Pornography is something that has been easily associated with the Internet every since its inception. Baidu, a leading search engine in China also has a Japanese version but has catered more on providing porn images. Censorship and the fight against pornography is a given and from all indications, Baidu Japan will be most probably blocked from China. Here are some excerpts from this issue:

Baidu, the leading search engine in China, recently launched its Japanese search engine.

But…as you saw the title, some Chinese male bloggers have noticed that it’s quite convenience to use the Japanese search engine to find something that could be found easily on other search engine – a scale of porn images, like this link and this (Warning: DO NOT click them if you are under 18).

According to the theory of Chinese Government, dirty images are not permitted and any foreign websites who provide porn pictures should be censored. So I’m wondering if the Baidu Japan will be blocked one day?

And then there’s this: Keso, king of China’s IT bloggers, recently posted the following information:

Baidu.jp users come from these countries:
China 55.9%
Japan 38.4%
Hong Kong 1.4%
United States 1.4%
United Kingdom 0.7%

The reason Baidu Japan has so many Chinese users can only be that they’re looking for stuff they can’t find on Baidu’s Chinese site.

So it is quite possible that Baidu Japan will get blocked in China, an indignity that Baidu will have to just put up with, or risk alienating their Japanese users by censoring the Japanese results in the same way as the Chinese results.

Which should cause howls of laughter and schadenfreude at Google and other foreign Internet companies in China.

[tags]pornography, china, japan, search engine, baidu[/tags]

Call it as you may, but even blogs have been included in today’s modern age of providing insurance for malpractice issues. It is a known fact that blogs cannot be readily controlled, especially when it tackles sensitive issues, including putting statements that may gain attention and possible cause for drawing the ire of people who would not take remarks sitting down.

This is an excerpt Computerworld and Macworld.

James Paone, a partner at Lomurro, Davison, Eastman and Munoz in Freehold, N.J., said that the firm’s insurer — The Chubb Corp. — said several weeks ago that it would not add the blog to the existing policy. “We were in the process of beginning to set up a blog, having internal discussions about what areas of law would be the subjects,” he said. “We wanted to cover the first base, which is [Chubb’s] coverage. Our insurance carrier said [a blog] is not a risk they were interested in insuring. The entire discussion stopped.”

The approach is quite simple. Blogging has gathered the prestige of drawing much attention and legal issues that has been not entirely defined. With this in mind, insurance companies such as The Chubb Corp., are simply drawing the line with regards to the insurance policy coverage that it intends to carry out.

[tags]blogs, blog news, insurance, policies, coverage[/tags]

Malaysian Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin has directed local newspapes to use other forms of reference and quotes to support their claims in making news briefs regarding sensitive issues surrounding the country’s current state. He likewise stressed that blogs, a growing popular pastime in Malysia and the world, has been doing more harm than good since it offers more on individual insights rather than providing accurate information for certain issues today.

“Do not quote them because you are disgracing yourself as you are the authority. Do not give credit to such anarchist websites,” Zainuddin was quoted as saying.

“The information posted on the blog website may be something provocative, politically motivated, inaccurate and is mostly rumour floated for the interests of certain parties,” Zainuddin was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency. –Baku TODAY

The information minister also pointed out that while blogging has been known to share views and insights, they are acting as instigators to rumor-monguering and doing more harm than good for the country.

[tags]newspaper, current events, asia, malaysia[/tags]

To help push their efforts further, Venture Capital invested $4.5 million to help heave the promising UK blog network which draws close to 3 million readers daily. Such investments made from generous donors who see a promising future for aggressive blogging investments done today has been the obvious reason for such an enormous investment.

Wagner told the Sunday Times: “There are businesses that could have been massively successful but they were denied the resources to fast-track a fabulous idea. There’s got to be a different way of doing this.”

With the investment, a lot of things are being heard here and there as to what would be the next move of Shiny Media and where the money will be going to. With so much plans architected by Ashely Norris, answers to such rumors and queries are sure to be answered in the next couple of days.

I’ll be speaking with Ashley Norris tomorrow to find out more on Shiny’s plans. Commenting on his blog he says: “We have come a very long way in a short space of time with no money. The investment will help us make some of our more ambitious dreams realities.”

[tags]blog network, shiny media, mergers, acquisitions[/tags]

Perhaps the daily need of most bloggers today is that of thinking of a way to be able to help promote their blog and gain attention and traffic to help in its development. Such has been the intention and the task that FuelMyBlog has taken into consideration and has now officially opened for bloggers to publicize their respective blog sites and jack up their hit counts and popularity ratings.

Kevin Dixie says: “I came up with the idea after writing my own blog and wanted to find a site that brought bloggers together and enabled easy reading within a couple of clicks. I always thought of blogs as just online diaries and never realized there was so much good creative content in the blogosphere. Re-launch feedback has been very positive and we have been very encouraged by the buzz generated in the blogosphere.”

Kevin Dixie surely knows what bloggers from all over the world really needs. With FuelMyBlog garnering over 100,000 hits a day along with its special features as highlights likes “Blog of the Day” and widgets, its aid for bloggers will surely be a welcome attraction.

[tags]widgets, blog marketing, blog promotion, seo, links, features[/tags]

After doing a survey on random men aged 18 to 35, it was found that these people would prefer to utilize technology rather than the usual old style of reading magazines.

“Teens today are so tech savvy and to keep up with the times we realized that a print magazine no longer meets their needs,” Mattel licensing manager Victoria Field said. “Barbie is constantly evolving to keep up with young girls, so it’s now time to explore new ways in which to engage with them. Barbie.com is already one of the most frequented sites for girls and there are plans to expand Barbie’s internet presence.”

With the advent of technology and the obvious shift of people to finding articles and information over the web, print advertising and materials are not entirely passé. It just so happened that people find it more convenient accessing such articles over the web, all thanks to technology breakthroughs in this modern age.

Print isn’t dead yet, however. Research released by Magazine Publishers of America showed 262 magazine launches were announced in the US last year, a 2 per cent increase on 2005. Of the new titles, 88 were in the lifestyle category, 29 sports and recreation and 22 shelter. Eight magazines that started as websites or online-only editions made the leap to print during the year.

Source: Relaunched sites offer social opportunities:The Australian, March 15, 2007

[tags]magazines, portals, newspapers, articles, reading materials[/tags]

People who have been religiously patronizing and using WordPress as their main platform in blogging should be aware that the various patches and updates needed to enjoy the continuous reliability of the WordPress must be taken notice. The latest versions or WordPress allows existing users to upgrade to the latest one, the latter of which carries new enhancements and improvements to regular users. The latest upgrade can be downloaded here.

“Just a quick point of clarification. WordPress 2.1.2 is a mandatory security upgrade for all users of 2.1 or 2.1.1

It doesn’t matter if you installed 2.1.1 on the first day it came out, well before the cracker modified the file on wordpress.org. It doesn’t matter if you upgraded to 2.1.1 using SVN. WordPress 2.1.2 has a security fix that 2.1.1 doesn’t have. And it has several fixes that 2.1 doesn’t have. So please, upgrade to 2.1.2 now.”

Also, the holding of the WordCamp 2007 is expected to be another event that bloggers are sure to follow and the details for the second annual event is in the planning stages as of to date.

[tags]wordcamp 2007, wordpress, upgrades, patches, installations[/tags]

CSSVault a site that has been known to store different uniquely designed stuff has been acquired by Hostgator. CSSVault is a prized catch for Hostgator, considering that it boasts of a page rank of 9 with a daily page view averaging 12,000 to 17,000, 5,000 of which is unique.

“While I helped facilitate this sale a while ago (and there was a bit of a ‘quiet period’ going on with it), the go ahead to go public with it is here.

CSSVault, the venerable CSS directory was sold by BloggyNetwork to HostGator Web Hosting for a smooth $100,000.

Revenue and traffic are not going to be disclosed, but lets say the strong brand and strong (actual, and not wishful) potential was a big reason HostGator purchased it.

I will have a follow up interview with Brent Oxley, HostGator’s president soon. He has promised me that the site will be revamped soon. This isn’t a simple purchase – it’s an investment.”

The site was reportedly sold for $100,000.00 and is considered a bargain. With the potential revenue that Hostgator can get out of the site, this purchase price is bound to be covered up in no time.

So now is has come to the transition between traditional writing towards voice recording to serve as messages and content. Voicethread.com has now launched a group audio blog which allows people to record their voices and create voicebooks in the very same way that a person would write and blog on the usual sites.

“We’ve taken the ‘instant’ out of Instant Messaging, and replaced it with the voices that surround evocative media,” said Steve Muth, Co-Founder of Voicethread. “Text is wonderful, but a human voice has an undeniable power.”

Catchy as it may seem, only time will tell when people will be shifting to this new offering by Voicethread and would place conversations over the web and using the human ear rather than reading them.

“Voicebooks transform any image into a discussion that can be shared not only over the Web, but over time. Like a Tivo for voice conversations, you can contribute whenever you want,” said Ben Papell, Co-Founder of Voicethread.com. “The conversations are more thoughtful, they can be saved forever, and they’re easily shared.”

[tags]voicebook, voicethread, voice blogging[/tags]

Is that you’re not really sure about the monetary value, and whether the site will fetch the price you value it for.

Sure, there have been some successful sales, especially of big-ticket blogs like our own Blog Herald (which Splashpress purchased a while back) and some other prime online real estate. But not everyone can enter a mutually-beneficial deal. And if you own a blog network, you have to keep this in mind if you plan to earn money by doing blog buy-and-sell. Lorelle sums it up on a recent Blog Herald post.

New owners don’t buy blogs because they think they can turn it around into a profit venture. This isn’t like buying a run-down factory, throwing time, money, and specialists at it, raising its value then reselling it for 10 times the original buying price. Anyone can start a blog, and with the right know how, they can make money with it. The skills for turning a blog into profit don’t require a used blog. They can do this with a new blog, too. So what incentive and value does a used blog offer them?

There is no exact science to valuation of a blog. Sometimes it depends on the author, sometimes it’s the content. Sometimes its the brand. However, one thing remains to be sure:

Blogs are beginning to become a commodity. As the marketplace grows for buying and selling blogs, the criteria will develop based upon facts and figures not assumptions, conjecture, or wishes. The issue of separating the blogger from the blog will be a huge hindrance, but I think the value of the blogger and the blog may meld in an interesting way as more bloggers consider selling their blogs.

Sometimes I wonder, too, about networks that sell off their blogs and blog-related properties. And I wonder, too about those that buy them. It’s like a game of chance. But as long as money is involved, this is serious stuff.