Yahoo Japan, owned mostly by Softbank and partly by Yahoo, on Tuesday launched a test, or "beta," version of Yahoo Japan Blogs, a free service that lets users post blogs and up to 2GB of images, comment on other blogs, and associate their blogs with animated representations of users known as avatars.

"This is a basic community service," said a Yahoo Japan spokesperson who asked not to be named. "Last year there was a blog boom in Japan. Lots of portals have blogs now. So we came in late. But when we start, it will have an impact on a lot of Internet users here."

The launch could have implications for Yahoo users in the United States, too

Can the Ohmynews model, so successful in S. Korea, work here?

I get energized when I get to talk about the work Mike and I are doing. Today, I was lucky enough to present in front of a gathering hosted by iCrossing and Overture. The event was for the company’s dispersed personnel as well as their top clients. I did 40 minutes of Media Titans song & dance, and I think it went over well. For me, it was a 25 minute ride to the event, so it was low-impact dal which turned out to be some time well spent.

Because the event is being tuned to coincide with the FBR (nee phoenix) Open, iCrossing and Overture are hosting a corporate tent at the Open. I was invited to come along tomorrow and interact with those people who didn’t have time to pose Q&A today. My wife is just so sad that she gets to come with...

Cool.