All Things Digital

Later his morning, the media circus has been summoned to the Googleplex in Mountain View for a look-see at Google’s new Internet browser and a chitchat with execs about the meaning of it all.

(Also, while there is only a 54 percent chance of being lectured to by the Big Brains of Google, there is a 100 percent chance of both free comic books and tasty organic snacks!)

And Chrome, the shiny code name of the project, which has stuck as the brand name, will also be going out to the world at large–100 countries, that is–right after that.

BoomTown is bringing the trusty Flip video camera to make some Silicon Valley memories, and will render a full report about what’s what.

But until then, I have decided to forgo writing the expected long, long, long, long what-the-new-Google-browser-represents-for-geekkind thumbsucker.

Instead, here is my three-part short version about Google’s new piece of open-source software to navigate the Internet, using my favored cultural references:

1.) Google=Red cape and and way too many picador lances. Microsoft=Really angry bull (not at all flower-sniffing Ferdinand-like).

2.) Remember “War Games” and the then-cute Matthew Broderick as teen nerd David Lightman, playing Global Thermonuclear War with the supercomputer called Joshua, and then being told the consequences of that by head government techie John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman)?

If not, here’s some dialog from the movie that is now apt, if you imagine Google (GOOG) as David and Microsoft (MSFT) as Joshua:

McKittrick: See that sign up here–up here. “Defcon.” That indicates our current defense condition. It should read “Defcon 5,” which means peace. It’s still on 4 because of that little stunt you pulled. Actually, if we hadn’t caught it in time, it might have gone to Defcon 1. You know what that means, David?
David Lightman: No. What does that mean?
McKittrick: World War Three.

3.) And, last, if Google’s Chrome browser does not take off on all the hot-air hype, isn’t outstanding as a product and does not make a substantial dent in Microsoft’s overwhelming market share in the browser market, I’d point to one of the best opening lines from “Sunset Boulevard”–the one with Joe Gillis (William Holden) narrating about himself post-mortem as a floating corpse:

“The poor dope–he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool.”

Well, Google has got itself an Olympic-sized pool now!

We kid! Google’s in no danger of foundering, given that its search business still dominates, and quite profitably, of course.

But for all the halo of that, Google has never had any other similar true home run with any of the other products it has released so far.

And to portray Chrome as a Windows killer–which some are quite incorrectly doing–is not the kind of image Google should encourage.

Nonetheless, with this move, the search giant has certainly stepped into the spotlight more than it ever has (and this is a company that–let’s be honest–never misses a chance to frolic and show off in that spotlight).

So, with these loftier ambitions, I think it is fair to say that this time Google had better be ready to actually perform better than Michael Phelps.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

BoomTown was blogging so manically from the Yahoo annual meeting, which took place in San Jose on Friday, I plum forgot to load up the video I did there.

No video was allowed inside the meeting or anywhere near it, by the way. So rather than getting beaten senseless by the squads of purple-clad Yahoo (YHOO) minions of CEO Jerry Yang, I decided to pocket my Flip camera for part of it.

But, afterwards, I did a very interesting interview with shareholder activist Eric Jackson, who has been beating on Yahoo for awhile.

To no avail, for now. As it turned out, Yang and the Yahoo board sailed out of the meeting pretty much intact, despite all the hubbub of this past year, from the company’s weakened performance to the full-frontal bid attack by Microsoft (MSFT).

Here is the video (and apologies for saying “board” meeting in several places in the video, rather than “annual” meeting):

Also, here are my liveblogging posts from the meeting, in time order:

BoomTown Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting in San Jose!

Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting: Empty Chairs and No Power

Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting: Tim Koogle Returns!

Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting: Bostock Defends Microsoft Dealmaking (Or Lack Thereof)

Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting: Yangtastic!

Liveblogging From Yahoo Annual Meeting: Shareholder Q&A!

Yahoo Shareholder Vote: Old Board Stays Put (While AOL Makes Another Boneheaded Move!)

Oh the sweet irony of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg getting awarded a big round glass object, suitable for mantel-showing-off, from Harvard types.

Especially since he is now the school’s second most famous tech mogul dropout–after Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

But that was the case last night at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency, where the 24-year-old Zuckerberg collected the 30th Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award from the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California.

As is required at dinners like this, Zuckerberg had to sing for his supper in a post-meal interview about the hot social-networking site’s past and future.

At first, he did clarify that he was technically “on leave” from Harvard, as Gates also is, which the crowd loved.

(But, memo to Harvard Yard: Neither Gates nor Zuckerberg is coming back, so don’t leave the lights on.)

Zuckerberg (pictured here with me) also used the term “share information” in the interview, perhaps even more than he did onstage when I interviewed him at the D: All Things Digital conference last month.

And so much so that it could be the basis for a raucous drinking game where you take a shot every time he says “share information,” which would make you dangerously inebriated within 56 seconds.

Zuckerberg also strongly reiterated his statement that Facebook was not for sale, which is especially important now that it looks like a tastier treat to Microsoft (MSFT), in the wake of its failed takeover of Yahoo (YHOO).

But Zuckerberg specifically nixed a sale to Microsoft, which invested $240 million in Facebook and gave it its infamous $15 billion valuation.

He was joined onstage by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg–who is an academically scary double whammy, holding a master’s degree in business administration with highest distinction from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in economics from Harvard University.

Plus Sandberg has a really effective hairy eyeball that she used to stop me from stalking her or Zuckerberg with my Flip camera.

Still, BoomTown managed to get some video of those attending the event, which was heavy with tech types.

My various quarry dispensed business advice, all while I mocked Harvard (lovingly, so don’t gripe that I am envious–am not).

So, here’s my video of last night’s event, which includes: Piczo CEO Jeremy Verba (HBS); Facebook’s Ben Ling (not Harvard) and Elliot Schrage (Harvard undergrad, masters, law!); Greylock Partners’ James Slavet (HBS) and David Sze (horrors–Yale!); Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer (HBS); and the glass award itself (totally HBS!).

And, once again, here’s Zuckerberg and Sandberg in action, somehow withstanding my withering questions at D6:

Part One

Part Two

Here is a BoomTown video rant on online advertising, which I spewed at a Web 2.0 Expo Web2Open event I did Wednesday.

I am talking quickly since it was a “speed-Q&A” session, where five of us moved from table to table and quickly answered questions shot at us from the people gathered at each.

They were split into like-minded groups–developers, designers, business types.

This video was shot on a Flip camera, the kind BoomTown uses for our own riveting videos, by tech writer David Spark.

Excuse the mysterious Ray-Ban look–the shades are prescription and I left my regular glasses at home. (Also, I was trying to avoid intimacy in this speed Q&A thing!)

Here Spark is asking me about my bête noire in the Web 2.0 space–lack of specifics about monetization.

I always get annoyed by the same stock explanation from entrepreneurs when I ask about it: “Advertising, of course.” But when I then ask for more detail and actual results, that’s where things always get a little fuzzy.

I also talk about the need for Web 2.0 wunderkinds to be scrutinized just the same as any business leader, rather than worshipped by a slavish press.

Hence, my rant:

In this interview with Andy Plesser of Beet.TV, Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine talks about the changes in the production of online video.

At the end, he points to BoomTown’s annoying (and artistic!) work with our little Flip camera as an example of the trend toward the quick and, well, dirty.

Here’s the video:

Here is the second video installment of Walt Mossberg visiting Macworld yesterday, trailed by the very brave Associate Editor John Sullivan of AllThingsD.com, who gamely borrowed BoomTown’s Flip video camera to take on the momentous task.

In this episode, Walt visits various partners of Apple’s, including Microsoft and, apparently, Dr. Seuss.

In the wise words of “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”: “From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”

So it seems to me, at least.

Here is the video:

Mike Hirshland of Boston-based Polaris Venture Partners recently turned his Flip video camera on me in a desperate attempt to become a video artist like, well, me.

He fails miserably, of course, to reach my levels of jittery and nausea-inducing shooting, by sticking the camera in my face and asking me what I think of the, surprise, online video business.

Tables turned, I embrace the opportunity and blather on.

He posted it on his VCMike’s Blog here, but you can see the video below:

And here is me interviewing Hirshland in July about blogs, social networking–and, of course, the hot-and-hyped Facebook–and some video-content plays:

In case you missed it, Katherine Boehret–one of our fine tech columnists on this site and also in The Wall Street Journal and pictured here–debuted a video yesterday, using the same kind of Flip video camera I do for my video posts on BoomTown.

She was testing for her regular Mossberg Solution column a new version of the device, which she liked in her post here.

The video she made was from a recent visit she and my partner Walt Mossberg made to Google in Silicon Valley and includes Katie riding one of the free bikes provided to employees by the company.

Walt, who always insists on backseat directing my videos when he is around, does a few too many pavement shots when he gets his mitts on the camera, so thank goodness for Katie’s much more deft filming.

As you will see, BoomTown’s swirly mishmash video style has had a profound impact on her, as it should!

Here it is: