In 1995, Brian Alvey designed the first TV Guide website and helped BusinessWeek leap from AOL to the web. Brian built database-driven web applications and content management systems for many large companies in the 90′s including Intel, J.D. Edwards, Deloitte & Touche and The McGraw-Hill Companies. His 1999 Tech-Engine site was a “skinnable HotJobs” which powered over 200 online career centers including XML.com, Perl.com, O’Reilly & Associates Network, DevShed and Computer User magazine. He has been the art director of three print magazines and was the Chief Technology Officer of Rising Tide Studios where he developed The Venture Reporter Network, which is now a Dow Jones property.
In 2004, Brian Alvey and Jason Calacanis created the publishing company Weblogs, Inc. – home to such category leading blogs as Engadget, Autoblog, Joystiq, TUAW, TV Squad, Cinematical, Download Squad, WOW Insider, Slashfood and Blogging Stocks. AOL acquired Weblogs, Inc. in October 2005. In June 2006, Brian also became the chief architect of Netscape and lead the development team which turned the struggling portal into a thriving social news site.
In November 2006, AOL acquired Blogsmith, the enterprise-grade blog publishing platform Brian built. Today AOL uses Blogsmith to publish more than 50 Weblogs, Inc. blogs, dozens of AOL channel blogs and the leading gossip site, TMZ.
