Short News 10/19/2007

Web2Summit: TechCrunch pre-announces Murdoch/Myspace Conversation

TechCrunch does an impressive job of getting the scoop, but there's something a bit deceptive about posting the results of a pre-interview as if it were actually what was announced on stage.

heise online - MySpace baut eine Sandkiste für Entwickler

Facebook hat es getan, gestern auch Steve Jobs für das iPhone. Nun also auch MySpace. Rupert Murdochs große Community öffnet sich für Entwickler.Auf dem Portal werde eine Sandbox eingerichtet, in der sich Entwickler und zwei Millionen Betatester tummeln sollen. Mit dem Test in der Sandkiste will MySpace sicherstellen, dass neue Entwicklungen sicher sind und einen gewissen Qualitätsstandard erfüllen, bevor sie auf das Portal losgelassen werden.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg opens the Web 2.0 conference in Q&A with John Batelle - Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi -

Microsoft is reportedly in discussions to buy a 5 percent stake in Facebook, and the valuation of Facebook will reportedly be $10 billion to $15 billion.

Asked how the funding was going, Zuckerberg said, “It’s going well. We’re almost wrapped up.”

You could hear a pin drop. The fate of Silicon Valley rests on what this kid is going to do with his company, or so it seems.

He said the company has 45 million users now and 6,000 applications. More than 100,000 developers are creating third-party applications on Facebook’s social networking platform. The company has 300 employees and is likely to have more
than 700 next year, Zuckerberg said. He said the company tries to target breakeven performance and doesn’t try
to invest too far ahead of sales.

Startups Should Team Up to Grow « GigaOM

The low barriers to entry for building and deploying consumer web products has resulted in an abundance of companies, many of marginal utility.“Every single one of these [technology] cycles lasted between eight and 11 years. The eight-year anniversary of the last collapse is in March 2008. Now, if someone wants to stand up and tell me why this cycle is somehow going to be a longer one — I’m all ears,” he says. If Rafer is right, then it is prudent for startups to start coming up with Plan B. And maybe Plan B should stand for “buying or merging.”