Today’s Webcology episode was a complicated show. We had a very special guest this week, Drew Curtis, founder of the hilariously popular smart-assed news aggregator, . The interview was supposed to start at half-past the hour but a mix-up with an air conditioner repair service delayed Drew by ten nail biting minutes.

That delay was almost fortunate. We had a lot to talk about beside the collective wonders of Fark. Earlier this week, Google announced the launch of its own social network, .

That alone could have filled an hours worth of conversation but late yesterday afternoon, an equally interesting story broke. News Corp. sold MySpace to California based Specific Media for $35 million. Six years ago, News Corp. acquired MySpace for $585 million. While carrying considerable brand name value, the sheer strangeness of the deal gave cohost Dave Davies, producer Johnny Brasco and myself a lot to think through.

BUT THEN… Early this morning, Amazon dropped 250,000 or so affiliates in the state of California in reaction to the signing of California’s new online sales taxation measures.

This is supposed to be the silly season, a time of man-bites-dog stories. Three seismic events happened in 48 hours effecting an industry often made dull by the domination of Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Oh yeah, and we had the one and only Drew Curtis, founder of my favourite educational waste of time on the web, . I’ve wanted to interview Drew for years. He’s a great conversation and the segment is one of the most fun interviews I’ve done in a long time. It starts around 40minutes in.

Show Notes:

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE

What was once seen as the center of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire (and the flagship for Fox online) became a cesspool of broken applications, slow loading banner laden pages and a cacophony of crappy looking profiles. When Facebook began allowing third party apps like Zanga games, the bottom fell out.

MySpace sold for $35 million to Specific Media (Tim Vanderhook, founded 1999) and, (life imitating art) Justin Timberlake.

Quote from Toronto Star Article: “With Timberlake’s help, the buyers hope to revitalize MySpace and transform it into a destination for original shows, as well as bolster its already available video content and music. Vanderhook said the revamp will include additional investment in technology and maintain the right to stream music through the joint venture it has with major recording companies, MySpace Music.”

MySpace was originally purchased by NewsCorp for $580million six years ago. MySpace has posted over $1Billion in losses since and seen its users cut by half.

MySpace sees approximately 35million visitors per year. Facebook sees approximately 700milllion visitors per month.

250 of 500 MySpace Employees laid off yesterday.
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Google Plus Social Network
(no notes)
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Amazon Cuts off Californian Affilaites
note Danny Sullivan’s open letter to Jeff Bezos:

JIM RANTS, (partially to kill time while Drew Curtis gets set up for the interview)

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Drew Curtis interview notes:
Intro: Smart-asses, paint-huffers, Florida and squirrels with enormous nuts. It’s not news, it’s Fark! About ten years ago, Drew Curtis founded what has to be one of the first user-generated-content websites on the Internet. Known for its irreverent and often self-depreciating humour, FARK is much like the Daily Show on the Internet except every poster is the comic, even if the subject matter is quite serious.

questions (not necessarily in order of conversation)

What is Fark?

Why is Fark?

Do you think humour make it easier for readers to digest the news?

How did you originally seed the site?

How does the site pay for itself? Does the site make money?

Number of monthly uniques

Did you have a vision for the site at the beginning? Has the site evolved as you envisioned it?

What’s with the Florida tag?

Though your tag-line reads, It’s not News, It’s Fark, the site is one of the original user-generated-content news aggregators on the web. Has your relationship to mainstream news organizations changed at all?

What do you think of the American mainstream news organizations?

Has your views on US or Global politics changed because of the site?

Who is a typical Farker?

What is the value of a link from Fark?

Is there a topic, story or type of story that will NEVER get greenlighted?

Does the content ever disturb you?

What’s the oddest place your work with Fark has ever taken you? (ie: Wall St, Buckingham Palace, Courtside at a Duke game?)

What is it with you and Duke University? What did Duke do to piss you off anyway?

If Arianna Huffington dispatched her new lacky Tim Armstrong with bags and bags full of money, would you take it?

Next week we’ll be talking Local Search with the folks from .

Jim Hedger

Jim Hedger is an organic SEO and digital marketing specialist. Jim has been involved in the online marketing industry since 1998 and a SEO since 1999. Best known as a broadcaster, interviewer, content writer and search industry commentator, Jim is a frequent conference speaker and organizer. He hosts the search focused radio show Webcology on WebmasterRadio.FM and is a WebmasterRadio.FM conference interviewer. Jim brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and creative thinking to each project. Preferring a teamwork approach, Jim strives to inform and train his clients and their staff to run and maintain their own search and social media efforts.

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