Roundup: MySpace history, Silicon Valley gloom, and more

Here’s the latest action:

How Google overpaid for weak advertising inventory on MySpace — Entrepreneur Andrew Chen has published a tell-all blog post about his early years working at ad network Revenue Science, where he did formative deals with MySpace. The post is a tribute to a new book out called “Stealing MySpace,” which details the ins and outs of the social network’s evolution. Among the juicy details divulged in the book:

The point is, while the MySpace traffic was certainly amazing, it was clear to me (and the other ad networks folks I was in touch with), that there was no way the ads would perform at the level to justify the deal. And ultimately, I think we were proven right. The deal seemed like a crazy auction with a “winner’s curse” and it always seemed like the big bucks were going to get attached to the brand deals the FIM/MySpace team were putting together rather than making the remnant text ad inventory perform 10X better.

Finding true romance in Second Life — “Getting to know someone gradually, with patience and attention [in a virtual world], seems a whole lot healthier than a drunken proposition in a bar” — or so Newsweek describes the allure of virtual dating in an article about real-life online relationships.

More than 10 billion Covenant lay dead at human feet — In case you don’t know what that refers to, the Covenant is “a fictional theocratic military alliance of alien races” that you kill in Halo 3 (assuming you’re one of its some 15.4 million human players). The official kill count spans the 565 days since the game’s launch.

Silicon Valley chief executives not optimistic about 2009 — That’s according to a survey by regional business organization Silicon Valley Leadership Group, as covered by the San Jose Mercury News.

Tech accounts for a higher portion of new job losses in 2009 – Than it did in 2008, also as covered by the Mercury News.

Global online ad spending to fall 6.9 percent this year — So predicts ZenithOptimedia, a media buying unit of the Publicis advertising group. PaidContent has more.

Yahoo may announce layoffs as part of Bartz-driven reorganization — As GigaOm and The New York Times (and BoomTown) have heard.

Larry Brilliant to head the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund — More from CNET.

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