In today's offering, Allen and Mike discuss Microsoft's refinement of its policies regarding Spaces blog content that violate "local laws." This particular case involves a Chinese journalist whose blog was removed from MSN Spaces after complaints by the Chinese government officials.

The sumamry below is comical and close to conspiracy theory. The Web has been in the workplace for close to a decade; all of the sudden, blogs are making us less productive? What about those folks who have been glued to eBay all day in the office? Businesses who are concerned should just set up filtering software, not that such a move would stop most people.

In case there is anyone...I mean anyone...who thinks long-tail content is not for real.

AOL and Podcasting

Google's blog search

But we knew that...

WashingtonPost.com Sends Readers to Blogs

Allen and Mike discuss the differences between social networking and social search. And there are differences. 

Social-search is the emergence of how consumers find and rate everything from Vietnamese restautrants to political coverage etc. More to the point, out of social-search comes an important requirement -- and an opportunity for creating ranking systems that help establish an individual's credbility. 

In today's episode, Allen and Mike admit that the past few days worth of news in the media world have left them slack-jawed at the speed with which world of TV is morphing.

Read below... Mike and I believe that riffed, experienced journalists will emerge to create blogs that compete with their former employers.

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff  |  June 11, 2005

Two months after Boston Herald publisher Patrick J. Purcell said he was seeking deep newsroom cuts in an effort to find $7 million in savings at the financially troubled tabloid, a massive exodus is in full swing -- one that involves some of the paper's best known and most seasoned journalists.

According to Herald managers and union officials, 30 to 35 of the 145 unionized newsroom staff members have already left or are expected to leave soon. The vast majority have applied for a buyout, and a handful were laid off. The same managers and officials also estimate that 10 to 12 of the paper's 52 nonunion newsroom employees -- editors, columnists, and staff members working under contract -- will have departed by the end of the month. A small number of employees recently left voluntarily, without being laid off or taking a buyout.

The buyout packages offered by the Herald gave its departing journalists a monetary settlement based largely on their years of service at the company. The situation remains fluid, because some staff members whose buyout applications were accepted have not formally ratified their deals.

Mike and I drivel on about Arianna Huffington's blog, The Huffington Post, which is proof that you shouldn't quit your day job no matter what sycophants tell you.

Also of note, BMI starts a Podcast (see previous post). Mike explains how it could be a sign of things to come.

Mike and I tackle a slow news day by talking about the digital media we use in our daily lives.

I found this new radio site that (I think) is being launched by Infinity Broadcasting. It’s called KYOU radio and bills itself as “open source” radio. It gives you the ability to register and upload your Podcasts (one at a time, and not the XML feeds). Not clear as to what manner the “station” will use to air the Podcasts or how creators will be compensated, but it looks interesting.

The more of these kinds of operations that launch—like Open Media Network—that take your Podcasts and videoblogs and componentized them (that is, take them out of the context of the blog in which they appear), the more I will need to mention my blog or other relevant information in the blog-casts. I also wonder how these sorts of sites will be able to report traffic or other usage stats to those who submit content.

And Mike and I cannot resist commenting.

Also, some speculation on Real Network's big 10th anniversary announcement.