Blogs in the danish media
The danish business daily Børsen today has a mentioning of the Pyra acquisition by Google.
Also a very positive angle on blogging by Dorte Toft - so only one question - when will we see the first blogging from Børsen?
The Semantic Web and Challenges - presentation by Tim Berners-Lee.
Brockman: THE NEW HUMANISTS
Microsoft Gets a Clue From Its Kiddie Corps. Or should it be Microsoft abuses it’s kiddie corps to create new software 
Actually both the strategy and the product sounds rather clued-in.
Google, Pyra and Microadvertising
Although i don’t think it has absolutely any priority in the acquisition i would love to see Google take responsibility for blogging by integrating Google Adwords with blogs.
Instead of buying placement on specific keywords you would buy prime placement on a specific blog and pay per click or cpm in standard Google Adwords style.
All this is old stuff - but with Google 2003 revenue estimates going as high as an astounding 400 million $ - a move like this could definately help finance a lot of the prime bloggers and micromedia plays.
Best of all Evan and his team have all ready been experimenting with this, just not with all the purchasing power of Google’s advertising customer base.
Pyra, Monday, August 23, 1999:
“We just launched a new tool called Blogger. It’s an automated weblog publishing tool that transfers files to your own site via FTP. It’s integrated with Pyra, but can be used separately.
-ev, 3:37:00 PM”
Kottke: Blogging’s Netscape IPO. Kottke has the same feeling about the pyra acquisition by Google as when Netscape ipo’ed i 1995. It’s an event that somehow makes every blogger proud, an validation of what they’ve believed - and an example that sometimes the good guys can win in the end.
In 1995 Netscape almost had a cult following at the level of Apple’s and was the posterboy for a new generation of software and thoughts.
That they managed to f*** it up amazingly with old school tactics and also became the kickstart for wall street to starts it bonanza is another story.
I believe this could be the defining moment for a new era of small startups, social software, decentralization, online media innovation in general, the semantic web vision and web services. All the innovation that has been done by independent developers is now getting acceptance and exposure to the wider world with this validation by Google.
And all this innovation is happening on shoestring budgets by people with vision and values of balance and sustainability in business.
Interesting times, interesting times…
Mercury News | Google buys Pyra in big boost for blogging
The story is finally out and is all over the place. Guess you could call it a defining moment in the next innovation cycle of the internet that has been brewing the last couple of years.
From the first time i heard about it, i’ve thought the deal made total sense. Although only the Pyra and Google folks really knows the exact reasons, everyone is speculating about “why”. My very simple theories compared to some others who are into some very advanced technology reasons:
Links and the bottom-up decentralized net
Blogs has become too important for Google’s core search product for them not to be involved somehow in the area where the real innovation is happening. Bottom up publishing from the people, web services that really are used, rss syndication, etc.
User relationships
One of Google strategic challenges is how to build more stronger user relationships. Today Google has no direct user relationship to the hundreds of millions of users that are using their product each month, although they’re moving in that direction with google identity. They now have 1.1 million early adopter users and a team with experience in creating revenue streams from the relationship.
Team
Google now has a team of people that are on the forefront of this area internally. And the Pyra team becomes a part of the best r&d team at the moment.
PS. Can anyone verify whether this deal is the first true acquisition for Google? The dejanews deal was basically an asset sale of data - not the acquisition of a going operation.
PSS. Any bets on when we’ll see blogs by Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt?
Microsoft and the Commoditization of Software. Dave Stutz resigns from Microsoft and gives this advice to his former employer.
Personal Assistant
Could be your title if your dream job is working for Louis Rosetto and Jane Metcalfe, the husband and wife founders of Wired magazine. [via Nick Denton]