Dan Gillmor: Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time. (Pyra is the companyy that runs Blogger.)
This seems rather atypical for Google; I wonder what they plan to do. One theory is that they want to monitor the update-stream. This doesn't make sense; surely they could get the update-stream if they asked nicely, everyone loves Google after all.
Evan Williams, Pyra founder: "Holy crap."
Jason Shellen, Pyra bizdev: "Well, looks like someone scooped us on our own story."
stevej, Pyra programmer: "[Dan Gillmor] knew before I did! So yeah; stevej@google.com"
Matt Webb has some interesting thoughts (more):
God that's it. GOOGLE ARE BUILDING THE MEMEX. [...] Imagine, searching at Google, and then:
- this trail is highly followed
- do you only want to see what people suggest, or where people went?
- here's a worn track in the interweb. Follow the Google Pixie!
- this trail is uncommon, but made by someone we see (by your weblog)
that you value
Another thought: Google is apparently going to be hosting Blogger's free (ad-supported) BlogSpot blogs. So you can get ultra-reliable hosting (when was the last time you remember Google going down?) for free!
Cory Doctorow has a great essay on what this all means.
Posted by Aaron Swartz on February 15, 2003 10:15 PM