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.

Michael Arrington of the TechCrunch fame has just expanded his online properties with TechCrunchIT. From Arrington’s announcement:

The site is focused on the enterprise tech space – all the software, technologies, standards, platforms, etc. that help companies do their thing, and form the building blocks of the products we feature on TechCrunch, MobileCrunch and our other blogs.

And from TCIT’s about page:

TCIT is dedicated to obsessively profiling products and companies in the Enterprise Technology space. TCIT aims to promote an understanding of emerging and existing Enterprise technologies and to analyze their commercial, social, and consumer impacts.

Visit TechCrunchIT.

Technorati has just launched Technorati Media, a blog advertising network.

According to TechCrunch, Technorati is for now “only working with larger blogs, although it will be open to all comers in 2-3 months.”

The new blog advertising network extends Technorati’s reach and value by “matching bloggers and social media creators with marketers who want to join the conversation,” as stated on the network’s home page.

Giant blogging industry player b5media has been named as one of the Finalists for “Most Promising Company of the Year” in the New Media Awards.

The network’s reaction, from their recent blog post:

Of course all I have to say about that is: This is an amazing accomplishment we could not have achieved without such amazing writers and editors. Our fearless leader Jeremy Wright was there (he was speaking) as are other b5-ers. So I expect to be able to blog the winners when they are announced.

We’re flattered and thrilled to be a finalist, and stoked about all the awesome things our bloggers are doing.

Congrats to b5media!

The Asia Blogging Network recently celebrated its first anniversary last June 6, 2008, as announced by ABN’s Budi Putra:

Personally, I want to say thanks a lot for you, AsiaBlogging readers and communities, who have supported us by visiting, reading, commenting and giving us your valuable feedbacks.

The Indonesia-based network currently covers 14 channels/topics with over 100 blogs.

After a long wait, the new 9rules network has seen the light of the day. Quoting Scriv’s relaunch post, 9rules: Vol. 3, Edition 1:

In February I announced that the old 9rules was coming back. That was a lie. The old 9rules was never coming back, just some of the philosophy behind it. We are constantly trying to improve and move forward and saying the old version of anything is coming back seemed like a step backwards for us. So today we are happy to show you what we like to refer to as the 3rd Volume of 9rules, a new beginning with some old time goodness mixed in.

Visit the revamped 9rules.

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.

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.

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.

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.