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Huffington Post acquired by AOL, Arianna Huffington named EIC
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Acquisitions, Corporate News, News,
AOL said Sunday night that it will acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million, which will place Arianna Huffington at the helm of all of AOL's media properties as editor in chief.
Boards of both companies have approved the transaction, AOL said in a press release. About $300 million will be paid by AOL in cash.
With the move, Huffington will oversee all of AOL's editorial content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, MapQuest, and other properties.
Although The Huffington Post is private, the site records 25 million unique visitors per month, generating an undisclosed number of pageviews. The site also generates 4 million comments per month, according to AOL. Combined, the AOL properties will deliver 270 million visitors per month around the world, with 117 million in the U.S., AOL claimed.
Click to continue reading Huffington Post acquired by AOL, Arianna Huffington named EIC
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In a connected world such as the one we live in today, we are constantly bombarded with news non-stop. This is why we sometimes need a way to distinguish what's important and current from the rest of the fluff. Newsmaps helps us visualize the world of news in a easy to understand format. This tool visualizes Google News results using a treemap visualization algorithm that helps display all the information in a user friendly way. Bigger font? Popular story. Colors? Categorize the topic of the story. Color intensity? How fresh or old the story is. We can customize our news by interest and even location. Although the colors and fonts can seem a little harsh on the eyes, it gets our attention to what is important.
Do you use a similar tool such as this? Feel free to share it with us in the comments.
MySpace is for sale
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Acquisitions, Rumors, Social Media, Social Networks,
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During an earnings call, News Corp. COO Chase Carey indicated that "now is the right time" to place MySpace "under a new owner". The news is not a big surprise, as things have been going downhill for the social network. Its owner, News Corp., has attempted to revive the property last Autumn with a site redesign, and while the site is still popular with some niche crowds, there's no question that Facebook took its place long ago. Still, Carey stays positive on the outlook of MySpace, saying “the new MySpace has been very well received by the market and we have some very encouraging metrics, but the plan to allow MySpace to reach its full potential may be best achieved under a new owner.” Of course, it's still unknown whether anyone would be interested in buying it.
OkCupid acquired by Match.com for $50 million
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Acquisitions, Startups,
IAC on Tuesday announced that its popular dating site, Match.com, has acquired smaller rival OkCupid for $50 million.
In a statement, Greg Blatt, chief executive of IAC, said OkCupid was the "best" and "fastest-growing site" in 2010.
"We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com offer, creating a true complimentary relationship between our various business models," Blatt said.
Click to continue reading OkCupid acquired by Match.com for $50 million
Facebook to introduce revamped commenting system
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Rumors, Social Networks,
Facebook has offered blog owners the ability to integrate their commenting system into their own sites for a while now. So fa, it has seen limited adoption, with most sites using their own commenting system, or something like Disqus, and integrating the 'Like' button or Facebook Sharing. Now, rumors abound that the social networking site is about to completely revamp its commenting system, and is set to offer the same functionality that'll allow this much enhanced version to replace the comment system on most blog platforms. Some of the rumored features include threading, comment voting, and the ability to login using Twitter or Google IDs.
Read More 
| AllFacebook
Vokle: Set up your own Internet talk show
Posted by Reza Malayeri Categories: Social Media, Startups, Video Services,
Vokle is comprised of a small team of technology and communication enthusiasts in California, and they've built an incredibly powerful platform for video conferencing. With just a few clicks you can become the host of your own video talk show, and start taking questions from a live audience.
You can post your show in one of several categories on Vokle, including topics like: entertainment, arts & lifestyle, technology, business, learning, and offbeat. It's is easy to use, social media friendly, entertaining, and very interactive.
Vokle has built its platform with a heavy focus on social media integration, and you can sign into the website using your Facebook or Twitter account. I found the embed feature to be one of the coolest I've seen in any video sharing service. You can embed a single line of code on any webpage, giving fans and followers multiple access portals to your show when it goes live.
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Read More | Vokle
Google Products Table of the Elements
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Business Tools, Design,
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Google published a pretty impressive page with all of their developer products in a table of the elements-style arrangement. It fills the whole screen and shows off the sheer amount of products the company is working on. Some are well known like Gmail and Picasa. Others, like Google Secure Data and BigQuery, are pretty obscure. Check it out if you're interested in the inner workings of the biggest search engine out there.
Read More | Google
Facebook testing Buy with Friends group buying option
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Partnerships, Social Networks,
Facebook revealed at the Social Apps Conference that they are currently in the testing phases of a new feature for the social networking site called "Buy With Friends" which is a kind of group buying option. When someone buys a virtual item in an app or game, and posts about it on their news feed, any of their friends will be able to buy the same item directly from that news feed, at a discount. This will allow people to save money on virtual goods, and incitate more people to purchase items. It's a small feature, but that could bring a lot of money if it takes off.
Read More | Mashable
The Facebook iPhone and Android apps have been highly developed and kept up to date with the latest features that the social networking site offers. However, most people around the world are not using smartphones. That's why Facebook launched a new app designed for feature phones, supporting more than 2,500 devices from LG, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and more. The new app provides a better experience than using the mobile site, while still being viable for a lower powered device. Facebook worked with 14 carriers to offer free data usage for this app, with more coming. There's no doubt that this will bring more people to the site, especially from developing countries.
Read More | Facebook blog
LOLCats Cheezburger Network picks up $30 million in funding
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Blogging, Corporate News, Funding, Startups,
Venture capital firms have thrown $30 million behind one of life's simplest pleasures: looking at funny pictures of cats and writing hilarious captions to go with them.
The Cheezburger Network, the company that owns the humor and feel-good site I Can Has Cheezburger?, just got a whopper influx of cash, which it says will be used to update existing sites and tools, expand its staff, and perhaps acquire new Web sites.
The investments are led by Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and SoftBank Capital. Brad Feld of Foundry, Greg Gottesman of Madrona, and Rich Levandov of Avalon will join the Cheezburger board.
The funding means "that we are going to be able to provide you with even more content and an even better user experience," Jen Nausin, marketing director for the Cheezburger Network, said in a blog post. "As it relates to specific features, this might sound crazy, but honestly, we're not sure what's coming yet. We're a company that's about testing ideas and understanding what our users want from us so keep your feedback coming!"
Click to continue reading LOLCats Cheezburger Network picks up $30 million in funding
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