Valleywag.com

Valleywag tries to be sensationalist, but they never seem to hit it hard enough. Where are the secret love children? Where's the drug parties? Where's the body buried in the backyard? What about a simple extramarital affair? How about a sex tape or two? Or at least saying there's a sex tape even if there isn't?

Did you know that Russel Simmons (founder of Yelp) has 13 illicit children spread across 8 countries? Ok he doesn't, but he could and I'd be pretty entertained reading about it even knowing it is false.

I have the pleasure of knowing quite a few people who show up in Valleywag and the stories about them often don't even come close to the truth. I'm not talking about some sweet squeaky clean truth either. Sometimes you guys sniff around the right tree, but don't realize it was growing on top of a treasure chest. Dig deeper.

I feel like Valleywag tries to be too broad. If they were a simple gossip rag in the supermarket, they wouldn't have to put out so many stories and they could really focus on the good stuff (or stuff they made up). Instead they have stories about mergers, people in large corporations getting fired *yawn*, mildly interesting tech news and gossip about people who aren't even in the valley or tech. Seriously, hackers could get access to your pacemaker? Do they need to cover *everything* (even things I've read days before)?

I know Valleywag is small and doesn't really have the money to bribe the right people for stories or pictures. Still sooner or later they need to step up and be more than a more people-oriented and gossipy version of Techcrunch.

Four stars simply because I don't want to get railed on. :) Well that and they do occasionally have some good stuff buried deep in all that other stuff.