Barnako.com

Calacanis joins VC firm

Jason Calacanis, the former General Manager of AOL's Netscape (TWX) division, announced he's joining Sequoia Capital, a west coast venture investment firm.  Calacanis's Weblogs Inc. was purchased by AOL about a year ago.  In an appearance at a trade show Tuesday morning, Calacanis said he had planned to leave AOL if he wasn't President of the company by now. He was the keynoter for the Search Engine Strategies conference.  Here's a journal of his remarks.

10:09 a.m. eastern

Search engine guru Danny Sullivan is interviewing Calacanis at the Search Engine Strategies conference.  Matter of fact, Calacanis is helping, telling Danny about his successes.  Jason, of course, is not modest.

10:11 eastern

Jason announced he is joining Sequoia Capital as Entrepreneur in Action (EIA).  Sequoia helped back YouTube (GOOG) and Google. 

He said, "They're good guys, they've made some good bets.  Now, I have to figure out what to build.  Got any ideas?  I've got time.  I've got a backer.  Call me."

Listen to Calacanis' announcement (via WebmasterRadio.fm).

10:22 eastern

Calacanis tells Search Engine Strategies audience he doesn't think much of consultants, like those in the audience, who work with companies to increase a company's visibility in search tools, known as search engine optimization. 

Calacanis sees it simply: "Make great content.  Google points to it.  Page views go up.

10:33 eastern

Calacanis suggests consumer generated content will rule the Web.  Points to Digg.com and Netscape.com, where content is produced by "kids with passion, who don't need to get paid."

Says Wikipedia.org will be the number one Web site within three years.  "You heard it here first. Next closest site will have 10 times less traffic."

10:48 eastern

Danny Sullivan played "Word Association" with Calacanis.

Digg.com
    "Brilliant."
Google.com
    "Brilliant and unstoppable and good."
AOL
    (Big sigh.)  "Transition."
Techcrunch
    "Brilliant. Opinionated.  More right than wrong."
Spam
    "Evil.  Die. Die."
Netscape
    "The future."
SEO
    (Audience laughs.) "Keep it simple."
Podcasting
    "Addictive."
Adsense
    "I love you. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss."
Valleywag
    "Liar.  Evil.  Idiot. Stupid."
Jason Calacanis
    "You got me on that one.  Striving.  Like to work.  I'm always striving to figure out the next big thing."

10:50 eastern

Wrapping up his on-stage interview at the Search Engine Strategies Conference, and after announcing he was joining a VC firm and looking for good startup ideas, Jason Calacanis came up with one on his own: an audited Web traffic analysis firm.

He said, "All these services, including ComScore and the other ones, based on samples, are going to be wrong.  I'm a big fan of the Google Analytics (GOOG) and the Site Meters of the world.  And I think what we should do is create rating systems where those things are public. That would be a good startup to do. Taking what SiteMeter is doing and what Google Analytics is doing  and make it into more of an audited service and get people to buy into it as a place where advertisers can go and say, 'Oh, this is real.'"

Disclaimer: I own shares of Google and Time Warner.

Netscape wants you

Turns out "the crowd" which votes news stories up and down at Digg.com is really a clicking minority.  It's not even the old 80/20 rule.  A few rabid self-appointed people drive the day's news budget.  And AOL-Netscape's Jason Calacanis wants to buy their effort, if not allegiance.

He is offering a dozen volunteer-editors at "any of the major social news/bookmarking sites" $1,000 a month if they'll shift their activity to Netscape.com and post story finds there.

ReadWriteWeb's Richard MacManus says it makes perfect business sense for Calacanis to offer $144,000 a year to tap competitors' assets. But Michael Arrington at TechCrunch calls it "a sign of desperation." 

He says Calacanis's version of a social news site, the new Netscape, is a "soulless reproduction" of the energetic Digg.com.  He thinks AOL's new venture already is in trouble.  "The obvious question is, will Jason be the fall guy when it comes time to point fingers?"

Predictably, the "pay for post" deal is the #1 story on Digg; at Netscape, not so much.

Comments on the Digg site are generally negative.  Posts from what appear to be some of the most active visitors cite esprit and loyalty. "He may be a shrewd businessman, but he doesn't get it," said one. "It's not about the users. It's about the community."

Sites like Digg.com and Memeorandum are valuable to a relatively small number of people:  tech journalists, geeks, the unemployed, and those who enjoy their attention deficit problems. 

The value of editors cannot be ignored.  "Social news sites" are interesting pastimes. Think about that when someone challenges your statement about something other than a chip's clock speed or a video game hack, and you have to cite Digg as your source.

Disclaimer: I own shares of TimeWarner