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A recent posting by tech blogger Robert Scoble has set the industry alight with wild speculation and rumour. So much so that he has followed up with a retraction - or kind of!

His original post talked about an impending announcement by Microsoft of ’something’ so amazing it literally made him cry. Here’s what he said ..

While watching the demo I realized the way I look at the world was about to change. While listening to Wong I noticed a tear running down my face. It’s been a long while since Microsoft did something that had an emotional impact on me like that.

Scoble could not give any details, citing an embargo until 27th February. He did say that “It’s too inspiring to stay a secret for long.”.

Following the post, TechCrunch got in on the act with a Duncan Riley post speculating in the tradition of a news analyst on a slow day.

So I’m guessing that maybe Microsoft has picked the date as a spoiler to come after the Adobe event. It could be anything, but I’m thinking that it may be Silverlight related, and it might be related to online/ offline applications. Possibly a kick-ass web office package, or new tools to bring online apps offline. Either way it will be something that made Scoble cry, and I want to see the product, and Scoble cry some more.

This was followed by a second TechCrunch post in the style of Miss Marple, digging for clues in the original Scoble post.

In my earlier post on Scoble crying I guessed Silverlight or online Office. It might be something powered by Silverlight, but I’m now changing my predictions. It’s either an amazing online astronomy program, or it’s heavily interface related to I don’t know what. Guesses given where Fey and Curtis work: media management in images, audio and video.

Scoble tried to put the lid back on the mystery with a further post entitled “Misreading Scoble on Microsoft cry”, saying

“…that TechCrunch took my post a little too far in an incorrect direction. It’s my fault for getting everyone worked up. In hindsight, I probably should have kept my mouth shut until I was released from an embargo. “

Slow news day on the web methinks.

Tags: Microsoft, Scobleizer, TechCrunch

Great blog post by Loic Le Meur, Founder of Seesmic, explaining how he formed the company and raised his intial investment. what’s that old adage? - Oh yes - ‘ its not what you know, it is who you know’.

I closed the initial funding of Seesmic in September 2007. The main investment came from Atomico’s Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (they invested $5.5 million on the $6 million). Talking to bloggers all the time, I have not been very good at keeping the secret as Om Malik was the first to talk about it on October 8, 2007. On November 28, Liz Gannes got almost the entire list of investors right. We have never really hidden the funding as a partial investor list was even on our company backgrounder at the last Demo conference (by the way see our DEMO video if you want to learn about Seesmic in 6 minutes). So the only real news today is the full list of investors.

We should have made it “officially” public for a while but I did not want to do it until all the paperwork was done and signed. That happened last week. Getting 14 investors on board – most of whom are individuals and not through funds - takes time.

Niklas Zennstrom and I have been friends for years and we have been wanting to launch a project together for a while. We both know that the media that has not really changed since the growth of the Internet is TV. Most of our friends do not watch TV anymore or watch it only with a laptop on their knees. TV will totally change in the future, we all know that. While Niklas and Janus are focusing on the high end video content with Joost, I have always been fascinated by the conversations.

I explained to Niklas that for me, the quality of conversations that I have enjoyed on blogs and social software since 2003 had to happen in video and that simply isn’t happening yet. I said I wanted to make this happen and make it my next company and Niklas immediately [Read more]

Tags: AOL, Goldman Sachs, Google, IPRO, Joost, LinkedIn, Pulver, Seesmic, Skype, SofTech VC, SupportSoft, TechCrunch, Topica

In a post on Blognation blog, Sam Sethi has announced that he is to step down from Blognation and that the company will be put up for auction. Quite what value could be put on what is an easily replicated business remains to be seen, but for the time being at least it looks like the end of the road for the company which launched in July.

Sethi blames himself for the failure, citing his problems in finding a venture backer.

Here are some extracts …

For the last 6 months Arrington has threatened to publish, private and confidential emails that were sent to him, knowing it would create fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) around blognation within the angel/VC community, whether the content was factual or not! The merest whif of litigation whether true or not caused our the potential investors to run for the hills back in July. [Editor: the note is reference to a long running public dialogue between Sethi and Michael Arrington at Techcrunch.com].

[Read more]

Tags: Blognation, TechCrunch