Kara Swisher and the rise of the internet

webecedarian · 18 Sep 2024, 11:08 AM

Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media
My front-row seat to a slow-moving catastrophe
By Kara Swisher

In 1995, a quirky programmer in San Francisco named Craig Newmark started emailing friends a list of local events, job opportunities, and things for sale. The next year, he turned Craigslist into a web-based service and eventually started expanding it all over the country and the world.

It was clear this list was a giant killer, and I told everyone who would listen to me at the Post that we needed to put all the money, all the people, and all the incentives into digital... And while Graham was interested when I talked about what Newmark was doing, he laughed when I told him that Craigslist would wipe out his classifieds business....

I remember being at our annual All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California in 2010 and wondering, as sweat poured down Mark Zuckerberg?s pasty and rounded face, if he was going to keel over right there at my feet. ?He has panic attacks when he?s doing public speaking,? one Facebook executive had warned me years before. ?He could faint.? I suspected that might have been a ploy to get us to be nicer to Zuckerberg. It didn?t work. As Walt and I grilled the slight young man on the main stage, the rivulets of moisture began rolling down his ever-paler face.

Mark had always been a skittery type around me. In fact, ?I heard you think I?m an *******? was the first thing he ever said to me when I met him in 2006 in Palo Alto. I didn?t think that, although I did eventually come to believe that he was one of the most carelessly dangerous men in the history of technology.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/arti...ley-media.html

18 Sep 2024, 11:08 AM	#1
webecedarian Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 505	Kara Swisher and the rise of the internet Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media My front-row seat to a slow-moving catastrophe By Kara Swisher In 1995, a quirky programmer in San Francisco named Craig Newmark started emailing friends a list of local events, job opportunities, and things for sale. The next year, he turned Craigslist into a web-based service and eventually started expanding it all over the country and the world. It was clear this list was a giant killer, and I told everyone who would listen to me at the Post that we needed to put all the money, all the people, and all the incentives into digital... And while Graham was interested when I talked about what Newmark was doing, he laughed when I told him that Craigslist would wipe out his classifieds business.... I remember being at our annual All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California in 2010 and wondering, as sweat poured down Mark Zuckerberg?s pasty and rounded face, if he was going to keel over right there at my feet. ?He has panic attacks when he?s doing public speaking,? one Facebook executive had warned me years before. ?He could faint.? I suspected that might have been a ploy to get us to be nicer to Zuckerberg. It didn?t work. As Walt and I grilled the slight young man on the main stage, the rivulets of moisture began rolling down his ever-paler face. Mark had always been a skittery type around me. In fact, ?I heard you think I?m an *******? was the first thing he ever said to me when I met him in 2006 in Palo Alto. I didn?t think that, although I did eventually come to believe that he was one of the most carelessly dangerous men in the history of technology. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/arti...ley-media.html