Source:Valleywag

We love a challenge. Supposedly Digg, Kevin Rose’s news-discussion site, is having a party in San Francisco tonight. But we haven’t pinned down the location. What is this, some top-secret rave? If you find out where it is, or just want to send in a report from the scene afterwards, drop us a line.

Source:Valleywag

Yelp, the local-reviews site, is as infamous in San Francisco as it is nonfamous anywhere else in the country. Its parties, always hedonistic rampages of drunken conversations, burlesque troops, and makeout sessions in the photobooth, helped establish its local reputation and cement the loyalty of hardcore users. (Even the founders get in on the action!) Last night, Yelp held its holiday party at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Upon entering, I was greeted by a mass of San Francisco Yelptards, each louder than the next, all laughing, cajoling, flirting, and hugging each other. Self-congratulations were clearly in order.

The insular crowd, however, all but ensured I’d meet up with Ghosts of Valleywag Past. No, not a spectral Nick Douglas or a scary Nick Denton — but other people I’ve read about, or written about. That vaguely familiar girl chatting with Jeremy Stoppelman? Oh! It’s his ex-girlfriend Liza, reportedly the center of love triangle involving Valley good-time-guy Sean Parker. There’s Steve Chen, the YouTube founder, with spiky hair and glasses, holding hands with his girlfriend while bidding Stoppelman adieu. Over there, by the bar, is Ooma CEO Andrew Frame, wearing a form-fitting leather jacket and sporting bangs. Bangs? Really? And Keith Rabois, the ex-PayPaler now at Slide, with the controversial Stanford history.

Then I met Snocap founder Jordan Mendelson, whose appearance with a bevy of beauties at last year’s Yelp party lead us to crown him the Valley’s newest bad boy. Boy did we peg him wrong. My first thought, after taking in his supreme untallness, was that he seemed like such a nice guy. And so unassuming. The expression of smug self-satisfaction in last year’s pictures was missing. As was, apparently, his job.

I asked about Snocap, the troubled music startup he founded with Shawn Fanning, whom he worked with at Napster. Mendelson confirmed our rumor that he had left for another project. So, was he going to indulge his Valleywag-created persona and party hearty all night? Sadly, no. Mendelson begged off early during the afterparty at Mr. Smith’s, in order to prepare for a venture meeting today. The bad boys are growing up — or at least learning when they need to put on appearances.

Finally, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is going public with his post-100-day plan: deny, deny, deny. Amidst a tour of Europe to explain his new vision for Yahoo, Yang told the Telegraph that it would be simply incorrect to talk about what went wrong at Yahoo under now-departed CEO Terry Semel’s reign.

Yang told his interviewer:

If you look at Yahoo over the past few years, we have been generating revenues north of $5 billion and operating cash flow of over $1.9 billion, so people shouldn’t look at companies with that kind of profile and ask what went wrong. Yahoo today is a great consumer brand, one of the strongest brands on the Internet.

Jerry, some unsolicited advice. Next time, get over the jet lag before you take your interviews. You won’t sound so defensive. Sure, if Yahoo were in a vacuum, you could argue its revenues and cash flow remained healthy during Semel’s reign. But Yahoo didn’t operate in a vacuum. $5 billion in revenues? Great. Google’s doing nearly that much in a single quarter now.

The Telegraph points out that Google’s share price has nearly doubled, reaching $694 this morning, while Yahoo’s share price remains below its 2005 starting point of $35. Don’t forget, Semel was there when Yahoo had the chance to buy Google for $1 billion. It’s worth more than 200 times that now.

There are, we’re sure, some folks in Sunnyvale who aren’t in this level of denial. Oh wait: They’re all leaving.

Source:Valleywag

Last we heard from PR flack Steve Rubel, he was on his knees apologizing for publicly trashing PC Magazine. Now Edelman PR’s spokesblogger wants the world to know he’s sorry for inflating the Web 2.0 bubble. He writes, “Since I started this blog lots of people have rightfully made fun of how much I touted every little new site to come along. Their criticism is accurate.” Don’t worry, Steve. It’s not your fault. You’d only be guilty if you’d actually succeeded at imitating Michael Arrington.

Source:Valleywag

Selling music on MySpace worked out so well for the now-downsized Snocap. Now, Zazzle.com is giving it a go, helping sell music merchandise through MySpace. It’s the kind of original business plan you have to expect from a company’s whose slogan is “infinite one-of-a-kindness.”

According to reports, Zazzle and MySpace reached an agreement to allow MySpace bands to sell customized T-shirts for $15 to $20. Some day, MySpace might open a platform for third-party developers and let them make money independently as promised, but not today. For now, companies like Zazzle have to nuzzle up to MySpace and ask nicely. Nicely, we imagine, involves forking over some dough.

Snocap’s technology being utilized on the largest social networking site and one of the most visited web properties on the Internet is bound to make other digital music store providers a little nervous, such as Apple Computer Inc., Napster
Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Note: Naptster was originally founded by Shawn Fanning who after leaving Napster co-founded Snocap)
SNOCAP provides digital music technology and services to leaders in the global marketplace for digital music, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, EMI, TVT Records, Artemis Records/Sheridan Square Entertainment, Beggars Group, Koch Records, Nettwerk Records, Matador Records, One Little Indian Records, Ryko Group and an extensive roster of other leading independent labels. Founded by Shawn Fanning, Jordan Mendelson and Ron Conway in 2003, the company is based in San Francisco, Calif.