All Things Digital

Silicon Valley luminary Marc Andreessen (pictured here) has been asked to join the board of Facebook, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation.

While the arrangement is not completed yet, sources said the longtime entrepreneur has verbally agreed to accept the post to become the fourth member of the board of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social-networking site.

Other board members include Accel Partners Jim Breyer, Founders Fund’s Peter Thiel and Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg. Greylock Partners David Sze also has observer status on the board.

Since he co-founded browser pioneer Netscape in the 1990s and helped usher in the Internet age, Andreessen has been an active investor and has created several successful start-ups.

His most current effort has been Ning, also based in Palo Alto, which is a white-label social-networking company that recently raised another $60 million in funding.

If Andreessen joins Facebook’s board, the move is yet another sign that the much-hyped start-up, which has undergone some growing pains over the last year, as well as garnering a $15 billion valuation, is growing up by bringing some major high-profile tech figures into its ranks.

Last night, for example, BoomTown broke the news that Google PR head Elliot Schrage had accepted a similiar job at Facebook.

That comes after Facebook hired another top Google (GOOG) exec, Sheryl Sandberg, as its COO, in March.

A while back, BoomTown suggested that Web 1.0 golden boy Andreessen–pictured here on the iconic Time magazine cover in 1996–would be a good mentor for current golden boy Zuckerberg, in a piece I did about potential execs for Facebook.

As I wrote in February:

But why not go for the man who was Zuckerberg before Zuckerberg was cool. Yes, the shiniest of Golden Geeks himself, Marc Andreessen.

I could go on and on about the similarities I find between the two, if you compared today’s Zuckerberg with the Netscape founder in the mid-1990s.

From their arrogant innocence to their visionary qualities to their enfant-terrible charm, it is almost as if they were separated at birth.

But now Andreessen is all grown up and much, much matured from when I covered him. He has become all calm and sage and he even does a very decent blog.

Plus, he has also started and run a number of start-ups after Netscape, giving him deeper managerial experience over the last dozen years.

And, best of all, Andreessen knows the pressure of being the best-thing-since-sliced-bread in the tech sector, and its inevitable downside too.

Overall, a real mentor and partner for Zuckerberg, making a perfect pair of Golden Geeks.”

Oh, Max!

I just got through telling someone who asked me that I thought you, Slide founder Max Levchin, was one of the smarter Web 2.0 characters.

Then, of course, you get to be on the cover of Portfolio magazine for its “Brilliant” issue this month. Apparently, Max, you are Silicon Valley’s new “It” Boy.

But for all your apparently massive amount of brain cells, which should be on display at your keynote today at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, how can you be so dumb as to stumble into that same old rabbit hole as so many other Internet hotshots?

Yes, Max: The goofy photo.

In your case, you look good in the coat-and-tie get-up. But please tell me why, oh, why are you balancing a giant lightbulb on the top of your head, as seen here?

It just ain’t dignified!

(Levchin revealed to me via email last night that he actually balanced the monster bulb on his head–but I remain unimpressed.)

Still, you can be comforted to know, though, that you join a legion of other legendarily goony tech figures in the continued march of egregiously wacky pictures.

Such as:

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and his prom date, a PC:

That lovely couple, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, and those irksome colorful exercise balls (not that there is anything wrong with that):

Digg’s Kevin Rose channels Wayne’s World:

Former Netscaper Marc Andreessen as Le Dauphin of France:

And, my personal choice for goofy-de-tutti-goofball photos–Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with his noggin in a box:

Well, I was kind of kidding at the end of a piece I wrote Friday about the possible top execs that Facebook might hire when I named Marc Andreessen at the end.

I mostly put the Netscape founder in there as a good comparison and to make a point about how Silicon Valley always has to elevate some techie to the status of Golden Geek of the Moment, declaring them the rulers of the digital sector.

Usually, their reign lasts as long as a potentate in some small and unstable country.

Nonetheless, in a piece related to BoomTown’s picks and also another post about Facebook’s actual search for a well-known Web exec to help lead the social-networking company, VentureBeat created a poll asking for reader input.

As you will see below, Andreessen did OK at 18% in the small sampling, while 21% wanted to let Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg just be Mark. “Somebody else” got 14%.

Most interesting result and the winner? Almost 50% thought a dose of new management did not matter, as “Facebook is doomed.”

An aPokealypse?

If Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is serious about finding a true No. 2 to replace outgoing exec Owen Van Natta and more, then BoomTown has certainly at least two cents to add.

So here is our list of ideas, which include a number of women execs, since a list that Facebook has made apparently includes a few women too.

(And we applaud that, especially since, as you can see from this page at the social-networking site, there are none in its current top management.)

But you do have to begin with the menfolk, since the top choice of mine is one.

That would be someone that Facebook has already looked at, former eBay exec Jeff Jordan (pictured here). Jordan and Zuckerberg talked a lot last year, before Jordan headed off to lead OpenTable, the restaurant reservations service.

It would be hard to entice Jordan, a one-time contender for the top spot at eBay (EBAY), to leave OpenTable, given it is IPO-bound in the next year.

But he has the chops operationally, having led eBay’s North American unit and also its PayPal division. In other words, this man can scale.

But so can former Yahoo (YHOO) COO Dan Rosensweig (pictured here), who left the troubled Internet portal in late 2006, just before it started its long and painful descent into Microsoft’s bear-hug bid.

Rosensweig is now a principal and its-man-in-Silicon-Valley for the tony New York investment firm, the Quadrangle Group, so it is unlikely he would move over to Facebook.

More to the point, it also unclear how well his gregarious nature would mesh with Zuckerberg’s less social manner (although we would pay big bucks to see those two interacting on a daily basis). But Rosensweig, for all his joshing, has the leadership skills and deep contacts in the tech community.

And since Zuckerberg feels so comfy with Microsoft (MSFT), why not its savvy Chief Media Officer Joanne Bradford (pictured here). There, she “leads global product and platform development, content and programming, business development, product management, marketing and branded entertainment for MSN.”

Plus, she might not relish the idea of helping overhaul Yahoo, if that deal is struck, and has the ad sales and content experience too. Also, she is tough, but nice about it.

So is a sharp Facebook social-networking competitor, Bebo’s President Joanna Shields (pictured here). Based in London, she has worked at both Google (GOOG) and RealNetworks (RNWK) and has an international exposure Facebook needs.

Plus, she knows how to work with founders (in Bebo’s case, Michael and Xochi Birch) and has a charming, though squarely in-charge, demeanor.

Google, of course, has been a good headhunting ground for Facebook and the search giant has been fending off poaching off its execs by Facebook regularly.

But why not go for the big game, as there is a long list of prospects in the higher managment echelons of Google.

That includes: Tim Armstrong, president, Advertising and Commerce, North America; Marissa Mayer, vice president, Search Products & User Experience; Susan Wojcicki, vice president, Product Management; Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, president, Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations; David Fischer, vice president, Online Sales & Operations; Omid Kordestani, senior vice president, Global Sales & Business Development; Salar Kamangar, vice president, Product Management.

But we’re partial to a pair of hard-charging execs who lead critical nuts-and-bolts operations at Google: Sheryl Sandberg, vice president, Global Online Sales & Operations; and Shona Brown, senior vice president, Business Operations.

Sandberg (pictured here) is responsible for online sales of Google’s ad and publishing products, bringing experience Facebook sorely needs. She is also politically savvy, having been the chief of staff at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration.

Former McKinsey consultant and author Shona Brown (pictured here) has been running Google’s business operations since 2003 and knows how to push around, oops, work with two headstrong founders at once. Thus, Zuckerberg would be a breeze for the sharply honed Brown.

But let’s not leave out Yahoo. We have but one choice here (and someone who has reportedly been on Facebook’s list too): Hilary Schneider, its EVP, Global Partner Solutions. In other words, the revenue person.

The former Knight-Ridder exec (pictured here) is well liked at Yahoo and is also steeped in the world of media, which is important to Facebook. While probably a keeper for Microsoft, it might not be her first choice to stay after a forced merger.

There are a lot of other choices–in fact, I am completely leaving out the many media execs who might be good, as well as some longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who would get along a lot better with Zuckerberg.

Off the top of my head: former AOL head Jon Miller; former Yahoo execs Ellen Siminoff and Jeff Mallett; CBS dynamo Quincy Smith; former When and Ofoto entrepreneur James Joaquin; Fox Interactive Media’s Peter Levinsohn; and many more.

But why not go for the man who was Zuckerberg before Zuckerberg was cool. Yes, the shiniest of Golden Geeks himself, Marc Andreessen (pictured here on the iconic Time magazine cover in 1996).

I could go on and on about the similarities I find between the two, if you compared today’s Zuckerberg with the Netscape founder in the mid-1990s.

From their arrogant innocence to their visionary qualities to their enfant-terrible charm, it is almost as if they were separated at birth.

But now Andreessen is all grown up and much, much matured from when I covered him. He has become all calm and sage and he even does a very decent blog.

Plus, he has also started and run a number of start-ups after Netscape, giving him deeper managerial experience over the last dozen years.

And, best of all, Andreessen knows the pressure of being the best-thing-since-sliced-bread in the tech sector, and its inevitable downside too.

Overall, a real mentor and partner for Zuckerberg, making a perfect pair of Golden Geeks.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

You have to hand it to Slide Founder and CEO Max Levchin, who has just launched a new blog.

The title of the blog? “You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me: The Official Press Organ of the Maxist Revolution.”

Very funny, Max! (Here the Ukrainian-born Levchin is pictured in Moscow’s Red Square!)

By spooky coincidence, “you’ve gotta be kidding me” is the working title and guiding principle of a post I am preparing on the recent $500 million valuation for the San Francisco-based widget maker!

More on kooky widget economics soon, but Levchin is a welcome addition to the blogosphere, given his obvious intellect and engaging personality.

He joins other entrepreneurs, like Mark Cuban and Marc Andreessen, who have proved themselves to be most excellent bloggers.

Levchin’s first post is about how to successfully launch a social-networking development platform, which he knows a thing or two about.

I am particularly intrigued by No. 9 and No. 10:

9. Make the No. 1 measurable goal of your PR team the amount of coverage that successful (or just interesting) developers get. People will jump through all kinds of hoops to be in the papers. Double so if the article lists them next to a [your] big brand.

10. Hold frequent developer events and invite leading developers to speak at those. Elevating developers (especially the smaller ones) to a pseudo-celebrity status can create a great deal of good will.

Hoop-jumping to get in papers and pseudo-celebrity status sounds a little Britney Spears for my tastes, but I like the spirit of it!

Of course, he did forget getting a crazy valuation as the best attention-seeking missile of all, and he already had a close-shaved haircut!

Here’s Max doing some Olympic hoop-jumping in one of my video interviews with him last fall, discussing the IPO market for widget companies like Slide:

On my journey through the Europe Web scene, a stop at the Paris offices of Netvibes is a must, as it most resembles a Silicon Valley start-up. It has aimed at becoming the personal Web aggregation play and is among the more interesting and entrepreneurial in Europe.

The company was founded by former journalist Tariq Krim in 2005, who ran it with longtime European entrepreneur Pierre Chappaz until he left this past summer to work on another company called Wikio.

Netvibes is funded by the European VCs of Accel Partners and Index Ventures , as well as a smattering of U.S Web players like Marc Andreessen and others, to the tune of about $16 million.

Using a customizable ecosystem that allows a user to include any Web app–such as widgets, feeds, email, videos, blogs and now social-networking apps too–its goal of creating the personalized home page puts it in competition with other sites like Pageflakes, iGoogle and, of course, MyYahoo.

The site has upward of 12,000 feeds of all kinds and about 10 million registered users, aiming to make money via revenue sharing on the various apps used.

The business plan and the whole space, of course, is still developing, as a variety of players compete to become your first stop on the Internet with hopes of finding new ways to monetize that experience.

But here’s Netvibes CEO Krim discussing the whole thing:

However we missed a week of posting the GigaOm Show on Revision3 escapes us–it had something to do with tequila and Britney Spears, but we are foggy on the exact details.

Nonetheless, here are two for the price of one (and, by price, we mean free) for your techie enjoyment.

Last month, Om Malik and his co-host, Joyce Kim, interviewed a bunch of folks while attending the TechCrunch40 conference, including the tracksuit-wearing, shaved-head-sporting Marc Andreessen (don’t get us wrong, we like the look). Also, extreme wonkery with Engadget guys and Chris Anderson of Wired on his book-worthy newest theory.

Then, it’s onto Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s go-to guy in Silicon Valley.

I have always thought Lewin was quite a charmer comparatively speaking (to most at Microsoft, that is, and not bad in general).

Watch carefully, as he is working as hard as he can to brush off the GoogleFacebookYouTube mindshare monster. Also, Lewin says exactly zero about Microsoft’s intentions toward Facebook.

Is it just me or does it seem exactly one million years ago when Microsoft was considered the scary Bigfoot?