was a fella named ev who sold his three and a half year old company, Blogger, to Google and got to announce it live from the blogoshpere in a packed crowd of hipsters and nerds in an overflow event on a sidestreet in Chinatown.

wanna know how cool ev is?

motherfucker’s sitting three chairs over from me, theres hundreds of people looking at him, but they are slightly distracted by another member of the panel who’s discussing the world of blogging. the attention comes back to Ev and he says, “oh, can someone put my blog on the screen again please, im sorry.”

fucker had gotten a call on his cellphone, but, being the gentleman didn’t answer it. instead, he checked his email via the wireless network that was in the building, updated his blog live and linked to the silconvalley.com column that broke the story that Google was buying Pyra Labs, the San Fransisco company behind Blogger.

and then he told us.

everyone cheered, as Ev was answering what was announced to be the last question of the two hour discussion that included Doc Searls, Heather from the Rabbit blog, Boing Boing’s founder Mark Frauenfelder, the Reverse Cowgirl Susannah Breslin, and yours truly who didn’t say fuck even once.

that’s the only reason that i can figure that the los angeles times reporter who was assigned to cover the Live from the Blogoshpere story chose to interview me directly after the incredibly wonderful event, instead of talking to the only person in the house who has suddenly become a millionaire and a validated success right before our eyes.

while wearing a blogger tshirt.

while looking reportedly so cute that my ex, chris, and my laywer giggled the whole night and snapped picture after picture of him and blushed and covered their mouths with their hands.

It was the coolest culmination and synchronicity, wirelessness, and instantaneous publishing.
– evan williams2/16/03 1:28pm

why is that quote on the busblog and not in today’s sunday la times? and why isn’t it on latimes.com?

la times got to read Dan Gilmore’s scoop before it even went to press! they were in the house! the story was there. the founder of the company was there. lots of other sources were there too. i would imagine that the la times had a camera and were taking pictures of the event, including when the founder made his grand announcement on this, his first trip to Los Angeles.

“see what happens when you come to LA,” i shouted in the microphone a few seconds after he broke the news to us all.

if you want to know why Google bought Blogger look no further than this very story.

Dan Gilmore published his scoop at 7:41pm on his blog, Ev linked to it on his blog at 9:10pm, metafilter published the link to Gilmore’s story at 10:08pm, followed by Ken Layne, and then Azeem Azhar, Rick Bruner, Henry Copeland, Anil Dash, Nick Denton, Jeff Jarvis, Shelley Powers, Mitch Ratcliffe, Emmanuelle Richard, Matt Webb, Slashdot, and even Chinese bloggers.

Still, because no major news source other than the SJ Mercury (who Gilmore writes for) has published the story, Google’s (beta) News page only ranks it as the number 2 result, even though it’s own data says that the Merc’s story is fresher than the link that is getting the #1 return.

The value of Blogger to Google is, if Google had a faster access to blogs, it would have seen all the activity (above) pointing to Gilmore’s blog, and to the Merc article, and to Ev’s page and would have basically figured out that it’s news.

Right now, even though the humans running it know that it’s news, their own computers don’t even know that it is happening.

So what’s the LA Times’ excuse?

They were there.

And so was MC Brown who takes wonderful pictures, except when theyre of me.

Thanks to Michael August Pusateri who took a great picture of me (above, speaking on the panel) feeling on top of the world, stoked to finally meet so many people who i admire and who’s blogs i read.

Thanks to everyone who were nice enough to come up and said hi to me, thanks to the nice ladies who invited me to speak with such excellent and smart adults, and thanks for my pals for eating slippery shrimp before and getting drunk with me after.

It was a night i wont soon forget.

Doc Searls

the comments are the best part

Isla Palma asks, Geez Tony, why do you have to go all psycho kick-ass medieval on the guy. I thought you were better than that. Take a chill pill and go enjoy Holland on their tin dutch dime. Just be sure to tell all your loyal readers all about it. Thanks!

I went all psycho kick-ass medival on the guy for several reasons, the biggest being thats what i do to haters in the busblog, and its worked. if you read through the comments of this blog you wont see a lot of hating, which isnt because i delete comments its because its been established here that the comments are a place to tell me that you love me and/or ask questions. also its been established that haters rarely can write better than me so if you want to come into my house and try to outwit outwrite and outbash youre going to have a very difficult time winding up unscathed – so dont even try.

my favorite nba player is shaq. shaq doesnt need to elbow people in the neck or use his godgiven talents to intimidate and cheat but when he does it he sets the tone that the paint is his. that hes the head nbaer in charge. that you arent going to leave miami with just a tan if you try to step to deisel, that youre going to go home with some bruises and some notsofond memories.

my friend matt good gets haters in his comments and instead of fighting them he sometimes lets them get under his skin. i try to advise him that hes soooo much smarter than them and hes so much better at writing than them, that he should win every battle. but for some reason he was born more of a sensitive poet than i and refuses to pull out the mortal kobat finishing move when the red light is flashing.

i say hit it when its time and we all know when its time.

plus its fun.

plus its funny.

plus i have no patience for jealousy or people telling me that im a sellout or people telling me that they know more about blogging or blogging ethics than i do. fuckin im mr transparency and im super proud to be one of the 25 people who are being asked by Holland.com and Blogads to go to Amsterdam. i get far fewer hits than lots of those people, in some cases 10 times less. so to be invited there shows that its not just about clicks of an ad but its about tastemakers, influencers, and legit bloggers who are known for their integrity and style.

as for me being “better than that” or in need of a “chill pill”, im not better than anything. im a flawed, defensive, bitter, old man. im not better than anyone. if anything im worse.

im not a gentleman, im not a role model, im not a politically correct representative, im tony pierce who writes on the busblog two times a day and if some rightwing fraud with a fake email address calls me out as a sellout poised to whore out something or someplace that he doesnt believe in for a few bucks or a free vacation then im going to set the record straight the same way shaq sets shit straight in the lane during the playoffs.

subtlety is for poetry, piano playing, and eating pussy.

and sometimes to blog means to bash.

the known universe + mindless bullshit + nothing can stop gilliam from fighting the good fight