Valleywag is of course known for its dead-on accuracy, so our predictions for 2008 need no introduction. Inside, my 25 predictions (made without inside information) cover the futures of Facebook, Google, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, Apple, Yahoo, Gawker Media, AOL, Dell, LOLcats, the president, and more.
According to the latest Pew Internet study, 35 percent of teenage girls who use the Internet blog, compared to only 1 in 5 teen boys online. Teen boys are twice as likely (19 percent to 10 percent) to post a video online, however. All of which is to say teen boys like to watch people being kicked in the 'nads, and teen girls like to write endlessly about their relationships. Can I get the 20 minutes I spent reading this report back, please? (Photo by Mighty mighty bigmac)
Think TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington has a problem with women? Boston blogger Ryan Barrett got into "virtual journalism" in part due to her admiration for "Michael Arrington's razor-sharp sarcasm." But that admiration didn't survive an in-person meeting, according to a November post to Barrett's blog. My favorite part is when she scolds Arrington on when it's appropriate to "bring out a little prick."
As his three-year legal battle with Apple reaches a settled end, Nick Ciarelli, the writer behind Think Secret, states that shutting down the Mac rumor site while not revealing his sources is a "positive solution for both sides." Most people aren't buying it, blaming Apple for shutting down Think Secret. Which is exactly why it is a positive result for Ciarelli.
The blogfest that is T magazine's website has taken a turn for the greedy, as the staff has begun posting "holiday wish lists" that might as well be coded solicitations for publicists! "Fashion magazine editors may have it worse than the general population. Every day we find ourselves surrounded by beautiful objects," say the supposedly tongue-in-cheek bloggers, before going on to solicit Brunello Cucinelli wool flannel travel jackets and the harlequin dress from Miu Miu's Spring/Summer collection. ATTENTION PUBLICISTS: I WOULD LIKE A NEW PAIR OF SHOES, BECAUSE THESE HAVE HOLES, FOR SERIOUS. SEND THEM TO 76 CROSBY STREET, NY NY 10012 BEFORE MY LAST DAY, 12/31. KTHXBAI!
Ten years ago, on December 17, 1997, Jorn Barger coined the term "web log" for a webpage where an author "logs" the other webpages they find interesting. Since then, blogging has become serious business for some and a place for nonsensical blabber for others. Though Dave Winer frequently claims that he was the first to launch a weblog at Scripting News, it was really just an online archive of columns rejected by HotWired. Jorn Barger had the first true weblog worthy of the name at Robot Wisdom.
What does Michael Arrington have against women? A lot, apparently. His latest target: A blog commenter named "Shelley," who spoke up on behalf of a photographer, Lane Hartwell. Hartwell, as we'd guessed, was the copyright complainant who knocked the popular "Here Comes Another Bubble" video off YouTube. Canadian blogger Mathew Ingram said Hartwell was wrong. Shelley responded in Hartwell's defense. And that's when Michael Arrington joined in and turned the conversation awkward.
Another startup boy and his girlfriend have started a Tumblr blog to overchronicle their relationship. Shortly after Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick and TV personality Julia Allison broke up and ended their blog Jakob and Julia, John Shankman (an employee of the Federated Media online ad agency) started the semi-anonymous JohnandJen.net.
In January, professional job hunter Robert Scoble will leave PodTech, the Web-video network he made semi-famous, then thoroughly infamous, a tipster tells us. Where's he headed? TechCrunch says Fast Company, which makes sense, since he already writes a column for the magazine. But Scoble denies the rumor. Sort of.
Silicon Alley Insider posted this shot, taken at Curbed's holiday party last night in New York. Sure, Wilson puts a kind, fatherly face on his blog. But as it would be with any VC worth his limited partners' salt, we're sure more than a few of Wilson's fundees have felt like that bull from time to time. Yeehaw!
San Francisco Examiner blogger Sharon Gray was caught by San Francisco Weekly gumshoe Matt Smith cutting and pasting entire paragraphs from other websites without attribution. "They're blogs. They don't get edited," Examiner executive editor Jim Pimentel responded. "We don't give any direction to people on what to write in their blogs. And that's standard operating procedure." Gray's blog, which she told Smith she'd hoped to use to promote books she planned to write, has since disappeared. Smith says Gray wasn't so much a plagiarist as she was unclear on the concept. If only she'd learned to reuse press releases instead.
Blognation, the mostly Euro-focused competitor to TechCrunch, founded by former TechCrunch blogger Sam Sethi, is imploding — according to TechCrunch. Michael Arrington must find this all delicious: Oliver Starr, a blogger who left Arrington's MobileCrunch site and later landed at BlogNation, is now writing about Sethi's troubles.
An anonymous reader writes:
Using advanced statistical methodology, egoblogger Robert Scoble has once again proven that no one reads Valleywag. Granted, it takes the pressure off. El Scobleator reports that Fake Steve Jobs's audience "clicks at 20x the rate that Valleywag's does." You could read this as a backhanded refutation of our crossover into the 100,000-plus pageviews per day club. Fake Steve draws 30,000 to 40,000 dailies, according to FSJ blogger Dan Lyons. Scoble could be saying that our 100K stats page is a lie. We prefer to take him at face value: It's not enough that we report about him. Robert Scoble needs you to click through to his site, time and time again, with all the love in your heart.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is really really sorry that he hasn't updated his blog, guys! "Since my last post on the blog, a few months have passed. But this doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it. As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog. The magnitude of the reception and acclamation from the viewers was beyond expectations. So I had to decide how to spend the limited time that I have allocated for the blog; should I write new notes or respect those viewers who kindly and generously have shared their thoughts and opinions with me and sent messages and read their numerous received messages." He'll have so much more time to update now that that Tehran nuclear conference is finally over, though expect posting to drop off again near finals week. [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Personal Memos]
In the year 3008, when the dust finally settles in the contentious battle between litigious copyright holders and the rest of commie internet humanity, one bold person will stand out above the fray as an emblem for your right to copy and paste anything you damn well please onto your cute blog. Ladies and gentlemen, drop your Lawrence Lessig tomes at the door, because we're here to celebrate the one, the only Perez Hilton.
