The Omaha World-Herald is running the AP story about the Google/Pyra deal, which is unfortunate because they're missing the local angle here. Co-founder Evan Williams is from Nebraska, as were Blogger's first two employees Paul Bausch and Matt Hamer. For nearly a year, Pyra Labs was 3/4 Husker. Football games were one of the few things that interrupted our weekend working. Lincoln Journal Star, here's a scoop for you! Or better yet, the Columbus Telegram. Go Big Red!

Forbes has an article on the acquisition, Google Goes Blog-Crazy. Blog-Crazy? Um, ok. [via Dave]

The T-Mobile Sidekick with Camera Attachment is now free at Amazon (via rebates, with service activation). I'm enjoying mine quite a bit, though I haven't yet started using it as an actual phone. I much prefer the AIM, email, and photo capabilities. If you were thinking about picking one up, you can't beat that price. But if they're now giving them away for free, makes me think a newer model might be on its way. Caveat emptor.

I'd noticed that my Amazon Associate fees this quarter were much lower than average. Then I notices that I wasn't getting any referral fees for some items readers emailed to say they'd purchased. Jason dig some digging and discovered that Amazon's URLs have changed. Apparently only one style of URL results in Associates fees. If you're using an Associates code on your site, be sure to read his post and double-check your URLs.

With the news of Google's acquisition of Pyra Labs, watch software makers scramble to include a blogging feature in their products. Microsoft-Watch reports that Microsoft Tests the Blogging-Tool Waters with their Community Starter Kit. The article quotes Microsoft developer division product manager Shawn Nandi,

You could use this (Kit) to build a Weblog."

You can also use Microsoft Notepad and an FTP client to build a weblog, but that doesn't mean they were designed for that, or that it's easy to do.

Ask yourself when looking at "blogging" software: Was it designed with weblogging in mind (i.e. easy updating through simple posting interface, archives for posts, permalinks, templating control, comments, RSS output, etc.) or has the label "blogging" been slapped onto an existing publishing system designed around outputing web pages? That is, can your content be chunked up into posts, so that content can live in many places at once (your front page, your archive, your by-category page) or is the tool outputting pages, trapping your words in the page paradigm? (For more on posts vs. pages, see my megnut column, What We're Doing When We Blog.)

The answer to these questions is the difference between a tool designed for weblogging and one that's simply trying to capitalize on blogging's current popularity.

Since I was a snowstorm behind with my moblog photos, I've removed them. The ones I shot on my way to work today as replacements didn't turn out very well, but look for further moblogging action as time passes. Meanwhile, it's still snowing here! The sidewalks and streets are filled with snow and being a pedestrian is hazardous because 3' high mounds of snow block street corners, forcing one to cross in the street with traffic.

A few more articles about the Google/Pyra deal. From the Guardian UK: Google gets Blogger and better and Google buys Blogger web service. The Washington Post chimes in with a webloggy summary, Blogs Get Google's Embrace. Web Host Industry Review has Google Buys Blogger Maker Pyra Labs. MSNBC (via Reuters) Google buys Blogger.com developer. Perhaps the best of the bunch is Search Engine Watch who offers some good thoughts about what Google might do with Blogger in Puzzling Out Google's Blogger Acquisition. Oops, almost missed this BBC article, Fame or misfortune beckons for weblogs? with some nice quotes from Matt Webb. Don't miss the wonderful graphic at the top of the page: a champagne bottle with the names Blogger and Google Photoshopped onto the label.

This month's Artforum Hot List is a to-the-point article about weblogs that mentions megnut.com.

Although blogs tend to focus on the author's immediate world, they are increasingly devoted to commentaries on current events and politics. The variety of ways in which news is incorporated into and disseminated from these sites is astounding; it underscores the potential of online self-publishing to both complement and challenge traditional media.

The very talented Chris Pew of Capsule9 sent the tip. Go buy some of his art in return.

The New York Times has a story
Google Deal Ties Company to Weblogs. Internet News reports in with Google Acquires Blog Software Firm. But Google still doesn't have anything up in their Press Center. And Blogger.com still, oddly, says nothing about the deal. Nor does the old Pyra page.

So the news is out: Google has bought Pyra Labs, the company I co-founded. I'm really pleased with the deal because Pyra's always struggled for the resources to really do cool stuff with Blogger. As Ev says in Gillmor's article, the acquisition gives Pyra, "resources to build on the vision I've been working on for years." It's also an exciting development for weblogs in general, and one that's sure to raise their level of exposure. What does this mean for the Lafayette Project? Not much. As I said on Friday, we're not doing weblog search, and we had no intention of going up against Google.

More discussions and interpretations here:

• Anil Dash
• Boing Boing
• Google News
• Metafilter thread
• Slashdot