And he’s here — giving the story behind TechCrunch:

• Started in 2005
• Did it to keep track of web2.0 scene
• Didn’t have a job at the time
• Knew that something was going on when he hit about 500 readers
• The CrunchNetwork has expanded to Japan and France where the respective TC blogs are doing very ,very well.
• The guy for French TechCrunch is actually an Israeli guy who covers French startups from Israel
• “The best stuff is in the comments” — rather than the content of the TechCrunch blog
• Mike feels that the more exciting individuals are folks who are “easily rattled” — rather than CEO types who tend to be impenetrable ;)  [like Mark Evans]
• Re: Regrets on Blogging — Mike isn’t afraid to edit the comments if something’s inappropriate (like his own comments), although he knows that people might take screen shots
• On being first and being a journalist — “If you’re first, you don’t have to be witty, intelligent or insightful” (which is why he enjoys being first)
• On being first — “seconds matter”, when it comes to announcing news on TechCrunch
• On the death throes of the traditional media — “its sad to see” that editorials are going on and on about the death throes ;)
• On Sam Zell — “a fundamental misunderstanding” for how Google works; Mike takes the position (as I do) that Google brings traffic, rather than “stealing” visitors; he likens it to “giving” away content on RSS feeds as he has no ads through the TC feed