It wasn't exactly a smackdown, but it didn't help Google exec Peter Norvig to challenge Tim Berners-Lee in a discussion on the Semantic Web. (The Semantic Web, by the way, is the Web 2.0 of four years ago.)

See, when you're head-to-head with TeeBeeLee (Tim's preferred gangster name), it's not about the topic at hand. It's about who's more awesome. Namely, TeeBeeLee is more awesome.

Again, this is the man who starts blog entries with "When I invented the Web..." After that, who cares what he says?

If Google wants to send someone to debate — or even have a slightly conflicting opinion with — the inventor of the Web, they can send one man: Vint Cerf, who basically invented the Internet. Now that'd be an epic battle.

Google exec challenges Berners-Lee [CNET]