Rumors are swirling here and here that Twitter is buying the Summize search engine. See Techmeme for still more rumors about a possible acquisition. Twitter refers users directly to Summize at times - such as when its replies tab is not functioning. A lot of Twitter users rely on the Twitter search engine to keep track of when their username is mentioned. Silicon Alley Insider says they don't know if the deal is true but that it sounds plausible.

The deal was first reported by English blogger Josh Chandler; Path 101 founder Charlie O'Donnell confirms the deal on his blog, but doesn't cite any sources. Meanwhile, a source close to the company tells us it's not true.

So we don't know what to believe, but it sounds plausible -- Summize's real-time Twitter search is a nice feature that Twitter doesn't have. And Summize has helped Twitter out in the past -- when Twitter's "replies" feature went dead a few weeks ago, Twitter officially recommended using Summize as a quick fix.

One way for Twitter to add the features users is want is to simply buy the third-party apps they like. Twitter's uptime issues have continued this summer so much so that the Fail Whale image that appears when Twitter is struggling has become a popular icon and Internet meme of its own. ReadWriteWeb notes that Twitter's uptime issues has cynics concerned that a Twitter-Summize deal might mean Twitter will now break Summize. That's pretty cynical but it's easy to see why people might worry about it.

For more on this story use Summize to see what Twitter users are saying about the speculation.

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Everyday numerous videos are removed from YouTube. Often videos are removed because of an alleged copyright violation. A judge recently sided with Viacom in its request for the records of every video YouTube users have watched including IP data. Wired says Google was also ordered to provide "copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason." The process by which YouTube removes videos is complex but a site called YouTomb is dedicated to tracking the videos removed from YouTube because of a copyright complaint. It is an interesting compilation and includes videos that have been on YouTube for over two years before they were taken down. YouTomb says it is a research project by MIT Free Culture.

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.

More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the video was up before takedown. The goal of the project is to identify how YouTube recognizes potential copyright violations as well as to aggregate mistakes made by the algorithm.

The videos discussed on YouTomb cannot be viewed. It is merely a research project to find out more information about how YouTube goes about removing videos.

Posted in Videos

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Google and Seth MacFarlane have cut a distribution deal that will send fifty short two-minute episodes of a MacFarlane-created show called Cavalcade screaming around Google's AdSense network. It's an interesting use of the AdSense network and one that is likely to garner Google new content partners if it is successful.

Silicon Alley Insider notes that Kim Malone Scott from Google Adsense boldly claims that Google has just "recreated the mass media." Silicon Alley Insider also notes that MacFarlane is wisely keeping his hefty Family Guy job with Fox.

Lots of interesting implications here for publishers, content creators and advertisers here if this takes off. Google's Kim Malone Scott, who runs sales for AdSense, modestly suggests "we have recreated the mass media."

But one thing isn't changing in the short term: If content creators want big paychecks, they had better stick with big media. MacFarlane's deal with Google is a side project, not one that will interfere with his day job working for Rupert Murdoch's Fox network. Good call: The Times notes that he's just signed a multiyear deal with Fox that will pay him more than $100 million.

It is certainly a unique deal and it will be fascinating to see how it all pans at both for Google and MacFarlane but also for the future of online video. Eric Berlin as Online Media Cultist reminds us that the "quality of the new show is obviously going to affect how popular it is, but more than likely that won't be a huge factor in the overall storyline." This is a good points because the public often surprises tv execs with what shows they love or hate. Unfortunately, sometimes shows people love are also canceled because of these same tv execs. How this all translates to online media remains to be seen.

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Paris Hilton is using her MySpace blog to counter stories about her she says are not true. Paris writes that, "These stories have gotten out of control and I want to clear some things up." In her latest post titled "Sick of Rumors," Paris says a New York Post story that she tried to buy a dog from a pet store to use in a photo shoot is false.

Hi guys, hope you all had a great weekend! I just shot the finale for my BFF show and I can't wait for you all to see it...I'll let you all know when it premieres, it's going to be amazing and everyone did such an incredible job.

I wanted to let you know that I've been getting messages and reading stories about an incident that supposedly happened with me and a pet store: I was catching up on news last week only to read a story about me walking by some puppies for sale, and demanding that I be given a Yorkie puppy to be an accessory for a photo shoot. These stories have gotten out of control and I want to clear some things up-

I wasn't looking for a new pet, I wasn't even at a photo shoot that day, (I was down the street at Benji's DCMA clothing store) and I actually have a Yorkie puppy. I love animals and the cruel things people say are not acceptable. Puppies are not accessories or toys and I love my own pets dearly--I treat them as if they were my children. Of course I support pet adoption from shelters, and I made sure that my BFF show involved a local one to spread the word about how these animals need loving owners. So it is sad that someone felt the need to invent a story about me throwing a fit for a dog that would "go with my outfit."

I have no idea where people come up with these stories and they are spreading to so many news outlets that I just have to speak my mind and clear things up, especially with my fans. I love you all and appreciate your messages, as always.

Have a great week, and I will post again soon--after wrapping the BFF show, it's on to more projects, travel and time with the people (and pets) that I love.

Xoxo Paris

Paris Hilton has 177,066 friends on her MySpace site. That's a pretty large group to turn to if you need to correct a story you think is false or misleading. Paris Hilton should really also set up a Twitter page to farther expand her reach.

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L.A. Times journalist and entertainment writer Patrick Goldstein now has a blog called The Big Picture. Goldstein once angered the blogosphere with an article called Beware of Blog and Defamer gives him the blog-hater label. Like many journalists Goldstein is now blogging himself - Mediabistro suggests he try it in his underwear.

The LAT hopes to put Goldstein's knowledge and sources to work in a blog that brings responsible journalism to the faster-than-pulp pace of 24/7 online entertainment reporting.

The Big Picture is one of our favorite columns at the paper, and we're excited to see what it evolves into as a longtime journo wades into the world of full-time blogger. No word yet on whether he'll be reporting in his underwear (we highly recommend it).

Goldstein does read blogs - we hope Patrick Goldstein also likes blogging since he appears to have no choice now but to blog.

It appears he does and that he is motivated to be part of the conversations taking place in the blogosphere. Goldstein has a thoughtful entry about how blogging is changing journalism in his post called, "This blogging life." Goldstein thinks that someday blogs will be the backbone of the L.A. Times newspaper.

That's the idea behind launching the Big Picture blog. As much as I've loved writing a once-a-week column, the world of entertainment and pop culture is moving so fast that it's become impossible to keep up with all the action without weighing in more often than once a week. Over the past few years, I've found myself addicted to reading blogs. The best ones offer a wonderfully brainy, personal and irreverent way of seeing the world. You'll see the paper now has 40-plus blogs, with more being launched all the time.

My guess is that someday soon our blogs will be the backbone of the paper. Journalists have discovered, to our chagrin, that information is everywhere these days. But readers still crave informed analysis and lively writing, which is something we can focus on as newspapers make the transition from mass circulation entities to niche-oriented publications. So while I've got lots to learn about the blogging life--and will surely stumble many times along the way--I'm eager to be a part of that new conversation.

Welcome aboard the blogosphere Mr. Goldstein.

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Some of the Internet's top celebrity blogs have united under a new brand called Celebuzz. The new website owned by a company called Buzznet aims to be both a source for celebrity news and a social network for the celebrity obsessed. The website debuted earlier this month. The general manager of Celebuzz told CNET that there is currently no community on the Internet for celebrity fans.

Already dominated by the likes of Perez Hilton, Popsugar, and the AOL-owned TMZ.com, celebrity gossip is a niche of the Web that some might say doesn't need another outlet. But Celebuzz general manager Karina Kogan told CNET News.com that it doesn't matter. Research showed that celebrity gossip fans are more than happy to use "more than one source to get the same exact story. They're interested in different points of view, and frankly, they're happy to look at the same photo ten times, just in different settings."

She also asserted that Celebuzz offers something new. "There is no community dedicated to celebrity out there," Kogan said. "There are news aggregators, there are blogs, but there is no community for the celebrity fans."

The Celebuzz network includes some of the most popular celebrity gossip blogs including Just Jared, What Would Tyler Durden Do?, The Superficial, Splash News Online and A Socialite's Life. What's interesting is that some of these blogs' domains now roll-over to the celebuzz.com domain. An article in Digital Media Wire says some of the blogs in the Celebuzz network are acquisitions and some are strategic partnerships.

Buzznet has recently been on an acquisition spree, buying noted music blogs Stereogum and Idolator for its music community, and securing strategic partnerships with existing celebrity blogs Just Jared and A Socialite's Life.

Celebuzz will feature content from both its own editorial team and celebrity bloggers, photo and news agencies, pop culture experts, celebrities themselves, and users of the site.

While there are plenty of big gossip blogs in the network there is one notable exception: PerezHilton.com.

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Last week the Associated Press began taking a very aggressive stance on the use of its content. They threatened the Drudge Retort with take-down notices over several items that contained very short 39 to 79 word quotes from its articles. Many bloggers slammed the AP's new tactics. Now, the New York Times reports that the AP is going to set guidelines about how its content can be used on the Internet later this week even though bloggers are following "fair use" rules when quoting AP stories.

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was "heavy-handed" and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.

The quick about-face came, he said, because a number of well-known bloggers started criticizing its policy, claiming it would undercut the active discussion of the news that rages on sites, big and small, across the Internet.

TechCrunch writes that its new policy is simply to ignore the Associated Press.

So here's our new policy on A.P. stories: they don't exist. We don't see them, we don't quote them, we don't link to them. They're banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.

Other bloggers are following suit and choosing not to link to the AP. Some are discussing linking to other news organizations like Reuters or other blogs instead of to the AP. A boycott AP website has been set-up here. The blog at-Largely has a good roundup of the blogosphere's overwhelmingly negative reaction to the AP's bizarre new approach to the Web.

Time will tell if the Associated Press will back off from its sudden new stance or whether they really want to be totally at odds with the way the Internet has been progressing.

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John McCain recently launched a new blog called the The McCain Report. The tagline of the blog is a "blog you can believe in." The Nation reports that a McCain campaign spokesperson sent out the following description of the new blog.

The blog will offer a fresh perspective and will include quotes, the candidate's schedule and photos not available anywhere else. As a part of our continual effort to reach voters, allow unprecedented access and bring greater transparency to American politics, our blog 'The McCain Report' will provide a sounding board for all.

The Nation accurately notes that John McCain trails his opponent Barack Obama when it comes to the Internet. Obama's camp has done very well in staying ahead of social networking trends like Facebook and Twitter. However, neither McCain's or Obama's team has yet set-up an account on the latest social hit Plurk. Both candidates have their own social networks - McCainSpace and my.BarackObama.

The Nation also notes that at least at one point McCain's site had a link to the leftist DailyKos blog so they have been making an effort to link out.

John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain also has a blog at McCainBlogette.com.

Posted in Politics

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Plurk - the microblogging service that is gainging popularity for its easy to follow discussion threads and horizontal timeline - has given its users the ability to mute discussions. The feature was added after a short period of downtime earlier this evening. The way Plurk is a designed a busy thread can constantly burble up - possibly annoying a user that was not at all interested in the thread's topic. Plurk's blog says the mute feature was one of the most requested topics. They are also promising more noise-reducing features in the future.

One of the most requested feature from plurkers is the ability to 'mute' certain plurks so that they won't receive any future 'new response' notifications from it.

Well, be careful of what you wish for.

This will be one of the many more noise-reducing features we will be introducing in near future.

Keep the feedbacks coming and thanks for helping us make plurk-land a better place to hang out.

Now you can happily mute any plurks that are annoying you. You can follow bloggersblog on Plurk here.

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Twitter's woes have continued this week. Plurk is a unique microblogging alternative. To attract more Twitter users Plurk has added a Twitter import tool that tells you which of your Twitter friends have set up an account on Plurk.



There has been some confusion as the import tool adds Twitter friends as fans in Plurk instead of sending out a friend request. Maybe Plurk was trying to avoid the problem of spammers moving from Twitter to Plurk and adding thousands of friends instantly. Some people are also using different names in Plurk so one might inadvertently add someone who is not your old Twitter friend by mistake. Others have said the service limits the number of friends they can locate. It isn't perfect but it does at least provide a way of locating which of your friends have set up account inside Plurk. You can see an interesting thread about it here in Plurk. If you plan on joining Plurk you should consider using your Twitter name since people will probably be looking for it in Plurk.

You can find a list of Plurk resources and tools here. If you need an invite to get into Plurk you can find one here.

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The BBC reports that a Press Complaints Commission survey found that 80% of those polled said they would be more cautious about what they posted on social media websites if they knew they were being watched by the media.

Almost 80% of social networking site users would be more careful about the details they put online if they knew the media might use them, a poll says.

The Press Complaints Commission said 89% of the 1,000 people polled wanted guidelines on what the media could use.

And 42% of 16 to 24-year-old who used such websites said they knew someone who had been embarrassed by material which was posted without consent.

The PCC is opening talks on how it should respond to the issue.

In a sense they are being watched by the media so they should be more careful. On the other hand a lot of what it is posted to social networks is trivial and unlikely to be of any interest to blogs or the mainstream media.

The study also found people think it is wrong for the media to take information they have posted publicly without their consent.

The poll also found 49% of respondents said it was wrong for the media to use information they had posted on line without asking the consent of the person concerned.

And 58% were fairly or very concerned about the lack of control about how they were depicted on websites.

And of social networking site members, 55% considered whether personal details such as photos might be used by someone else without their consent, before posting them online.

Sir Christopher said the PCC's current code of practice would be able to handle complaints about media outlets using material skimmed from networking sites.

Since this information is posted publicly it is hard to see how the media could be prevented from quoting it. Young people posting information publicly that is inappropriate probably have other even bigger concerns as well such as that an employer or university they are applying to might see it.

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You can microblog sideways on a new service called Plurk. As The Inquisitr reports the early adapters are already flocking to the latest microblogging tool. Posts on Plurk (plurks) flow from left to right accross a screen divided into chunks of time. The Inquisitr calls this a "visual timeline."

According to Plurk, the service is "a really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible short messages called plurks." At first glance, I'd call it Twitter with a visual timeline.

Plurk has an emphasis on actions as opposed to clean slate message, and each user is offered there number plus a drop down list with actions such as is, thinking, was, asks and similar. Each "plurk" is posted to a visual timeline that includes drop down threads for replies. The service also offers "cliques" for plurk distribution and various privacy options.

The new service also offers emoticons, image and video sharing, direct messaging and group discussion through cliques.

One downside to the new service is that you need to build up karma in order to do many things. There isn't anything wrong with requiring karma for certain tasks but with Plurk it seems you need karma just to complete your bio and it takes a while to get it. Karma is just one way Plurk has set itself up so that people have to use the service before they can use certain features. For example, if you invite ten or more people you can also gain access to some special emoticons. The service has been a little sluggish at times but that's forgiveable since it is new. However, there is no excuse for that headless creature logo. If you are going to use mutants as logos at least provide them with heads.

Plurk isn't much of a threat to Twitter, the leading microblogging service. Twitter provides a much cleaner and easier way to share news and information. With a large number of friends Plurk could quickly become overwhelming. Plurk is well aware of this as you can see by this fairly strict set of plurking guidelines. They suggest you keep friends under 200 in these guidelines. Plurk is more useful for threaded conversations than Twitter. This combined with its unique and quirky attributes mean it will probably develop a solid following over time.

You can follow bloggersblog on Plurk here. If you need an invite you can get automatically by following this link.

Posted in Twitter

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Bloggers here, here, and here are discussing Twitter developer Alex Payne's recent comment that Twitter is hit the hardest when popular Twitter users "perform a number of actions in rapid succession."

The events that hit our system the hardest are generally when "popular" users - that is, users with large numbers of followers and people they're following - perform a number of actions in rapid succession. This usually results in a number of big queries that pile up in our database(s). Not running scripts to follow thousands of users at a time would be a help, but that's behavior we have to limit on our side.

Robert Scoble seems to think that Twitter is blaming him. It isn't clear that Twitter is signaling him out or anyone else. It sounds more like they were just being honest and saying this is how and where Twitter sometimes starts to become overloaded. (By the way here's a good list of several things that might really be Scoble's fault.)

While Robert Scoble does have a huge number of followers he isn't the most followed on Twitter. Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose and Barack Obama each have far more followers than Robert Scoble according to Twitterholic. Of these three Barack Obama is the only one also following a huge number of people back because his Twitter account uses auto-follow.

Farther down on the list are heavy users like Guy Kawasaki and Chris Pirillo who have about 12,000 to 13,000 followers. My Twitter is a little farther down from them with about 10,500 followers. If they are heavy users then I am too. I do tweet less often than Guy Kawasaki and Chris Pirillo and I tweet much less frequently than Robert Scoble does. I currently have 1,700 updates while Robert Scoble has over 12,000.

Whether a popular Twitter user has 1,000 or 12,000 updates Twitter should be able to handle them and whatever richochet effect they have on Twitter's service. If they can't handle something Robert Scoble or Leo Laporte have to say to their numerous followers then they won't be able to stay up the next time there is a big breaking news event either.

Twitter's Alex Payne also said that they will be adding new limits on what Twitter users can do.

Chris Kilmer and Tembrooke both ask if putting some limits on what users can do in our system would help, and they're both right. We have some limits, and we're adding more. Legitimate users should never notice them, but these new limits should help mitigate the worst case failures and attacks.

Some people are suggesting ways Twitter could try and reduce the number of tweets. Here are few methods.

• Twitter could disable the auto-follow that is used on a number of Twit accounts. This would make these users (like @Scobleizer and @BarackObama) have to manually follow people and it would likely reduce the number of people they follow.
• Twitter could limit the number of people someone could follow. Facebook has a limit of 5,000. Mathew Ingram notes that some people want Twitter to apply follower limits. Ryan Spoon makes the case that Twitter needs its power users. Facebook's 5,000 friend limit sounds far too low for Twitter but do people really need to follow nearly 90,000 people like one user did? While there might someday be a cap on the number of people someone can follow there should never be a limit on how many followers someone can have. It wouldn't be right to tell someone they couldn't get Barack Obama's tweets just because 30,000 other people were.
• Twitter could try harder to stop spammers. There are some obvious adult spammers on Twitter and some that use tricky means to get people to follow links. Others come aboard and quickly follow tens of thousands of people in a few days. They could try and block the follow scripts some of these people must be using.
• They could also look at limiting the number of tweets a person can send per day or per month. Look at this list and you will see a list of 100 Twitterers who each have sent a total of more than 25,000 tweets. Some of them have sent over 100,000 tweets.
• Some Twitter users have also suggested paying for Twitter.

The above measures might all help reduce tweets but that doesn't mean they should be implemented. Twitter has to be careful and find ways that reduce tweets that won't upset its users. It would be best if Twitter would be able to continue to grow without any new restrictions but its obvious they have been having serious growing pains and server issues. Implementing some of these measures could give them more time to add solutions that give them greater tweet capacity. It will be interesting to see what Twitter does next.

Posted in ____

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

Twitter is not just for bloggers and tech people anymore. Over the past few months there has been a steady migration from Facebook and MySpace. Now celebrities like John Tesh are even jumping onboard. You can find John Tesh's Twitter here. So far it just pulls in the latest updates from his blog - like this entry about how smiling is good for you. John Tesh says his blog is the place to go if you need "intelligence, inspiration and encouragement for your life." It goes to figure that his Twitter also aims to inspire you.

John Tesh started out by following lots of people at once including three people at Urlesque. Tesh may have an unflattering following-to-followers ratio right now but it will probably ultimately balance out as more Twitters subscribe to Tesh's tweets. It should be noted that there is still some doubt that this Twitter actually belongs to John Tesh. It would be a pretty boring fake with zero @replies or humorous fake tweets. If it isn't really John Tesh maybe the real John Tesh will notice and come and take it over. Others have said that if John Tesh is really on Twitter it means Twitter has jumped the shark or that it is time to move to Pownce. You can see more tweets about John Tesh's Twitter here and here.

Posted in Twitter

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Common Craft has another helpful video out. This one explains social media in simple terms. They explain it through the invention of "social ice cream" in a town called Scoopville that lets anyone create a unique ice cream flavor. In Scoopville even the weird pickled flavored ice cream has a few fans. Unfortunately, they left out how easy it is for spammers to sneak unwanted ingredients into your social ice cream cone.



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MediaWeek reports that People.com is acquiring the Celebrity Baby Blog, a blog covering celebrity baby news, from from founder Danielle Friedland.

For the time being, celebrity Baby Blog will remain separate from People.com. In the coming weeks, the blog and People.com will begin cross-promoting each other.

People.com hopes the acquisition will grow its appeal with its largely female audience, while it plans other additions, both home grown and through acquisitions, to build traffic to the site.

There is also a post by Friedland about People.com's acquisition here on the Celebrity Baby Blog.

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Talk show sensation Oprah Winfrey is blogging about a strict new vegan diet she has embarked on. The diet will span a total of 21-days. You can find Oprah's blog here. There are no comments on the blog but there is a link on the blog to a "Talk With Others" section. Here's an excerpt from Oprah's latest post.

This morning started with an egg-less quiche. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it, but it was actually okay. I'm not rushing to the breakfast table, but the caramelized onions made it almost tasty.

Lunch was delicious lentil soup and some lovely lettuce leaves and shredded cucumber.

Dinner...mmmmmm good. Asparagus "cream" soup, portobello mushrooms, white beans and spinach and sweet potato chips. A feast!

ShoppingBlog.com says Oprah was inspired by a book called Quantum Wellness to start the 21-day diet and blog. The diet also includes a caffeine fast.

Oprah says she was inspired by the book Quantum Wellness by spiritual counselor Kathy Freston. Ms. Freston suggests trying a 21-day cleanse as a way to jump-start an inner makeover. You have to eliminate caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from your diet for up to 21 days. Just the thought of this diet is horrifying. No caffeine? We don't think so.

No caffeine is harsh. It doesn't sound like a diet that many bloggers could stick to.

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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has made one of the best uses of Twitter to date with its MarsPhoenix Twitter. The MarsPhoenix Twitter kept tweeting - from the lander's point of view - during the final approach to Mars. There were some exciting moments as everyone hoped the landing would be a success.



After making an impressive landing MarsPhoenix informed us that it was in the perfect place for digging.



MarsPhoenix is now updating about the availability of new photographs and its mission duties. The Twitter also links to the mission's website where you can find photographs, video and detailed information about the Phoenix Mars Lander.

Robert Scoble blogged that Mars didn't make the Techmeme front page but this one-line entry on TechCrunch did make it on Techmeme. Techmeme's algoritihms must not have found many people linking to Mars-related posts over the Memorial Day holiday? Scoble also points to a FriendFeed search that shows lots of Mars updates but the best Mars action has been on Twitter on the MarsPhoenix account.

Posted in Twitter

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TechCrunch reports that Stephen Spielberg's rumored ghost and ufo social network will be called The Rising.

We originally heard that The Rising is being created in partnership with Windsor Media, Terry Semel's investment firm, but we still haven't gotten confirmation of their involvement. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo, was put on hold during his tenure there, and fired up again after his departure last year.

The Rising will have original video content with a permanent host in addition to the social network where users can share stories and experiences, tapping into serious demand for this kind of thing. There are thousands of forums dedicated to paranormal and UFO topics today - among them is, yes, a Meetup site for ghost trackers.

The Rising sounds like a good name to use. It's vague enough to cover both the paranormal and UFOs as well as other unexplained happenings. You don't want to have the problem the Sci Fi Network has - they are trying to expand beyond science fiction but are somewhat limited by the initial name they picked for the channel. TechCrunch says The Rising is rumored to be launching sometime this summer.

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Twitter is down again today for the third or fourth day in a row. It has had numerous problems of late after running pretty smoothly from January to April. Part of the reason may be the rapid growth in April. TechCrunch blogged about Twitter's uptime woes recently and Twitter responded. Twitter says the latest outage was due to a database failure.

Downtime is not good. We caused a database to fail during a routine update early this afternoon. We switched to a replica and expect this recovery to take place quickly. We're all working on it and watching right now as Twitter gets back up to speed. We have a thread open on our support forum which we'll update when we have more details to share. Getting our act together is something we continue to work on as we grow our company and our service.

The downtime has become so frequent that the Is Twitter Down? website has changed the answer to the question from "Yes" to "Of Course."





Posted in Twitter

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Usually it is YouTube that tells you when a video is no longer available. This time the Associated Press posted a video to its YouTube channel that states that the video is no longer available. The video also includes a soundtrack with the speaker saying, "This video clip is currrently unavailable."

The video contains the following description:

Entertainment ExtraThis Video Is No Longer Available.This Video Is No Longer Available.The Associated PressThis video is no longer available.This video contains ONLY natural sound. No script is ava...

The video also contained the following keywords:

emergency clip video available

Clearly the AP posted the video in error but it is amusing to read some of the comments and watch people give the video 5-stars. Other bloggers including DJPalmer.com are also posting the AP's odd video.



Posted in Videos

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Editor and Publisher reports that Mike Koehler, a sports editor for The Oklahoman, has launced a blog called Praying for Papers. The blog offers prayers for those in the industry who are losing jobs. There are also prayers to help guide the newspaper industry's leaders.

Mike Koehler, deputy sports editor at The Oklahoman, has started a new blog/Web project called www.prayingforpapers.com, designed to bring help through prayer where it is needed, as newspaper-industry challenges continue to mount.

"The goal of my site is to update visitors on who needs prayer in our business," Koehler tells E&P. "This will include recent layoffs, the business in general, as well as leaders and people with specific prayer requests. It's for Christians and non-Christians alike."

The newspaper industry has been struggling for the past several years. The most obvious solution was to go digital with online local news, blogs and web classifieds. This is the direction the newspaper industry finally took although they were slow to embrace it. However, even this path finds newspapers faced with hordes of competition from blogs, online video and independent websites.

Here's a description from Praying for Papers about what you can find on the blog.

This is a troubling time in the newspaper business. Every day we hear stories from papers that are laying off employees and struggling to stay afloat.

Our idea at Praying for Papers is to encourage anyone who is touched by this shift in our industry to include it each day in their prayer life.

This includes:

* Praying for your brothers and sisters in the business who have lost their jobs or may be in danger of losing their jobs - as well as their families.

* Prayers for the leaders of our business to do the right thing in their decision-making, having them keep in mind what Christ would do.

* Praying for the people in our business who are far from God.

One of the entries on Praying for Papers has a link to this cartoon that illustrates the problem print newspapers are facing.

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The New York Times has launched a blog for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing called Rings.

Rings is dedicated to the full range of topics surrounding the summer Games in Beijing, from the competition itself to the social, political and economic issues attached to them. Rings brings together analysis and perspectives from sports, foreign and business reporters at The New York Times and in its bureaus around the world.

"We expect the Rings blog, which draws on The Times's talent and resources across all departments, to become a must read for those interested in all aspects of the Beijing Games," said Sandy Keenan, deputy sports editor, The New York Times. "The blog will serve as an engaging platform for continuous sports and news coverage during the Games."

The Games in Beijing are already generating worldwide attention, and Times journalists have begun to post about issues such as the controversy surrounding the torch relay, the intricacies of the Olympic trials in the United States and discussions of Web censorship by China's government.

Much of the coverage of China recently has been devoted to the earthquake in China's Sichuan Province. The coverage of this catastrophe will continue even as the Olympics arrive in August. Other mainstream media outlets have also launched Beijing Olympics blogs including Countdown to Beijing (Reuters), Olympics 2008 (BBC) and Blogging Beijing (Seattle Times).

Posted in Olympics

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CNET and its array of Internet properties have been acquired by CBS in a $1.8 billion acquisition. Paid Content says the deal is expected to close in Q3.

Said CBS CEO Les Moonves in the statement: "CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives. We could not be more pleased with the prospect of adding CNET Networks and its tremendous team of people to the CBS family. I look forward to working with Quincy Smith, Neil Ashe and the considerable combined talent at both companies, as we build upon our success."

Among the sites in the CNET family that will be part of CBS Interactive pending approval: CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic. The company has also been building out its China operations, with sites devoted to womens content and auto.

The press release can be found here. CNET has a lot of blogs and websites with a considerable amount of traffic. CBS should be able to use these blogs and websites to help drive traffic to other CBS properties.

ReadWriteWeb calls CNET the "the granddaddy of all the blog networks on the web." They run a number of well-known blogs including Webware, The Iconoclast, The Social and Crave. You can see all of CNET's blogs here.

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Vibe reports that singer/songwriter Ne-Yo has turned bloggy for his upcoming album.

R&B singer/songwriter Ne-Yo has launched his very own blog called "Year of The Gentleman" to promote his album of the same title. In his blog, Ne-Yo writes about his experiences on his latest tour alongside R&B diva Alicia Keys and newcomer, Jordin Sparks. He also posts pictures with fans and writes about all of his favorite things, from cars to cologne.

The singer also gives his fans the ability to send their mothers a personalized greeting for Mother's Day, encouraging them to get "Closer" (the title of the first single off of The Year of the Gentleman) to the women who raised them.

But how close will Ne-Yo be getting with his fans through this blog? Pretty close. He has added personal pictures from his tour as well as videos. He even admits in one entry that he thinks Jordin is "kinda sexy in person."

The blog can be found on the Year of the Gentleman website. That's also the name of Ne-Yo's upcoming album. The blog includes permalinks, photos and comments. Ne-Yo blogs about his concert tour as well as some of his favorite things - such as his favorite fashions and favorite cologne.

Sorry, it's too late to send Mom a Ne-Yo Mother's Day Card -- maybe he will have a new one for Father's Day.

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