Also at <a href="http://www.holovaty.com/writing/everyblock-acquisition/" rel="nofollow">http://www.holovaty.com/writing/everyblock-acquisition/</a> with some more personal details from Adrian
Is it just me, or did the acquisition market recently start to pick up steam again? First Friendfeed and now Everyblock. Seems like its more than just the stock market that's starting to look more rosey.
When pg release his first RFP yesterday <a href="http://ycombinator.com/rfs1.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/rfs1.html</a> my first thought was everyblock has the best shot at doing something in this space. So a YC oriented plan might be to build around/on where everyblock has succeeded.
There goes the neighborhood. I'm not sure what value MSNBC can bring to Everyblock, except, well, cash. And they're not going to pour money into an operation without the expectation of return on investment, which they'll want sooner than later, and which - call me a cynic - will inevitably lead to a reduction or outright elimination of the original staff, and dilution of the effectiveness of the original product/application.<p>I do hope that in a few years, someone can point me to this post and tell me I was being too cynical, but the pattern seems all too familiar. It was nice while it lasted.
Interesting angles:<p>1. NBC has recently rolled out a network of local sites, NBCChicago.com, for example. These sites are using data from Fred Wilson's Outside.in, an EB competitor. Will they roll with Everyblock data now? I'm not quite sure what the relationship between them and MSNBC is. It could be quite tenuous from what I can tell.<p>2. If the code was open-sourced, what was sold?
good for them! i was at the nytimes open event a few months back and everyblock/microlocal news reporting was definitely something on the radar amongst attendees and people at the times. glad to see an major news operator 'get it' and get behind something innovative and new.