Nothing quite interesting on the networks, getting tired about the recession and Madoff along with each and everything Mr. President does(from his choice of soft drink to the blackberry, etc.)and how ahrder life is getting, blahhhh….blah…bla. As expected, the guys finally announced their re-launch of some of their blogs(if not all), Splashpress has announced again and again they would be re-launching their blogs, some of which have stood the test of time and were overdue for extreme makeovers. The network has revamped the sites and are injecting new blood into the ranks for both editors and bloggers. Some are old some are new, the bloggers will once again grace the many blogs that have been left, well should we call it as they have always been, and are in the process of giving them new looks through themes but also re-aiming them to more relevant and bloggerriffic stardom(hopefully).
If you click on this link, you’ll get the whole picture of the what, why and who’s of the happenings in the network that is Splashpress. Some of the blogs were in fact launched last year and have been getting regular postings and reviews from the blogosphere as it takes on the recession and the new presidency of course. Thord Hedengren, the bloggers of all bloggers is on the team, injecting his views and expertise on some of your best blogs as the network aims for excellence in spite of the recession that seems to have everybody on the blogosphere with whatever they want. They also announce the acquisition of the Pod Basket, Blogger Talks and Live Arcade Review along with extreme theme designs that rival some of the best in the world of blogging.

Giga Omni Media network has just acquired TheAppleBlog, as reported by Om Malik himself on the GigaOm blog. Started in 2004, TheAppleBlog is now the seventh member of GigaOm’s blog roster.

Quoting Om Malik:

I had always wanted to start an Apple-related blog — one that was more analytical, did more in-depth reviews and at the same time focused on helping the new switchers to Mac and iPhone platforms, making suggestions on tools and applications. What we didn’t want to do was compete with the existing blogs, especially ones that do a great job of breaking and aggregating news — sites such as the AppleInsider, MacNN, TUAW, and the MacDailyNews.

Congrats to GigaOm for this prized acquisition.

Our sister site The Blog Herald reports that Technorati has just purchased Blogcritics.org, a diverse blog network and “an online magazine, a community of writers and readers from around the globe.”

The Blog Herald writes:

Blogcritics publishes submissions from bloggers within their own specialty. With over 70k articles and 2k contributors, the site receives approximately 1 million unique monthly visitors.

Blogcritics will be incorporated into its Technorati Media division.

Read the full news item.

Om Malik’s GigaOm network has acquired jkOnTheRun, a blog on mobile gadgets. jkOnTheRun becomes the sixth blog in the network.

In his announcement, the network’s founder and senior writer explains their choice of blog to acquire:

Strategically, it’s a publication that rounds out our existing areas of coverage. For instance, GigaOM tracks the world of web infrastructure pretty closely, but very rarely do we write about cloud client machines.

In related news, we’ve also added GigaOm (or Giga Omni Media) to our watchlist. We know, we know — we should’ve done this sooner. But as they say, better late than never.

Aside from jkOnTheRun, other GigaOm properties include:

• WebWorkerDaily
• NewTeeVee
• Earth2Tech
• OStatic
• GigaOm Jobs

On-the-rise blog network Splashpress Media has just acquired and revamped the popular CSS Star website, as announced on the outfit’s blog:

CSS Star is a free gallery of well-designed websites. The main driving force behind CSS Star is to highlight the best sites, ideas or designs made respecting quality standards. The editors behind CSS Star regularly pick a website that well-designed in terms of aesthetic and user interface.

The site is managed by Ia Lucero, one of the network’s “resident design gurus.”

Visit CSS Star.

Secret merger talks between blog network giant b5media and Technorati fizzled out recently, TechCrunch reports:

Blog search engine Technorati was days away from merging with blog network b5media when the whole deal blew up earlier this week, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

The talks with Toronto-based b5media (they’re big in Canada) indicate that it is taking the blog roll-up idea more seriously than we previously thought. If the merger with b5media had gone through, Technorati would have gained a network of 340 blogs.

John Evans, former b5media worker and current owner of rival network Syntagma Media offers his opinion:

Technorati has a big name, but is largely associated with a failure to live up to its billing. B5media has relentlessly stuck to its remit and expanded to 340 blogs.

I’ve long since lost faith in this horizontal model, which basically claims that small-scale content sites multiplied n-hundred times add up to a better business than three or four wowsers, or a tight-niched, product-based network, like Glam or TechCrunch. In this case, less is almost certainly more.

Two of Splashpress Media’s prime properties, DevLounge and Wisdump will fuse their energies together — without leaving each other’s domains.

SP Media veteran Thord Daniel Hedengren has taken over the reins at both sites, and the Splashpress official site has this to say:

What made Thord’s plans especially exciting with the takeover of DevLounge was how he wanted to tie up DevLounge in “symbiosis” with Wisdump, with one focusing its content “about” WordPress design, while the other concentrates on “within” WordPress design (tips, tricks, etc). And to physically join these communities, Thord is planning a joint forum: WisLounge.com.

Six Apart, creator of MovableType, Typepad, and Vox has sold off one of its “babies”, LiveJournal. The popular blogging and social platform is now in the hands of Russian media company SUP.

Blog Herald’s Tony Hung has an insight on the acquisition:

You may be wondering how a blogging company will do a Russian company like SUP at its helm.

…In a place where the political and journalistic organs are not as transparent as other places in the world, coupled with a sophisticated and technologically savvy audience, it seemed like blogging had an important role to play both inside and outside politics, as a legitimate “alternative” form of journalism and media…

With that kind of background, I suspect that LiveJournal is in better hands than most bloggers might be concerned about.  But time will really tell, I suppose.

Read the full report on Blog Herald.

Blog network Splashpress Media is continuing to stamp its mark on the blogosphere with key additions and improvements over the past several days. Here’s a handy guide to what SP Media has accomplished:

Launched

• Blogosphere News — From the network’s Editor-in-Chief, J. Angelo Racoma: “With Blogosphere News, members can submit their own entries, and these can be anything related to blogging–new blog launches, blogging tips, blogging news, blogger events, software, widgets, how-tos, videos, and the like. Users also get to vote on other members’ stories that they think are worth reading. Bad stories (spam, duplicates, useless stuff) can be “buried”. The more popular entries would then be promoted to the front page. You know the Digg system? Yes, it’s the same!”
• Erati — This blog on all things TV forms a cornerstone of SP Media’s new celeb blog network.
• Manchester United News — A new site similar to Digg and powered by the ManUtd Blog.

Acquired

• Devlounge — A popular design-oriented community site to be managed now by Thord Daniel Hedengren.
• Splogspot — A search engine for spam blogs. Quite a novel idea!
• Blogging Pro — The first of 5 heavyweight blogs acquired by Splashpress from Bloggy Network; the others are the next four blogs. BP is a mecca for blogging-related topics, such as personal blogging, blog monetization, and technical aspects of blogging.
• Forever Geek — One of Bloggy Network’s most loved blogs; for geeks and by geeks.
• Celebrific –The acquisition of this celeb blog will reinforce Splashpress’ commitment to building a strong roster of entertainment/showbiz blogs.
• Filmsy — Want reviews of the latest box office hits and disc releases? Get ‘em here. Filmsy rounds up an entertainment-centric trio together with Erati and Celebrific.
• BFeedMe –Blog readers are devourers of information, and the info on this blog is all about…food!

Together with this acquisitions, Splashpress Media has also been joined by David Peralty, Bloggy Network’s Director of Communications, as reported by Blog Herald.

Relaunched

• Celebrity Chefs — The fourth blog in Splashpress’ showbiz network-in-a-network…
• Hollywood Blog — …and this makes it five!
• Japan Blog — All about the Asian nation, from gadgets to society.
• Bloggy Award — This good ol’ mainstay of Splashpress has received a purty facelift!

Discovery Communications (of the Discovery Channel fame) has just purchased TreeHugger for an estimated $15 million.

From the BlogHerald report:

The site will become part of Planet Green, which includes the first 24/7 eco-lifestyle TV network launching in 50 million homes in early 2008.

Treehugger.com has 1.4 million unique monthly visitors and has served over 50 million pages. It also has an archive of 13,500 posts.