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.

So much for the power of blogging, but employees who are not careful on what they post on blog sites may end up losing their jobs if they are caught incidentally by their employers when they post something negative about their company and workplace.

Many would say, this is not something in the employee handbook, but then again, this can always be amended at anytime that companies and organizations would wish.

“If there is a negative impact on the organisation’s corporate image which is so serious that it breaches the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, the employee could be dismissed for gross misconduct,” she warned.

Cautioning employers to pay attention to worker’s blogs, Dowling added that blogs could provide evidence of other conduct issues, uncover workplace discrimination or bullying or even leak confidential financial information or new product details.

With the prospect of supremely cheesed off employees whistleblowing dodgy company practices, Dowling added that, “Employers need to ensure that they carefully consider the impact of blogging on their organisation and take appropriate steps to minimise any potential risk.”

Source: Digital Lifestyles. Blathering Work Bloggers Risk The Boot

[tags]blog news, blogger, problogger[/tags]

Taking the initiative in the growing concern for blog sites that are being infected or hacked, Google has launched an online security blog to take on the issue at hand. Some of these malicious practices include that of browser hijacks and spyware infections, most of which are not immediately detected by the site owners and make the lives of online viewers very much inconvenient. Here is an excerpt from the latest move by Google regarding online security:

Online security is an important topic for Google, our users, and anyone who uses the Internet. The related issues are complex and dynamic and we’ve been looking for a way to foster discussion on the topic and keep users informed. Thus, we’ve started this blog where we hope to periodically provide updates on recent trends, interesting findings, and efforts related to online security. Among the issues we’ll tackle is malware, which is the subject of our inaugural post.

Malware—surreptitious software capable of stealing sensitive information from your computer—is increasingly spreading over the web. Visiting a compromised web server with a vulnerable browser or plugins can result in your system being infected with a whole variety of malware without any interaction on your part. Software installations that leverage exploits are termed “drive-by downloads”. To protect Google’s users from this threat, we started an anti-malware effort about a year ago. As a result, we can warn you in our search results if we know of a site to be harmful and even prevent exploits from loading with Google Desktop Search.

Source: Introducing Google’s Online Security Efforts

[tags]online security, blog sites, blog networks, blog news, google blog, google news[/tags]

Why do you publish photos or articles on the web if you don’t want people using or criticizing them? This is perhaps one of the standing issues that caters to the hyperlinking issue of blogs today.

We all know that blogs are more of critics at work. While some may provide good viewpoints, there are also bad ones. People may use photos or images from published sites but the fact is, a link back is a form of respect to which owner’s rights are still being observed. But for some people, this does not seem to be enough.

For purposes of not wanting people to “borrow” or “use” your stuff, then why publish them on the web? Keep them on your computer or your digital camera if you don’t want people using them!

He’s facing three lawsuits for copyright infringement, but that’s OK with notorious celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who sees himself as something of an activist for bloggers’ rights.

“In a perfect world, you’d rather not be sued than be sued, but I think from his standpoint all these lawsuits essentially stem from the same exact issue,” his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, tells The Showbuzz. “It’s the rights of bloggers to the fair use of published photos that are on the Internet and the right to use them for satire and commentary. I think Perez is excited to be the one that makes the law in this area and is fully prepared to go all the way if he needs to in order to make that law.”

Perez, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, takes celebrity photos, doodles on them, posts them on his popular blog, perezhilton.com and adds commentary.

“He uses them in a transformative way and then opens a dialog of commentary. Whether you like the commentary or not is a different story,” said Freedman.

“I totally disagree, obviously, that what he does constitutes fair use,” Brandy Navarre, VP of X17, which sued Lavandeira in November for more than $7.5 million, told The Showbuzz. “I don’t feel that what he does qualifies (as satire). These are not all newsworthy photos, (and) he’s not altering the photos enough to make a difference. Sometimes just writing a question mark isn’t satirizing significantly enough to make a difference. And the volume at which he uses the images is out of bounds.”

Universal City Studios Productions LLP filed a lawsuit against Lavandeira in February, claiming a stolen image of a topless Jennifer Aniston from the set of her movie “The Breakup” was posted on Lavandeira’s site.

In late April, five photo agencies joined together to sue Lavandeira for $7 million for using their photos and videos.

His lawyer argues that Lavandeira has merely used photos that were already published elsewhere on the Web.

“If it’s not already out on the Internet, it’s protected,” argues Freedman. “He’s not in the business of taking watermarks or anything like that. I can’t for the life for me understand how a photographer has been hurt when the photograph has already been published on the Internet.”

Navarre claims Lavandeira’s actions have hurt her company’s bottom line.

Source: Perez Hilton, Defender Of Bloggers Rights?

[tags]blog news, blogger news, disputes, copyrights, infringement, hyperlinks, links, violations[/tags]

For the benefit of people who have not yet been heard of this virtual world where they can portray anyone of their chosen character, Second Life is a virtual online world game that allows people to interact, explore and even make money if a person knows the ins and outs of the game. The game has been totally addictive, making people more or less glued to their stations practically the whole day. People are logged on in long hours since outside the usual commercial interaction that they make, they can earn a living while being online.

But many people have questioned the consistency since Second Life has been down for some times, making it doubtful if they can sustain the number of subscribers logged in to play the game.

However, updates have to be made and patches employed. This is one reason for the downtimes subscribers are experiencing and rightfully so. If people want to get their money’s worth, then continuous development and improvements towards the game must be done.

“The main issue raised in the original blog entry on Gamer.Blorge.com was that Second Life is experiencing six hours of downtime. To hear other blogs, like TechCrunch, position it, this is kind of a noteworthy occurrence.

The truth is that Second Life is frequently down on Wednesdays, because that’s when its publisher, Linden Lab, releases updates to its client software.

And it’s true that some users are upset about the downtime. But they’re also upset every time the “grid” goes down for the several hours it takes to complete an upgrade. After all, there are countless virtual businesses that can’t sell things, and countless people who can’t get in-world to do whatever it is they want to do.

For many longtime Second Life users, the issue this raises is not about any individual shutdowns of the grid, but rather that it has to happen so frequently. The Second Life software is built in such a way that the constant bug fixes, updates and new features can really only be implemented through these periodic updates, and the unfortunate side effect is semi-regular downtime. “ – What is the extent of ‘Second Life’ problems?

[tags]second life, blogger, virtual world, social sites, socializing[/tags]

It has been an issue that has been longed debated on. Bloggers are not officially categorized as journalists. The directives may be the same at some point but the fact remains, the method of composing articles and facts in proper format for people to understand needs to have differentiating factors.

Bloggers can be better than journalists and vice versa. However, no one has been given the proper authorization to differentiate both. For regions such as Hawaii, they can classify a blogger and a journalist and point out their differences. Here is an overview of this latest trend.

Hawaii is one 19 states that does not have a journalist shield law, designed to protect a reporter’s confidential sources. If Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Gary Chang refuses to accept Zimmerman’s claim that she is a legitimate journalist, the ruling could set a dangerous precedent for other bloggers.

There are two sides to the argument. The plaintiff’s lawyer is trying to convince the judge that accepting bloggers as journalists would create a big loophole.

There are a lot more nuances to the case, so I suggest you read the whole summary.

I’d like to think that Marketing Pilgrim would be able to claim journalist privileges, based upon the fact that we are a legitimate news source, regardless of the fact that the site is organized like a blog. However, I agree that you can’t extend that same privilege to everyone, just because they have a blog. The courts needs to establish some kind of criteria for what makes a blogger a journalist.

What criteria do you think should make a blogger a journalist? – Hawaii Court to Decide if a Blogger is a Journalist

[tags]blogger, blog news, blog jobs, journalists, problogger, problogger jobs[/tags]

The advent of blogging has served as a good alternative towards the usual web pages that people have been conceptualizing as of late and TypePad developers know this all too well. With this in mind, blog sites have become the ideal alternative towards putting up web sites, focusing more on content rather than images.

TypePad has offered a new TypePad page that allows users to setup websites as an individual blog. With the trend imminent, it is certain that this new offering will be taken up by millions. Here are some excerpts from this new development news of TypePad:

“If you’re a TypePad blogger, we know you’re serious about making a great blog. But what about the parts of your site that don’t fit into your blog? A detailed contact page listing all the ways someone can get in touch. What about a biography that explains just how you became such an expert on the topic you blog about? Or, maybe your business’s blog needs a good set of directions to your office, along with a map. A couple extra pages on your site would add a lot of power and flexibility to your blog.

With the new TypePad Pages, you can use all the power of TypePad’s posting tools to create as many individual web pages as you want. And those pages have all the power of TypePad’s widgets and rich media features, automatically inheriting the look and feel you’ve chosen for your blog.

The TypePad interface you use every day to update your blog now lets you create a web page as easily as you’d write a post. (That means you don’t have to learn any complicated new tools.) And you can even set a Page to be the home page for your blog, so it’s the first thing readers see when they go to your URL. “
Go beyond blogging with TypePad Pages

[tags]typepad, blogging, blogger, problogger, problogging, web sites, web pages[/tags]

Blogs have become more of rumor mills to date, being the premier source of information before they hit the news stands and channels. However, consistency is something up for debate and for some, total understanding of the whole ordeal may eventually lead to something disastrous.

This is clearly the issue regarding the release of the iPhone launch originally posted at Endgadget. Apparently, the tip turned out to be a false alarm and this eventually affected the stock trading of Apple which tumbled by 3 percent and losing billions in the process.

Hence, blogs may not be consistent or be used as a means of forecasting launches and predictions. Such was learned the hard way. Here are some excerpts from the blog blunder:

Stock Manipulation Via Fake News –- Nothing New
I agree with others that speculate Engadget was played by a trader who knew that this story would have a negative impact on Apple stock. My guess is they used this rumor to short Apple stock and mint a fortune.

Blog bashers will point to Engadget’s flub for years to come. But it’s important to remember “traditional” media has fallen for similar chicanery before to.

In 2000 Emulex, a networking firm, saw its stock take a nosedive from a morning high of $113.06 to a low of $43 by lunch time. What prompted the stock to drop was headlines that appeared on major wire service proclaiming: “Emulex Announces Revised Earnings; SEC Launches Investigation Into Accounting Practices. Paul Folino Steps Down As CEO.”

The story was fake. It was planted by a then 23-year-old Mark Jakob, a former employee of a wire service called Internet Wire. The story was planted by Jakob on the wire and it was picked up by major news outlets as real. The FBI investigated and arrested Jakob. Published reports say Jakob made $250,000 from his scheme, money he later had to return.

If the Apple/Engadget incident is a case of stock manipulation than this is a coming-of-age moment for Wall Street miscreants who target blogs. The success found with dropping Apple stock will only fuel the cottage industry of manipulating stock prices through e-mail, message boards, and blogs. With Engadget the scammer(s) landed a big fish. You better believe they are thinking about a new stock/blog target right now. – False alarm: iPhone NOT delayed until October, Leopard NOT delayed again until January

[tags]blogger news, blog news, iPhone, apple, blunders, false alarms[/tags]

It is evident that this new wave of advanced marketing strategies using blogs and content writing has been the new resort of most companies in the world of business today. These are the new elements that have helped businesses evolve into better managed companies aimed at attaining set goals.

Marketing is the life stream of any business entity and all marketing people will exhaust all means to use any advanced and new ways of making marketing strategies work. Hence, the new age of marketing has turned to these technology driven gifts called blogging and content writing and have had headway in doing so as we can see today.

In a time where marketing automation is a big focus, it’s important not to forget that your website is, “...the place that brings everything together in a unified place…” This is a very important point. Think about the times you’ve received marketing communications from a company, gone to their website, and been confused because what you encountered there was nothing related to their marketing communication. Consistency of story is hugely important to having your content drive action. – New Rules of Marketing & PR

[tags]blogging, blog marketing, marketing practices, marketing strategies, advertising, promotions[/tags]

Blogging has been encouraged as a means of letting out clogged ideas in the mind of people but to date, most of the scattered ideas have become more of a nuisance rather than a helpful tool in the employee development of most companies. Such has been notable in the turnover rates of employees who find them looking for other jobs mainly because their employers are not to forgiving when they are able to read what they are sharing or hiding to express.

Some companies have gone to the extent of peeping into the personal journals and sometimes, these may bring back unlikely reactions. These reactions may be deemed as just cause for their termination, something that is clearly to watch out for on the part of the employees as a whole.

“A lot of people think they’re protected by the First Amendment in cases where they’re not,” said David Williams, a partner at law firm Morris James LLP in Wilmington, Del., and a past chairman of the employment and labor law section of the Delaware State Bar Association.

Union collective bargaining agreements and individual employment contracts generally say a worker can be fired only for what is known as “just cause.”

Yet, 92 percent of private-sector workers aren’t covered by collective bargaining, and employment contracts usually are limited to high-level executives.

Even though in Illinois, a company has the right to terminate an employee at will, one local attorney believes that without a policy in place, a worker should not be fired for speaking out on an outside-of-the-workplace issue.

“If there is no agreement, then in my opinion, you can say and do whatever you want,” said Al Williams, a Dixon attorney who specializes in workman’s compensation cases.

Broad statements on workplace free speech can be hard to make though, according to Williams, because company policies and situations can be so varied.

“It is very case-by-case and deal-by-deal, but an employer has to give a reason for firing you, they can’t just do it,” Williams said. – Let the bloggers beware: Companies’ rules may restrict what employees can and can’t say

[tags]blogger, problogger, employee rights, collective bargaining, CBA[/tags]