Valleywag caught the exclusive on the landmark deal that now makes MySpace the proud new owner of Photobucket. Photobucket has yet to publically announce how much the deal is worth but they were looking for $300 million.

Photobucket is by far the most popular method of publishing photos on not only MySpace (where it accounts for 70% of all photo traffic), but across thousands of forums and other websites. The bandwidth costs of such a vast operation have been a concern to analysts and is more than likely one of the key factors in the acquisition.

MySpace and Photobucket haven’t always had a rosy relationship and the users have often been hung out to dry because of this. To promote it’s MySpace Videos service, MySpace blocked users from using Photobucket’s videos back in April.

• 0 Comments

Every now and then I like to do a few vanity searches, nothing does a better job of this than Serph. So, today, as I headed in to Serph to run through a few terms (Michael Wales, Betaflow, etc). I was greeted with a pleasant surprise.

It seems as if the Serph guys caught my recent review of their application and decided to quote me directly within their application. It’s definitely an honor and I just wanted to publically thank the Serph team for that as well as congratulate them on their excellent product.

I’m not sure if that quote was a contextual grab (based on my search term) but I doubt it - probably random.

• 1 Comment

Rumors of a potential buyout have been around for years and the two companies have engaged in unofficial talks on a regular basis. Now, with Google clearly gaining ground in the advertising scene (they recently purchased DoubleClick), Microsoft has once again asked Yahoo to enter official talks concerning a potential buyout.

If Microsoft and Yahoo can agree on a price tag - current valuations put Yahoo at $50 billion - it would create quite the dominant force on the Internet. “Yahoosoft” would control 31 percent of the search traffic, a significant increase against Google’s 65 percent market share. In addition, a deal could benefit XBox owners as a wide variety of Yahoo content could then be available via XBox Live.

Microsoft asked Yahoo to enter into official talks a few months ago but Yahoo quickly turned the offers down. Analysts say Microsoft is now more willing to work with Yahoo in establishing a deal and Yahoo is in more of a bind this time. Since the launch of Yahoo’s search advertising platform Project Panama they have posted disappointing results, which could lead investors to consider the buyout more thoroughly.

Update: Yahoo’s stock has jumped almost 19 percent since the New York Post ran this article this morning, up to $33.49, as of 6:30AM PST.

• 1 Comment

We’ve seen the strength the digg community has within their own community, with the HD-DVD uproar. Now, the digg community has decided to bring the mob to a different front - politics.

A post was made to digg that claimed House Speaker Pelosi was running a poll via telephone concerning a possible impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Hundreds of digg users have called in thus far, even after it was determined that the Speaker was in fact not running a poll. People have reported a very nice woman answering the phone and stating she will pass on the message, often times after informing the caller that there is no poll being run.

Digg has become an increasing target for traditional media to determine where the big stories truly are. More often than not you will hear of a story within the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or Wired, that was born out of an article spotted on digg. These outlets have even begun publishing articles on digg itself, as they did with the HD-DVD uproar earlier this week.

Have digg users suddenly realized the influence they have? It will be interesting to see the number of calls Pelosi’s office has received. Numerous comments have mentioned long hold times and even the line being busy for up to 30 minutes at a time.

• 5 Comments

eBay’s recent launch of various services has gathered quite a bit of attention from various blogs. Read/Write Web just published an article that explains these services in greater detail and asks the question: will they be profitable?

Unfortunately, eBay has yet to launch any services for their most requested asset - user data, specifically their feedback system. Various services have launched to meet the need for open user feedback (Rapleaf and iKarma, for instance), but none of these have the footprint that eBay does.

The number of users that have interacted in some fashion, whether it be selling or buying, on eBay is enormous. By opening up their feedback system, eBay would give third parties the ability to leverage this vast amount of data and empower their users to make sound decisions based on the users they interact with.

Unfortunately, this is eBay’s pride and joy - and other than their name, the only thing worthwhile. Anyone can create an auction site - there are literally thousands to choose from - but eBay’s popular originally stemmed from their user feedback system. The feedback system gave users a sense of security with others they were dealing with and has been the clincher in allowing eBay to transition from Beanie Babies to cars and real estate.

• 0 Comments

Yesterday, the Digg team deleted a story related to decrypting HD-DVDs after receiving a cease-and-decist - on top of that, they deleted the user who posted this story.

Needless to say, even after a post from CEO Jay Adelman trying to ease the situation, the community was not happy. During the major portion of the day nearly every story was related to the decryption key in some way or another. Hundreds of useless stories, who’s only purpose was to place the decryption key in the subject and the body of the post, were created.

In the end Kevin Rose sided with the community and digg was restored to it’s pre-revolution state. Let’s hope it works out for them - as this is a very touchy legal and financial subject (since HD-DVD is a large advertiser on both digg and Revision3, the online video company much of the digg team is part of).

• 1 Comment

RealityWired covers a multitude of topics all under one tagline: Make Money Online. James, the author of RealityWired, started the blog as a place to focus on his interests, which he classifies as “a bit more focused than just ramblings.”

I have to agree. Albeit takes some digging, which is something James should really work on, I think RealityWired has a lot of really good content that will attract a variety of visitors buried deep within its skin. And, although sporadic at times, these posts really do come full circle and ultimately focus on making money online.

Whether it’s James bragging about his new Toyota Tundra that Google bought him or advising bloggers how to get involved in the recently launched MySpace News - RealityWired is covering the true meat and potatoes of the blogosphere right now.

My only qualm is the vast amount of topics in which he covers; I would much rather see James minimize his topics down to the strong themes and develop independent blogs for each of these. Regardless, his AdSense Tips articles are a must read for forum owners.

Disclosure: Betaflow.com was compensated for this review.

• 1 Comment