Google Search Product and User Experience minx Marissa Mayer just presented at Techcrunch50 and officially released Google Fast Flip, launching a service that both David Carr and Techcrunch had spilled the beans about a couple months ago.

Taking off on Google founder Larry Page’s dictum, “Why isn’t the web like a magazine?” Google takes another step in the direction of becoming a content provider and offers up rapid load screenshots of media rich content, the prototype on Google labs including sources like Washington Post, NY Times, UsWeekly, Cosmopolitan (?) and Techcrunch (natch).

The full list (Which doesn’t include ANY Los Angeles media properties):
Read more »

There’s only 48 hours left in the voting process for SXSWi and we thought we would refresh your memory as to what to click on after you login to the PanelPicker. Last time we did this we were faced with such an overwhelming response we decided to do another round up. Except this time we culled ones that are particularly esoteric, and for SXSWi that’s saying a lot. Here they are, in no particular order.

Read more in “Beer, Karaoke, and Vampires: Top Five “Esoteric” SXSWi Panels.”

With record heat in Los Angeles it seemed that anyone who had even remote access to a pool had a pool party over the weekend. But what if you didn’t have a pool-ready friend or didn’t have the cash to plunk down for the Roosevelt or even one of those inflatable numbers?

​Miraculously, there’s a pool in Hollywood that you don’t have to be Nicole Richie or a even a hotel guest to partake in.

Pagoda Bar, a newly opened space at popular L.A. restaurant Yamashiro’s is probably one of L.A.’s best kept secrets, and this Sunday also became the best place to network while slathering on sunscreen.

Read more in “Digital Pool Party: Digital L.A. at Pagoda Bar.”

Thank you Mark Zuckerberg; Because before today I found “Fromage” more useful than the FB iPhone app.

Before you take over Google, please fix “Events.”

Thanks in advance.

The LAWeekly has submitted a SXSW panel that brings together tech scene thought leaders from across the nation and thought I would share our top secret wish-list of panelists. Because I can.

Read more »

Lately we’ve noticed a disturbing trend amongst our social networking invites. Along the onslaught of people you don’t know haranguing you to join LinkedIn, there also lies an entirely different breed, friends i.e. people we go grab beers with etc., asking us to become their fans.

Not that we aren’t fans of our friends (we are), but when people we know on a personal level are asking us to become a fan, or by definition an “enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc” it begs inquiry as to what exactly constitutes a “sport, pastime, or celebrity” in this day of instant and abundant fame.

A time-consuming search through Facebook pages reveals some of the dumb things you can become a fan of. And to save you clicking time, we’ve compiled some of the best…

Read more at “Five Most Pointless Facebook Fan Pages.”

Yesterday, if you were searching for a short-form, self-indulgent way to describe what you had for breakfast, you were shit out of luck. Basically, the Internet’s most popular social networking sites broke. Web sites that were down yesterday included:

Facebook, Livejournal, YouTube, Google, and the one that got the most spotlight, Twitter. (Gizmodo and Xbox Live were also down for those that are all about being thorough.) What’s missing?

MySpace.

Reuter’s blogger Alexei Oreskovic called the fact that the L.A. based social networking site was left out of the attacks a “stinging slap in the face.”

He continued, “Perhaps the malefactors didn’t deem MySpace a target worthy of attention. MySpace’s popularity has waned at a time when Facebook and Twitter have experienced massive user growth.”

Continue reading “This Site’s Dead Anyway: Twitter DDoS Overlooks MySpace, Does an Attack Signal a Site’s Relevancy?”

Comic-Con official policy is that press is treated (in terms of access) like any other “fan.” Except they shouldn’t be, because fans are there voluntarily while a member of the press is (if things are working as they should) is usually doing a job.

While I’m not saying that poor Comic-Con policy is the entire reason I ended up in hospital, it definitely could have been more accommodating which would have decreased my stress and might have prevented my seizure on the following Monday, if not my infection.

BEFORE

AFTER

You do the math.

Alexia Tsotsis in Mike Judge’ s Extract Trailer, 20 Seconds in.