Move over, Drudge

Reading a recent Frank Barnako column about BaseballBlogs.org made me wonder if India?s blogosphere had cricket blogs and Bollywood blogs, writes Deepak Mankar.

(‘CORPORATE BLOGGING. Questions and answers.’)MOVE OVER, DRUDGE. Sploid’s here.BOOM TIME. MSN Spaces and MSN Messenger.Ever since its soft release on December 1, 2004, MSN Spaces – officially launched last week – claimed to already have 4.5 million blogs have been set up with fewer than 4% (nearly 170,000) updated daily, reports the Seattle Times. Spaces has advertising as well, with Volvo as its first customer – putting banner ads andsponsoring a "best of" page, inviting people to write about experiences with their automobiles.



Also, MSN Messenger, its newest instant-messaging and Web-logging software, shifted into high gear as it was moved out of the beta mode. MSN Messenger will be a boon for inexpensive home video conferencing because users with computer microphones can talk with each other over the Internet and users with Webcams can even see full-screen video of each other while talking. "Video chatting has just become this ready-for-prime-time thing. It's changing my life in a big way," remarked Blake Irving, MSN VP, after using the service.PODCASTING’S LATEST CONVERTS. Guess who?As diverse as they seem, Newsweek, Paris Hilton and Peterson's educational service are the new online culture’s latest converts. Around 6 million U.S. adults have downloaded podcasts according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study. Research found that 29% of the owners (13% of U.S. men and 9% of women; almost 20% of 18- to 28-year-olds) of portable MP3 players have subscribed to the shows.



These downloaded audio programs can be played on portable media devices like an iPod. Coming back to the new shows, Newsweek On Air – posted Mondays at MSNBC.com – can be downloaded here.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7078547/site/newsweek. The Paris Hilton Podcast, beginning April 29 to promote the socialite-actress's new film, "House of Wax", will have her talking about her shopping trips and press events up to the premiere on May 6, says Hollywood Reporter.http://www.houseofwaxmovie.com/. Finally, Peterson's tips on "acing the college entrance exams and navigating the admissions process" can be downloaded athttp://petersons.com/podcasts/. P.S.: Adam Curry’s podcast directory at iPodder.org lists 4,493 podcasts as of now. "Podcasts, or audio programs delivered through the Internet for playback on portable devices, of weekly sales meetings are one application", by the way. A respondent to a media industry analyst’s query about the points to include in his article in progress on podcasting put it as follows: "The ROI is clear – you free up one hour of every sales rep's calendar each week and let them listen to the call at their convenience."POPECAST, POPEBLOG. Holy Father gone mod?BARCODES & COOKIES. What do they’ve in common?Plenty – if you take the verdict of Behavioral Insider, 8 April 2005. Both make life easier for the consumer and the device user.http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_BehaviorialInsider.cfm?fnl=050408.That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.Copyright (c) 2001- 2005 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles athttp://www.asiaondemand.com/. Website:http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him atdmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in

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