Former VP and full-time envirogod Al Gore, who appeared at the fourth D: All Things Digital in May of 2006, turned out to be a very funny guy onstage.
And he on television too, as you can see from his appearance this past weekend on “Saturday Night Love.”
In the bit, Gore talks about getting his crazy on to get folks to not forget about global warming.
While it might be a dream of publishers–hard hit by the digital tsunami and blaming Google for the crisis–but Microsoft is not likely to fork over the big bucks they’d need for exclusively indexing their content.
“Microsoft isn’t the monopoly guy anymore,” joked one source close to ongoing talks between Microsoft and publishers, most especially News Corp. and Associated Press. “So, it’s not going to be the bank for publishers.”
That’s because many inside the software giant don’t think such pricey deals will move the search market share needle nearly enough.
After AOL CEO Tim Armstrong unveiled the newly punctuated AOL logo–big A, little o, little l, period–last night, he got on the horn with BoomTown to chitty-chat about the change in image and, more pertinently, how it’s going on the road show to sell investors on the soon-to-be independent company.
First off, Armstrong said he never considered dumping the AOL moniker, in an effort to rid the company of the 1990s feel of the brand, noting it had a “high level of affection.”
Of course, I have a lot of nostalgic affection for Beanie Babies and the kids from “Saved by the Bell,” but that doesn’t mean I want them back.
It’s well known that Google doesn’t do much in the way of marketing around its search service.
So, then, what is one to make of a half-dozen videos–called “Search Stories,” which look suspiciously like commercials, starring the company’s many products–that Google introduced late last week on its blog and posted on a new channel on YouTube?
Could it be that the $100 million marketing campaign that Microsoft launched for its Bing search service, which seems to be slowly gaining share, is starting to get on the nerves of those Spocks in Silicon Valley?
BoomTown was intrigued when Mind-Your-Own Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, penned a blog post yesterday about the microblogging service changing its prompting question.
Now, above the little Twitter box, it reads, “What’s Happening?” and not the original tweet query, “What are you doing?”
While the blogosphere covered this as if it were a moment of monumental meaning, most were ignorant that the true beacon of innovative What’s-Happeningness does not reside in Silicon Valley.
BoomTown has learned that AOL is offering those who “volunteer” to leave the company now a departure package that ranges from three to nine months of pay, compared to one to four months for employees laid off in the first quarter of next year.
It’s a depressing rock-and-a-hard-place choice.
An AOL spokesperson confirmed the offer, which is part of a massive layoff of 2,500 of its 6,000-person workforce.
Greg Nelson, who has had the thankless job of running MSN for Microsoft, has left that position and been given the even more thankless task of running the integration of the complex search and online advertising partnership struck by the software giant and Yahoo.
Nelson’s counterpart at Yahoo, according to sources, will be Mark Morrissey, who is currently SVP of Products at the Internet giant.
The pair–pictured above, with Morrissey on left, Nelson on right–will have their hands full in what will ultimately be a two-year effort.
BoomTown’s title for the relationship: A Couple of White Geek Guys Sitting Around Arguing!
Yesterday, BoomTown wrote about AOL’s efforts–including hiring investment bankers–to sell its ICQ instant-messaging unit.
But that’s probably not going to be the end of the shedding of assets at the online site.
In fact, according to sources inside and outside AOL, one of the next candidates for sale could be its MapQuest online map service.
Earlier today, BoomTown reported that Yahoo was poised to name a few new top execs at its Silicon Valley HQ.
But the company has also hired a new director of public affairs in the nation’s capital–Amber Allman of 463 Communications.
With a spate of regulatory issues coming up around its pending search and online advertising deal with Microsoft, Yahoo will need all the help it can get.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is making the most substantive changes in her exec ranks since she did a massive restructuring of its staff in late February, according to sources close to the situation.
“She is continuing to clean the place up,” said one top exec about the moves, which are likely to be announced internally tomorrow.
Will these changes also extend to Yahoo’s board?
AOL has hired a pair of New York investment bankers, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co., to manage the sale of its ICQ instant-messaging unit.
Sources familiar with the situation said interest in buying the asset from two major non-U.S. companies prompted execs at the online service to put a process in place for a deal that will likely occur after AOL becomes an independent company in December.
AOL bought ICQ in 1998 for about $400 million–$287 million outright and $125 million in earnouts for the team.
Sources said AOL to looking to recoup $300 million.
While in Washington, D.C., BoomTown can’t just visit the policy wonks from Internet companies, so I paid a visit to Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group that works to promote privacy and protection online.
In other words, a professional–and much needed–thorn in the side of Facebook, Google and these days, MicroHoo.
Yahoo and Microsoft are poised to finally sign the definitive agreement that will govern the complex and far-reaching search and online advertising partnership they struck in late July, said sources close to the situation.
If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks, busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s in the massive document–could even turn in the delayed deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week.
Hollywood director James Cameron is well known for his heavy use of special effects and techtastic techniques in his movies, which include “Titanic,” “Aliens” and the first–and best–two “Terminator” blockbusters.
In a few weeks, Cameron is hoping to hit geek gold again with a 3-D sci-fi juggernaut called “Avatar,” which is about an indigenous blue-colored tribe and their inevitable greedy enemies.
Thus, cue the Smurfs!
Yesterday, BoomTown paid a visit to the Washington, D.C., office of Facebook to meet its reps in the nation’s capital.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the social networking site has a very small staff–for now, just a trio of on-the-young-side dudes–battening down the hatches from a funky office in a funky section of D.C., Dupont Circle, far from the tonier and lobbyist-rich K Street corridor.
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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