was talking about a funding round for iContact. Worried me for a second.

The other item was that Om Malik is going to Israel for a blogger conference. Enjoy Israel, I have been there many moons ago; loved the country - very very beautiful place. Not only that (for the linguist impaired such as myself) - they speak English!

Technically Speaking, I’m going to be here in town, San Francisco, through the weekend. Back to the STL and regular updates next week. Oh, btw, that is so far - two good articles - still going through my feeds, updating the Link Blog.

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/8″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 8!

Episode 8 notes:

ValleyWag article that started it all.

The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV news hosts, shouldn’t trade on their public trust to endorse products. It’s become redundant: the reading public typically wants journalists to drop the pretense of objectivity, and wear their prejudices in public.

Om Malik’s spin

I have been upfront about my ethics and propriety in my reporting, so a finger pointed in that direction is something I must respond to. So without making any excuses, to my readers, if participation in Microsoft’s advertising campaign has made you doubt my integrity even for a second, then I apologize.

Michael Arrington’s spin

We do these all the time…generally FM suggests some language and we approve or tweak it to make it less lame. The ads go up, we get paid. This has been going on for months and months - at least since the summer of 2006. It’s nothing new. It’s text in an ad box. I think people are pretty aware of what that means…which is nothing.

So here’s my position on all of this: Go pound sand. People understand that if there’s text in an ad box, someone is paying for it to be there.

Dave Winer’s final spin

In public writing, what people think of your writing is very important. They may not agree with you, they may not like what you say, they may not like you, but you want to be sure they know where you’re coming from. Any doubt about that removes value from your work. Do it often enough and it removes all value.

Mike says that this discussion cost him money that he needs to make payroll. I encourage him to look at a bigger picture. Any cloud over his integrity with readers will have a much bigger impact, imho.

Dan Blank can draw some cool cartoon characters

The blog world is trying to reinvent journalism, and finding that in many ways, they have to start back at the very beginning. Accusations have been flying this week over online advertorials with bloggers.

Read - Lending Club blog
Follow - LendingClubber
See - Lending Club on MBL
Load - Criteo Autoroll on your blog

Follow - Rex Dixon
Enjoy - GMAFB and Sign Up/Register
My Company - Nuclear Inbox, LLC
My UStream.tv - RexTV URL and on Nuclear Inbox, LLC site
Feed yourself - This blogs Feed URL.
Read - Link Blog

I’m also located on social networks such as - Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ojeez, Vertagio, and the new Mashable one.