NICK DOUGLAS — After a year of Silicon Valley startup parties and conferences, I thought I hated startups because the staff was deluded and vapid. I was wrong — I just hated their PR people. Here's why your startup should fire its flacks.

A tech bubble is measured by the number of industry events each night of the week. A full Thursday schedule doesn't mean we're back in 1999 — it just means the recession's long gone.

So last night I got to "demo some exciting products," as the kids say, at Bite PR's PlayBite event. So in the grand tradition of TechCrunch, here's a rundown of the products I tried.

• San Francisco PR firm Bite interviews the San Jose Mercury News senior web editor about the Merc's new media offerings. Sez the editor about the popularity of the Merc's American Idol blog, "Compelling content still rules the day." And by "compelling content," he means "celebrity trash." (Gawker Media heartily agrees.) [Bitemarks]