Where the conversation’s heading
Free internet speech has a price, the Supernova networking conference learnt today.
Comment and conversation on specific websites is being liberated by services that allow commenters to make their comments portable and aggregate them elsewhere. Read more
Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, the husband-and-wife team behind Flickr, the photo-sharing site that sparked the Web 2.0 craze when it was bought by Yahoo in 2005, have decided to leave the struggling internet group.
I caught up with Stewart by email as he was rushing to catch a plane, and he confirmed the rumours. Meanwhile, Valleywag seems to have obtained a copy of Butterfield’s resignation letter (it’s a classic of the genre, best read in the voice of Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood). Read more
China and India shine at Cannes Lions
Storm clouds are gathering over the advertising industry. But, this being Cannes, media folk are happy to ignore the rain and instead concentrate on the accompanying sound and light show. The strong Euro and economic gloom has not prevented the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival – run by GMG and Apax-owned Emap – from attracting thousands of delegates and 28,000 entries from 85 countries. That’s up 5.8 per cent compared to last year.
With even more parties promised this year, the ad world isn’t going to let anyone rain on its parade by pondering whether the cash blown on festivities can ever be recouped by the deals done between the Carlton terrace and the notorious Gutter bar.
Lightning has already struck twice for BBDO, the New York agency, for its “Voyeur” campaign for US TV network HBO. This huge video projection against the side of a New York apartment block, appearing to reveal the kitchen-sink dramas within, scooped a second Grand Prix in the Outdoor category, hot on the heels of yesterday’s Promotions gong. The talk of the Lower East Side prompted a million visits to promotional site www.hbovoyeur.com and, in ad-speak, strengthened “super-fans’ engagement” with HBO. Read more
Mozilla, the scrappy open-source software company, hoped to set a one-day software download record on Tuesday with the launch of Firefox 3, the latest copy of its popular web browser. The company even went so far as to set up a special web page to promote its Guinness Book of World Records bid.
But Mozilla’s hoped-for PR coup turned into something of a debacle as thousands of eager downloaders rushed the site. The result was an internet equivalent of the Cleveland Indians’ infamous “10 cent beer night ” in 1974, in which an inebriated mob of baseball fans - lured by the promise of all-you-can-drink 10 cent beers – laid waste to portions of Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
