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Author Ken Auletta Talks About Google and Its "Lack of Emotional Intelligence"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:50:35 +0000

Guess what? Google has too many Spocks and not enough Captain Kirks.

This is one of the many interesting insights BoomTown gleaned from a video interview last night–which you can see below–with well-known New Yorker scribe Ken Auletta, who has just written a new book, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

This “lack of emotional intelligence” at the search giant, said Auletta, reminded him a lot of the subject of one of his previous books: Microsoft (MSFT).

Oh, the delicious irony!

Auletta was feted at a lovely party last night at the San Francisco house of Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, where a range of Google (GOOG) execs, Internet folks and fans gathered to talk about the book.

It’s all about Google, its history and, most important, its impact on the world. And how you look at the powerful search giant depends entirely on whether you are the changer or the changed, as Auletta stresses in multiple anecdotes in the book.

Traditional media, for example, have certainly been mucho irked of late about the impact of digital technologies on their businesses and have not been shy about casting blame most heapingly on Google’s Silicon Valley plate.

And government regulators are also giving the company the hairy eyeball, much as they had previously done to Microsoft.

Auletta and I talked about all of this and more in the video interview below, in which he notes that he told Googlers at a talk at their adorkable Googleplex HQ in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday that they need to focus less on being engineering brainiacs and more on trying to understand how to deal with fears of their growing power.

Here’s my interview with Auletta about this, as well as what old media needs to do to deal with all the change Google has wrought. (And you can see interviews I did with guests at the party, too).

And below that is one of the disturbing number of mash-up music videos about “Star Trek” buddies, the highly illogical Kirk and the Vulcanish Spock, the geek bromance of all time.

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

The Agony and Ecstasy of Paula & Simon (Plus: When Abdul Did D6)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:44:05 +0000

BoomTown is wearing all-black today, in profound mourning for the prospect of no Paula Abdul judging on “American Idol” next season.

“With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return,” tweeted Abdul yesterday, bidding goodbye, natch, on Twitter.

Of course, her departure was over money–the boy talent, co-judge Simon Cowell and MC Ryan Seacrest, got a ton of it and Abdul got much less (although $2 million a year is a lot, it paled in comparison).

She is worth the scratch, though–especially considering how much the television singing juggernaut makes on Coke advertising placement alone–whether she was falling asleep in Carrie Underwood’s first audition or sleeping with contestants (allegedly!) or just doing that goofy seal clap and blathering out incomprehensible compliments to contestants.

Memo to News Corp. (NWS) TV unit Fox, which produces the TV show in the U.S.: Hand over more dough and pronto!

Sigh, as it is probably not to be–even though her bio is still on the “Idol” Web site.

So, here is a very funny video mashup done about her odd relationship with the acerbic Cowell.

Plus, here is a video from when Adbul also actually appeared–stranger than fiction–at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference.

She was there to help Activision Blizzard (ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick publicly demo “Guitar Hero IV” for the first time, with the help of skateboarding star Tony Hawk.

I’ll be honest–I was sure she’d do something crazy, like goose Bill Gates of Microsoft (MSFT) or maybe fall off the stage–but she turned out to be a pro and forever my girl (oh, I had to).

Check it out, since I am off draping crepe at the All Things Digital HQ:

Paula & Simon:

Paula at D6:

[ See post to watch video ]

Jai Ho! An Unfortunate Oscar-Winning Song (and Dance)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:23 +0000

Despite the little-movie-that-could, “Slumdog Millionaire,” sweeping the Oscars on Sunday night, it was well-nigh impossible to find a really good online video of the amazing Bollywood-style dance routine done during the closing credits to the also award-winning song, “Jai Ho!”

(Even the Pussycat Dolls have covered the song, which loosely translates to “Victory.”)

Unfortunately, the A.R. Rahman tune (two well-deserved Oscars for him!) in the catchy song-and-dance number seemed to be subject to takedowns all over the Web just when it probably was a good time to put it out and generate even more box office buzz for “Slumdog.”

Why? Well, as you can see below from the video mashup on Dailymotion that I finally found, it perfectly communicates the infectious mood of the movie:

Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire (English Subs)
Uploaded by aka71691

Love Client Number 9: Eliot Spitzer Gets Mashed-Up!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:02:49 +0000

You knew it was only a matter of seconds before there would be video mash-ups on the Web related to the prostitution troubles of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Some are pretty racy, of course, because the story is, well, pretty racy, generating the most excellent headline from the New York Post: “Ho No!”

But here are two I liked a lot. The first is from Barry Mitchell on the accordion in a song parody using the Searchers’ ditty, “Love Potion Number 9.” And the second does a very funny take-off of “The Odd Couple,” pairing Spitzer with another Luv Guv–New Jersey’s Jim McGreevey.