Yesterday I visited Hi5 and when I was there Paul Lindner, the architect, handed me a Webvan pen. He’s holding the pen in this video. We talked at length about what’s going on in social networking (they are signing up 100,000 new members a DAY, which is about half the growth rate of Facebook but still very phenomenal). Anyway, he handed me the pen to remind me to always look beyond the hype. Webvan, if you don’t remember, was a famous online grocery service that blew through millions of dollars back in the heady days of the late 1990s.

It’s a pen I’ll always treasure and it’s sitting here reminding me to look deeper at the companies I report on. My more in depth interview with Hi5’s CTO will be up next week.

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent this week. I overbooked myself. I’m speaking at Streaming Media West in a couple of hours. Plus I’ve been getting a steady stream of videos up on ScobleShow (check out TapTu there, a new mobile search engine that, in our little test, blew away Google).

And, of course, I’m still digging through lots of feeds for my link blog. I see that the Google Reader team added some new features which I’ll try out later.

Anyone remember Friendster? It was an early entrant into the social networking scene. If they had done their work right they SHOULD have been a much bigger player than they are now.

Why aren’t they?

1. They didn’t take care of PR and didn’t take care of bloggers. Hmmm, Facebook is doing exactly the same thing. Several people at the dinner tonight noted that Facebook hasn’t responded to claims that Facebook’s employees are spying on data that the public doesn’t have access to. And that’s just one PR complaint.
2. They kicked people out that they didn’t like. Hmmm, Facebook is doing exactly the same thing.
3. They didn’t respond to new competitors who took away their coolness. Facebook? They are about to meet their biggest competition yet.

Last night I was at a dinner for Hugh Macleod and Oren Michaels. There was talk of an earthquake. No, not the 5.6 one centered near San Jose. The fact that Google is about to jump into the social networking world. TechCrunch caused the shockwave of the year with that one.

One name that’s on the Google announcement, Plaxo, tells me that Google is looking to build a “social graph” that’s open and doesn’t have walls keeping developers from playing. They are looking to “Friendster” Facebook.

Add into this last week’s little “Vic Gundotra” dinner and I’m already seeing a trend: Google is going full bore after influentials, bloggers, and other “new media” developers who need a social network as part of their efforts to remain competitive.

Think about it. Nearly every cool Web property lately has a social network. Upcoming.org, Flickr, Yelp, Channel 9, etc. All have their own proprietary social networks.

Look at MySpace and Facebook. Both don’t solve that problem.

Will Google? And, by helping out Web 2.0 developers and other influentials (Facebook calls them “whales”) will Google cut off Facebook’s PR air supply (which is proving quite lucrative)?

Those are things I’m going to focus on for the next few days.

Some things we still need answers on:

1. Is this new Google social network really fun to use like Facebook is?
2. Does it beat Facebook’s aesthetics?
3. Can the social graph be componetized so that I could add a social network to my blog, for instance?
4. Does the development platform beat Facebook’s? (Can I see which apps my friends have loaded, is the key question).
5. Does it build a really open social graph?
6. If Google does match Facebook’s utility (really easy: just clone the hell out of it but give the “whales” more than 5,000 friends. I’ve talked with many celebrities and businesses and they say 5,000 simply isn’t enough which is why many of them are forced to stay on MySpace) do they allow new kinds of social ads?

It’s going to be an interesting next month getting around to all these companies again and seeing what they plan to do.

I just uploaded the best of my photos from the past couple of days.

You might have missed it, but when he was first born I recorded a Twittergram that announced his birth to the world. This photo tells the story and has a link to Milan’s first Twittergram. I used a cell phone to call the Twittergram service and when I hung up the phone the Twittergram and recording was sent instantly to my Twitter account. I’ve demoed this on stage several times and each time someone comes up to me afterward and says “that’s amazing.”

Twittergram is a service hosted by BlogTalk Radio and invented by Dave Winer. I have a video with BlogTalk’s CEO coming later tonight because they are shipping a bunch of new features tomorrow at TechCrunch 40. Come back shortly after 9 p.m. tonight.

I’ve had so many people tell me how touched they were by hearing Milan cry. Even family members who never would have gotten to hear his first cry have said how neat that is. I’ve listened to it a dozen times and I find it one of my favorite pieces of media that I’ve created. Something about the first cry that just gets your attention. It’s different than any cry that’s come since.

All you do is set up your account with your cell phone number. Then you call the TwitterGram number and it records up to 30 seconds of audio and puts the audio on Twitter — literally instantly. It’s great for sending audio to your friends on Twitter, or getting a short recording up on the Internet as an MP3 file.

Another service that does something similar is Jott.com. Except Jott doesn’t send the audio to Twitter. It sends the audio to India, where it’s transcribed to text, and then sent back to Twitter (or your blog, or your email, among other places). I wonder how they would have transcribed this? Waaaaaa. Waaaaaaa. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Waaaaaaa.

You think you got it bad cause the iPhone dropped in price by $200? My family has bought three of them so far. Well, four, if you include Patrick’s mom, who just bought one a week ago. She’ll be able to get her $200 back, but the rest of us have paid an early-adopter-tax of $600.

My first response? This is nothing new.

I remember when Steve Wozniak showed me his new die-sublimation printer back in 1990. It cost him $40,000. Today a $70 printer does a better job.

This “reduce the pricing” trend is one of the reasons I LOVE this industry.

Seagate, today, just brought out new hard drives. More capacity. More features. Lower price.

Am I bummed that I spent $2,000 on my first 20 megabyte hard drive when today a $400 model is a terabyte? No. I’m happy!

I celebrate anytime our industry drops prices. It brings more people into what we’re doing.

That said, Terrence Russell in Wired talks about the four mistakes Apple made with the price drop. He makes some good points.

But, I’m cool with paying a high price to be first. I’ll be first in line for the next great innovation too.

I guess I should complain that my $4,000 HDTV now costs about $2,000 after a year and a half. Or that our new cars are only worth half what we paid for them. Or that gas prices are going up (I wish THAT industry worked the same way that the tech industry worked).

Actually, if I had something to be unhappy about it’d match the questions that PodCasting News asked of Apple.

UDPATE: Apple, er, Steve Jobs, just announced that we’ll get a $100 gift certificate for each iPhone purchased before the price drop. That’s awesome.

Today Buzz took me over to see Steve Ball (he runs the audio and other media teams at Microsoft). Steve let me hold his new daughter. You can see her in this Kyte video that I shot with my Nokia N95 (which is why the video is a bit small and blurry).

Holding someone who is 19 days old is a cathartic experience. She is especially precious. I looked at her and asked myself “how am I making her world better?”

Then I thought about Maryam and Patrick, my son and partner in all things geeky, and Milan, our new son who’ll be here real soon. I haven’t been the best parent I could be. The best husband I could be.

Tonight I looked over my Twitters and blogs. They are angry. Confrontational. Disturbed. Hurt. Dismayed.

Those are not words to describe someone in a state of mind to improve the world. Part of it is so many people are making stuff up about me and/or my employer without any care as to my feelings or the truth that I’ve got to get some distance. Over the weekend a variety of people said I had quit my job. Then another “A-list” blogger said I had been fired. Neither are true. Much of what I read over on that Silicon Valley gossip site lately isn’t true and they have demonstrated over and over that they really don’t care about the truth. It really depresses me cause I thought blogging would be a tool for humans to get smarter, not stupider. Depression isn’t fun.

So, I’m going to try something else for a while.

Add to that the fact that I’ve learned more by having a conversation with an IBM lawyer for 30 minutes than I’ve learned from the average blog lately. Heck, I look at TechMeme and see articles about Glam. A copy of Digg. Instructions for leaking your own TV show on the Net.

Glam?!? Bubble?

This isn’t what gets me excited. In our book Naked Conversations I wrote that a good blog is “authoritative and passionate.” Truth is that when I looked at Steve Ball’s baby I realized I’ve been neither. I’d rather go hang out with someone who is building something interesting.

I’ll be back blogging when I can add value again. My video show at http://www.scobleshow.com will go on (I have a ton of great videos coming this week) and I might do a Kyte video or two since I’m doing R&D there for PodTech. I’ve been having a ball with videos in both places lately and you’ve probably noticed that the quality of the videos is going up. I can’t wait for you to see the vid I filmed with Marc Canter at Gnomedex.

Anyway, have a great week and while I’m not blogging I’d love it if you left some ideas on things you’d like me to learn for when I get back.

Out of 1,048 items on my link blog in the past 30 days only 490 came from the top 35 blogs.

So, more than half of the value of that link blog came from the B, C, D … Z list of my 772 feeds.

Shows that being on the A list isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you’re only reading the “A list” you’re missing 558 posts.

Dare Obasanjo asks “what are those A-list technology bloggers good for?”

He’s absolutely right! (I’ve been saying that a lot today — I’m in a very agreeable mood).

The thing is I’ve been keeping my own “A list.” I judge 772 feeds (which represents thousands of blogs since some of my feeds, like Microsoft’s feed, has more than 3,000 bloggers on one feed).

I judged 35,609 items in the past 30 days, according to Google Reader. Out of all those items I shared 1,094 items with you.

To get onto my feed reader you’ve gotta do something better than the average blog. You’ve gotta bring the best of tech through my feed reader. If you don’t I unsubscribe and I go somewhere else.

Out of all those feeds Google Reader keeps track of the top 35 feeds. This is the new A list and DARE IS ON IT.

See, he better watch attacking the A list tech bloggers because he now is one.

I think that’s called a “looping flame.” Where you intended damage to happen somewhere else but it came back to focus on you. Ouch.

1. Mashable
2. Read/Write Web
3. TechCrunch
4. Media 2.0 Workgroup
5. digg
6. Sun bloggers
7. Gizmodo
8. ZDNet blogs
9. Planet Intertwingly (a bunch of bloggers show up here, including Dare).
10. All Facebook
11. MSDN Blogs
12. digg/Technology
13. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
14. RSS Feed for Lifehacker
15. GigaOM Network
16. VentureBeat
17. Chuqui 3.0
18. VentureBeat Wire
19. Y Combinator Startup News
20. Engadget
21. TechNet Blogs
22. Digital Backcountry - Ryan Stewart’s Flash Platform Blog
23. JD on EP
24. Google Operating System
25. A Welsh View
26. dzone.com: latest front page
27. All Things Digital
28. Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life
29. Valleywag
30. Googlified
31. Ryan’s shared items in Google Reader
32. rexblog: Rex Hammock’s Weblog
33. Metaversed - Business and Technology News from the Metaverse
34. Business 2.0 Beta Blogs
35. CrunchGear

Anyway, I threw an answer to Dare up on my Kyte.tv channel as well.

So Jason “no comments” Calacanis answers me, and others, back about his increasing dislike of Facebook and other social networks.

First of all, for the record, Jason is right. Facebook sucks. Twitter sucks. Pownce sucks. Jaiku sucks. Kyte sucks. Etc and etc.

Why? Because they take time.

But then managing my Outlook contact list took time. Managing my business card collection took time. My mom took time to keep a filing cabinet and an address book and a rolodex.

Facebook is the modern day rolodex. It is the replacement for the business card.

First of all, let me attack a claim Jason made that simply is wrong: that it takes 30 minutes a day to add hundreds of new friends into Facebook or other social networks (on big days I’ve actually had hundreds of people wanting into my social network, so I timed it: I can add hundreds in less than five minutes).

Here’s how.

Let’s go to Facebook and look. Gary Chan just asked to be added to my network. I click confirm. Then “skip this step.” Done. Typing this sentence took four times longer. You don’t need to do anything more. You don’t need to explain why you know Gary Chan. Etc. Etc. I never do and I don’t feel guilty about it. If I know people I know why and how I know them and I don’t need to tell you all that. Later on I might add some value to my contact list that way.

So, why do I say it’s my new business card collection? Well, if I am looking for a contact, at, say, Yahoo, I troll through my Facebook collection. Most Yahoo employees leave their phone numbers and email addresses on their Facebook profile. Hint: they work on the iPhone. So, I visit their profile and click on their phone number and I’m instantly connected.

Plus, I know everything about them that they’ve wanted to share.

For instance, Bradley Horowitz, of Yahoo, is on my contact list. By looking at his profile page I know all sorts of stuff about him. His relationship status, his political views, who his friends are, what kind of music he likes, his favorite TV shows, his favorite movies, his favorite books.

He has the Snapvine app, so I can leave a voice mail for him. He tells his friends where he lives (has a Yahoo Map gadget that shows that, of course). Puts all his Flickr photos up. I know his mood. I know what party he’ll be at tonight. I know someone at Microsoft that he’s talking with and who visits his page, so I know some influence networking that I could do with him. I know his college experience and his past work experience.

All voluntarily turned over and when I interview him do you want to bet this stuff comes up? Damn straight it will.

If I go to the party he’s going to tonight (I might, it’s on my calendar too) I’ll have TONS of stuff to talk with him about. Music. Movies. TV shows. Politics. College experience. And other stuff.

Oh, heck, let’s go look at Jason’s Facebook. I see his religious views. Jason has put his mobile number there. His educational experience. And more. Plus I can see who wants to suck up to Jason on his wall (I’m there, so read into that what you want. By the way, so is the co-founder of Flickr, the founder of B5 Media network, and a bunch of other interesting people).

I also like that all his Twitters are there, so I can see what else Jason’s been ranting about without being forced to chase Jason all over the Net. On my profile you can see my Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Kyte, Wordpress, Google Reader, and many other things. That saves you time of figuring out everything I’m doing.

Now, can I get this info any other way? LinkedIn? Maybe. Twitter? No. Pownce? No. Jaiku? No. Following his blog? No. Kyte? No. MySpace? Don’t be ridiculous.

Could I have called him? Yeah. I have his business card and his mobile phone in my contacts. But why would you waste Jason’s time asking stupid questions when the answer is already online? Will that lead to a good result? A ride in his Corvette, for instance? Or a business partnership?

Anyway, let’s specifically answer some questions Jason asked, cause they are interesting:

1. Facebook is a multilevel marketing platform. Jason’s right. But, then, so is my rolodex from the 1980s and 90s. Some people in that rolodex are a LOT more important to me than other people. Some people in that old-school rolodex introduced me to TONS of other people and influenced my life in major ways. That rolodex is now moving to Facebook where it’s getting MUCH stronger than it was on little business cards or in Outlook where I didn’t have pictures and didn’t have an ability to see inside the networks of friends each person has (Facebook lets me see all of your friends as well, if you leave that open, which most people do).
2. Facebook is a great way for me to promote what I’m doing. Absolutely. Jason’s right there! But it’s NOT one way! Hint: great parties, great people come to you, too. I’ll have a lot more to say about that soon.
3. Are we creating a social system to communicate with each other at a distance because the reality of creating and maintaining that social networking face-to-face is, well, scary? Well, I’m sure that some people would be scared by getting a ride in Jason’s Corvette, but I’ve been there and it was one of the greatest thrills of my life. Can I experience that over Facebook? No, but Jason’s phone number is on his Facebook so you can always call and invite him out for dinner.
4. Is Facebook a more efficient, rejection-free, surrogate for the real world? Um, Nick Denton didn’t accept my friend request. So, no, it’s just like the real world where some people think you’re an asshole and other people think you’re cool. I notice that Jason has enough people who think he’s cool that there’s an entire group of people who think he’s cool on Facebook. Seriously. Do a search on Jason’s name and you’ll find the group.
5. At a certain point social networks create negative returns on your investment. Absolutely. These things get noisy the more people you add to them. So, if you want to have no noise definitely don’t have any friends. Or keep your networks down to only your “real” friends instead of anyone who wants to come in. My strategy? I’m going with the noise cause I don’t know where the gold is going to come from. I realize not everyone is a weirdo like me in that regard.
6. Are we going to hire someone to manage our social networks? I haven’t yet and I doubt I will. My friend network is too important to me and there’s all sorts of gestures that are coming to me through it that I’d miss if some intern was tending to my network.

Anyways, interesting discussion. If I were really smart I wouldn’t be engaging in this right now and, instead, testing out the new CoComment that came out yesterday. Now THAT is interesting.

Of course now that Jason has closed down comments maybe that’s not so interesting after all.

I’m going to play the arrogant bbbaaaahhhhssstttaaarrrddd and brag about how many feeds I’m reading and how many items I’m putting on my link blog.

Google Reader says: “From your 739 subscriptions over the last 30 days you read 28,433 items, and shared 979 items.”

Seriously I really appreciate the kind notes you all have been sending me about my link blog. I really love doing it and reading so much helps me keep up with the industry and know what companies are getting hot. Plus you tell me it saves you lots of time. It’s a lot easier to read 1,000 items a month than it is to read 28,000.

If you have a blog or news source you’d like to see me add to my link blog, let me know. UPDATE: I just uploaded my OPML file (a list of all the feeds I read) to share.opml.org. That site lets you see all my feeds and compare how many people are subscribed to each one. It’s even cooler if you upload your own list of feeds (er, OPML file) to that site.

Google Reader tells me today: From your 684 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 32,879 items, and shared 1,693 items.

Out of those, here’s my top 35 feeds that I’ve put on my link blog, so these are my real favorite blogs out of the 684 technology industry blogs I’m currently reading.

1. Mashable! (items shared: 93)
2. Planet Intertwingly. (61)
3. TechCrunch . (60)
4. MSDN Blogs (which has more than 3,000 Microsoft employees blogging on it). (41)
5. GigaOM Network. (46)
6. Read/WriteWeb. (25)
7. Media 2.0 Workgroup. (24)
8. Wired’s Epicenter. (22)
9. Lifehacker. (22)
10. AppScout. (19)
11. Vecosys. (19)
12. MAKE Magazine blog. (17)
13. VentureBeat. (17)
14. 901am. (15)
15. Adobe Blogs (lots of Adobe bloggers). (15)
16. Engadget. (15)
17. Gizmodo. (15)
18. NewTeeVee. (15)
    
19. PaidContent. (15)
20. StartupSquad. (15)
21. Beet.TV. (13)
22. O’Reilly Radar. (12)
23. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang — he works with me. (12)
24. Boing Boing. (11)
25. CrunchGear. (11)
26. Digg/Technology. (11)
27. dzone.com. — links for developers. (11)
28. Google Blogoscoped. (11)
29. Thomas Hawk, photographer. (11)
30. Andy Beal’s Search and Internet Marketing. (10)
31. Loren Feldman’s 1938 Media — funny videos. (9)
32. Dare Obasanjo, dev at Microsoft. (9)
33. Ryan Stewart’s Rich Internet App Blog. (9)
34. Geeksugar. (9)
35. Google Maps Mania. (9)

Congrats to everyone on this list, you are the top of the top.

What are your favorite tech blogs?
Any that aren’t on my list? I’ll put up the list every few months or so.