] NEW YORK - Google, the operator of the Web's leading
] search engine, has bought Pyra Labs, the creator of
] software for publishing Weblogs, a form of hyperlinked
] online journal that has become an increasingly popular
] way to distribute and collect information on the Web.
] Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the move was
] hailed by users of Weblogs, commonly called blogs, as a
] watershed moment for the fledgling communications medium,
] sometimes dismissed as too narrowband and self-involved
] to have a significant cultural impact.
] 'People will start taking it seriously,' said Mr Matthew
] Haughey, creator of Metafilter, a widely-read Weblog, and
] a former employee of Pyra. 'If it's linked to off Google,
] you're not going to have to explain what a Weblog is to
] people anymore.'

Google deal ties company to Weblogs - FEB 18, 2003

] Dave Weinstein, Gizmodo's Special Correspondent for the
] Consumer Electronics Show, contributes an excellent
] report about the best gadgets he saw there:
]
] LAS VEGAS -- As each year ends there's a small section of
] our populace that starts to get really excited about
] upcoming events. Is it the coming of the new year that's
] got them smiling like school children on the way to a
] candy store, or is it the upcoming Consumer Electronics
] Show (CES) that's held at the beginning of each January?
] CES usually heralds the arrival of new home entertainment
] gear, but in recent years, this has expanded to all sorts
] of home and portable technology products, including flat
] panel televisions, wireless networking, personal video
] recorders (PVR), home theater PCs (HTPC), and a plethora
] of handheld devices. This year's CES didn't disappoint,
] in addition to a huge amount of new breakthrough
] products, there were glimpses of the components that will
] be showing up as part of next years gadgets as well.
] Here's a few of the interesting product and technology
] areas that were shown this year.

Gizmodo : CES Field Report

] NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet search company Google Inc.
] has agreed to acquire Pyra Labs, the handful of Web
] developers who helped jump-start the personal publishing
] phenomenon known as blogging, Pyra's founder said on
] Sunday.
] Word of the deal spread after Pyra Labs Chief Executive
] Evan Williams confirmed on his personal Weblog that his
] team of six developers would join Google. In typical blog
] fashion, the news spread first on Saturday from San Jose
] Mercury technology columnist Dan Gillmor's eJournal diary
] to other blog sites.
] Weblogs, or "blogs" for short, are a form of grass-roots
] online diary publishing that give ordinary people with
] limited technical knowledge the ability to update
] personal Web sites. A blog consists of short, frequently
] updated postings that are arranged chronologically,
] highlighting the latest material.

Google Buys Blogger

] Millions of people worldwide marched in demonstrations
] against a possible US-led war against Iraq, over the
] weekend.
] We've had hundreds of your pictures sent in already.
] Click on the links below to view a selection from anti
] war demos.

BBC NEWS | Talking Point | Your pictures of the anti-war demonstrations

] Google has bought Blogger. Forget those peace protests
] around the world on Saturday: there is nothing more
] interesting to the weblog community than the weblog
] community, and this was the news of the weekend.
] What, you might ask, has happened? Put simply, the
] world's favourite search engine has bought one of the
] companies that pioneered the online diary, or weblog.
] Google now owns a service that makes it easy to publish a
] weblog, as well as an archive that holds the text from
] more than one million weblogs, 200,000 of which are
] active today.
] Naturally, the story was broken via breathless weblog
] postings. Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News had
] learnt of the story and produced a special edition of his
] column to break it. Evan Williams, the chief executive of
] Pyra (the company that gave birth to Blogger) read
] Gillmor's story, which was published unexpectedly early,
] and announced the takeover at a US blogging event on
] Saturday afternoon.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Google gets Blogger and better

] Weblogs are one of the few things online still capable of
] generating media buzz and bucks. The libertarian blogger
] Glenn Reynolds turned himself into a marketable political
] pundit via his hugely popular blog (instapundit.com) and
] now appears on the news cable channel MSNBC. United
] States-based right-wing British blogger Andrew Sullivan
] (andrewsullivan.com) recently netted about $US79,000
] ($133,000) in donations from his readers during a "pledge
] week" in which he appealed for funds to keep his site
] running.
] Given Sullivan's success, there are signs that the
] business world beyond AOL is beginning to take a serious
] interest in weblogs.
] A growing number of entrepreneurs, media types and
] marketers have taken up blogging, in all senses of the
] word. And as they crank out their own daily contributions
] and links, they are starting to see it as a way to reach
] out and research opinion formers, as a lesson in online
] media and as a place they might eventually make a little
] money.
] Leading the charge is New York-based Briton Nick Denton
] (nickdenton.org), whose previous credits include the
] dotcom networking event First Tuesday and the online news
] aggregator Moreover.

Blogging for dollars - theage.com.au

] Web search powerhouse Google has jumped headfirst into
] the popular web logging (blogging) phenomena, inking a
] deal to acquire Silicon Valley software firm Pyra Labs.
] Financial terms of the deal, believed to be an all-cash
] transaction, were not released.
] Google officials could not be reached to comment on the
] deal, which includes the Blogger "push-button" Web
] publishing platform used by hundreds of thousands of
] users to update online journals, or blogs (define).
] Blogger boasts just over 1 million registered users but
] only about 200,000 users publish active weblogs. Blogger
] runs a free service alongside a $35 per year Blogger Pro
] option that offers advanced features for commercial
] bloggers.
] Pyra Labs, formed in January 1999, was launched with
] start-up funding from O'Reilly & Associates, Advance
] Publications (parent to Condi Nast), Jerry Michalski, and
] The Accelerator Group.

Google Acquires Blog Software Firm

] oogle, the operator of the Web's leading search engine,
] has bought Pyra Labs, the creator of software for
] publishing Weblogs, a form of hyperlinked online journal
] that has become an increasingly popular way to distribute
] and collect information on the Web.
] Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the move was
] hailed by users of Weblogs, commonly called blogs, as a
] watershed moment for the fledgling communications medium,
] sometimes dismissed as too narrowband and self-involved
] to have a significant cultural impact.
] "People will start taking it seriously," said Matthew
] Haughey, creator of Metafilter, a widely read Weblog, and
] a former employee of Pyra. "If it's linked to off of
] Google, you're not going to have to explain what a Weblog
] is to people anymore."

Google Deal Ties Company to Weblogs

] Blogging is also changing the way people get their news,
] and the way the media is presenting it.
] When former House Majority Leader Trent Lott gave his
] controversial speech at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th
] birthday party, the story was largely ignored in the
] mainstream press. But political blogs such as
] www.talkingpointsmemo.com jumped on it, turning it into a
] national story. Traditional media outlets took notice of
] how the story got out.
] Now many newspapers and other news outlets are promoting
] news "blogs" by their reporters and columnists.

Have a personal story to tell? Become a Blogger

] LONDON (Reuters) - Minimalist Internet search engine
] Google (news - external web site) was voted "brand of the
] year" by branding junkies on Tuesday, proving once again
] that less is more as it pipped giants such as Coca-Cola
] and Starbucks to the top slot.

Yahoo! News - Google Top Apple, Coke in Branding Poll