Is Michael Arrington One of the World's Most Influential People?

Mobile is also something I'm really interested in. The iPhone launching, a little less than a year ago, has completely changed the way we think about mobile in the U.S. A couple of months ago, I wrote a post on the future of the mobile device and how social networking will play a part. I expect in a few years to walk into a room -- say a cocktail party, bar, or subway -- and have some basic information, subject to privacy issues, about the people in that room. I really expect the mobile device to be front and center, the most important Internet-connected device, and just flat out the most important device in our hands.

And someday when they walk into a bar, someone's mobile gadget might say, That guy over there was one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

More interesting is you're a guy walking into a bar -- I think dating will always be a big application -- and on your phone pops up every woman on the bar, her picture and maybe her first name if she's willing to share that. Maybe you can message her and say, "Hey, I think you're cute." She sees your picture and she blocks you, or she says, "Yeah, I'd love to talk to you." It's a way that you can see who's single, who's not, who's looking for a job and who's not.

What's an example of a story TechCrunch broke and how did your approach differ from the mainstream media?

This is probably the most popular story in terms of page views that we ever wrote. In 2006, I broke the acquisition of YouTube by Google. The time between hearing the news from a source and writing was probably about 15 minutes. It was a single-source rumor. I think most mainstream journalists, particularly in larger publications, would say that was a fairly risky move. The difference with blogging is I posted and said, Look, this is a single-source rumor, but it's a good source, and I think there's a good chance this is partially true. If you're wrong you correct it very quickly.

You've had some notorious spats with critics in the mainstream media. What's your view of the mainstream press today?

I see mainstream media moving towards blogging. The New York Times, CNET, and even the [Wall Street] Journal have embraced blogging, user comments, and things like that. You see USA Today with social networking. It's been an absolute transformation, and it will continue, I believe. I think blogging has moved more toward mainstream media and moved away from some of the sensationalism and lack of fact checking. I think the two are meeting in the middle, which is probably what makes sense.

In what ways does the outside world misunderstand Silicon Valley?

When you get into a situation like we're in now, which is almost a duplicate of 1998 and 1999, there's so much hype around companies and personalities and it's easy to say, "What is this?" It's too bad. I wrote a post about this. You know, the marketing people move in, all the PR people move in, and it sure would be nice to have a downturn because when people stop investing, only the true entrepreneurs stay. All the attention that comes to Silicon Valley in the good times is sort of the worst possible form of itself. The fascinating times are the years when there's no money.

So what do people fail to grasp?

Silicon Valley is transforming the American and world economies into information economies and moving away from industrial economies. It's so important we develop policies that make sense and help Silicon Valley grow, or at least stay out of the way of growth. One example would be H1B visas. We restrict them. Why? Why would we restrict the smartest people in the world from coming here, working at our companies or starting their own? Things like that are really ridiculous.

Which presidential candidates have had the most intelligent tech policies?

I endorsed Barack and McCain in the primaries. In my post on this, I said McCain is largely the best of the Republicans. I certainly don't think he's a perfect candidate, particularly around immigration. He's very free market and low taxes, which is good for tech in general. Barack really made a point, early on, of defining his positions on net neutrality and all of the major tech issues, including the 700 megahertz spectrum, immigration, Internet taxes, identity theft, things like that. He created policy papers, published them and got feedback from the community. It was brilliant. No one else has done that. I think he's way ahead of the curve and has a lot of support here because of that.