Coffee, Sun & Technology

I’ve had the $500 front row ticket for the Google show for years now… From the days when I was a EE grad student at Stanford (1998-2000), to the days when my baby Fireclick (my prior company) was measuring phenomenal ROIs from Google Adword Campaigns (2001-2003), to the days when the same Fireclick, located on Charleston Road - Mountain View, got slowly surrounded by Googlers (2003-2005). One floor after another in our building - one building after another around us.

I still cannot accept the idea that “search”, or rather “finding” is the fundamental reason why people are online. It’s not just about efficiency, at least for many of us - and the emergence of the so-called “social Web” is proving the Web can be just another place where you can hang out.

Now understand my astonishment when I read this CNN Money article - Don’t believe the MySpace hype - specifically this paragraph:

There have been rumblings that News Corp. is looking to forge a deal with Google or Microsoft’s (Research) MSN which would allow those companies to post their search results on MySpace and split the ad revenues. There has also been some speculation that News Corp. could just build or buy its own search engine.

“Searchify” MySpace? Please don’t. Searchify blogging? Even worse. If we want the Web to become a social destination we need to give it a soul - dim the lights a tiny bit and keep Mountain View geeks under control.