• Gavin O'Malley, Dec 23, 2009, 1:44 PM
  • Yahoo Pulls Plug On Social Tool MyBlogLog ReadWriteWeb et al. Showing how swiftly the winds of fortune can shift across the digital landscape, Yahoo is reportedly planning to kill its cross-blog social networking widget MyBlogLog next month.

    The service, which shows blog writers and readers the faces and profile information of other MyBlogLog users that visit their sites, was heralded as a wildly innovative service when it first debuted in 2004, and likewise when Yahoo acquired it in 2007 for $10 million.

    "It made a deal with users: Give us your personal information and we'll show you the faces of people who read your blog," writes ReadWriteWeb, which calls MyBlogLog's likely demise "downright tragic," and "likely to anger bloggers all around the web ... That was a compelling offer and the resulting data amassed could have proven invaluable, had Yahoo chosen to cultivate it and a developer ecosystem around it."

    "There was a time in 2006 when MyBlogLog was arguably the hottest social networking tool online -- certainly one of them," writes Search Engine Land, adding, "MyBlogLog doesn't hold the blogging community's attention today the way it did a few years ago, but if the report is true, it will disappoint many who continue to use the service."

    When Yahoo bought MyBloglog in early 2007, it did expand the service by adding basic analytics data, along with more data via paid accounts. As users flocked to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites that popularized status updates as social currency, MyBlogLog let users add information from their social streams. "But ultimately," according to Search Engine Land, "MyBlogLog never seemed to live up to its potential after the Yahoo purchase.

    "Well, color me unsurprised," Jeremy Zawodny -- a respected evangelist for the open-source movement within Yahoo before joining Craigslist in mid-2008 -- writes on the news. Saying that he "genuinely had high hopes for what MyBlogLog could do both inside and outside of Yahoo," he adds, "The service has languished for years... I removed it from my site a long time ago ... It made me a little sad to do so, but it was just slowing things down and not really 'adding value' as they like to say.

    Notes Andy Beal on his Marketing Pilgrim blog, "I don't quite ever remember a social network that I at first so loved, and then ultimately, so hated ... MyBlogLog had so much potential as a network that connected bloggers with their readers." Regarding Yahoo's acquisition, Beal says,

    "The ink was barely dry on the contract when the service simply started sucking." One can argue that MyBlogLog suffered because of better solutions from Google and Facebook, but Beal believe the company's former co-founder Eric Marcoulier hits the nail on the head when he tells ReadWriteWeb:

    "So much of your company's long term success when it's acquired is based on the amount of executive juice it has ... The only way it survives and flourishes is if you have an executive champion who promotes it internally ... Shortly after we were acquired we were transferred away from our champion and under someone who didn't feel the same way about MyBlogLog ... In those circumstances, things simply slow down." Read the whole story...
  • HuffPo Shines Under ComScore Direct Light Daily Finance The Huffington Post has plenty to celebrate and the end of 2009. The news and blogging hub recently received its first batch of data from ComScore's new measurement service, ComScore Direct, which employs "beaconing" -- which records every time there's a server call on a given Web page as opposed to the standard ComScore audience measurement service, which is panel-based, relying on a relatively small group of volunteers willing to have their Internet usage recorded. (ComScore Direct says this method is believed to provide a more accurate view of Internet usage that takes place while people are at work, since big companies are reluctant to have their employees serve on panels.)

    The result? ComScore Direct pegged the site's unique audience at 17.7 million, versus 7.9 million for the panel-only method. "My belief is the reason the Huffington Post numbers grew so dramatically is because it has very high at-work usage," Michele Madansky, a media consultant who works with HuffPo, tells Daily Finance. Read the whole story...
  • Portrait Emerges Of Google's Nexus One Engadget Engadget has new details about Nexus One, the world's first Google-branded smartphone. It looks like the highly-anticipated device will initially only be available on an invitation basis. "Our tipster doesn't have information on how those invites are going to be determined, other than the fact that it's Google doing the inviting -- if we had to guess, current registered developers are a strong possibility -- but the good news, we suppose, is that T-Mobile will apparently sell the phone directly at some to-be-determined point in the future," according to Engadget.

    In addition, the phone will feature Adroid 2.1 operating system; be 11.5mm thick; 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB; a 5 megapixel camera with mechanical AF and LED flash; HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100, 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up -- in other words, yes to T-Mobile 3G and no to AT&T 3G, though you'll still be fine on EDGE; and a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display. Read the whole story...
  • Report: Apple TV Sup Service Looming Financial Times The Financial Times has new details regarding Apple's courtship of the major TV networks, including CBS and Walt Disney, to launch a subscription television service over the internet next year. The service is expected to be offered over Apple's iTunes digital entertainment store, which sells movies and TV shows, but does not offer them for a recurring monthly fee. The debut of the service is among other entertainment and news services that the maker of the iPod and iPhone could offer on the "tablet" computer it is widely expected to launch imminently. According to The Financial Times, Apple has contacted other broadcast and cable networks, including Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System and Viacom, which have so far been unconvinced by Apple's proposal.

    The computer maker has also courted the book publishing industry, sector executives say. Meanwhile, Apple is said to be preparing an announcement next month that many reportedly anticipate will be the official unveiling of its tablet, but the company has so far declined to confirm the existence of the device. Executives close to the discussions tell the Times that they fear Apple's possible TV service could undermine the lucrative economics of the pay television industry, where basic networks such as MTV collect a fee per subscriber from distributors such as cable operators as well as selling advertising. Read the whole story...
  • Report: Consumers Spending Plenty O' Time Online App Scout The average person now spends about 13 hours online each month, according to a new report from Harris Interactive. Yet, online times differed greatly from demographic to demographic, and even person to person. Of the 2,029 adults polled by Harris, about 20% of adults are only online for two hours or less a week, while 14% are on for 24 or more hours a week.

    The report, which excluded time spent on email, are down slightly from last year, when users were online about 14 hours per week. Usage, however, was up from 11 hours per week in 2007. Harris said the increase is likely due to increased access to the Web, as well as the recession. "It probably reflects a growing ability to use the Internet, an increase in sites and applications, increased TV watching online and increased purchasing online," Harris said in the report. Read the whole story...
  • The $75 Laptop Forbes Forbes takes a look at what could someday be the world's cheapest PC, and cost a mere $75. One Laptop Per Child, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's non-profit initiative to put educational laptops in the hands of developing world schoolchildren, is presently upgrading its XO computer, better known as the "hundred-dollar laptop." The new machine, known as the XO-3, is slated for a 2012 release, yet is apparently still more of a pipe dream than a product.

    "Early designs for the PC reveal a minimalist slate of touch-powered electronics that drops practically every feature of a traditional computer except its 8.5-by-11-inch screen, a scheme that would shed all of the first XO's child-like clunkiness without losing its simple accessibility," according to Forbes. Yves Behar, founder of FuseProject, which designed the both the original and the XO-3, tells the magazine that he hopes to shrink the frame around the XO-3's display down to practically nothing, opting for a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one, and no buttons. Read the whole story...