The Social

Hackers launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack that sporadically downed popular blog network Gawker Media over the weekend and on Monday, the company confirmed in a blog post early Tuesday morning.

When CNET News spoke to Gawker Media representatives on Monday, they were not yet sure what was causing the outages but had not ruled out malicious behavior.

The attacks appear to have been launched at Consumerist, a blog that Gawker sold to Consumer Reports last year but which is still hosted on the same servers. The motivation behind them is not yet clear.

The New York-based Gawker Media has sold or merged a number of its blog titles over the past few years, but it remains the parent company of several extremely high-profile blogs--often with an edgy gossip angle--like Gizmodo, Jezebel, and the eponymous Gawker.com.

DDOS attacks occur when hackers swamp a site with excess pings from multiple sources to bring it down; they can knock out entire hosting companies.

I can has free stuff in the mail?

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

How acceptable is it for independent bloggers to accept free products and other giveaways? It's been a heated discussion of late.

Now MomDot, a community site for the ever-expanding corps of "mommy bloggers," has decided to encourage its followers to spend a week ignoring the PR and marketing industries altogether.

"MomDot is challenging bloggers to participate for one week in August in a 'PR Blackout' challenge where you do not blog any giveaways, any reviews, and zero press releases," the post on Monday announced. "In fact, we don't want you to talk to PR at all that whole week. We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week."

A week. A whole week that they can't write about PR pitches and stuff that's been sent to them for free. Quel horreur, right?

It's suggested as a solution to "bloggy burnout," or the notion that "mom bloggers are simply doing too much," but it's impossible to take a "PR Blackout" out of the context of the controversy over blogger freebies. This has all been front and center for a few weeks, once it was revealed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was considering including bloggers under guidelines that ban deceptive or unfair business practices. Basically, this means that if a blogger writes about a product that was given away for free or with any added compensation, that must be disclosed. "Mommy blogs," written by and catering to a demographic that's an obvious marketer's paradise, have found themselves in the crosshairs.

I don't have kids, and even if I did I don't think I'd blog much about them out of the concern that their future sixth-grade classmates would find a way to use it as blackmail, so maybe I'm not at liberty to judge. But I think MomDot is sort of missing the point. Working with the public relations industry is core to any journalist's (and now blogger's) job, as is the use of press releases and in some cases review products. What MomDot is assuming is that "mommy bloggers" are simply rehashing press releases and posting photos of stuff they got for free, turning less into independent bloggers and more into PR mouthpieces.

That's a little bit insulting, in my opinion, to the scores of smart, funny, and critical bloggers who happen to write about their lifestyles as mothers. Many of these women are blogging as a side project while they take time off from very successful corporate careers to focus on raising their kids. I'm not all that well schooled in which mommy blogs are worth reading, but I'm willing to bet that plenty of them are willing to read a press release or play with a new product and promptly write about how stupid they think it is.

It seems like this is a case where a few bad eggs are spoiling the omelet, or however that old saying goes. The problem isn't PR, but bloggers who are working with it in a less-than-sincere way.

The FTC's proposed new rule, and MomDot's reaction to all the buzz about it, does highlight some real problems (never mind how difficult it'll be to police thousands of blogs). It can be a very questionable marketing strategy to offer bloggers free stuff simply so that they'll write about it, but with the digital age offering anyone a mouthpiece and an audience, I'm afraid it's a strategy that's here to stay. But I don't think the real problem is the giveaways themselves, although some of the reports of free Caribbean cruise vacations are worth raising a few eyebrows over. The issue is which of the recipients of everything from e-mailed press releases to movie tickets to kiddie-toy test products are really just acting as marketing outlets, and which ones aren't.

It's not restricted to moms who blog. Tech bloggers have often been accused of doing the same thing with regard to free gadgets--as when Microsoft courted bloggers with copies of Windows Vista that just happened to be loaded on souped-up Acer Ferrari laptops. I don't get a whole lot of review products here at CNET since I cover the Web and media rather than hardware, but our gadget reviewers have a policy of packaging everything back up and shipping it back once their reviews are complete.

Beyond my own industry, I see posts and Twitter tweets about trips, free gadgets, and other giveaways coming from prominent folk in social media, with the obvious intent that the company or agency behind it simply wants them to write about it and have their digital reach act as an advertising outlet, and I tend to think less of their blogging prowess when they don't seem willing to turn a critical eye to any of it.

Izea, for example, the marketing company that's become one of the most prominent faces of blogger giveaways, says it supports the FTC investigation and requires all bloggers to disclose compensation and freebies, but has also acknowledged that for at least one giveaway it avoided including bloggers who might have given the client negative press. Disclosure in these situations is obviously important. So is a general, blogosphere-wide awareness that marketers are chomping at the bit for their audiences. Some bloggers will be fine with this. Others will rightly see this as a need for some sort of community-wide guidelines to be put in place. I know there's been talk of this.

The encouragement to "write about your family, not giveaways" is admirable. But the reality is that many of these bloggers have turned anecdotes about parenting into a full-fledged business, and working with PR is part of the game. The likes of MomDot should be encouraging quality content, media savviness, and best practices, rather than a "PR blackout" that misses the point.

And--just a thought--maybe the real solution to "bloggy burnout" is taking a few days away from the keyboard and spending a little bit of extra time with your kids.

Well, here's an innovative way to get some buzz: FBHive, a new blog devoted to the discussion of all things Facebook, has debuted with the revelation that its creators have discovered a hack that can expose some crucial profile data.

No, it won't expose your personal photos or wall posts. But, FBHive says, it can bring up all the "basic information" that you have entered into your profile, even if you've elected to keep that information private. This is the section that includes location, gender, relationship status, relationships (significant other, parents, siblings), political views, religious views, birthday, and hometown. That's enough to be a problem in the identity theft department, as it could easily expose frequent password hints like dates of birth and mothers' maiden names.

Security holes are nothing new to social networks: last year, Facebook plugged a leak that exposed members' protected photos via the Facebook mobile site, and another hole was discovered about a year ago that exposed members' birth dates.

Admirably, FBHive has not shared the details of the newly discovered hack; more disconcertingly, it said Facebook has done nothing since it alerted the social network to the issue earlier this month.

"We are not malicious hackers, by any means, and our skills are far from advanced," the post read. "We here at FBHive are fans of Facebook, but when a security hole as big as this is discovered and brought to (Facebook's) attention, it shouldn't take 15 days to fix."

A Facebook representative said the company is currently "looking into" the matter and will have more information soon.

UPDATE at 11:14 a.m. PT: "We have identified this bug and closed the loophole," an e-mailed statement from Facebook read. "We don't have any evidence to suggest that it was ever exploited for malicious purposes."

By now you've probably heard about it: AOL has formed yet another business unit conspicuously devoid of "AOL" branding, and this one's about the blogs.

Called MediaGlow, the just-announced division encompasses AOL's digital content assets from gossip hub TMZ to tech heavyweight Engadget. It's the first time that AOL has formally pulled together the titles it acquired with blog network Weblogs Inc. in 2005, blogs launched since the Weblogs acquisition, and the vestiges of the old AOL portal like AOL News and AOL Sports.

It's about time, though I expect there will be plenty of "lipstick on a pig" comments. But the real news is the expansion that AOL plans for MediaGlow, under the leadership of programming chief Bill Wilson: in 2009, it plans to launch about 30 new editorial sites (read: blogs). AOL also plans to open "MediaGlow Studios" in both New York and Los Angeles that will focus on video production, as well as work acquisitions Relegence and Sphere into "an unprecedented effort to build thousands of medium and long-tail focused automated sites." We'll have to hit up AOL soon to find out exactly what that means.

The new MediaGlow unit complements AOL's two other "core businesses": social-networking division People Networks, which was put together after AOL's $850 million acquisition of Bebo last year; and Platform-A, its conglomeration of advertising products both built in-house and acquired.

It's no secret that parent company Time Warner has been preening at least part of the company for a sale, with CEO Jeffrey Bewkes making it clear that its flagging dial-up access business is on the blocks. Executives haven't confirmed widespread rumors that the rest of AOL could be up for sale as well, but this sort of neat packaging into "core businesses" could be an indicator in either direction.

If you look on the sunny side, the timing is opportune: Print publishing is gasping for breath, and due to repeated old-media missteps there still isn't yet a digital publishing power on a truly big-media level. Blog networks like Gawker Media have stayed small- to medium-sized and have certainly not been exempt from recessionary woes. IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns properties like The Daily Beast and CollegeHumor, hasn't pulled them together in the same way. (Disclosure: CBS Interactive, which publishes CNET News, is unquestionably a player in this game as well.)

On the traffic front, AOL has reason to push forward with MediaGlow. The company says that page views are up 40 percent year-over-year and that "vertical content advertising revenue" was up 20 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2008. Ad revenue as a whole, unfortunately, has slid in sync with the media recession. And with so many pundits talking about the impending burst of the blogging bubble, it's worth questioning whether launching 30 new titles will be intrepid or just foolish.

So here's my verdict: This is something that AOL needs to do, and probably should've done much sooner after its Weblogs Inc. acquisition. Unfortunately, given the way things are these days, even a valiant effort at expansion can flop.

P.S.: AOL, you might want to look into buying the domain Mediaglow.com. Registered in Wellington, New Zealand, the site appears to be a placeholder. Go get it!

Wouldn't the Burn Book have been even worse if it had been a blog?

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

You just can't make this stuff up.

Liskula Cohen, a Canadian model, has sued Google because of offensive remarks made about her on a blog hosted by its Blogger publishing service, according to the New York Daily News.

The 36-year-old Cohen, who appeared on the covers of W and Australian Vogue magazines in the early '90s, wants to know the identity of an anonymous blogger who called her "our #1 skanky superstar," among other lovely epithets.

The blog is called Skanks in NYC, and it is devoted more or less to ridiculing photographs of Cohen, all of which were posted on a single day: August 21, 2008. But Cohen has taken enough offense to pursue legal action against Google in a Manhattan court, demanding that the Internet giant expose the "Skanks" blogger's details.

"I'm tall, I'm blond, I've been modeling for many years, and people get jealous," she told the Daily News. "If I had to deal with everyone who is jealous, I wouldn't have time to do anything else." Her lawyer called the site "libelous" and "defamatory."

Meanwhile, the search terms "Liskula Cohen" and "Skanks in NYC" skyrocketed to the top of (ironically) Google Trends, earning "on fire" ratings. Hey, considering that I'd never heard of Liskula Cohen before, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one, this might've been the best thing that ever happened to her.

But is her claim against Google viable? Um, probably not.

Social-media pioneer LiveJournal is the latest company to announce a round of layoffs, trimming down its employee head count in its San Francisco and Moscow offices.

A statement from the company came after a rumor on gossip blog Gawker suggested that a shocking number of LiveJournal employees--20 out of 28--had been cut. LiveJournal clarified that it was "about a dozen" cuts, amounting to about a fifth of the company.

"LiveJournal Inc.'s headquarters, technical operations (and servers), legal, administration, and the customer service teams will remain in the United States," the release explained. "LiveJournal's global product development and design will now be coordinated out of its Moscow office. The pooling of resources between the U.S. and Russia will allow the company to build a stronger business model, well positioned to guarantee the long-term success of LiveJournal."

Yahoo veteran Matthew Berardo, who was hired as general manager of the service less than a year ago, was affected by the layoff.

LiveJournal was founded nearly a decade ago by OpenID creator Brad Fitzpatrick, who sold the company to blog software firm Six Apart. But that led to widespread reports of management difficulties, and late in 2007, Six Apart resold LiveJournal, phenomenally popular in Russia, to the Moscow-based software company SUP.

In what's probably one part prank and one part ironic statement, New York society-pages site Cityfile announced Friday that over the past few months it has been quietly snapping up domain names corresponding to the people it covers.

You may not have heard of many of the people on the list: the obsessively name-dropping Cityfile's terrain is more focused on Gotham's business and media leaders than the likes of Britney and Paris. But among those on the list are Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. (Cityfile now owns edgarbronfmanjr.com), Greycroft Partners' Alan Patricof, and Nerve.com founder Rufus Griscom.

Domain name speculation has been the subject of much debate for over a decade now, but the gossip site doesn't plan to simply hoard them (and there's no indication yet as to whether the site plans to sell them back to the notable people in question at a premium). The domain names now redirect to the celebrities' Cityfile-created profiles, which are rather comprehensive listings of all sorts of both savory and unsavory details pertaining to the person in question. That means more traffic--and ad revenue--for Cityfile itself. Quite shrewd of them. But there's also an ironic twist to it.

"Given the lengths to which prominent New Yorkers go to control their public profiles, you'd think they would have purchased their domain names by now," the site explained. "It's a $4 investment, which we're pretty sure billionaires like Jonathan Tisch, Steve Feinberg or Edgar Bronfman, Jr. can afford, even if this is the greatest depression ever."

Three words: Ha, ha, ha.

New York-based blog network Gawker Media continues to trim its staff after a big layoff round in October, MediaBistro reported Tuesday. A few more members of the editorial staff have been let go, and a few others have been downgraded to part-time employees.

"It's all part of the austerity plan we announced a month ago," Gawker Media founder Nick Denton said in an instant-message conversation. He added, "I don't make any apologies: we're going to need as big a cash pile as we can accumulate."

Denton has been particularly bearish on the fate of ad-supported media companies in the face of industrywide cutbacks, suggesting that online ad revenue may drop a full 40 percent and responding with fierce cost-cutting. Company revenue is strong--up 39 percent in November, Denton said--and traffic continues to grow. The company has a history of dealing with underperforming titles by simply selling them or shutting them down rather than letting them bleed cash. It's a strategy that has been called both ruthless and prudent.

In the scandal department (it's Gawker, after all): One of the employees MediaBistro reported was cut, Alex Carnevale, allegedly cribbed part of a blog post from his personal blog last week, if smaller media gossip blog Jossip is to be believed. Denton, however, said that wasn't part of the rationale behind his departure: Carnevale had been a temporary employee, serving one month on sci-fi blog IO9 and one on Gawker.

"He did some good stuff, and I'd like to try him out again," the company founder said.

Of more interest to the tech blogging world, Gawker recently slimmed down its Silicon Valley scandal title, Valleywag, opting to fold the brand into a column on Gawker.com instead.

A correction was made at 9:54 a.m. PT: ThisRecording is considered to be a personal blog that Alex Carnevale writes for with several other contributors, not an employer.

Another one bites the dust? Pownce, a would-be Twitter rival that was heavily hyped due to the involvement of Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, is closing its doors in two weeks.

It's not quite going away, according to a post from Pownce founder Leah Culver on the start-up's official blog. The technology has been sold to blog platform Six Apart, which runs TypePad and Movable Type. And its two full-time employees, Culver and Mike Malone, will be joining Six Apart's team.

"We'll be closing down the main Pownce Web site two weeks from today, December 15," Culver wrote. "Since we'd like for you to have access to all your Pownce messages, we've added an export function...(you can) import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress."

Pownce, which is like Twitter with additional features like file-sharing, was so buzzworthy at its debut that people were auctioning alpha test invites off on eBay. It also had a business model, with paid accounts available for sale. But the Pownce hype died off, and Twitter gained more and more market share.

Additionally, we heard that the self-funded Pownce was trying to secure a round of venture capital. It looks like that didn't work out. This is, after all, not a great time to be raising money.

Six Apart is encouraging Pownce members to join its blog platform Vox. "We hope the Pownce and Vox communities can come together, just as the teams have, towards a better future," Six Apart's Chris Alden wrote on the company blog.

Pownce's two other co-founders, Rose and Daniel Burka, will become Six Apart "advisers."