DISQUS

We have been Dugg a ton of times and I can tell you that the traffic is useless. It drives down the CTR on our advertisers campaigns, and the pageview per visitors is rarely over 2. It is not quality traffic. But I understand how it can help out smaller sites, and help put them on the map.

Google is likely only interested in the algorithm Digg uses to promote stories - nothing more.

They do not need the traffic, they cannot make money off of Digg directly (If it could be done, why doesn't Microsoft just buy them - after all, they currently have an advertising contract with them, so they know how Digg performs).

My guess is that the contract with Microsoft is coming to an end soon, and Kevin/Jay need to offload quickly before their valuation drops. I am not even sure Federated Media would want them back as a client, they would be better off using an Ad Exchange where they can at least control the CTR and performance of their ads.

I thought the interview wasn't that bad. The questions have already been asked in previous interviews, and it really just rubbed sand in the wound (especially with Beacon). With these sit-down casual sessions, the feeling should be light, but there is still a line that reporters should not cross. There was a lot of awkwardness going on here, and Sarah clearly lost control.

Mark is not an easy person to interview. Find out what gets him excited and focus on that. Sarah kind of tooted her own horn several times where it was inappropriate; the people are there to see Mark, not her.

Overall, it was definately blown out of proportion, and it was not really that bad. She interviewed like a blogger, when she should have interviewed like a reporter (since she has background at BusinessWeek and Yahoo finance). Chalk it up to experience and get it right next time.

Good point...a whole nother world you guys are in. ;)

Why don't you guys pick up the phone and work it out. Why does everything have to be on Twitter or a blog post for everyone to see. It makes you all look pretty bad IMO. I can promise you that 99% of TechCrunch readers probably could care less about what Fred Wilson wrote. It's an opinion and nothing more, hell it could change tomorrow. Leave the sticks and stones on the playground guys, you are supposed to be adults. And no one really cares....really.