MG Siegler Will Become ...

When I first reached out to MG Siegler to join TechCrunch two and a half years ago, I knew he was an amazing talent who could help cement our place as the premier technology blog on the Internet. Ever since Michael and I hired him, he has not disappointed. As his TechCrunch power has grown, others have noticed his talents as well. Everyone from the New York Times to every one of our competitors has tried to recruit him away, but he’s always stuck with TechCrunch. Over the past few months, a lot of venture capital firms have been trying to hire him as well. This time, the lure was too great. He decided to change careers and will become a VC, just like Michael Arrington. In fact, Michael is the one who is hiring him as a general partner at the CrunchFund (beating out offers from several other top-tier VC firms MG was considering). But MG will be the first to tell you that his decision to become a VC predates all the recent drama around Michael leaving TechCrunch (and I will let him tell you so himself in his own post later). While MG will only be working full time as a writer at TechCrunch for another month, I am pleased to announce that he will continue to write for us after that on a regular basis as an outside columnist. The scope of what he will write about will be very narrow: Apple. He won’t write about startups or venture capital. And just like he has always done, he will continue to follow our editorial standards, which require strict disclosures for any kind of conflict whatsoever—financial, business, or personal. Apple is a big enough company and a big enough story to keep him busy as a columnist. MG is one of the top journalists in the world writing about Apple already. (Check back tomorrow when he will be covering Apple’s iPhone event). As our first official columnist, MG’s new role will also mark another change at TechCrunch. We are going to have a lot more columnists. In fact, you already know many of them because they are currently regular contributors—people like Chris Dixon, Mark Suster, Andrew Keen, Steve Gillmor, Cyan Bannister, and Jon Evans. (You can find them here ). Some are also investors, others are journalists, we’ll even have a few founders and CEOs. Stay tuned for more announcements. And, yes, I am also hiring more full-time writers, but more on that in a future post.

The End Of TechCrunch: ...

At the risk of not only beating a dead horse, but cremating it with self-reflective posts , this video is too good not to post. Jonathan Mann , our favorite singer/songwriter is back with a song about what else: the end of TechCrunch . As we begin this new era, it’s a fitting tribute to the old one.

British Rapper Buys Fir...

Just… wow. It was sort of a given that Nike’s limited edition, McFly-inspired Air Mag sneakers would be fetching pretty pennies on eBay , but TMZ reports British rap act Tinie Tempah spent more than he thought he would on the first pair up for grabs. The cost of his impulse decision: a cool $37,500. Mr. Tempah, a reputed Back To The Future nut and sneaker geek, received the sneakers and a nifty “plutonium” carrying case for his trouble. Meanwhile, prices for the long-awaited sneakers on eBay run quite the gamut: the cheapest pair to be found at time of writing is size 7, and is sitting pretty at $4,000 . At the top end of things is an especially popular pair of size 12s, with an $8,100 price tag . All auctions will be open for another 6 or so hours, so these prices will probably climb ever higher, but you need not worry if your size disappears. Nike is listing 150 pairs a day for 9 more days, so you still have a few chances to buy the kicks of your dreams. All proceeds will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation, so rest assured that any purchases made will serve a dual purpose: not only will they (temporarily) assuage the shoe-lust felt by sneaker aficionados with too much money, they’ll also be helping a good cause.

Nike’s Mag Sneakers Unv...

Nike made a legion of sneaker geeks’ dreams come true when they sent out their Back To The Future-themed invitations , but the official word has now come down from on high: the Nike Mag is real, and they’re all going on eBay tonight. First things first: the Mags sadly don’t auto-lace. Aside from that, only subtle changes have been made from the original, film-friendly reference design, but it’s likely all for the sake of comfort. Retro-future aficionados will be glad to know that the tri-color, LA Gear-esque lights remain true to the original, as does the electroluminescent Nike logo embroidered on the side. The limited-edition kicks will only be produced in a small 1,500 unit run, but hopefully that scarcity will up drive up demand a bit. While we normally enjoy a good deal around here, all of the proceeds will be going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease Research. Speaking of the fantastic Mr. Fox, he’s currently scheduled to make an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight — the timing seems almost too good to be true, so keep your eyes peeled for a surprise appearance. This reveal has been a long time coming for Nike fans, who have obsessively been tracking the shoe from the grassroots campaign that inspired everything to its more recent appearances. One of the first big clues to the shoe’s existence came from an EA Sports interview with Tinker Hatfield , one of Nike’s most prolific sneaker designers. At about 13 minutes into the video, an assistant tosses Hatfield the shoe just after the interview changes focus onto Nike’s future. Video of a commercial being filmed in the style of the original film’s classic mall parking lot scene also popped up on YouTube back in June, making today’s announcement the culmination of a whole lot of work.

What’s Facebook Afraid ...

I remember back in the dark ages before there was this new fangled Internet thing, there was a grassroots campaign by a company that dared challenge one of the dominant players in its industry. It was in Boston and that company that dared challenge the dominant player was Ben and Jerry’s. These two hippies from wherever took on Haagen-Dazs (My apologies on the brand spelling. Due to my typing deficiencies this is an umlaut free blog) which, at the time was owned by Pillsbury. Pillsbury was trying to muscle the new kid on the block from freezer space in stores in New England at the time. They were telling their distributors and stores to get Ben and Jerry’s out of the market. Not smart. Ben and Jerry did the offline equivalent of building a community by starting a campaign with T-shirts, bumper stickers and much more that simply asked “ What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of? ”. Simply put, it worked. Fast forward a lot of years and we are seeing something possibly playing out with one dominant player in social media, Facebook, and the new kid on the social media block, Google+. Granted this is an imperfect comparison but please play along rather than just point that out . It seems that Facebook is not very happy about Google+. How do we know? Well, as cnet reports there is one fella who found out that advertising on Facebook to get Google+ followers is going to earn you a visit from the Facebook Ad Storm Troopers and have you removed from the Facebook ad game (completely). App developer Michael Lee Johnson, conscious of the need to be big on Google+ or be nobody, wondered what the best way to levitate his Google+ circles might be. He hit upon a fine idea: he placed an ad on Facebook. It was a simple thing that was headlined: “Add Michael to Google+.” The copy read: “If you’re lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso.” Now just to continue the Michael Lee Johnson “more publicity than you could have gotten through just a Facebbok ad” tour here is the ad for you to see. Nice chapeau, Michael! Well, what did that get Michael from Facebook? The following. “Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.” The folks at cnet did a little digging in the Facebook terms to find this as possibly the explanation for their complete annihilation of ol’ Micahel Lee’s Facebood advertising efforts. Or perhaps Facebook, its nose feeling tweaked, merely decided to reach for 6a of the same Advertising Guidelines: “We may refuse ads at any time for any reason, including our determination that they promote competing products or services or negatively affect our business or relationship with our users.” I realize this is one instance and it isn’t quite a trend but it is interesting. I figured I would see if I could find a Facebook paid ad on Google and it didn’t take long. (Why Ask.com is placing is a whole other discussion for another time). So what’s your take on Facebook not only trying to prevent their users from mentioning Google+ in an ad? Was this a little harsh? Could Facebook have just eliminated the ad and not whacked poor Michael Lee’s efforts to give them his hard earned money for other ads he might have placed? As for Michael? Well let’s just say he’s fine. For now, Johnson’s only public statements have been: “LOL.” Oh, and “Facebook. You Suck.” And his Google+ page. So do you think Facebook is afraid? Well, I am printing “What’s Facebook Afraid Of?” bumper stickers and T-shirts as we speak.