Remember back in September 2008 when Google co-founder Sergey Brin started a personal blog? TechCrunch was the first to spot it, and it was interesting enough for the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times to pick up the story.
Of course, it was the actual content of the second blog post (the one after the obligatory introduction one) that was the real story there. After all, an executive of a major, public company sharing his genetic predisposition to Parkinson’s disease is not exactly an everyday thing.
The unusual blog post, evidently hosted on Google’s Blogger service, garnered quite some press coverage, and made a lot of people curious about what other insights in Brin’s personal life would follow. After all, the first post said the blog would be reflecting the man’s ‘life outside of work’, and it allowed moderated comments (although none were ever approved after all).
But there never came a third post, and the blog quietly slipped out of the attention stream for lack of updates. Today, the blog is still online, but it’s as dead silent as it’s been for the past 6 months.
So maybe the real question is: why did Sergey Brin start blogging?
I think this excerpt from the blog gives it away:
As a customer of 23andMe, I have always been excited about the product. I have found what pieces of DNA I share with various relatives. I checked whether other Brins were related. I explored my various gene journals — learning, for instance, that I have one copy of the fast twitch muscle fiber. I also looked over the health related entries and found that my genetic risk for most diseases is modestly lower than average but for a few diseases it is modestly higher.
23andMe is the biotech startup that was co-founded by Brin’s wife Anne Wojcicki. The company can map customers’ DNA and help them find information about their ancestry and their risk of getting certain diseases (Mike tried it). Google ended up taking a $3.9 million stake in 23andMe in May 2007, after Brin had personally loaned the company $2.6 million. It’s always been a strange story, and I doubt we’ve heard the end of it.
So what I’m wondering: did Sergey Brin actually start the blog with good intentions, hoping he would find the time in his busy life to share tidbits about the personal part of it, or was this just a way for him to draw a lot of attention to his genetic mutation and – conveniently – how his wife’s new startup plays a role in it?
I guess we’ll never know for sure, unless of course he responds to this on his blog.
well, i bet he is super busy raising his kid … i know too well how that feels and distracts one from blogging …
Then came the recession…
I would agree with Jochen, as the majority of the reason why he has not blogged. Sergey will blog, once he is compelled to do so again.
And for those that believe it was for 23andMe publicity or a sponsored post, you’re a little off base. The content of his post tells you why, just as the Robin explains above.
Sergey has taken an active role in exploring potential solutions to his predisposition to Parkinson’s disease. If you’ve spoken with him, you would know that this is a priority in his life.
The message I believe he wanted to share, was that we can now learn about ourselves and health more than ever before. Something he appreciates personally, and 23andMe has allowed him (and us) to do just that.
Wrong. It was a total business play, stop making excuses for him. 23andme is an epic fail, and the blog goes with it. Deadpool.
dbag or not, Google has this thing about applying “beta” and “2.0″ to all things and making them shiny and cool. If Anne has learnt these methods from Brin, we’re going to see a vast *open* genepool rather than the deadpool.
[1] See http://parts.mit.edu/
[2] Add SecondLife to that and start playing with the concept – the more ideas and parts, the merrier
“Why did Sergey Brin Stop Blogging?”
Because he has way more important shit to do?
LOL! hahahhaa
LOL!! haaaaaaaa
bullshit2.0? Nope! Not again.
LOL I second dat
Robin, I think you are looking for stories in places where stories don’t exist.
This is the best that you can come up with? A story about a dead blog with two entries in it and the potential that he had put it up simply to market another company? I have one thing to tell you:
WHO CARES?
This happens everyday. One could argue that TechCrunch itself does the same with companies that you guys are invested in (yes, I know that Arrington is divesting, but there is still at least two years worth of stories whose real purpose, we’ll never know).
This is a non-story!
I’m repeating myself infinitely, but if you don’t care, why do you comment?
The title of the article was enough to spark my interest and hoping that there was something worth of value in the story. I don’t read every story that is published on this or any other site. Like most people, I only read the articles whose headlines catch my attention.
I was just hoping for something other than insinuating that it was done to get PR. I just think that it is a cheap shot and making something out of nothing. They call that Tabloid reporting and your writing does not and should not belong in that category.
maybe because some people respect TC and want to see it live up to its reputation by posting quality material, which this is not.
This is actually a very interesting article–and one you will only find at Techcrunch. The question of whether or not Sergey started a blog just to pump his wife’s company is certainly worth asking. And the answer appears to be a resounding yes.
This is without a doubt a quality article. This is a fair question. Needs to be asked – good job, Robin!
It seems Sergey started a blog just to provide PR, and also (perhaps unintentionally?) provide link juice to 23andme. I believe Google frowns upon the latter – me thinks Sergey in big trouble with Matt Cutts, if Matt ever saw this!!
“I’m repeating myself infinitely, but if you don’t care, why do you comment?”
That is the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day. If this was your PERSONAL blog, then you’re absolutely correct in that you can spout whatever nonsense you damn well please.
But it’s not. TC has become a blog of note, an authority in the tech field, and as such has a major RESPONSIBILITY (look up the meaning in case you’re not sure) to maintain a standard.
Jesus.
I believe you may have some issues to work out
Yup, My tough. If you don’t care, just read the title and jump to the next story. I do care.
Sergei Brin is not exactly just another guy.
If he writes a one-post blog with just the following *one* line, it will take down the economic value of many a company and affect millions of users adversely:
“I have decided to retire at 40″
Of course this is just a statement I pulled out of thin air, right here, guessing that he should be about 35 now, and let’s face it, he’s rich
A one sentence blog post, if authentic, would send shivers down every online spine and waves of celebration in m$ campuses worldwide.
“Why Did Sergey Brin Stop Blogging?”
Simple.
Google wants YOURÂ private life online (in databases), NOT theirs.
Google wants YOUR private life online (in databases), NOT theirs. GREAt POINT!
It was a sponsored post, and it was obvious from the beginning.
Google… meh
I don’t see how 23andme can make the claims they do. I am originally from the Caribbean and I have a VERY racially mixed ancestry (Portuguese, Dutch, French, African (of unknow origina), Scottish, and English). To whom will they be comparing my DNA?
to a growing database that correlates certain genes with certain diseases. it’s not reliable in these years, but over time it will probably become more accurate (and cheap enough so that everyone can have it).
Why do you think you’re special? everyone on earth is genetically mixed up. I ‘m 95% chimpanzee
Possibly it’s not as useful fot yourself as others … but you are not the only person on the plant.
There are the majority of people for who this is much more suited to, stop just thinking about yourself!
seriously, you believe someone who owns google would need to write a blog post to advertise his wife’s business? if you do, then OK, i give up.
Sergey’s my hero. like millions of people, he started a blog, blag about something in his mind, but was too busy to keep up ever after. that’s it. period. and give me a break, is this news?
@ Answer, absolutely right.
I dont know why he started blogging .But i know why he stopped .The reasons are below :
BECAUSE he understoof BLOGGER IS THE BAD PLATFORM WHICH NO ONE SHOULD EVER CHOOSE !!!Why ? Because :
1.The URL length is restricted and i think the creator of blogger platform had no idea about its importance ,
2.There is no control over Blogger – we can not even create a directory within it ,
3.Its been so many years and we dont see a nice template released officially ,
4.No way to ADD META DESCRIPTIONS,
Google Please please give Blogger back to Pyralabs.Atleast they can improve Blogger.Pls.
I appreciate every effort Google does to the society – i love everything they do but i just cant understand why they are so lazy with the Blogger platform.
If Sergey Brin Reads this – please Sergey make some improvements .Its time you act .
@ Oguz Serdar, you’re definitely right!
I found this post actually very interesting because the fact that Sergei stopped blogging so soon after he started reminds us that he’s just a regular guy
although the intent of his blog was to talk about the person outside of work, I still think the information would have been carefully selected to craft a certain public image (whatever he wanted that to be)–my guess is that he wanted his blog’s personality and humanitarian values to cast a long and oppressive shadow over our culture in the same way that Google does (and many other quasi-celebrity blogs do), and then he regretted revealing so much information about himself when all the excessive media attention started.
however, the fact that he gave up on his blog so soon shows us something about Sergei that he probably didn’t want us to see, as he would never have started the blog if he knew he was going to abandon it so soon
Google’s Marissa Mayer (or whatever her name is) was on a talk show referring to Larry and Sergei as Montessori kids, which I understood to mean that they’re perfect go-getter studetns etc, but those types of kids are the ones who stick to a rigid schedule and blog everyday. No, the image sergei wanted to create by blogging about his genes backfired for him and he wanted the whole thing to disappear into the night unnoticed
Then why didn’t he just delete the blog?
Because when you delete something everyone screams “Cover-up/something to hide/nothing to offer!” and related epithets. Been there, done that; don’t want the t-shirt.
Good one, Robin! You ask the question but we all know the answer: it was just PR!!
I’m thinking it was an advertising pitch for his wife.
This seems like blatant advertising for the site, and not true “news”. The blog was probably done for the same reason.
I don’t think we can be sure what he was going through at the time he wrote the blog. Sure, it might have been PR, but in the blog, he states “My mother had always been haunted by Parkinson’s because her aunt had suffered from it. I had often reasoned with her that since Parkinson’s is not hereditary (there is not a strong correlation of Parkinson’s incidence among close relatives), she had little to fear.”
Be he later states that he discovered “I carry the G2019S mutation and when my mother checked her account, she saw she carries it too.”
It could have been a traumatic, unsettling time for him to learn this and he may have initially felt the need to talk about it through a blog, but has since moved on.
His blog raises interesting issues relating to what information we want to learn about ourselves (I recall Mike Arrg ordered his genetic results), how this info can help us, hurt us, privacy issues, etc.
@ Jochen Siegle:
So true.
If he did this to bring media attention to his wife’s start up, that’s a really brilliant move.
or desperate
Michael Jordan asked him not to. Any other joke about a 23 and they’ll call you the antiwhatever.
Blogging is not everybody’s cup of tea. It involves patience and relentless self propelled addiction. Without which blog simply dies (stays there inactively).
Well think about it. Steve Job’s health affected its companies stock, imagine how the CEO of google’s health would affect HIS company’s stock. I think he started a blog for the SAME reason EVERYONE starts a blog, to share stuff. But because CEO’s of powerful companies like Google have to watch their every step because their actions directly affect the value of the company that millions of people have invested in, maybe he realized later on that it just wasn’t a good idea to expose his personal life too much – especially parts that may suggest that his term as CEO may for one reason or another end.
If Sergey were the CEO, rather than co-founder, that’s a possibility. Considering Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google and has been for a while, not sure this is an apples to apples comparison
sergey may be a nice guy but was he drunk when he met her.
you’re not a very nice person
He was probably too busy analyzing her genes.
lol recession hit google as well, that stopped blogging and started thinking about hwo to survive
Maybe, Michael A. might want to comment about this since he has a background in corporate law.
I would think he would have to be very careful not to divulge any information about Google.
Maybe, under legal advice, he was advised to refrain from blogging?
THIS IS A FAIR QUESTION but a garbage ARTICLE.
I hate posts that ask questions but no answers.
Its pretty simple if you don’t post an answer it is NOT WORTH AN ARTICLE, then it is simply GARBAGE.
If you’ve had an ANSWER then its worth it.
I can create 5,000 posts asking good questions… from all different angles and hypothesis…
So pleeeease Robing, start mattering do some research, maybe take look at what Sarah does.. you could learn something… until then please don’t bore us anymore with your QUESTIONS… idiot.
He stopped blogging the same reason I have over 20 blogs with two-three posts in them. You post, forget to post, then three months later remember you were trying to create a blog, stare at it, then decide it would be silly to post after so long. Another few months go by after you’ve completely forgotten about your older blog and you get the urge to post about something, so you start a new blog. It’s that simple. Most likely He has some other blog, probably a private twitter. lol
Yeah, or not.
Because he’s not compelled to write. You’re right to modify the question to “why did he start?”
Most bloggers quit soon because few people are compelled to write on a regular basis. That’s too bad because blogging is a brilliant way to measure how a community thinks and feels. Twitter offers that in miniature.
i am intrigued by the idea that blogs can reveal the thoughts and feelings of a community. My experience has been limited, but i can see where one challenge would be finding enough people who are willing to go beyond the one sentence witticisms of a Facebook entry. in my experience, the little that is invested in that type of interaction is very unsatisfying. I was attracted to the possibility for connection that interacting on Facebook promised. What i have found was frustratingly ambiguous quips that, quite often, lead to more misunderstanding and less connection.
I can only speculate that perhaps Mr. Brin may have found that although he offered much more revealing insight into his genetic make-up than is typically expected from business leaders, it was met with understandably cirumspect reactions. Maybe he isn’t blogging because his feelings got hurt and he doesn’t want his motives picked apart again. it could be that he was excited to share the results of his own experience with his wife’s cool new work and when he shared that excitement in the bloggosphere he was criticized.
Yeah… WHO CARES
I think he started the blog with the stated intentions- talking about his life outside of work. If his intention were to promote parkinson’s awareness or 23andMe, there are infinitely more effective methods than a lone post on an abandoned blog.
As to why he’s gone radio silent- The stated intention was to talk about his life outside of work. For a google founder, I can easily see ebbs and flows in terms of how much if his life actually falls under that category.
this is another crappy article. wtf is going on? techcrunch used to have GREAT content. do i care if he posted about his wife’s company. no, not at all. there’s really nothing NEWS-worthy here. this is gossip, insinuation and people magazine style reporting. if he created the blog just to indirectly promote his wife’s company, fine. who cares?
please get techcrunch back to reporting quality NEWS. thank you.
boy the comments are really starting to go downhill lately
I read the first 3 paragraphs and found it really boring. It feels to me like he rewrote that post many times, and that he didn’t write with a very clear objective in mind (or may be he was trying to “camouflage” his real objective.) That’s just my opinion on this one, I do consider him a genius.
What’s true for them is true for most people: most blogs are started with a few posts, never read, and discontinued soon thereafter.
Lot’s of people start things that they don’t fin …
Robin, you wrote:
“After all, an executive of a major, public company sharing his genetic predisposition to Parkinson’s disease is not exactly an everyday thing.”
Sorry. It is *not* a genetic predisposition. I only spent three seconds merely scanning the post but I can clearly recall it said this:
“My mother had always been haunted by Parkinson’s because her aunt had suffered from it. I had often reasoned with her that since Parkinson’s is not hereditary (there is not a strong correlation of Parkinson’s incidence among close relatives), she had little to fear.”
Not, not, not, not, not…at least not according to him.
He does say later on, though, that there is a mutation that him and his mother carry…but how does he know that gene mutation is the one responsible for giving his aunt and mother that disease? So scientists have pinpointed it as being in xxx amount of Parkinson’s patients who are related…have the studies proved that it doesn’t in fact lead to other problems which in turn cause the disease (rather than being the cause itself)?
Honestly, if he’d gotten to the point quicker (*snore*) I might have caught that on the first read, but it was such a boring post I gave up five paragraphs in. How many words does it take him to get to the point? Which reminds me…I won’t miss reading his blog.
The vast majority of blogs are abandoned after a short time. Although, perhaps he’d have kept writing if using WordPress over Blogger.
Once you become a man who needs to take care of Family, your available time will get reduced. So you must reduce some unneeded work outside. Bu the way, he stopped blogging. alive max
Hi
could I have different feeds from TC? Obviously TC adds value but posts from Robin Wauters will not. I am happy to live my life without Robin Wauters writings.
Sure. If you click on the bylines of the authors, there are separate feeds available. Just roll all the feeds for every author except myself into one feed using Yahoo Pipes for example, and you’re all set!
Glad to be of service.
I think the combination of no more posts and the no comments getting through to be posted after moderation indicate that the question needed to be asked.
Small companies can get away with this, but companies facing increasing antitrust and other government focus probably not so much.
May be he is doing so due to some personal problems.
SIMPLE: Sergey stopped blogging because he is too busy living life and having fun:
1) Kitesurfing
Renovating his house
2) Flying on his jets
3) Laughing at the blogosphere
4) Counting his money and thinking, “HOLY SHIT, I’M RICH, BITCH!!!!”
5) Hanging with Richard Branson on Necker Island
6) Throwing money at pet causes and wife’s whims
7) Going to awesome parties
9) Buying new houses
10) Buying Twitter
Blogging is hard.
Why did he start?
must have been a slow weekend
Seriously@LPH
Blogging is hard. Let’s go shopping.
Probably because realized every semi-interesting thing he bothered to say what cause him no end of pain.
He may be busy with other things to stop blogging.
Imagine a Robin Retort Ratio that classifies the number of comments that comment on the writer vs the article. RRR could be the basis of a celebrity indicator. License it. Profit.
I commented because the celebrity Paul commented on it.
@qthrul I believe you may have something there.
Potential layoffs?