The b5media network has welcomed three sites—one on a comeback trail—to its fold:

• The Hawaii Traveler—“Jody divides her time between the mountains of Colorado and the islands of Hawaii, but it’s the latter expertise that she brings to her blogging.”


• Starked DC—“DC’s political news and gossip is back. J-Michael claims that while he has a political slant, he’ll cry foul on all parties.”


• Thoroughbred Fever—“Blogger Jarrod Horak writes about everything and anything related to horse racing in this new blog.”

The Blog Herald’s Andy Merrett reports:

The BBC has launched its blog network, effectively centralizing and promoting its fifty-or-so home-grown blogs.

The BBC embraced blogging, at least in its simplest form, several years ago but seems keen to push them into the limelight. A number of the BBC’s journalists, DJs, presenters, and other staff maintain blogs, usually to support live events and programmes.

Want to know what’s happening in the diamond world? Whether you are trying to get some engagement advice on the engagement ring purchase or you are simply interested in diamonds in world affairs, Abazias.com has a diamond blog that covers these topics and more. You can the latest blog posts via the website or use an RSS feed to collect all the articles that are of interest to you.

For the serious minded diamond purchaser or professional, you can get online and get an education on how diamonds are used in jewelry and many other industries. The fun thing about a blog is that it is an interactive forum. Have a question about an article? Just log in and add your comment. There are plenty of other readers who might be wondering too. And, you will find that a blogging community usually is very keen on sharing their knowledge with other commentators.

For all you fashion and gossip hounds, the blogs are a great way to spot some of the latest trends via celebrity and fashion show postings. You not only get the inside scoop, a blog post is typically accented with a relevant photo of the thing that has made the blogger’s tongue wag. Can’t wait to see the latest pooch jewelry? Find out about London’s Harrods pampered pooch fashion show. Take a look at some men’s diamond watches too. Maybe you’re just curious about what a Claddagh wedding ring looks like. You can find out under the Alternative Wedding Jewelry category. As they say: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

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.

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.

Over the past few days, the b5media blog network has added three new blogs to its roster:

• Ultralight Delight—“Caters to the phoenomena started by such devices like the ASUS eee, Neo Xplore Classmate, MacBook Air and the OLPC”


• Austin Sound Check—“Will cover the influential and breaking music scene of Austin, Texas”


• Pop Music Scene—“Will cover arguably the largest segment of the current music industry. Popular Music is an exciting genre in music as it provides vast amounts of variety and entertainment”

The new 9rules is definitely around the corner.

The network announced on their official blog that April 30 will be the magic day for the revamped 9rules to appear:

To add to how weird we are the launch will occur at 3:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Why? I don’t have any cool reasons beyond “Tyme made me do that time”.

• May 7, 2008


• August 6, 2008


• November 5, 2008

When you think of the National Payday Blog, you may automatically assume that it only discusses the praises of payday loans and not much else. However, you may be pleasantly surprised when you visit and find news on the latest gas efficient hybrid cars or the latest news on mortgages across the country.

When it comes to the business of payday loans, it’s not necessarily about lending people money, but it’s about helping them get back on track with their finances. The National Payday Blog provides useful information and daily posts that are designed to help consumers with just that – getting the most out of their money and managing it wisely.

Whether it is the latest on the foreclosures taking place or the State of the Union, the National Payday Blog provides financial information that matters to all consumers. National Payday is not concerned with payday loans alone, but helps consumers make wise financial choices, whether they are doing their taxes, buying a house or paying through college. You’ll also find information on credit cards, insurance, shopping, retirement and monthly budgeting. All of these posts provide you with information you can use today and are not just focused on how to take out payday loans alone.

When you are able to budget your money and make smart choices, your need for payday loans greatly reduces. You’re on a monthly budget that covers your bills and feeds your family. This also allows you to save money and that’s when you need financial information on other areas of life, not just how take out a payday loan.

In contrast to Gawker Media’s recent shedding of three properties, b5media has launched a new pair of blogs:

• Gamerlite—“b5media’s casual games blog. All the genres you can think of are here: puzzle, action, card games, board games, and many more! You name it, we have it.”


• Manscaping-101—a Beauty & Style Channel blog for men that is b5media’s venture into the “world of grooming-blogging”.

Gawker Media is ditching three of its properties in an effort to focus on their core titles. The left-out trio are Wonkette, Idolator, and Gridskipper. This development leaves Gawker top honcho Nick Denton with a dozen sites.

Silicon Alley Insider has listed the new owners of the said sites:

• Wonkette: Current editor Ken Layne will take over the political site, in conjunction with ad network Blogads.

• Gridskipper: Former Gawker manager Lockhart Steele will absorb the travel site into his Curbed network; Denton is one of Steele’s investors.

• Idolator: The music site is going to Buzznet, the music site which says it doesn’t want to roll up other music blogs, but seems to do so, anyway. This was the last of the three deals to be finalized, which apparently happened over the weekend.

Internet giant America Online has spun off a new sub-network brand, AOL Tech, that includes existing blogs such as the Engadget sites, Switched, and TUAW. Quoting the TechCrunch report:

Unike AOL Games, AOL Entertainment and other sub brands, AOL Tech is being branded without “AOL.” A new link on the AOL home page links to Switched, which will now syndicate in content from the other blogs in the network.