Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

From Search Engine Lowdown: Yahoo Investigates Search Behavior of Parents-to-Be and College Students

The initial key findings in this research revealed that people experiencing such events share certain common characteristics including a desire for trusted information sources, heavy reliance on research prior to making decisions and increased time spent on research during their life event.

Additional key findings from the research include:

- 86% of new parents-to-be said they use the Internet to search about information on pregnancy, as compared to books (68%), friends/family (53%), and magazines (37%).
- 54% of new parents said search simplified their lives more so than magazines (17%) or TV (10%)
- 81% of college students rate search as their best source of information, followed by friends and family (64%), newspaper (36%) and TV (24%)

Read the whole post.

From Search Engine Lowdown: Yahoo Investigates Search Behavior of Parents-to-Be and College Students

The initial key findings in this research revealed that people experiencing such events share certain common characteristics including a desire for trusted information sources, heavy reliance on research prior to making decisions and increased time spent on research during their life event.

Additional key findings from the research include:

- 86% of new parents-to-be said they use the Internet to search about information on pregnancy, as compared to books (68%), friends/family (53%), and magazines (37%).
- 54% of new parents said search simplified their lives more so than magazines (17%) or TV (10%)
- 81% of college students rate search as their best source of information, followed by friends and family (64%), newspaper (36%) and TV (24%)

Read the whole post.

Verisign Buying Moreover?

Good Lord, the RSS/blog market is starting to feel like banks a few years ago...cannibalization everywhere!

In another story I missed this week, it appears that VeriSign is buying news aggregator Moreover. And VeriSign also bought Weblogs.com last week. And VeriSign itself is being purchased by eBay.

Anyone else finding it hard to keep up?

In a funny PS, a comment on the above-linked blog post reads, "Will Google buy VeriSign?" Well, buddy, be glad you didn't put any money down on that one! Looks like Google has some new competition in its scheme to take over the world...

Verisign Buying Moreover?

Good Lord, the RSS/blog market is starting to feel like banks a few years ago...cannibalization everywhere!

In another story I missed this week, it appears that VeriSign is buying news aggregator Moreover. And VeriSign also bought Weblogs.com last week. And VeriSign itself is being purchased by eBay.

Anyone else finding it hard to keep up?

In a funny PS, a comment on the above-linked blog post reads, "Will Google buy VeriSign?" Well, buddy, be glad you didn't put any money down on that one! Looks like Google has some new competition in its scheme to take over the world...

eBay Buys Verisign

This happened earlier this week, but somehow I missed it.

Here's the deal, short and sweet from MarketWatch (who refer to it a as "good move"):

EBay Inc.'s (EBAY) planned acquisition of VeriSign Inc.'s (VRSN) payment gateway business is getting high marks from industry experts, who say that it will bolster the access that eBay's PayPal payment service has to online merchants.

The two companies late Monday announced an agreement under which the online auction company will pay $370 million in cash, stock or both for VeriSign's business that processes debit card and credit card transactions for small and midsize online merchants. The business will be part of PayPal, which will integrate it with its merchant services business. The deal is expected to close in the current quarter

So, that makes sense. PayPal and Verisign are an obvious pairing.  Just struggling to see how the Weblogs.com acquisition will fit in here. As you'll recall:

.... VeriSign's purchase of Weblogs.com from founder Dave Winer is all about infrastructure and, “pings are well on their way to requiring serious infrastructure.”

But there's more to this than merely beefing up the Weblogs.com ping service, according to Netcraft.

“VeriSign is developing RSS security products for the corporate market, and Weblogs.com can be an asset in that effort,” it says.

Maybe it's because I'm sick today, but I can't wrap my brain around how all this will work under the eBay umbrella.

Feel free to comment on this. I'll be reading up and trying to make sense of this month's acquisition madness.

eBay Buys Verisign

This happened earlier this week, but somehow I missed it.

Here's the deal, short and sweet from MarketWatch (who refer to it a as "good move"):

EBay Inc.'s (EBAY) planned acquisition of VeriSign Inc.'s (VRSN) payment gateway business is getting high marks from industry experts, who say that it will bolster the access that eBay's PayPal payment service has to online merchants.

The two companies late Monday announced an agreement under which the online auction company will pay $370 million in cash, stock or both for VeriSign's business that processes debit card and credit card transactions for small and midsize online merchants. The business will be part of PayPal, which will integrate it with its merchant services business. The deal is expected to close in the current quarter

So, that makes sense. PayPal and Verisign are an obvious pairing.  Just struggling to see how the Weblogs.com acquisition will fit in here. As you'll recall:

.... VeriSign's purchase of Weblogs.com from founder Dave Winer is all about infrastructure and, “pings are well on their way to requiring serious infrastructure.”

But there's more to this than merely beefing up the Weblogs.com ping service, according to Netcraft.

“VeriSign is developing RSS security products for the corporate market, and Weblogs.com can be an asset in that effort,” it says.

Maybe it's because I'm sick today, but I can't wrap my brain around how all this will work under the eBay umbrella.

Feel free to comment on this. I'll be reading up and trying to make sense of this month's acquisition madness.

Guest Post: Verisign buys Weblogs.com

A guest post from DigitalGrit's own Frank Patrick:

...But the really big story of validation this week, IMHO, is Verisign buying weblogs.com…the ping “backbone” of the blogosphere. Immediately, it’s probably more of a Relevant Noise story than a DigitalGrit story.

From the blog of the founders (who, a case could be made, could also be called the father of blogs and the read-write web)…

I hope …we'll all find a way to work with Verisign. I think there's reason to believe they can and will do a much better job of running the ping center than I have been able to, and this is the perfect example of individual innovators (myself in this case) working with large companies in ways that leverage the strength of both.

The bootstrap of weblogs.com is something a bigco should not attempt, it's hard to make it go, and most bootstraps don't, and it requires trust, something an individual is more likely able to inspire than a big company. On the other hand, running a serivce that other bigco's depend on (like Google, and Microsoft, to name two) is not something a person like myself should attempt. I think Verisign is the perfect company to do it. Their name servers, I hear, respond to 250,000 requests per second at peak loads. In comparison, weblogs.com's 1-2 million pings a day seems a drop in the bucket. Further, it will require great resources to tackle the ping-spam issue, and there Verisign's expertise, not just what's visible today, but what's coming down the road, will make all the difference. I was in no posiiton to do this on my own. And belive me, the Technorait's and PubSub's, even Feedster and Bloglines, weren't helping out very much. I belive they'll respect Verisign much more than they respected me. And this deal will free me up to work on new ideas around blogging, RSS, OPML, web services, podcasting, etc. I'm good at digging holes, I have to pass off to others to make the trains run on time when the service grows as big as weblogs.com has.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/07#whatADay

Guest Post: Verisign buys Weblogs.com

A guest post from DigitalGrit's own Frank Patrick:

...But the really big story of validation this week, IMHO, is Verisign buying weblogs.com…the ping “backbone” of the blogosphere. Immediately, it’s probably more of a Relevant Noise story than a DigitalGrit story.

From the blog of the founders (who, a case could be made, could also be called the father of blogs and the read-write web)…

I hope …we'll all find a way to work with Verisign. I think there's reason to believe they can and will do a much better job of running the ping center than I have been able to, and this is the perfect example of individual innovators (myself in this case) working with large companies in ways that leverage the strength of both.

The bootstrap of weblogs.com is something a bigco should not attempt, it's hard to make it go, and most bootstraps don't, and it requires trust, something an individual is more likely able to inspire than a big company. On the other hand, running a serivce that other bigco's depend on (like Google, and Microsoft, to name two) is not something a person like myself should attempt. I think Verisign is the perfect company to do it. Their name servers, I hear, respond to 250,000 requests per second at peak loads. In comparison, weblogs.com's 1-2 million pings a day seems a drop in the bucket. Further, it will require great resources to tackle the ping-spam issue, and there Verisign's expertise, not just what's visible today, but what's coming down the road, will make all the difference. I was in no posiiton to do this on my own. And belive me, the Technorait's and PubSub's, even Feedster and Bloglines, weren't helping out very much. I belive they'll respect Verisign much more than they respected me. And this deal will free me up to work on new ideas around blogging, RSS, OPML, web services, podcasting, etc. I'm good at digging holes, I have to pass off to others to make the trains run on time when the service grows as big as weblogs.com has.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/10/07#whatADay

"You've Got Blogs!" AOL buys Calacanis's Weblogs Inc.

The rumors are true.  As reported this morning AOL has puchased Weblogs Inc -- Jason Calacanis has just confirmed it all on his own blog.

UPDATE: Here's a Reuters article...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - America Online Inc. has agreed to buy Weblogs Inc., a network of Internet sites focused on niche topics ranging from food to gadgets, for around $25 million, a source familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news), could announce the acquisition of New York-based Weblogs Inc. (http://www.weblogsinc.com) as early as Thursday, the source said.

A spokesman for America Online declined to comment. Executives for Weblogs were unavailable to comment. The personal blog of Weblogs founder and Chief Executive Jason Calacanis said he was flying from New York to a San Francisco Web conference on Wednesday evening.

more...

"You've Got Blogs!" AOL buys Calacanis's Weblogs Inc.

The rumors are true.  As reported this morning AOL has puchased Weblogs Inc -- Jason Calacanis has just confirmed it all on his own blog.

UPDATE: Here's a Reuters article...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - America Online Inc. has agreed to buy Weblogs Inc., a network of Internet sites focused on niche topics ranging from food to gadgets, for around $25 million, a source familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news), could announce the acquisition of New York-based Weblogs Inc. (http://www.weblogsinc.com) as early as Thursday, the source said.

A spokesman for America Online declined to comment. Executives for Weblogs were unavailable to comment. The personal blog of Weblogs founder and Chief Executive Jason Calacanis said he was flying from New York to a San Francisco Web conference on Wednesday evening.

more...