Something extremely weird is going on over on Digg.com. Today for the third time in a short period, a story got promoted to the front page where a blogger raises a baseless rumour about Google buying Sun. And as is explained further down, it appears that this is the result of a coordinated effort to fool Digg into promoting the story.

The blog author has no sources, zero credibility and most importantly his reasoning is completely erratic.

Silicon Valley Sleuth: Scoop: Digg is used for Sun stock manipulation

AUSTIN, Texas--It's almost two in the morning and I'm standing in the middle of Austin's Sixth Street, hoping that I'm not going to get hit by a car.

On the other hand, I am hoping--as are 15 or so other people standing nearby--that one of the cars that keep rushing by will crush the tricked-out Roomba robot vacuum cleaner that Make Magazine associate editor Phillip Torrone and Eyebeam R&D fellow Limor Fried are sending back and forth across the street and through traffic.

This is Roomba Frogger, a modern, geek version of the famous 1981 video game "Frogger," in which players had to get a frog across a street without it getting crushed by a car or truck.

[print version] Roomba takes Frogger to the asphalt jungle | CNET News.com

Google's 10-K is out today. There are several interesting notes in there

Nice walkthrough.

Mr Wave Theory

dmv wrote:

Restaurant owners understand the power of the press -- and go to extreme efforts to ensure that influential customers have a wonderful experience. This isn't rocket science -- it's good business!

Why is it that online businesses don't do the same? They should! One of the first things we did after we launched Half.com was create a VIP list, containing the email addresses of all influential reporters, competitors, potential acquirers, analysts, and investors. (Bloggers didn't exist back then - but they would qualify as well). We then had our system alert us whenever a VIP created an account, purchased an item or listed one for sale. When a VIP purchased a CD we'd have someone from our customer service group telephone the seller to confirm that it shipped promptly. When a VIP listed an item for sale, we'd monitor it to see if it sold. And if a (hypothetical) reporter listed a (hypothetical) book for sake, and it didn't sell quickly, a relative of a (hypothetical) Half.com employee in Oklahoma might (hypothetically) purchase the item...Resulting in a (hypothetical) story in the New York Times.

This actually sounds like a reasonable business: VIP lists. As an entrepreneur, I don't have the time to know who all the A-lists are, the reviewers, etc. I don't have the information network to know what Mossberg's email aliases are. Maybe I pass you my subscriber list, and you send back a report of all the known actors, $5 (automate it). If I want realtime, that's a different price; if I want daily, I pay daily. If I'm just curious periodically, I just submit periodically. Easy.

Also, on the subject of VIP treatment:

My uncle is a very prominent food critic in Boston. He writes under a pseudonym, and his appearances on TV are with disguises. He makes reservations under the names of the guests he's bringing with him to dinner. But, that said, he "outs" himself in all of his cookbooks. And it isn't a particularly well-guarded secret; he's not even all that subtle in-restaurant. He can tell who the good maitre'd are, because when he's at a public function they seek him out to ID him -- and he considers them good at what they do. It is surprising that more don't. I believe he's only been thrown out of a restaurant once, and that was when a chef recognized him (as someone who had panned his last...)

From this, I think that even if a VIP/reviewer detected that their quality of service was being ramped up, this would not be a bad thing. As an information technology company, any example of exploiting the information stream in a productive way seems like a win. It means you are more customer focused, and it reflects a higher service sophistication level.

RE: Redeye VC: VIP Treatment

Looking to capitalize on the Apple halo effect, three former company executives, including co-founder Steve Wozniak, took their new company, Acquicor Technology, public yesterday in an IPO raising $150 million. The money they raised is purely based on their reputation, as Acquicor Technology, is officially designated as a "blank-check" company (no, really, it's in their filings), meaning they don't do anything yet and can do whatever they want with investor money. Wozniak seems to have a knack for using his name to raise money before having an established operation

Woz starts a SPAC. We'll have to see who they buy, $150M is a pretty significant and specific SPAC value.

Techdirt: Woz Raises $150 Million For, Well, Nobody Knows

Restaurant owners understand the power of the press -- and go to extreme efforts to ensure that influential customers have a wonderful experience. This isn't rocket science -- it's good business!

Why is it that online businesses don't do the same? They should! One of the first things we did after we launched Half.com was create a VIP list, containing the email addresses of all influential reporters, competitors, potential acquirers, analysts, and investors. (Bloggers didn't exist back then - but they would qualify as well). We then had our system alert us whenever a VIP created an account, purchased an item or listed one for sale. When a VIP purchased a CD we'd have someone from our customer service group telephone the seller to confirm that it shipped promptly. When a VIP listed an item for sale, we'd monitor it to see if it sold. And if a (hypothetical) reporter listed a (hypothetical) book for sake, and it didn't sell quickly, a relative of a (hypothetical) Half.com employee in Oklahoma might (hypothetically) purchase the item...Resulting in a (hypothetical) story in the New York Times.

Redeye VC: VIP Treatment

And now, I believe, we have now entered into the era of “LE”. While some might argue that flickr's success has made "kr" is the Official Suffix of Web 2.0, I disagree. After Google’s phenomenal success, there’s beenLe_2 an influx of companies wanting some "le" magic. Google itself launched Froogle. Now we have Kaboodle, Kanoodle, Azoogle, Oodle, Ookle(s), Rabble, Dabble, Zazzle, Taggle, Quimble, and Krugle*.

So, here’s my thought – some web hacker should build an "le" crawler to search the whois database for all available "le" domain names. This way we can determine when all of the “le” domain names are taken – giving us Web 2.0 investors some advance knowledge of when the music will stop

Redeye VC:

What should entrepreneurs do? The simplest answer is to use aconvertible debt structure. This avoids pricing the company too high or too low and also does not create unforeseen deal structure issues. The money converts into the professional round when raised.

Everyone loses when earlier rounds are mispriced. Venture capitalists lose the opportunity to invest in quality companies. Entrepreneurs end up running their business hand to mouth as they get trapped raising one $500k round after another.

VC Confidential: The Angelitis Blues

So, Andrei, where do we go from here?
My paper on the taxonomy of Web search talks about three generations of web search. I believe that we are now entering an entirely new phase. I call this next phase “search without a box”. Search today is confined to putting in something and getting something back, a pull model. The next stage is for information to come in a context without actively searching, a push model. My favorite example is GPS. Instead of looking up your way on a paper map, you are in your car, and your GPS navigator gives you directions, shows gas stations near you, and so on. A year or two from now perhaps it will show you where those gas stations are, but only when you are low on gas. So you get information on an “as needed, when needed” basis without explicitly asking for it. In the same vein, we will move from information retrieval to information supply.

Exactly. This is not about removing control, but about elimination of repeating obvious steps. This is the direction most AI technologies head, and Information Retrieval is part of it.

When building technologies, we often get the interfaces wrong. Because it is an iterative process; we can't skip the steps until we've worked them out. My browser now has a search bar, because it turns out that the majority of my interface with the web is through search. My browser now has tabs, because that's a more effective way for me to surf (before I used to open windows by the dozen). In the future, that may not be the case; flock is making interesting noise about the way a blogging friendly browser should operate. And the general search tool may be less relevant as well. When I'm working on code, the reference pages I look at should be more accessible. Debugging -- give me more information. And give me a small distraction tool; maybe tied into the period of my debugging cycle.

I appreciated that my old cell phone gave me the option of exposing my E911 required GPS information to the mobile web browser; but too little used it. Advertisers have gotten very aggressive about using IP based locality information... so should the good services. Memestreams should work differently when I am in my office than at home, and maybe I shouldn't have to tell it to. When I am working at work, or just killing time. Etc. Firefox knows, or could.

Yahoo! Search blog: A chat with Andrei Broder (Part II)

But there’s a bubble that the web community isn’t talking about. Let’s call it the Entrepreneur Bubble. The Web 2.0 Entrepreneur Bubble is the flip side of the Web 2.0 Investment Bubble.

Absolutely true. Everyone reads a site like Signal v Noise and looks at what is being done... reads a site like Tech Crunch, sees the opportunities... and figures they can do it. How many people do you know who want/plan/are trying to build a small Web Apps company?

What I appreciate about Memestreams is that it is prior to this bubble, incumbant for a hot field and isn't cashing it. What frustrates me about Memestreams is that it is prior to this bubble, has better solutions to the hot field, and isn't cashing in.

EarlyStageVC: The Web 2.0 Entrepreneur Bubble