Voxmedia Wire

Microsoft’s new Chinese internet portal has banned the words “democracy” and “freedom” from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing’s political censors. Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have been blocked from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal websites they create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.

Microsoft bans ‘democracy’ for China web users (Financial Times)

Something about blogs makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate. News pros seem terribly threatened by online amateurs… In the intense competition for attention, bloggers have found new ways to give readers value. Journalists should be asking not what we can teach them but what they can teach us.

Mass Medium (Forbes.com)

Yahoo plans to add the capability to import content, such as photos and music, from non-Yahoo applications to its new Yahoo 360 social networking and blogging service, according to an executive of the company… Yahoo 360 initially will allow users to include RSS feeds from other sources, according to Brody, who says Yahoo wants its Yahoo 360 service to be an “open” product. “If you have content anywhere on the Internet, you should be able to share it with friends and family through Yahoo 360,” [Paul Brody, director of community products at Yahoo,] says.

Yahoo Blogging Service Boosts Content (PC World/IDG)

Though many Web sites have long embedded search keywords, or metadata, tagging has a social component that gives it its power. “Tagging is something selfishly useful. It helps you understand and categorize something for yourself,” Technorati founder David Sifry said. “But I can take advantage of the fact that you and hundreds and thousands of people have also tagged the things” for themselves.

‘Tags’ Ease Sifting of Digital Data (Washington Post/AP)

For some it is the end of the blog. For others, it is proof that blogging has earned its place in the media. Blogs, or online weblogs, in which opinions and reports are posted on the internet for everyone to read, are to get a dose of celebrity. Arianna Huffington, commentator, one-time Republican and candidate for governor of California, has recruited a bevy of close friends to create an über-blog that will offer a round-the-clock commentary on our life and times.

Uber-blog raises a celebrity voice (The Guardian)

“So far, it’s really been a bigger success than I thought it would be,” said Eric Pierce, the program’s chief developer and administrator. “We didn’t have a whole lot of people doing Web pages unless they were in a Web design class, and we just wanted students to take advantage of the system we had available for them. This gives them a chance to put stuff up really quickly.” Using WordPress and Gallery software, blog@USF allows students to post text and photos as they see fit, just like LiveJournal or Blogger. Students receive 100 megabytes of storage space, meaning they can also post audio and video files.

USF students go into the blogosphere (St. Petersburg Times)

Web logs — those self-published Internet gazettes that have injected so much mischief into the world of national politics — have spread to golf. The online journals, known as blogs, are often devoted to professional golf, with the authors issuing predictable 19th-hole rants: Tiger vs. Vijay, Michelle vs. Annika, Nicklaus vs. the long ball, Hootie vs. the 21st century, yadayadayada. Maybe it’s just us, but a little bit of that inside-the-fairway chin-pulling goes a long way.

Want to tell all about your 30-footer for double bogey? Start a golf blog.

The main reason more businesses are blogging is because the tool costs little or nothing to use, which is attractive to businesses with small marketing budgets. Additionally, it is a good way to be heard and stand out from the crowd. “Blogs are a way for you to tell your story over and over again, and do it in a personable way. If you are blogging and your competitor down the street is not, then it can be a competitive advantage,” said Paul Chaney, principal of Radiant Marketing group, a blogging consultant firm focused on small businesses.

Business Blogging on the Rise (Inc.com)

“I don’t know why Brian Williams isn’t blogging right now,” [NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff] Zucker said of the anchor of NBC’s top-rated evening news program who took the helm after veteran journalist Tom Brokaw stepped down in December. “We should be looking for a more interactive component … and be experimenting more.” … U.S. networks can no longer count on a “dinnertime” audience to watch their half-hour news broadcasts at an appointed time every night, given the inroads made by 24-hour cable news channels and the wide availability of breaking reports on the Internet.

NBC Chief Mulls Blogs for Top News Anchors (Washington Post)

San Francisco will tomorrow become the first jurisdiction in the country to declare that bloggers should be treated no differently than traditional media. That’s what the San Francisco City Attorney will state at a meeting of the city’s Board of Supervisors. The Board is considering an amendment to the city ordinance that would require full disclosure of who is paying for political messages.

Are bloggers journalists? San Francisco Says Yes (Silicon Valley Watcher)