All Things Digital

The ankle-biters have spoken and it seems that I am completely wrong in my estimation in several recent posts where I wrote that Facebook widgets are–how shall we put it delicately?–exceedingly inane.

Why? Apparently because inane is the goal! Well then, I guess: Mission accomplished!

At an appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday, a group on a panel called “Facebook as a Platform,” led by Dave McClure, talked about a lot of stuff.

But it seemed to get lively when the discussion turned to my comparison of the boom in third party apps on Facebook to the arrival in my home of a box of shiny plastic toys from China.

I was at home with my own actual 2-year-old playing a rousing game of hit-mama-with-the-foam-finger- and-crack-up-hysterically, when the group–which included Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia, Ali Partovi of iLike, Keith Rabois of Slide and Lance Tokuda of RockYou–declared me humorless.

All because I did not realize that these apps were meant to be silly and more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Actually, I did know that and, by the way, monkeys are much more fun.

Here was my initial argument:

But, so far, as popular as those apps have become, what [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg and the widget-makers have wrought is mostly silly, useless and time-wasting and the kazillion users of these widgets are pretty much just acting like little children.

“I never thought I would call the often frivolous AOL back in the day–very simply, a Neanderthal version of Facebook–a mature offering in comparison.

“While I will admit when I am not chewing nails that a lot of these apps are somewhat fun, I can’t help but ask myself that lyric from the old Peggy Lee classic: ‘Is that all there is?’

“And if that is all there is, can Facebook really build a viable and long-lasting business on what is essentially a bunch of games that will ultimately become wearying for users? Doesn’t it need more robust apps that actually are useful and relevant and make Facebook the service that Zuckerberg has often told me was a ‘utility’?

“While Facebook–with a cleaner and more strict look and a better navigation–is surely less goofy than rival MySpace for anyone over 12 years old, and its video, photo and email features are nice, the vast majority of its apps are still mostly as dumb as a box of hammers.”

“Kara’s argument is ridiculous,” said Slide’s Rabois, according to a report on Wired.com.

“Why do people watch movies and TV? Because they’re bored or looking for something to do to relieve stress in their lives. Apps are providing entertainment to users.”

Really, Keith? I had no idea, despite the fact that “Gilligan’s Island” was my favorite show for way too many years!

Seriously, I know what he is saying and I agree on the need for some fun on this tragic little spinning globe of ours, except:

1. I would be fine with silly widgets, if there were more serious ones too, well beyond Vampires and SuperPokes and even an app called Pop Ur Zit. All of these have the longevity of a gnat, designed to be faddish and quickly forgotten. And, if you are going to be fun, one might try a little harder to come up with some offerings that are a little less disposable.

In fact, on a recent visit I made to RockYou HQ (post coming Monday), its savvy tech lead noted that there was surely a limit to how much crap people wanted to throw at each other.

2. Entertainment, especially the idiotic kind, will not get you to massive sustained usage that characterizes a true paradigm shift that McClure claimed was happening.

For example, was it all the games that made the personal computer become a ubiquitous device? No, it was serious programs like VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3.

So where are those kind of apps for systems like Facebook, I wonder, as I noted in another post about what to do with a group of 2,500 techies I have gathered on the social-networking site. So far, we have a whole lot of nothing to offer them.

3. Another argument made on the panel was that the blogosphere used to be disdained as goofy only a few years ago and now it is a true media power.

Well, it was never disdained by me and, actually, there were a lot of substantive and important blogs even back then to balance out the fluffier ones. In fact, there were more.

4. As RockYou’s Tokuda said, referring to me: “I believe for her the apps are useless because she’s not a teenage girl.”

This is not a news flash, although I probably am one of the older diehard fans of “Hannah Montana.”

But it is not necessarily true that advertisers will flock to these widgets, just because the kids love it.

Because as much as advertisers want to reach a younger demographic, they also do not want to do it in an environment of frivolous engagement and I doubt there is much appeal to them when people are busy slapping each other digitally or cartoonifying their friends. In addition, advertisers want to reach people who will buy things and few are in that mindset when they are anonymously telling someone else the “honest” truth or being a Human Pet.

I could go on, but will stop there, so the Lollipop Guild can respond in crayon.

But here’s one offer I will take RockYou’s Tokuda up on: A promise he made onstage to build something just for me.

Just some guidance, Lance: No poking, slapping, tickling or zit-picking.

Call me old-fashioned, because I know you will anyway.

Here’s some more video from the halls of Web 2.0 Summit, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.

Look to John Paczkowski of Digital Daily for liveblogging from the conference yesterday, which included appearances by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and eBay’s Meg Whitman.

Today is the final day, with digital bigshots onstage like: AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, Mike Volpi of Joost and Uber-VC John Doerr.

Of course, most of the action–as always–takes place in the halls of the Palace Hotel, where the schmoozing never stops. We hung out for a bit yesterday and asked everyone their thoughts on the latest hot trend and ridiculous hype. Incredibly, the answer to both was Facebook!

Here’s a video of the scene from Day 2:

Did I wangle a seat right next to soon-to-be Dow Jones owner Rupert Murdoch last night at the Web 2.0 Summit dinner?

Of course I did, continuing in the shameless BoomTown tradition of trying to get gratis meals with moguls (like our ongoing efforts to raise money for DonorsChoose.org and get a free lunch with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang).

(Here’s a picture above that I nicked from Valleywag, as they called me “abrasive” in their post and said I was carrying water for News Corp.-owned MySpace with my incessant questions about rival Facebook’s business model and insane valuation. To the first, I say that’s like a commercial sander calling Comet abrasive and, to the second, I obviously now have to start slapping MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe’s handsome face around to maintain my scratchy cred.)

In any case, the News Corp. chairman and CEO could Web 2.0 it up with the rest of the geeks, as it turned out, and managed to touch on topics ranging from the Facebook valuation to the state of the media industry to the need for even more digitization across the landscape.

If you want to see Murdoch in action, here’s some snippets of his onstage interview, along with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe with conference co-host John Battelle. It’s a little hard to hear, but worth the watch.

He talks about such topics as his love of Silicon Valley, the future of MySpace (owned by News Corp.), the renewal of DeWolfe’s contract, Google, Facebook, his hope for the New York Times (Would he like to kill it? “That’d be nice,” he answered.), the “half-dead” CNBC (the main competitor of his new Fox Business channel) and, of course, his plans for his newest shiny toy, The Wall Street Journal (more culture!).

I asked him, no surprise, about the $15 billion Facebook valuation, which prompted Murdoch to say News Corp. was drastically undervalued. That’s cheeky!

Thanks also to the other Web 2.0 Co-Host Tim O’Reilly for asking Murdoch when he was going to fire BoomTown! Job security? Nope! Rupe’s answer: “There’s still time!” (Hopefully, after he shivs the Times and CNBC.)

Here the video:

Here’s some video from the halls of Web 2.0 Summit, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.

As you will see, it is quite the Bubblefest, with all sorts of geeky bonhomie and aspiring hopefulness of also landing a $15 billion valuation, as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg noted he was about to do onstage yesterday.

Other luminaries onstage yesterday included Google exec Marissa Mayer, Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki, former AOL exec Ted Leonsis and super-VC Mike Moritz. Today’s slate: Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, eBay’s Meg Whitman, Philippe Dauman of Viacom and other various and sundry Web poo-bahs.

Of course, most of the action–as always–takes place in the halls of the Palace Hotel, where the schmooze factor is always ratcheted up to 11. There’s nothing a bunch of nerds likes to do more than debate each other over code and funding and which start-up is about to tank (not theirs!).

Here’s a video of the scene from Day 1:

We know Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all hot and bothered about the news and quotes that have been appearing in BoomTown–like this post from yesterday–especially related to the recent round of funding the social-networking start-up has been pursuing at a $15 billion valuation and most especially if it comes from a “Facebook exec” or “someone close to the company.”

But after slapping hands all around–likely the wrong people, Mark!–it’s more than a little ironic that he is the one with the loosest lips of all. Yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Zuckerberg apparently wasn’t being very circumspect about the sale of a small piece of Facebook when asked about it by conference host John Battelle.

“Great,” said Zuckerberg, as reported by many (sadly, BoomTown was on a plane back from Los Angeles and missed the interview). “It’s almost wrapped up.”

Thanks, Mark! Or shall we say, “a Facebook exec close to the company.”

For those making plans for next week on this lovely Friday, here’s a few things to look forward to in BoomTown, including a visit to San Francisco by our new Big Boss Rupert Murdoch of News Corp.

(And should we take it personally that he still hasn’t called to ask to inspect AllThingsD HQ–also known as the ramshackle cottage behind my house–when he is here?):

1. YAHOO EARNINGS! Of course, we’re going to obsessively cover the Yahoo earnings call on Tuesday and also begin our 10-day countdown of the end of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s 100-Day No-Sacred-Cow Vision Quest.

Let’s hope it’s unsurprising financial news or a lot of fatted calves are in big trouble over at the Internet giant.

Besides news of earnings, many are looking for a more significant move from Yahoo at the end of the top-to-bottom look Yang has been taking at the company. Right now, there are rumors flying through Yahoo about another reorganization of the management ranks, especially after both Yang and President Sue Decker told the crowd of 300 vice presidents they gathered recently that such change would be constant at the company.

In addition to Yahoo, IBM and Intel will report Tuesday; eBay and Apple on Wednesday; and Google on Thursday. And Amazon, Apple and Microsoft will report the following week.

2. FACEBOOK FUNDING: Expect a possible end to the ridiculously inflated funding discussions at the hot social network, when Mark Zuckerberg makes his choice in Silicon Valley’s equivalent of the dating game.

Reportedly, there are terms sheets with a variety of proposals in Facebook’s hot little hands from all three.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will doubtlessly be making an appearance at Facebook next week, when he is scheduled to be here (see below), to convince the execs at Facebook that his tough-love approach is actually appealing and not simply like being lectured to by angry dad.

As usual, Google will be playing the coy and hip and a bit wacky rake and will be talking up solar and recycling. That’s just the kind of we’re-more-evolved-sweet talk that turned the heads of those YouTube guys. (But–let’s be honest–it makes BoomTown sometimes imagine revving up the Hummer and plowing it through all those no-carbon-footprint bicycles scattered around the Googleplex.)

And Yahoo’s Yang? He might just have to resort to outright begging, which has always worked for us.

3. WEB 2.0 SUMMIT: The San Francisco-based conference is on Wednesday until Friday with a spate of Web luminaries on stage (Ballmer, eBay’s Meg Whitman, VC Mike Moritz and more), as well as Murdoch (pictured, right).

He’ll appear with MySpace Co-Founder Chris DeWolfe on Wednesday night. And the not-Facebook social network is also throwing a party in honor of Beverly Hills-based MySpace’s new San Francisco satellite office (in what can only be seen as a capitulation to self-centered Silicon Valley geeks for whom nothing exists outside the Bay Area).

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the day Apple will report its quarterly results. The company will do so Oct. 22. (See comment.)

I went to a dinner last night hosted by John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly of the Web 2.0 Summit, and it was one of the more schmoozy events I have been to in a while.

The event–this year at Foreign Cinema in the Mission District of San Francisco–is held to elicit feedback from the Internet’s movers and shakers about the new directions the conference, set to take place in San Francisco in mid-October, should head in.

Except Battelle and O’Reilly already came up with a theme: “The Web’s Edge.”

I am not entirely sure what that means. Is it that it is at an edge? Or that we need to look at the edge? Or just that things just feel all pointy lately? Big thoughts all!

In any case, the party was a lot of fun and filled with digital personalities, like Mitch Kapor and Ann Winblad, as well as a few folks I interviewed like ex-AOLer Jon Miller, ex-Fox exec Ross Levinsohn, VC David Sze, Tina Sharkey of BabyCenter and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain.

Here’s the video: