Links of Note: May 23, 2007
Acquisition:$100 Million Payday For Feedburner (TechCrunch)
TechCrunch says Google is adding Feedburner to its roster, and that's a very good thing on two fronts: first, it gives the folks behind Feedburner their just rewards (Feedburner is the best RSS service out there) and second, Feedburner's technology could lead to some very cool RSS-related services from Google. The Feedburner acquisition hasn't been formally announced, but TechCrunch says it's a done deal:
Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million. The deal is all cash and mostly upfront, according to our source, although the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.
Usability:
Web 2.0 'neglecting good design' (BBC)
Jakob Nielsen says irrational exuberance over Web 2.0 is leaving usability in the dust on some sites.
"Describing Web 2.0 as the 'latest fashion', Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade."Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written."
Journalism Awards:
Knight News Challenge Winners Announced (Editor & Publisher)
Some interesting projects will be funded by the Knight News Challenge:
$1.1 million to journalist/Web developer Adrian Holovaty to create city-specific Web sites devoted to public records and hyper-local information.Applications for the next News Challenge award can be submitted through www.newschallenge.org beginning July 1.$639,000 to Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism for nine full journalism scholarships for students who have undergraduate degrees in computer science.
Nine bloggers will each get $15,000 to blog about topics ranging from GPS tracking devices to "out-of-the-box" community publishing solutions.
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