Categories: blogs

Technorati: Many Bloggers Get Paid

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 19

Today, blogs tracker Technorati released a new report on the state of blogging, and it appears that a respectable number of bloggers out there manage to eek out a living.

Will Ad Networks Usher in a New Media Order?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 19

When I proposed the story on how the economy is hitting online advertising, which appears in this week’s BusinessWeek, I had hoped to take it a little further than I…

Federated Media Raises $50 Million (and a Few Eyebrows)

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 15

There’s money in blogs after all. Ad network Federated Media, which aims to help blogs and other online sites create the new generation of media giants, announced this morning that…

Marc Andreessen’s Moonlighting Job: Blogger

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 07

Marc Andreessen, Ning cofounder and onetime Netscape cofounder, has started blogging. And hey—he’s real good. He should have been a writer (except he was smart enough to realize there’s no…

Google Reader: I’m a Convert

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 11

I’ve been frustrated in my blog reading the past few months because my preferred method of reading RSS feeds, MyYahoo (quit laughing, Mike), broke once I tried to read more…

The Dirt on Techdirt’s New Blogger Community

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 11

I’ve always liked the sharp, pithy analysis of current tech issues on the Techdirt blog, but it turns out that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the Belmont (Calif.)-based…

Unrepentant PayPerPost Gets Funding

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 02

Three months after getting slammed by BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine, TechCrunch’s Marshall Kirkpatrick, and a gazillion bloggers, PayPerPost is crying all the way to bank. The Orlando-based startup, which matches advertisers…

New Online Ad Model at Techmeme

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 25

The popular tech news aggregator Techmeme just debuted a new advertising/sponsorship model that looks pretty interesting to a lot of folks besides me. Founder Gabe Rivera explains: There’s a…

Web 2.0 Ads: Another Sign of a Bubble?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 05

I wish Om Malik the best with his new tech news gig, and I bet he’ll find (or keep, I should say) a sizable audience. But I think even he…

What’s Up, Mike? A Brief Talk with TechCrunch’s Editor

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 11

Mike Arrington’s new CrunchGear blog won’t be the end of his ambitions. Mike told me he’s planning two more blogs in the next month, starting with gaming, probably by acquisition….

Munch, Munch, More Crunch: Now It’s CrunchGear

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 10

TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington has sure been busy. Tonight he debuted yet another site, CrunchGear, a new gadget blog headed by former Gizmodo editor John Biggs. As Mike describes it: Expect…

Mega GigaOM

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 10

Om Malik’s new site is up, packed with more features, like tabs for various sections and RSS feeds for each of those sections. Lots to digest. Bon voyage, Om….

The Death of Ads?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 22

Two of the biggest marketers in the world showed up at the Supernova conference in San Francisco today and sounded more like Web 2.0 zealots than brand giants. Michael Wiley,…

eBay Dives into Web 2.0

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 14

eBay, arguably the original Web 2.0 company, is sure latching onto the newfangled 2.0 stuff. Today, it announced eBay Wiki, with service hosted by JotSpot. It’s intended to allow members…

Om Goes Indie

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 13

Silicon Beat has the news: Uberblogger Om Malik is leaving Business 2.0 to create a news site of some kind—more details from him tonight. I’ve admired his ability to do…

Microsoft’s Big Loss

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 12

Scoble’s leaving. Wow. Hard to imagine a guy who helped Microsoft’s image more. He explains why he’s moving on. Good luck, Robert!…

eBay Gets into the Ad Game, Sort Of

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 11

I couldn’t make it early enough to the eBay Developer Conference in Las Vegas to hear the company announce eBay AdContext, which at first sounds like a competitor to Google’s…

Why Are Blog Names So Boring?

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 18

Just ran across Cathode Tan. Even if I didn’t like the posts (and I do), I probably would have subscribed just for the great name. But it got me thinking…

Who Reads Blogs Anymore?

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 15

Obviously a lot of people. But not A-list blogger Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, apparently. At the TiEcon conference in Silicon Valley last week, he threw out this aside: “I don’t…

TechCrunch Goes Green

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 12

Mike Arrington’s well-read TechCrunch blog has a new look, as he announces on one of his other blogs, CrunchNotes. Many of the commenters there aren’t so sure about the…

Blogs Multiply. Our Heads Explode

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 18

Just catching up to Dave Sifry’s latest State of the Blogosphere report. The CEO of Technorati says the blog tracking firm now counts more than 35 million blogs, as the…

Edgeio’s New Blog Platform

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 24

When Edgeio soft-launched a few weeks ago, it got a lot of deserved attention for its novel idea of vacuuming up classified-ad listings logically tagged “listing” on millions of blogs…

Edgeio Edges Toward Launch—and a Clash with E-Commerce Giants?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 09

Edgeio, the much-anticipated, secretive startup by onetime RealNames founder Keith Teare and TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington, suddenly isn’t so secret anymore. Although its “official” launch is weeks away, possibly Feb….

Help! My Home Page Has Fallen and Can’t Get Up!

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 08

OK, I think my feed reading habits have finally broken my browsers. When I go to my MyYahoo page (and even more, when I click on a link to leave…

The Future of Media: Microchunks or Brands?

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 12

VC Fred Wilson and serial entrepreneur Mark Pincus are debating what the next era of media will be. Fred think it’s RSS-style microchunks of content that carry ads and are…

IM + Mobile + Publishing = … Something Big

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 02

Now here’s a use for instant messaging that may finally get me to use it on my cell phone. (As you can probably tell from my photo, I’m old enough…

Courteous Spammer

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 22

Just got a comment from somebody whose mother must be proud, so I have to share it with you. It reads: Three phrases should be among the most common in…

Feed Editors? Um, Yeah, They’re Called Magazines

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 02

Mark Pincus has another take on Fred Wilson’s post on the coming attention crisis he sees in countless new RSS feeds and Web services, which I blogged about a few…

Another Apple blog? Yeah!

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 01

Check out BusinessWeek’s newest blog: Byte of the Apple. It’s written by a team made up of our Mac and ‘pod aces Peter Burrows and Arik Hesseldahl and consumer electronics…

Finally, Better Blog Search?

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 14

TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington got what appears to be one of the first looks at Sphere, a new blog search service that the general public won’t be able to see for…

Google Debuts RSS Reader

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 07

Jason Shellen of Google Labs is demonstrating the latest of the search giant’s gazillion services at the Web 2.0 conference: Google Reader. I’m just trying it out for the first…

It’s a Blog Blog Blog Blog World

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 06

Technorati’s Dave Sifry is presenting the latest stats on blogs at the Web 2.0 conference. Some interesting nuggets: The number of blogs is still doubling every five months, as it…

Get Ready for Flock

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 05

Who’s crazy enough to create a new Web browser? The folks at Flock, apparently. No, you can’t try it out for another couple weeks unless you know some secret digerati…

Our New Design and Innovation Blog

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 26

Bruce Nussbaum joins the roster of blogs on BusinessWeek Online with NussbaumOnDesign. He’ll be looking at the business of innovation and design. Like the rest of us, he aims to…

The Tao of Blogs, Part I

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 23

It’s still a mystery to me why some of my blog posts get a lot of comments, while others seem to get lost in the ether. Lately, though, I have…

More on RSS Readers (But Still Less Than I Want)

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 01

All the helpful comments on my post on RSS feed reading frustrations (well, except for the person who suggested my complaints are “slop”—gee, thanks) made me realize exactly what I…

Sorry, Yahoo, I Give Up…

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 30

I wish I could stick with my trusty MyYahoo to look at all the RSS feeds I want to see, but it’s not to be. I’ve bumped up against the…

London Bombings: Bloggers Keep the News Coming

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 07

Check out the unbelievably swift response from bloggers and others to the tragic bombings this morning in London. First there’s the interesting and useful map from London blogger Kosso of…

An Explosion in New Web Sites

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 05

The O’Reilly Radar blog reports on a Netcraft survey that indicates accelerating growth of new Web sites. The reasons given are both promising and potentially problematic. Netcraft says blogs and…

Blogs Without Borders

Posted by: Heather Green on June 15

Reporters Without Borders lists winners from an online vote of 60 blogs deemed to defend freedom of expression.

How to Blog Without Getting Fired

Posted by: Olga Kharif on June 14

Electronic Frontier Foundation just released two papers that explore legalities of blogging — and which could help some bloggers not to get fired.

Blogs on Ice: Signs of a Business Model?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 02

Uberblogger Doc Searls once noted that blogs don’t necessarily need a business model to be worthwhile. “Does your phone have a business model? How about your porch? Or your driveway?”…

Update on News You Can Trust

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 20

About a month ago, I flagged a survey from MoveOn.org that asked questions about a possible online news service filtered by journalists and “citizen reviewers.” It looks like the…

Tagging and Feedster

Posted by: Heather Green on May 20

Interesting prototype application of tagging at Feedster. Scott Rafer, Feedster;s CEO and president is looking for comments….

On FeedDemon and Scoops

Posted by: Heather Green on May 19

Jason Calacanis is on a tear over whether CNET should give Om Malik credit for breaking the story about FeedDemon. Dave Winer has some smart points that I couldn’t agree…

Ow! I Just Hit MyYahoo’s Ceiling

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 17

I’ve been trying to add RSS feeds to my MyYahoo page for days now, and they simply won’t appear. I wonder if I’ve lost my mind. Then I stumble on…

Acquisitions R RSS

Posted by: Heather Green on May 17

About FeedDemon being bought by Newsgator.

Bad News, Bloggers

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 11

A federal judge has just ruled that the three Web sites that published leaked information about upcoming Apple Computer products must divulge their sources. It’s a decision that means bloggers…

Does Technology Make the Journalist?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 04

Or unmake the journalist? That’s the upshot of a key preliminary ruling in Apple Computer’s lawsuit against several sites that revealed details about the company’s new products. Apple contends that…

Ask Jeeves enters the blogosphere

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 05

The only way to keep track of the many good blogs out there is to use software or Web services such as Bloglines to capture the never-ending information feeds in…