Microsoft - Yahoo: A Big Gaudy Sideshow

I've weighed in this week over on MediaPost on the Yahoo-Microsoft Deal That Wasn't. The skinny: Microsoft has much bigger fish to fry than to fritter with the likes of Yahoo: its strategy (post-DOJ settlement) is to outflank, not to confront directly, its main nemesis in the online ad space.

UrbanExpose.com Has a Serious Case of Rigor Mortis

Remember UrbanExpose.com? Back in the late 1990's, it was the place to go to get the inside scoop on all the mad goings on in the world of hip-hop, hip-hop zines, urban TV and radio, and (especially) "urban" web sites such as 360hiphop.com and hookt.com. Its owner/webmaster, John Lee, AKA "Crispus Attucks," served up the snarky content with humor, a barbed wit, and hilarious graphics (which usually consisted of a pompous subject's head lopped off, decontextualized, and left hanging, like a de-stringed puppet, in whitespace).

In its day, UrbanExpose.com's self-appointed task of unmasking inner-city entrepreneurs seeking to cash in on the Web 1.0 boom accomplished with delicious, hip hopping hilarity, and rap impressario Russell Simmons was reportedly one of the site's biggest fans. Sadly, the site stopped updating in July of 2003, and today it's a frozen, albeit well-preserved cyber-corpse.

Too bad, becuase there are plenty of fast-talking Web 2.0 hucksters out there who deserve their share of unmasking. UrbanExpose.com - we need you more than ever today!

The Improbable Ascent of Mike Daisey

Call me an old-timer, but I remember Mike Daisey from the days when he secretly broke into Amazon.com with a camcorder and scandalized himself by opening a peephole of light into Amazon's cult-like confines. Mike was such an inspiration to all of us dammed and displaced dotcom workers that we wrote up his life story; this article still languishes somewhere on disobey.com's servers.

But look at Mike today: he's got a new show that just opened in New York and the New York Times gave it a glowing review. Who says that netslaves never have a nice day?

Yes, Virginia, Blogging Can Actually Kill You

After the sudden and unexplained recent deaths of two prominent Bloggers, The New York Times has revisited the "Can Blogging Kill You" issue, and the equivocal answer appears to be "yes" (the newspaper first raised the issue in January, after the much-publicized heart attack of GigaOm's Om Malik). The Times takes an unusual slant to the story in its follow-up, framing the new class of information worker as a post-industrial equivalent of uninsured, unhealthy piecework labor, in other words, as something we used to call a state of "Netslavery."

Tina Brown Returns to the Web: Train Wreck Ahead!

Tina Brown knows absolutely nothing about running Web sites, and her disastrous record with Talk.com should have resulted in her being banned from the Web forever. Unfortunately, it's impossible to do this, and so Brown is reaping tons of press with her plans to launch a new site that's going to blah blah blah. Big deal - she hired away the creative director from nymag.com - if this guy's such a hotshot, why can't Nymag.com beat Gawker.com in the traffic wars? The whole thing is a joke and I'm sure that whatever Brown comes up will be a ghost site within 18 months of its launch.

Mcom.com (the original site of the Mozilla Corporation) is Back Online!

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Mozilla, a fellow named Jamie Zawinski, who has an interest in Web history, reconstituted mcom.com, the original Web site of the Mosiac browser. Doing this wasn't easy, in fact it took some high-level exchanges with both Time Warner and AOL; the full story is here. If you've ever yearned for the glory days of 1994, back when the Web was truly interesting, check out mcom.com!

Video Ghosts of Enron Online

Here's a fascinating 30-second spot created by Enron to promote Enron Online, its online extension. Its copy reads: "Enron Online will change the markets worldwide for many, many commodities. It is creating an open, transparent that replaces the dark, blind system that existed. It is real simple: you turn on your computer, and it's right there. If you want to do business, you push the button."

Obviously, the phrase "push the button" is ambiguous; in certain circles, it indicates "execution," which is what a lot of people who lost their life savings wanted to do to Enron's executives once the bubble burst.

Ancient DEC Video Depicts the Web of 1994

I found this great video on Blogoscoped.com, Philipp Lenssen fascinating, frequently updated Blog. Created by DEC (the Digital Equipment Company), it shows a succession of early Web pages, accompanied by portentous narration. Of course, these battleship gray pages (they seem to have acquired a greenish tint, perhaps from mold) look hopelessly antiquated to us now, but this video does recapture the initial sense of absolute wonderment that many felt when seeing the Web for the first time.

In Praise of Hand-Typed HTML Dinosaurs

A Ghost Sites correspondent named Jorg sends word that his Web page, devoted to the albums, songs and lyrics of George Harrison, is still alive and ticking after 10 years of faithful service.

I really like this ancient page, which despite a few updates, hasn't changed its basic form in more than 10 years. Check out that fabulous tiling background graphic, the centered text, and the complete absence of trendy Web 2.0 artifacts such as Adsense code and social widgets. Sites like this remind me of the shark, a life form so efficient that it hasn't evolved in hundreds of thousands of years.

This site is clearly an exception to George Harrison's rule that "all things must pass."

Astounding Incompetence Seen at FoxBusiness.com!

On Monday, February 4, users clicking on any of the right-most links on Fox Business expected to see a story on Microsoft/Yahoo.


Instead, these hapless clicking saps saw this!


I've been following the Yahoo-Microsoft acquisition/merger/hostile takeover closely and went over to FoxBusiness.com to sample their reactionary take on the deal.

Lo and behold, all of the links on the right side of the page (to something called "EMac's Stock Watch" are broken. They link to the incorrect URL "http://emac.blogs.foxbusiness.co/" (should be ...foxbusiness.com, of course).

This error, which resulted in the diversion of millions of hits to a broken link, tells us a few things about Fox's Web operations: first, they don't have any kind of error-checking in their CMS, second, the people running the CMS are bad typists, and third, nobody at FoxBusiness.com even reads their own site, much less makes sure the links work. Fourth, FoxBusiness.com's webmasters don't think enough of their property to install a customized "Error 404" page. "Let them read MSNBC" must be their corporate mantra.

Truly appalling, incompetent webmastering. Rupert, it's time to clean house!

DailySonic.com, Pioneering Podcasting Site, Falls Silent

DailySonic.com, "a free mp3zine / podcast for the hip-clectic crowd" has gone silent. Launched in early 2005, DailySonic uploaded device-agnostic MP3 files whose content was an NPR-like mix of news, narration, and licensed underground music content.

DailySonic's four New York-based founders, Aaron Taylor Waldman, Adam Varga, Anni Katz, and Isaac Dolom, didn't seem to care too much about whether DailySonic.com ever made money; they just wanted to do something cool on the Web, and it was precisely this quality that gave DailySonic purchase with its listeners. Unfortunately, the Web's very voraciousness augers against the pure of heart; the fun and cool can turn into a hellish grind in just a few months, unless of course, one can motivate people through fear or greed, which usually destroys friendships. Perhaps the four friends decided that they wouldn't let a Web site get between them.

Sadly, nothing remains of DailySonic's quirky podcasts, so it will be impossible for the world to know just how cool this site really was.

Steve Gilliard's Timeless Tips For Avoiding Valentine's Day Depression

Steve Gilliard, who died far too early last year, had a lot to say about Love in the Age of the Modem, and his classic, laugh-until-you-cry treatise on the Valentine's Day blues, "Valentine's Day: The Meaning of Hell," written for Netslaves.com, is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 2001.

Steve's recipe for evading Valentine's Day depression was straightforward. Instead of wallowing in your misery, take steps to distract your mind from your wretched isolation. So watch movies ("romance will not be on your mind as the Germans shoot it out with hordes of Russian infantrymen"), play video games ("Unreal Tournament, Rainbow Six, Diablo"), drink ("the catch-all solution to personal pain"), watch TV ("there is no Valentine's Day on ESPN"), and if necessary, work, perhaps by "building some code for a doomed website." Don't think, don't brood, find a way to pass the time and you'll be OK, because Valentine's Day, despite its acute horror, is just "one intensely painful day which reminds you of your flaws and failures like no other." So get through those nasty 24 hours, people, and remember: as amazing as it might seem, things could be worse.

Mindjack.com, Influential Cyber-Culture Blog, Has Not Been Updated Since November, 2006

Mindjack.com, a venerable New York-based cyber-culture ezine that went live in 1999, has been lying in a state of suspended animation for fourteen months, leading observers to believe that it has posted its last story. Founded by Donald Melanson, a self-described "media junkie and technological inquisitor," Mindjack.com faithfully chronicled the rise of cyber-culture with the aid of a stable of high-profile contributing writers, including Justin Hall and Cory Doctorow.

As recently as November, 2007, the site contained a notice that the site was "retooling and should be ready to go in a few weeks" but no signs of life have emerged from the servers of Mindjack.com since that time. The site might still rise from its current coma; but because this seems unlikely, we award it our "Dead But Well Preserved" award.

Three Ghosties (Site is Dead, But Well-Preserved)

"Internet '96:" a Jaundiced Look Back at the Late 20th Century Web

What was it like surfing the Web of 1996? A fellow named Wickensworth who runs a site called ekarj.com has put together an amusing exhibit called "Internet '96" which purports to answer this question using screen shots culled from the Internet Archive. "Internet '96" provides a fun, eye-opening trip down memory lane, when website designers didn't know a JPEG from a GIF, big brands didn't have a clue, 14.4Kbps modems ruled the on-ramps to the "Information Superhighway" (remember that corny phrase?)" and the world had somehow gone batty for "101 Dalmatians."

Ghost Blogs of Yahoo

Of Yahoo's 26 "official" Blogs, eight of them haven't been updated in the last month. Two of them were last updated in September of 2007. We're not sure why these Blogs are "calling in sick;" could it be low morale among the Yahooligans? A lack of things to say? Burnout? Whatever the reason, it's not a healthy sign for Yahoo.

Bix Blog
I'm not sure what "Bix" was, but this Blog was last updated on 11/1/07
http://blog.bix.com/

JumpCut Blog
This service is still online, but the Blog is showing its age; it was last updated more than a month ago.
http://blog.jumpcut.com/

Upcoming.org News
Not sure what "Upcoming" was or is, but the Blog is definitely dead (last updated 11/22/07)
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/news/

Yahoo! 360° Product Blog
A Blog about Yahoo's failed social network; last update 10/24/07
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/product_360

Yahoo! Digital Home
The product is still alive, but the "Happy Holidays" message marks this Blog as severely underutilized; updated 11/20/07
http://ydigitalhomeblog.com/

Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog
This Blog is looking tired, and was last updated 12/18/07.
http://www.ylocalblog.com/

Yahoo! Research Berkeley Blog
This crusty Blog was abandoned last September.
http://www.yahooresearchberkeley.com/blog/

Yahoo Music Blog
The music world is falling apart, and so is this Blog, last updated 9/30/07.
http://ymusicblog.com/

Whatever Happened to... BabyPressConference.com?

BabyPressConference.com was a prize-winning business idea. It offered parents a chance to stream live pictures of their newborns to other folks who couldn't be at the hospital. What better way to tap into the ego-stream of proud mothers and fathers? But it failed in 2002 and few even remember this site, which before it died had become a bona fide media darling.

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