Creative Imagination asks if the Web 2.0 bubble is close to bursting already, or whether some of the companies that are failing (citing Filmloop and Jobster) just got into the game too late with nothing innovative to add.
Online Marketing Blog has an interview with Amanda Watlington about getting involved with search marketing, her appreciation for being hands on with the work, her thoughts on marketing via Second Life, the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification program, tips on business blogging and the power of networking.
Mobile Africa reports on Nokia and Vox collaborating to bring blogging to the Nokia NSeries multimedia computer. "We've always believed that mobile phones will have a huge impact on blogging, and we're pleased that Nokia shares this vision," said Six Apart co-founder and president Mena Trott. "People will be able to capture life's spontaneous moments by video or camera quickly and easily, and share them with friends and family. Together, Nokia and Six Apart are bringing the best on-the-go blogging experience to millions of Nokia Nseries users around the world."
Mashable reports that ChaCha, a social search engine, has received $6m in funding from the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and others. Mashable cautions that talk of these social search engines being "Google killers" sets expectations much too high.
TechCrunch reports on big lay offs at Insider Pages, the user review site: "The company, which is funded by Sequoia, Softbank and idealab, seems to be unable to keep up with the growth of competitor Yelp (and others) in this crowded space. Both Alexa and Google Trends suggest Yelp is the only company with any traction right now. Other companies doing something similar include Judy’s Book, Zipingo and Riffs."
Mashable reports that Bebo have opened up a bookstore. It doesn't sound exactly riveting, though: "Bebo has made a step towards the sale of retail items through the launch of a Bebo bookstore, seemingly called “Bebo Authors“. You get the sense that Bebo is just dipping a toe into these waters: they seem to have just dropped in an Amazon aStore with a bit of Bebo styling. Some authors do seem to have their own profile pages, but these haven’t been tied together in the same way as Bebo Bands or MySpace Music."