roses

Kevin Rose opens up and Diggs in

q&a MIAMI--Kevin Rose, founder of social-news site Digg, has a lot to say about the evolution of the social Web. So much, in fact, that when I caught up with him at a sidewalk cafe in Miami's South Beach neighborhood while in town for the Future of Web Apps conference, I had to split the interview transcript into two parts.

Here's part 1, in which Rose talks about open standards, dodges those pesky acquisition rumors, waxes philosophical on the site's active community, and declines suggestions from the restaurant staff to check out the cocktail menu, … Read more

In Miami, Digg's Kevin Rose gets social

MIAMI--If you believe the blog rumors, Digg founder Kevin Rose is constantly dealing with a community that threatens mutiny at the drop of a hat, perpetual acquisition offers from companies such as Google and News Corp., and the aftermath of that thumbs-up BusinessWeek cover that made him one of Web 2.0's most recognizable shaggy-haired poster boys. Oh, and then there's this Yahoo Buzz thing that's getting a whole lot of press.

So here at the Future of Web Apps conference, I sat down with Rose to clear the air. He's participating in a panel on … Read more

Digg's inaugural town hall: Too much navel-gazing

On Monday night, social-news site Digg took a new approach to its famously clamorous users: CEO Jay Adelson and founder Kevin Rose sat down in front of a Ustream-connected camera with their MacBook Pros and a couple of beers and answered questions that had been submitted by Diggers.

As a relative outsider to Digg culture, I was fairly dissatisfied.

All in all, the session highlighted quite a few of Digg's strengths as well as troubles going forward--and additionally reflected a few common criticisms about the site as a whole. But in the process, the questions were inward-focused, dealing … Read more

Digg town hall: The live blog report

Digg founder Kevin Rose and CEO Jay Adelson are, as many of you know, holding a "town hall" on Monday at 6 p.m. PT, streamed live via Ustream.tv.

Digg's user base is notoriously colorful, so this should be a popcorn-worthy occasion--that is, if you care about matters of editorial control, "gaming the system," comment moderation, and whether iPhone headlines are cooler than Linux headlines.

All kidding aside, this will be a look into the workings and management of one of Silicon Valley's perpetual cool kids. (If you see an acquisition question, there'… Read more

Gadgettes 76: The What I Want for Valentine's Day (hint hint) Episode

EPISODE 76

Digg to sell for $300 million? Really?

This post has been updated with comment from Digg CEO Jay Adelson.

Valleywag reported on Wednesday afternoon that a "major media player" was close to plunking down $300 million to $400 million for social news site Digg. Valleywag editor Owen Thomas wrote that "a source rules out all the big Internet players--not Microsoft, not Google, not Yahoo, not News Corp.," and that CBS had "taken itself out of the running."

Thomas went on to speculate that perhaps the buyer for the Kevin Rose-founded Digg would be the New York Times Company or the Washington … Read more

'Lonelygirl15' protagonist gets the axe in season finale

"Bree" is no more.

In the "season finale" of the Web series "Lonelygirl15," which was broadcast in a well-publicized event on Friday on the MySpaceTV platform, the cute teenage protagonist met her death at the hands of a religious cult's sacrifice. A dramatic, soap-opera worthy exit indeed--especially considering that Lonelygirl15's videos were mundane enough at first to fool scores of viewers into thinking they were the real Webcam diaries of a flesh-and-blood teenager.

Lonelygirl15 was exposed as an actress last September, but the video series continued and grew increasingly elaborate. Leading lady … Read more

Polar Rose inches towards useful face recognition

I finally got access to Polar Rose (news story), an image search site I've been looking forward to trying. This early version of the product isn't terribly compelling, though. Today, Polar Rose can pick out faces in photos. It doesn't tell you who's who, though. The idea is that Web users who have the Polar Rose browser plugin do that.

On the other side of the product is a search engine for pictures of people. If you want to find a picture of someone, and that person has been tagged by users, Polar Rose will show … Read more

CNET Live - Episode 16 - Show Notes

Kevin rose and Alex Albrecht from Diggnation dropped by to talk about their show, video on the Web, and even were kind enough to take some calls for old time's sake.

Watch the show on CNET TV.

Things we Crave

Poker-playing computer

Sony MP3 player without Sonic Stage or ATRAC

Insider Secrets

Emeraldgirl93 writes "Hi Tom and Brian, I like to do a lot of video editing, I currently use Windows Movie Maker, which is ok but i'm looking for something better. Can you recommend A good FREE Video editing program? Thanks!"

Make your own Adobe CS3 for free… Read more