Tag based dating site for geeks Consumating is to shut March 15, according to a notice posted to the Consumating forums. Consumating was acquired by CNet in December 2005 and was later relaunched in June 2006. The sites traffic remained strong in 2006 then fell away in 2007 according to Alexa (the site was too small to register on comScore). The site currently ranks at 149,238. The code for… → Read More
Nearly completely missed amid the noise around Microsoft’s takeover offer of Yahoo was speculation Friday that Google may be looking to acquire at a stake in San Francisco-based CNet. CNet shares were up 7% Friday based on the rumors. Last month, a group of investors began gathering shares of CNet and desired to exert influence on the makeup of the board of directors. Google investing in… → Read More
Former TechCrunch Writer Natali Del Conte’s new CNET TV show, Loaded, launched today. And true to CNET’s general policies, the show is not embeddable on other websites (you can see it here). Also standard CNET policy – they sort of borrowed a headline without attribution (Natali says “Google and Microsoft exectuives were not watching the Superbowl on Sunday” – I… → Read More
The New York Times is reporting that a group of investors has gathered a 21% stake in CNET and is trying to take over the board of directors and seriously shake things up. This comes after years of poor stock performance, including a 19% decline over the last three years as other Internet companies have soared. The consortium, which consists of Sandell Asset Management, Spark Capital, and… → Read More
CNET will shut down its online RSS reader, Newsburst, on December 31, 2007. An email went out to users and a notice has been displayed on the site (see below), along with instructions on exporting news feeds via OPML. Few people will be affected – Compete.com says only 4,000 people visit the site monthly. It competes with Bloglines, Google Reader and scores of other competitors and clearly… → Read More
Ever since the NYTimes.com swept away the last remaining boulders of its subscription pay wall (aka Times Select) in mid-September, its traffic has been going through the roof. According to comScore, it gained 7.5 million readers worldwide from the end of August through the end of October (November numbers are not out yet). That is a 64 percent jump (to a total of 19.4 million). Similarly… → Read More
CNET Networks, the parent company for CNET.com, MP3.com, TV.com, GameSpot and several other web destinations, has released a set of widgets for embedding their videos on non-CNET websites. The widgets are well-designed and currently available for BNET, CHOW, CNET.com, GameSpot, and TV.com. Whichever the source, they show some branding, a video clip, a selection of other video clips, and an… → Read More
Ok, the CNET news we hinted at is starting to roll in. They’ve sold Webshots, a photo sharing site, for $45 million in cash to American Greetings. The reason, says CNET Neil Ashe, is to allow CNET to “focus on key areas of growth.” Webshots seemed to be growing pretty fast, though. The site attracted 7.2 million visitors in the U.S. in September, up 25 percent from last year.And… → Read More
Update: See announcements here. CNET has sold Webshots for $45 million in cash as well as other announcements. They have not announced a stock buyback or any acquisitions, but its clear that they are preparing to make some moves with all this cash. CNET Networks has $250 million burning a hole in its pocket. The Internet media company secured a line of credit for that amount on October 16, even… → Read More
Shelby Bonnie left the company he co-founded with Halsey Minor, CNET, just about one year ago. This morning he launches his next startup, PoliticalBase. The site, which focuses on local, state and national elections and other political matters, is timed perfectly to take advantage of the 2008 presidential elections and the estimated $4.5 billion that will be spent on advertising to promote… → Read More
Tom Krazit looked up from his morning cup of coffee at the most recent data provided by web traffic company Net Applications and yelled, “Erroneous! Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts.” Apparently Net Applications is claiming that Windows Vista is eroding Mac OS X sales, based on the kinds of operating systems that its “Hitlink” software tracks. → Read More
Well this is an odd lumpkin of news. Jim Louderbeck, PC Magazine (“The Magazine You No Longer Read”) EIC, has been replaced by Lance Ulanoff, PC Mag’s reviews editor. Louderbeck, who launched TechTV back when there was still money in the media world, appears to be headed to video site Revision3. → Read More
Do you want to be a part of the glamorous world of technology writing? I mean, who wouldn’t? Beginning this week, ZDNet is giving you the chance to become a Deputy Product Tester. Every week, ZDNet will pick at least one person to do a hands-on test of a product of the site’s choosing. Afterward, you get to keep the product (so long as you’re based here in the U.S.). Should it… → Read More
Those kooky dudes over at CNet have drank a few magical Kool-Aids and are now predicting the future of the 6G iPod. Among the new features predicted? Try a 100GB hard drive (very possibly), a widescreen display (very possible), UK movies downloads (possible), and WiFi for downloading movies and music over the air. Hmmm, that last one seems a bit far-fetched considering there’s no way to… → Read More
We make fun of Windows Mobile here at CrunchGear HQ all the time. The clunky, ill-thought-out OS is just not what a mobile OS should be: simple. That being said, Windows Mobile 6, aka Crossbow, is showing itself to be a conscious, formulated upgrade rather than a slap-dash of bug fixes, which is a start. The good folks at CNet put WinMo 6 through its paces and have given it a positive review… → Read More
CNET has had a difficult time lately. CEO Shelby Bonnie resigned earlier this week in the midst of an option repricing scandal that has already claimed General Counsel Sharon Le Duy, Senior Vice President Heather McGaughey of Human Resources, and former CFO Doug Woodrum. And recent data suggests that CNET’s overall traffic isn’t just flat, it’s declining at an alarmingly swift… → Read More
CNET sure has been busy fixing up its community sites lately. In addition to recent updates to Consumating, Webshots, and Chow, the launch of AllYouCanUpload and the acquisition of UrbanBaby, CNET relaunched popular Tech news and community site TechRepublic today. A key addition to TechRepublic is the use of tags to categorize all content on the site, including user generated content found in the… → Read More
Consumating is a tag-based dating site that launched in 2005 and was acquired by CNET in December 2005. The site relaunched today with a few notable changes. Much of the new stuff is cosmetic, although they’ve also created discussion boards around any topic users choose to create. With these changes, Consumating is looking less like a dating site and more like a pure social network (where… → Read More
CNET very quietly launched a simple new photo uploading site called AllYouCanUpload last week. At first glance it doesn’t appear to be very special or disruptive. But it is. By launching AllYouCanUpload, CNET just pulled the rug out from under at least two startups (photobucket and imageshack) that focus on providing image hosting for users who want to display those images on other websites… → Read More
Consumating, a dating site with tagging that I profiled in August, has been acquired by CNet. Congratulations to both founders. I didn’t know that Adaptive Path had helped design Consumating until reading about it on Alexander Muse’s blog today. I am increasingly impressed by the value that AP adds to companies that work with them. → Read More
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