Earlier today we learned that company database service TradeVibes was acquired by tech blog VentureBeat. Last year Duncan Riley provided a comparison of TradeVibes and competitor Crunchbase which is run by tech blog Techcrunch. TradeVibes has been rebranded and is now called VentureBeat Profiles. Riley noted today that the acquisition story was pitched as a competitor to Techcrunch.

When I read the acquisition announcement, I immediately thought about the tech blogs that use TradeVibes to power their company directories. When TradeVibes launched it seemed many of the popular startup tech blogs created partnerships with TradeVibes. I can only assume that a good bit of the traffic and attention with regards to TradeVibes came from these same partnerships.

Here are a few of the tech blogs that use TradeVibes/VentureBeat Profiles:

• Mashable – “MashCoInfo“
• Readwriteweb – “ReadWriteWeb Companies“
• Inquisitr – “Qbase“

Will the tech blogs currently using TradeVibes remain onboard that the service is owned by a “rival”? Could it usher in a new level of partnership between all of the TradeVibes powered blogs? Or will the blogs leave the service? The next couple of months should be interesting in the tech blogging space.

Find more stories about: acquisitions, blogs, mashable, readwriteweb

Tonight the Mashable blog attempted to hold an event where wine man Gary Vaynerchuk was supposed to speak about motivation. There were a baker’s dozen of technical issues so we all moved outside to the corner of 54th and Park Ave. and Gary gave his motivational speech outside.

While I don’t agree with everything he says, it’s worth watching the video. The part where he talks about hustle is very important. So many startups I talk to believe that when they hit "launch" the traffic, orders, users, etc. will just magically arrive. It’s not like that – you need to hustle every minute of every day. When you watch the video, notice what brand you see on Gary’s shirt the whole time – it’s about the hustle.

Here’s his video – enjoy the NYC sounds and note that Gary does use many swear words during his outdoor presentation.

Find more stories about: Gary Vaynerchuk, mashable, NYC, Quick News, Video, Wine Library TV

As I traverse the Web checking out new sites and those familiar to me, I’ve started to wonder what forms of advertising are acceptable today. I am curious about your thoughts as well. For purposes of this discussion, we will look at advertising for typical content Web sites and blogs — not porn, warez or any other potentially objectionable content. Let’s take a look at each of the most common forms of ads running today.

Traditional banner ads

These are the most standard form of online advertising and include a variety of IAB formats (e.g. leaderboard, skyscraper, 468 standard, etc.). I think everyone would say these ads are typically fine and acceptable. I turn off ads that are overly animated, have iPhone scams, participation giveaways and the idiot dancing people. I would lump most affiliate programs into this category.

Sponsorship ads

This has become popular with the increase in professional bloggers. It seems the initial size was 125 pixel square, but now more sites are starting to provide alternative formats. We currently run the 125 size, check out GigaOm and SAI for a few alternative sizes. These ads are typically considered fine and acceptable. In fact, these are probably the best paying ads and also allow several select sponsors to display a strong relationship with a blog or Web site.

Google AdSense and other text ad networks

Again, these are typically considered fine and acceptable. These ads are normally contextual in nature and should provide greater return than the traditional banner ads above.

Popups and popunders

With popup blockers on nearly every computer today, these forms of online advertising have basically dried up. Most users hated them from the beginning.

SnapShots

These ads are newer and typically come packaged with a preview of the link that is moused over. TechCrunch and Mashable currently run this form of advertising. SnapShots combine a site preview plus contextual or image advertising where the publisher gets paid a CPC when a user clicks the ads and not the link.

It’s an interesting play… on the one hand, the idea of providing a preview of the site before you head there is a good thing. On the flip side, if you are intending to go to x site, see an ad for y site and go to y instead, the publisher makes a few cents but the intended linkee gets nothing. The SnapShots team have emailed me over and over to have CN use SnapShots. I haven’t made a decision yet but am leaning towards no.

Kontera and VibrantMedia inline text ads

Many blog publishers think these ads are the devil. These ads show up as links within content and are always distinguishable by link color and/or double underline. What I like about these ads is that the ad provider determines which words become links, not the writer. This alleviates the concept of writing content just to get a good round of inline text links (I know some still try though). When these ads first hit the market, they paid very well – partially due to users possibly being confused. I’ve watched the overall income drop on these ads month over month but they can still perform well in certain circumstances. I run these ads (only 3 per story) on HTMLCenter currently but not on CenterNetworks.

Interstitial ads

These ads appear typically before or between pages on a Web site. When these ads appear, you are forced into clicking the ad or clicking a close button. I haven’t seen many blogs running this format yet but it seems many of the large content Web sites run these ads without a second thought. CNET and the NY Times are always hitting me with these interstitial ads. Why is it acceptable for CNET to run an interstitial and reap the nice CPMs, but not a blog? This is probably the most interesting format to look at the differences between how a user reacts to advertising on a Web 1.0-style property versus a Web 2.0-style blog.

What formats did I miss? What formats do you run on your blog or Web site? What formats would you like to see in the future? I am hoping we see better monetization of RSS and mobile.

Find more stories about: advertising, GigaOM, Insights, mashable, TechCrunch

Mashable editor-in-chief Adam Ostrow has acquired ReadBurner today. ReadBurner displays the most shared items in Google Reader and generated a good bit of buzz on the initial launch. I couldn’t get Ostrow to give up the acquisition price but my sources say it was lower than the $850 million AOL paid for Bebo yesterday.

Ostrow is being joined on the new ReadBurner team by Drew Olanoff and Eric Kerr. ReadBurner founder Alex Marktl will remain on the extended team and will help out when time allows.

Their first job Ostrow says is to get the service back online and improve performance and scalability. He expects to be back up and running in a couple of weeks. How they will generate revenue is anyone’s guess but here’s hoping the new management loses the Web 2.0 reflection.

Find more stories about: acquisitions, mashable, Quick News, ReadBurner

Social networking megablog Mashable is holding a MashMeet in NYC on February 22nd. It’s similar to any of the 150 meetups in NYC except that this one has a Forbes Web Celebrity attending. That’s right, all the way from Scotland, Mr. Pete Cashmore is going to make an appearance. Also in attendance will be the doubleAdam twins, Ostrow and Hirsch.

Six companies will be demo’ing their apps: Utterz, KickApps, FaceySpacey, CafeMom, coComment and ooVoo.

The event is being held at the For Your Imagination studios and is $20. We are listed as an associate, but we have no financial stake in the Meet. 

So here’s the deal – at some point during the night I will throw up 3 fingers on each hand. That’s your cue to start waving your hands up in the air. This will show the Mashable crew that they can’t invade our territory!

Find more stories about: mashable, NYC

Stealing content is wrong. Last week I posted some fun when someone stole an interview from CN and put it in a Web blender. Today Tamar pointed me to something even worse — stolen content that has been submitted to Digg.

In this case, it was an article on Mashable titled "Flickr Toolbox". The article was posted in August 2007. It was posted this week on spam blog, "tech-2008.blogspot.com" and subsequently submitted to Digg here. While it didn’t make the frontpage, it received 8 votes and I am sure some traffic as well. These spam blogs need to go – even if they do boost inbound counts. 

If all of that isn’t enough, Digg ranks #2 behind Mashable for the title and the Digg links points to the spam blog. Would you agree with me that Digg should physically delete this post from their index so that Google will remove the link as well?  (I’ve already addressed my views on why Digg should not be indexed in Google results)

Find more stories about: Digg, Insights, mashable, Stolen Content

Last night down at the NYC Pourhouse bar was the 2nd MashMeet combined with the Web2.0/Social Networking Meetup. I’ve got to say, I had a good time. The place was packed – probably too packed – but I was able to camp out in a small nook with a bunch of friends and met a whole lot of new people as well. I was able to convert 112 people from loyal Mashable readers to loyal CN readers so I consider it a good night.

Head Masher Pete Cashmore was unable to make it as he was receiving his award from Forbes as a top web celeb. (get well soon Pete!)

The evening’s festivities were chaperoned by Mashable’s Adam Hirsch and Adam Ostrow along with Brett "I need a date" Petersel. In all seriousness, it was a lot of fun and it seemed everyone else had fun as well. For Your Imagination was shooting video as well – looking forward to seeing the results.

I got a chance to meet two of Digg’s power users, a variety of followers of my twitter feed, VentureBeat’s NYC reporter (I forgot her name again and can’t find her on the site!) and even Nicholas Carlson from Valleywag. The weirdest thing is when someone comes up to you and says, "I follow your Twitter" – wtf is this world coming to!

Here are some photos from the evening (view all photos):

Nicholas from Valleywag and Alisa Leonard

Two Top Diggers – identity concealed to protect them

Find more stories about: Conferences, mashable, Quick News

On the calendar this week are the Web2NewYork (New York Web Entrepreneurs) on Tuesday and the Mashable MashMeet meetup also on Tuesday. The MashMeet is also combining with New York Web 2.0 Social Networking Tech Meetup and the NYC Entrepreneur / Small Business Networking. I am guessing there will be a huge turnout for the MashMeet as the other meetups have a large majority of heavy drinkers and  now the drinks will be free.

Goodness we need some new, better names for these meetups, dont’cha think?!?

As for the MashMeet – don’t be afraid to wear CN colors or show your CN pride. I will be there wearing my CN pin and will have some giveaways for other loyal CN readers. We will be entering the enemy camp so watch out for any potential shenanigans. Use Twitter to warn others when needed. I will hand out a code sheet at the event.

Additional NYC meetups this week include:

• WebDesign - Monday
• Photoshop Users Group – Wednesday – at the new Apple Store!

Leave others in the comments!

Find more stories about: Conferences, mashable, Meetup, NYC

Reports from PEHub and Mashable indicate a new $4.5 million Series B round of funding for Federated Media. Congrats! Federated Media provides advertising for some of the world's largest blogs including: TechCrunch (TC is in "open warfare" and looking for a replacement), Read/WriteWeb, GigaOm, Mashable, ArsTechnica, TechDirt and about 100 other blogs. We have written several times about Federated Media and their "envelope-pushing" ad campaigns.

But I am left wondering, why do they need so much money and are they having difficulty filling their inventory?

First the "why" question. I have to assume that an ad network makes money (not profit perhaps) from day 1. Each ad view brings in some amount of revenue for FM. And since they are the provider of ads for many large blogs with mega CPMs, wouldn't they be bringing in oodles of cash? Perhaps this new investment round is to create other FM video shows like the Morgan Webb tech news show. And naturally towards hiring more sales execs and/or more ad-serving technology. Anyone else have ideas about where they would use this type of cash influx?

Secondly, Is FM having a difficult time selling ads/filling inventory on the top tech blogs? Over the past couple of weeks, as I browse their network of sites, I see a good number of bottom of the barrel ads running on their sites. It seems like they might not be able to fill the inventory that these sites need. Here are some examples over the past 10 days:

Some kind of download utility – TechCrunch

Supernova from GigaOm – this conference was 3 months ago?

Free iPhone with 1000 offers – Various

Two "we help you break the law speeding" ads – TechDirt and TechCrunch

On the plus side, there are the WebbAlert (shown right)/FM network banners running on many FM sites. These ads makes sense and I like the idea a lot. When you can't fill ads with paying ads, show house publisher ads. I wish all ad networks offered this type of publisher barter. Remove all of the ads listed above and only show the FM network ads. This is a great way for readers of x blog to learn about y blog and vice-versa. These banners also look 1000x better for a site's image than a "punch the donkey, win an iPod" ad. I would recommend they either explain what "SMB" means or change it to something else that people will understand.

Find more stories about: advertising, Federated Media, mashable, Morgan Webb, Quick News, readwriteweb, Venture Capital

Mashable is reporting that social networking site Respectance has taken a Series A round of financing to the tune of $1.5 million. What makes Respectance unique is that pages are built for those who have deceased.

Pete notes, "Certainly, a 'social network for the dead' has the kind of simple premise that the mainstream media can latch onto. Meanwhile, we tested the site a few weeks back and liked it: with a nice, usable design and support for multimedia like photos and videos, it’s very well executed."

Assuming the Internet isn't going away anytime in the next 60 years, this type of site could be very valuable. A young child can learn about their grandparents from family and friends across the world.

It might be also a good place for each of us to live an "Internet Will" online.  Last month, I spoke with SharedBook, who handles the technology for Legacy.com, a site that scrapes gets obituaries from newspapers across the nation and creates printable books from the comments.

I guess when the living is so overwhelmed with social networking, those who have passed on is a good place to market to.

Find more stories about: mashable, Quick News, Respectance, Venture Capital

Pete asked the following question on Mashable tonight, "Question: What Should Technorati Do?" He points to an article in Forbes Magazine in which Rachel Rosmarin notes, "Blog search-engine startup Technorati's own technorati, including its chief technologist and vice president of engineering, are leaving. With these heavy-hitters will go some of the site's geek credibility." I agree with Rachel as I believe Tantek was the face to the developer community and he had great respect from most Web conference attendees.

I thought I would share the two ways I use Technorati: checking inbound links and researching articles on sites I follow. I check Technorati for inbound links on the articles I write daily (ok hourly). I try my best to join the discussions on the sites that link to my articles. I enjoy watching how people react to what I write and learning from the posts. Trackbacks used to work but I find that fewer sites send and accept trackbacks these days.

The other way I use Technorati is for research on sites I follow. Let me illustrate an example. Pete authored an article titled, "Backfence Closes, Citizen Journalism a Failure" earlier this week. I read the article and then clicked over to Technorati to see who linked to the article. Currently there are 14 links to his article. From there, I can visit the sites that interest me, join the conversation and also potentially contact the site to see if they have heard of CN. It's a great blog-to-blog networking tool. I can also follow what the reaction is to Pete's post. Is there any feedback I can learn from? I consider this aspect to be a great research and learning tool.

Pete notes, "There are many directions Technorati could move in: towards MyBlogLog, towards Digg, becoming a media portal and so on. But all seem like me-too attempts that are destined to fail. Most likely we’ll see an acquisition at this juncture." I agree that these ideas have the failure stamp on them. My take would be for Technorati to move into "authority ranking and buzz metrics" similar to what BuzzLogic (CN interview) is doing in this space. Technorati already does a great job of tracking links across the Web, now put those links to a better use than just "Authority" rankings. I won't even go into my thoughts about the joke that Authority is here, I will save that for another post.

I would suggest that Technorati leave the search engine piece behind. Focus on helping companies (and bloggers/web sites) track and measure buzz. This is where the real money is. They could sell various plans for cash instead of relying on advertisements as well. Check out our previous Technorati coverage.

Find more stories about: Insights, mashable, Technorati

Earlier this week I posted a column titled, "Google kills Yelp." The feedback has really been strong on this one! Some saying that, yes, Google will kill Yelp (and the other local review sites) but most saying that Yelp will live on and continue to grow. I love Yelp. I use Yelp for finding information about a local business before I would ever think to Google it.

Mashable followed-up with "Google Maps Local Reviews: 8 Big Losers" where James notes eight local reviews services that might be losers after Google dominates. His eight include: Yelp (cn coverage), welovelocal (cn coverage), Angie’s List, Zipingo, InsiderPages, Touch Local, MojoPages and TrustedPlaces.

One of the posts that stuck out to me was by Stephan Uhrenbacher, Qype CEO. Qype provides local reviews in a bunch of European countries with a large percentage of users in the United Kingdom and Germany. Check out his post titled, "Never compete head to head with Google." on the Qype blog and here are some excerpts:

Will Qype be successful? To answer this question, you have to take a closer look at our business. We are in the business of building a local community of people who have something meaningful to say. We try our best to separate signal and noise. We actively support our community. We solve conflicts. This the expensive part of our business. We invested a lot of our resources to get our community going in Germany and are planning to achieve this in the UK.

We at least find it not easy to convince visitors that it is a rewarding experience to contribute to Qype. The reward comes later from the community, in form of recognition, feedback, etc. And this is what makes us grow. There is no recognition element on Google Maps. So for the moment, I think the review feature on Google Maps will not be a huge threat.

Look, the truth is that anytime you are in a business, offline or online, someone bigger can appear at any minute. It's  your job to continue to differentiate yourself from the others. Competition is a good thing. Qype, Yelp and the others are working their angles and I think we will see even stronger products appearing over the balance of the year. I have always been a fan of review sites and look forward to the next generation of reviews. Who will create the first video reviews site?

Find more stories about: Google, Insights, mashable, Qype, Yelp

So it seems yesterday that Digg lost control over its user community over a story about HD-DVD keys. Since a take-down demand was received, Digg removed the story. Which they should have done. And when this was done, the Digg loyals (not the entire community as Mashable reports) went loony. They started posting hundreds of stories about this key in every way, shape possible. Pete also has a good pbp of the events with screen caps.

Why is removing this story so bad? First, all it was is a link to the story itself. Second, I am guessing that the decryption codes are probably against the terms of the agreement when it comes to the HD dvds. Third, the codes are available everywhere now.

So what does this show? This shows exactly the core users on Digg that I have spoken about so many times. A group of young males who have plenty of time on their hands to do something like this. It is disturbing because I found Digg to be quite useful lately. I hope that the site can get back to some sort of order today. It is critical that this issue is dealt with quickly and correctly. I also bet that if Digg lost everyone who participated in the codes issue, I bet they would still survive and might even be stronger in the long-term.

Of course, Kevin Rose then went too far I believe. He basically "abandoned ship" by saying, "You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying." Did he check with his VC firms before saying this?

And don't forget, there is always Y Combinator News. While this won't provide the same number of users that Digg did/does, I like it better. I hope we might be looking at finding a new yardstick for techblogs in terms of user numbers. Many sites rely 100% on Digg users and that makes others numbers appear small in nature while the smaller number might equate to the better traffic.

Remember what Michael Arrington said back in March, "no, we don’t care that much about digg traffic actually. it’s far less than 10% of our total traffic, and when we aren’t on digg the comments are much more intelligent. digg is good for a quick traffic spike, but it isn’t a useful way to build an audience. I like digg as a business, but don’t really care about the links. most of our revenue comes from our sponsors, who pay a flat fee per month regardless of traffic. they want quality readers, not quantity. And digg basically sends a never ending stream of angry 16 year olds. not something the sponsors are that interested in."

Find more stories about: Digg, mashable, Quick News, Y Combinator

The lawsuit filed by Amazon against Statsaholic for is making its way around the blogo' today. I haven't read the entire 43 page filing yet (see Mashable for the filing and boycott info), but many around the 'sphere are calling for a boycott of Amazon.

See StartupMeme, Andy's Marketing Pilgrim and TechFold for more specifics on the boycott.

Some have called out Amazon for bullying. Frankly, I don't understand why Amazon didnt offer Ron (Statsaholic founder) some purchase option. I can only imagine that Ron never expected this when he created his popular service. It is also odd that Amazon/Alexa has complimented Ron several times on their blog. While I am not an attorney, I can only imagine this will help Ron's case.

Will the land of the blog be able to help sway Amazon to drop the lawsuit? Will some larger media outlet pick up the story? Stay tuned! You can also read our past coverage of Alexa…

Would you be worried about building a widget or service based on another's technology based on the Amazon filing today?

Find more stories about: analytics, mashable, Quick News