So it's been announced that the New York Times plans on purchasing About.com from Primedia Inc for $410 million [all cash by the way]. I know About's been on the chopping block for a while now but I'd love to find out more about why the NYT is so interested in scooping them up, especially with the amount of cash they're having to shell out. I know we're in a dot com boom but still, that's no reason to get rid of a small mountain of cash.

Funnier still though is that when About.com founder Scott Kurnit sold it to Primedia in 2001 for approx. $690 million. Now, 4 years later it's getting acquired for only 2/3 the price Primedia paid. Kind of weird since the dot com bubble had already burst in 2001 yet Primedia took a gamble, must not have worked out all that well for them.

Here's a snippet from the MediaPost story.

"The deal could more than double the online reach of the Times Company, which currently draws 13 million monthly viewers to its 40-plus Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com. Around 22 million users a month visit About.com, a consumer information site; the acquisition will also give the Times additional advertising inventory."

via MediaPost

I know I'm late on this but I honestly didn't have time to post it yesterday at all. I wanted to post the email I received from SpreadFirefox's Blake Ross regarding the good news. Oh yeah, you can also see some other posts I've written about Firefox vs. IE in the past as well.

"We're pleased to announce that in celebration of 25 million Firefox downloads, the Mozilla Store will be offering a 25% discount on certain items through 11:59 PM EST on February 17th. Furthermore, the kind people over at CoinsForAnything (http://www.coinsforanything.com/) have agreed to supply us with 100 free commemorative Firefox coins. We will be awarding a quarter of these to the 25 most active SpreadFirefox members, and will distribute the other 75 in the coming weeks according to a different set of criteria.

As usual, http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ has all the information.

Thanks everyone for your continued support...onward to 50 million!

--Blake"

That's some pretty exciting stuff.

Steve Rubel offers some more information on how to not pitch a blogger. Honestly, I didn't even read his entire post but I don't have to. There is no wrong or right way to pitch a blogger because every blogger is different and the market must understand what makes each blogger tick. I'm working on something I think will make that easily identifiable and I'm garnering great support from my friends.

I'll keep you posted as to the progress but for now please know that there isn't a wrong way to pitch every blogger because every blogger is different.

Hopefully I'll have time to take iUpload's new blogging system for a spin. It's geared towards Enterprise bloggers [corporations that want to run several blogs but have full control over what gets out and when] and Renee Blodgett is heading up the PR for the launch. Here's the press release Renee sent me Sunday night.

iUpload Launches Business Blogging Platform; Perspectives Extends Brands & Creates Communities

Author Once & Reach Multiple Communities with iUpload Perspectives; Expands Marketing Reach & Extends Content for Companies and Publishers

Scottsdale, Arizona — February 13, 2005 —Today at DEMO@15, a leading industry conference for launching new and innovative technology products, iUpload, a content management and corporate blogging solution provider, launched Perspectives. iUpload Perspectives offers a unique business blogging application that allows users to create content in their blog and instantly reach multiple communities and sites.

iUpload Perspectives takes managing content and blogging to a new level, extending the reach of information by making it available to a wider audience, cross posting to diverse communities, or, targeting information within your own community down to particular individuals.

“Participation on the Internet is turning into a nuisance and getting worse,� said Robin Hopper, CEO of iUpload. “People have numerous places they need to share information – their company’s website, emails, their CRM application, discussion forums, social networks, a corporate blog, their personal blog, etc. iUpload Perspectives lets people participate in ALL of these places from the friendly confines of their own blog.�

The number of Perspectives that can be applied to content is growing weekly and ranges from: customer relationship and contact management applications like salesforce.com and Plaxo; search portals like Yahoo!; social networks applications like Tribe; classified and auction sites like eBay; product and service review sites; contests and promotions from large brands like Idol; and even user generated tags like Technorati and Flickr.

“Business blogging within corporations is not enough. When corporate blogging tools are integrated into a powerful content management system, there’s an opportunity to not only increase the number of authors but extend the reach of their content,� said Allen Weiner, Research Director, Media, Gartner G2. “By empowering more authors, organizations can have an integrated and powerful way to implement new consumer generated marketing and branding platforms.�

Key Benefits
For Individuals - iUpload Perspectives allows them to live in and communicate from their blog rather than taking the time to go to numerous websites and applications while retaining control over where their information might appear.
iUpload Perspectives to Launch at DEMO@15!

For Organizations - iUpload Perspectives offers an effective way to tap into the blogosphere, launch consumer generated marketing programs, conduct promotions and contest, and create, expand and promote participation in their community. A host of administrative tools allow organizations to manage and distribute content coming from individuals as appropriate, turning bloggers into potential authors and allowing them to leverage the very best content into any of their web properties.

"iUpload has been chosen from among hundreds of companies to present at DEMO this year," said Chris Shipley, Executive Producer/DEMO Conferences. "DEMO highlights only the most compelling products, concepts and ideas that are uniquely impacting their market segments, and changing the dynamic of the market. iUpload Perspectives is that sort of product. It liberates blog entries by enabling cross-platform, cross-community publishing, which will give greater voice to blog writers while making it easier for blog readers to find relevant content.�

Availability
iUpload Perspectives is automatically available to existing customers now. Individuals can also utilize Perspectives at no charge by signing up for a free blog at www.iupload.com/signup.asp. Organizations interested in here offering a Perspective(s) should contact iUpload to review the host of options and administration tools available. Perspectives is an integral part of all of iUpload’s tools, so it can be accessible from within their Personal Publisher, Community Publisher and Content Manager solutions, as well as third party tools.

About iUpload
iUpload is a leading content management and corporate blogging software company whose solutions help organizations optimize the marketing potential of their content. Whether you’re an individual, a corporation or a community, iUpload provides a powerful one-stop solution for creating, managing and distributing all of your content, while giving you a new social marketing platform that extends your corporate voice and strengthens your brand across multiple communities. The iUpload Application Suite consists of iUpload Content Manager, iUpload Personal Publisher, iUpload Community Publisher and iUpload Perspectives. All four products work seamlessly together using the same user interface, making it easier for authors of all levels to reach new audiences instantly. iUpload’s scalable approach allows seamless integration into any environment, making them the choice for a wide range of customers. Founded in 1998, iUpload’s headquarters are in Burlington, ON, Canada. For more information visit www.iupload.com.

About Demo@15!
The annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow’s cutting-edge technologies and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit: http://www.demo.com.

Last week I was given a ColdFusion custom tag for review from Andrei Kondrashev at Adiabata. The tag is a custom tag written as a replacement for the default cfhttp tag that comes with ColdFusion. I used the tag on a CFMX 6.1 installation running windows and was able to run up to 50 simultaneous multi-threaded http requests using this tag and the performance was remarkable. Additionally, the documentation was clear and easy to understand so I highly recommend this tag to anyone needing a multi-threaded http tag for ColdFusion. Plus, it's only $30 so you really can't go wrong. The tag is available at CFTagStore.