Hi guys! I just wanted to clear up a few things. I am not saying that I am determined to sleep with a guy by midnight on my 30th. Not at all! But I'd be lying if I said there isn't a little bit of a fairy tale hope here--that I'll meet a great guy in a most unexpected way. And I get that most of these guys won't be the one or even the one for right now but BUT what if, a really sweet guy who I would never meet randomly in a bar is told by a friend that we might be a match and he, in turn, does something he would never do and submits himself to go on a date with a stranger--possibly across the country--just on the chance it might be worthwhile. It's a fun story if nothing else and that right there is worth all the 'what ifs,' 'probably nots,' and 'are you crazys.' So, keep the comments coming and ask questions; they're fun to read!

In one long moment In August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending on them on BlogDay 2006
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2006 and a link to BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. A blog on your domain can attract links, attention, publicity, trust and search rankings - by keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot. From worst to best, your options are - Hosted (on a solution like Blogspot or Wordpress), on a unique domain (at least you can 301 it in the future), on a subdomain (these can be treated as unique from the primary domain by the engines) and as a sub-section of the primary domain (in a subfolder or page - this is the best solution).

Don't Jump on the Bandwagon
Some memes are worthy of being talked about by every blogger in the space, but most aren't. Just because there's huge news in your industry or niche DOES NOT mean you need to be covering it, or even mentioning it (though it can be valuable to link to it as an aside, just to integrate a shared experience into your unique content). Many of the best blogs online DO talk about the big trends - this is because they're already popular, established and are counted on to be a source of news for the community. If you're launching a new blog, you need to show people in your space that you can offer something unique, different and valuable - not just the same story from your point of view. This is less important in spaces where there are very few bloggers and little online coverage and much more in spaces that are overwhelmed with blogs (like search, or anything else tech-related).

"All NSA Components shall actively monitor media for the purpose of identifying unauthorized disclosures of classified NSA information," a March 20 NSA directive stated.

"Media" here is defined as "any print, electronic, or broadcast outlet (including blogs) where information is made available to the general public."

The new NSA policy on leaks was first reported by Siobhan Gorman in "NSA Strives to Plug Leaks," Baltimore Sun, July 23, 2006.

An annex to the NSA directive lists a series of questions to be asked about unauthorized disclosures in order to assess their significance, including: "Is the disclosed information accurate?" Has the information been requested under the Freedom of Information Act? "If yes, identify the requester."

21. (U) Media -- Any print, electronic, or broadcast outlet (including blogs) where information is made available to the general public.

A translation, from a reader, indicates that the hackers have hacked not out of protest, but rather to leave an encouraging comment. It's a big love-in (they "would like to thank you on behalf of all of Iran's hackers"). Say what you will about Ahmadinejad, but the guy's getting better at PR every damn day.

The first set of blogs--which quietly rolled out last week--are devoted to the NFL, with AOL Sports now hosting one blog for each of the 32 professional NFL teams as well as a handful of other blogs devoted to subjects like fantasy football. The new blog section, dubbed "Fanhouse," will soon add more than 40 additional blogs devoted to college football. AOL is paying all of the new bloggers for each entry they write.

The goal, says Neal Scarbrough, General Manager of AOL Sports, is to increase the amount of time users spend on AOL's sports section. "AOL wants to crank up our sports coverage as a whole," he said, adding that the company specifically wants to boost user engagement.

AOL will promote the blogs through partnerships with other online sites, including fellow Time Warner property SI.com--the Web site of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Joining Lander and Farabee in this endeavor are Nick Budd and David Martindale. Martindale also serves as lead designer and technician for the new site. All four writers work at Dragon's Lair Comics in Round Rock, Texas.

Comic Pants is anchored by "Wednesday Number Ones", a weekly feature updating every Wednesday morning that will provide commentary on every first issue coming to comic shops that day. In addition, the site will feature regularly updated reviews from all four contributors, Lander's popular Previews forecast column "Down the Line" and more.

Comic Pants is a serious review site with a sense of humor, as indicated by the unusual name, which was suggested by Dave Farabee during a brainstorming session.

Back in 1997, I sold Search Engine Watch to what became Jupitermedia. That company later started the Search Engine Strategies conference series. I had a long and prosperous association with both of those properties (USA Today recently recounted the tale here). I renegotiated my contract to provide services for both of them to Jupitermedia several times without any major issues.

Last year, Jupitermedia sold the site and the series to Incisive Media. I wasn't unhappy with the sale and chose to let my contract be extended through the end of 2006 as part of it.

I was concerned about moving forward with Incisive, however. I'm far from the only reason behind the success of SEW and SES, but I've played a major role. I helped build both of those assets. Then I watched one company sell them to another without me having any formal capital stake in the sale. That left me wary of history repeating itself. I wasn't going to help this new company grow the business out of the sheer kindness of my heart.

I explained these reservations at the very beginning of my relationship with Incisive, that I needed some long-term incentive for helping them continue to grow and strengthen the site and conferences. After over a year of talks, that's failed to materialize. As a result, I'm departing.

"On YouTube money can buy you nothing but subscriptions can offer you power. That is right. You can come into YouTube and you can have a lot of good things to say but if you don't have a very large subscription base than nobody is going to hear it. So, if you believe in what I'm saying tonight I'm only going to ask you to do one thing. I'm going to ask you to take your finger and push it right over on the button, right there, called subscriptions. And I'm going to ask you to give me a position of power and a position of authority to speak and protect you from the evil wolves that are lurking all around to eat up these hungry little lambs that are just feeding in the grass and wandering off occasionally and falling prey and falling victim."

Even though most enthusiast press regulars read the top videogame blogs, it's a scary thought for many of us that someone who is currently sitting in their living room could challenge us for reader mindshare, credibility and eventually even impact our mighty bottom line.

The entry barriers to the enthusiast press are as low today as they've ever been. Gamers have their pick between a vast array of free blog publishing services. These services give anyone with a passion and a keyboard a crack at self-publishing.

However, as multitudes of would-be media giants have discovered, just being able to publish doesn't mean that anyone will actually read what you've written. In fact, because self-publishing is so easy and so cheap it has become insanely difficult to start from scratch and to grow a blog to the point of being a major player. It's difficult but not impossible.

The best voice for any blog is a voice that actually taps into the writer's core personality. Yes, there can be an exaggeration of certain traits and emphasis on core viewpoints, but readers can spot dramatized viewpoints from a mile away. Judging from the top blogs, readers are drawn to genuine viewpoints, no matter how controversial.

In order to avoid the blandness that anchors many blogs, one must be sure that every single post is purposely written in the style and voice that's carried through the entire blog. Even if the blog has several writers, each one must carry their voice into each post.

Read, read, read, and read some more. The better informed you are, the more information you'll be able to convey to your readers.

I created a domain name a few years ago, www.podosphere.com, thinking I might do something with it. I've decided that I won't be, so I thought I would auction it off. Someone out there is planning yet-another-podcasting-aggregation site, I bet.

The Office Pirates blog archives page also contains these odd words: "old blogs, stacked high like pancakes. Or babies." Fortunately, each RSS entry is not on its own feed. But we had no idea that RSS feeds make noises like Krapow!. Office Pirates says "Sizzle! Snap! Krapow! That's the sound of Office Pirates being served up to you daily via RSS." That's just depressing.

Time Inc.'s online men's magazine led by Maxim veteran Mark Golin will shut down after seven months of operation.

Golin will stay aboard Time Inc. as editor at large, and efforts are being made to find new jobs for his small staff.

In a memo to Time Inc. staffers, Interactive president Ned Desmond, wrote, "Office Pirates was off to a good start – and it is likely to reach nearly 11 million page views this month – but the business still faced a long road...Time Inc. will return to online humor early next year with a new initiative from Sports Illustrated."

Invalid RSS Feeds
I've known quite a few bloggers who's RSS feeds were broken for months on end. Now, don't get me wrong, even my RSS feed is broken from time-to-time. Software has bugs. You can prevent your feeds from breaking by simply subscribing to your feed in various RSS readers (especially the one you use) and double checking from time-to-time that you are getting stuff.

Well, it's true if they actually link back to you, but most a-listers have 100 people linking to them daily and it's highly unlikely your post will catch their eye. Instead, try linking to a broader range of bloggers. When you link to a d-list blogger, you're likely to gain a reader for life and several dozen links in return. I'm the ultimate d-lister and I make certain to return all Google juice in spades.

9. Putting Yourself on a Pedestal
This problem doesn't happen too often, but from time-to-time a-list and b-list bloggers lose control to their egos. They start posting about how great they are and commenting negatively about their own readers. I'm not sure if that works for other people, but I'm pretty quick to unsubscribe when a bloggers puts himself on a pedestal. If you are already heading down this path, then simply posts a few entries that make fun of yourself on a regular basis to keep yourself grounded and off that pedestal

Hey MySpace kids: Want to read a magazine? If you answered yes, you may be in luck. MySpace is actively considering whether to launch an ink-on-paper magazine to complement its insanely popular and remarkably valued online property. The editorial mix would likely cover standout MySpace members and their interests, from music to their social scenes.

"We're in the process of modeling it," said an executive privy to the discussions. "Our main concern is the MySpace brand. We don't want to do anything that would hurt the brand."

A few weeks ago, AOL accidentally released search data from 650,000 customers which revealed Pamela Anderson popularity. While intending to help researchers, AOL instead set off a privacy controversy because some of the users could, in fact, be tracked down.

People that search for Pam Anderson, but prefer to remain anonymous, were faced with the unfortunate reality that big brother (in this case AOL) was in fact logging search patterns and tendencies. At this point its unclear why AOL reported on search tendencies, however, the name Pam Anderson came up as one of the most prominent and searched-for on the internet.

One of the causes of blog out is a constant concern with visitor traffic logs. Checking the number of visitors to the blog ten times per day will not increase the readership levels. It serves only to frustrate the blog owner who believes no one is reading the slaved over postings. Forgetting to check the visitor logs for at least a week is a good place to start. You might be interested to know that I rarely check my visitor logs any longer. I know people read my blog. I understand they don't visit on a daily basis. Obsessing over numbers is not good for the blogging soul.

Another reason that bloggers begin to burn out is concern about what to use for the next posting topic. Many good bloggers keep a list of potential posting ideas handy at all times. When an idea for a column pops into their head, they write it down. Keep a pencil and notepad handy, as topics often appear as if by magic. You want to be prepared for those glorious moments of inspiration.

"Inspiration to make the world a better place can come from anywhere -- even Leonardo DiCaprio or Woody Harrelson. We decided to create an online space for the public to learn about the environment and humanitarian efforts through the actions of celebrities," said Ecorazzi co-founder Rebecca Carter.

Celebrities often use their time in the public eye to bring awareness to important issues. Ecorazzi exists to highlight the people making this effort for the environment and other causes. At the same time, we get to have fun following celebrity gossip, with a "green" twist!

"There is no doubt that green is hot right now. Hybrids and organic are the 'in thing'," said Ecorazzi co-founder Michael d'Estries. "Celebrities are helping spread the message by incorporating 'green' into their everyday lives and working to help others. By highlighting their efforts, we are hoping to bring the green message to a more mainstream audience."

Rebecca added, "It's also just a great way to have fun. We don't need to take ourselves so seriously all of the time. The environment is an important topic, but let's face it, it can be boring or sometimes even depressing. By taking the topic and mixing it up with celebrity gossip, we're trying to give readers the best of both worlds."

Since then, Lindstrom has set out to reverse Friendster's course. He's taken steps to improve the site and respond to user feedback. The latest funding round will feed that effort. "We've been growing rapidly over the past few months, and we want to make sure we have the capital to keep the site reliable," he says.

In the U.S., the number of unique visitors has vacillated between 1 million and 1.5 million all year. But overall, the site had 15.6 million unique monthly visitors in July, largely due to the growing number of users in Asia. Lindstrom says the increase represents a growth in friendsters in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia.

What else is on tap? The company now plans to focus on post-college users, young urban adults looking to connect to people in new cities. The recently redesigned site focuses attention on what users are doing, rather than inviting folks to surf profiles. Friendster will put resources into hiring engineers to make the site more user-friendly. Cool or not cool, Lindstrom believes that former users will come back and new ones will join if it is useful to them.

The results showed that while blogs are growing increasingly popular, relatively few Americans visit them regularly, if at all.

Asked how often they visited blogs, the responses from the 78% who said they used the Web, came out this way: frequently 10%, occasionally 9%, rarely 17%, never 40%, and 2% did not answer. That suggests that less than 2 in 10 Americans now visit blogs a lot or occasionally.

The blog will follow Jimmy's adventures as he continues to battle with the elements in one of the UK's most dangerous occupations. Jimmy, who is the skipper of the Amity II, sails out of Peterhead. He runs a successful business - founded in 2005 - which aims to supply langoustines fresh or frozen direct to the UK and European market. Only the best fresh langoustines from the last day of fishing, selected by Jimmy himself, are exported, with the rest being sold as frozen.

The Blue Toon skipper, who has more than 30 years experience of fishing, has been a fisherman since he left school in 1976. In 1986 he bought his first boat, and his wife called her Amity which means 'friendly'. In 2004 he was awarded the Pride in Seafood industry award for his upbeat attitude and high-quality product. He has just been accredited as a member of the Responsible Fishing Scheme which formally recognises fishing practices.

The YouTube community, seen by many as a strictly teen scene, has welcomed its new old member with open arms, the Guardian reports, with users leaving over 6,000 comments on his first clip. The subject matter seems wholly unremarkable -- Peter discusses his love for blues music and motorcycles and reminisces about raising his children -- but in the less than two weeks since he posted the clip on August 5, it's been viewed more than 850,000 times, according to Vnunet.com. "This YouTube experience has been one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience," Peter told Vnunet.

In her videos, she perfects the emo girl-in-her-room pose, balancing playful and moody as she muses about her life and times. She has huge online fame; repressive, religious parents who probably know nothing about YouTube; and a sibling-ish love affair with her video editor. What could be more 2006? Obviously the implication from the stills that promote her videos is that she's going to strip, but she never does, and she controls that shell game by being sweetly deaf to innuendo.

you have more blog friends than 'real life' friends.

you're blogging in your head before you fall asleep.

your out of town husband and you converse in your blog's comments.

you tell your friends and family things like, "I'll ping you and you ping me back," or "Okay, I want to trackback on your last comment..."

you blog in your head an event that's happening at that very moment!

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YouTube will help drive traffic to the Brand Channels it sells, and the channels might have sponsors, as is the case with the Paris Hilton Channel, sponsored by Fox's "Prison Break."

The second initiative that officially rolls out Tuesday actually began nine days ago and is a platform that YouTube calls participatory video ads (PVAs).

YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley said the first PVA was for the Weinstein Co.'s current movie release "Pulse." The PVA appeared as a video commercial on the YouTube home page that users could rate, share and comment on -- in other words, do whatever they do with the usual fare they find on the site. The ads also earn "most viewed," "most discussed" and "top favorite" status just as regular YouTube content does.

The "Pulse" ad was viewed 900,000 times in four days, Hurley said. By comparison, all-time YouTube champ "Evolution of Dance" -- a six-minute video from Judson Laipply, a motivational speaker from Cleveland -- boasts 29 million views.

Banner ads on the site will invite users to join a social network -- on Facebook -- of people interested in learning about or signing up for credit-card services. Members of the group will be able to earn reward points by signing up for a card, paying a bill on time or other activities. The points can be used to make a charitable donation, Mr. Field says, or might be redeemed by members in a fraternity for a TV set for the frat house.

Art teacher Tamara Hoover has resigned from her job at Austin High School, extinguishing a firestorm that began when nude pictures of her online were brought to the attention of school administrators.

Hoover submitted a resignation letter Wednesday and, pending expected school board approval Monday, will receive a $14,850 settlement from the Austin school district, several months' salary.

"The district believes strongly in an individual's right of free expression, but as we all know, such rights are not absolute," district officials said in a statement Thursday. "The district and Ms. Hoover disagreed as to the propriety of explicit nude photographs of her and others in sexually suggestive poses being placed on the Internet, and its impact on students and families, and thus, on Ms. Hoover's ability to be an appropriate role model and effective classroom teacher in AISD."

Hoover said she's sad about the outcome but will focus on moving forward. "I wasn't prepared to stop teaching. I never wanted to resign from teaching. I don't think this is the most ideal outcome. I was definitely impressed by (the district's) willingness to come to the table. I just wish they would have done that in the beginning."

Asked which sources are accurate, true and unbiased, 66% named national TV.

National newspapers were chosen by 63%. The same percentage rated regional and local newspapers.

Radio was believed to be less accurate, chosen by just 55% of those surveyed.

Only 36% of respondents rated websites and just 24% rated blogs.

There are several reasons that Blue Dot may be particularly appealing to Japanese users. Blue Dot was designed from the outset to be friendly to an international audience. Text can be entered in any character set, including Japanese characters. Blue Dot is also designed to be more graphical than other bookmarking sites, making use of thumbnail images from the source Web page to enhance the presentation of the bookmark. In addition, blogging in Japan is very popular, even more so than in the United States. Blue Dot creates a user profile much like a blog in that a user's most recent entries are displayed on the user's profile page.

Blue Dot users around the globe can create Dots about anything they find on the Web -- news, events, videos, music, restaurants, and other Web sites. Blue Dot's patent-pending technology also enables users to add comments, select an image from the source Web page, categorize, and rank Dots as they are created. Once saved, all Dots are organized and displayed in a searchable online collection. Blue Dot can also be integrated into blogs or social networking sites to keep personal pages fresh with very little effort.

Maybe I'm just too good at being single. Maybe I'm just not ready for a relationship. Who knows, maybe I grew up watching too many soaps. These are things I ask myself when I wonder why, after all my relationships, hot dates and hookups, I’m still so single.

I left New York three months ago to escape a future-less relationship with a guy who couldn't commit (I know, shocker). I am still madly in love with him, some might even say addicted to him, yet forbidden to even say his name to friends and family who know it will only cause more heartache.

Until this guy, I had never really had my heart broken. I'd always been the one to walk away (which isn’t necessarily easier): Two years ago, I called off an engagement to The Perfect Man. Something just wasn't right. I was having panic attacks while registering for cappuccino makers and matching bathrobes.

You start by creating your page and deciding which elements to make public or private. You can then customize the look of your Famster using the "theme park" - a gallery of themes to spruce up your site. Next, drop in to the Character Studio to create animated avatars of your family members. There’s also a photo album, a blogging tool, a filing cabinet for your file uploads, a guestbook, a scrapbook, a calendar, a family tree, a way to share your recipes, a video-sharing feature, an address book and free webmail (whew!). Additionally, Famster offers an RSS reader, but you can only choose from pre-selected feeds, which seems fairly useless. One last feature is obviously designed to capitalize on hysteria over MySpace predators - you can search for sex offenders in your area and even receive alerts when new offenders are added. It's hard to comment on that without getting political, but I'm just not sure what value (if any) this provides - apart from propogating a culture of fear.

IWM: The Observer is facing competition from blogs like Gawker and Jossip, which have a similar witty, irreverent style -- but are updated several times a day. How do you fight the blogs?

Kushner: Loyal Internet readers have the capacity to read as many sites as they deem necessary. There is much less constraint in this field, whereas in print, people are more likely to subscribe to just one newspaper.

I have great respect for what blogs such as Jossip and Gawker have accomplished in such a short time. I think they understand their clientele better than most in the media business.

I intend to make our Web site edgier and add additional daily content to expand our readership and provide a broader ranging product with something for everyone.

There is no competing horror movie opening this weekend, so Snakes on a Plane should do well. This will confirm what we already know -- that Internet buzz can truly boost a film's performance at the box office. The only downside of Snakes being a box office smash is that we may have to deal with all sorts of "Something on a Something" sequels. You know, Snakes on a Boat, Snakes on a Train, Snakes on Your Bike, Snakes on a Segway. And when they run out of Snakes titles, they could always go for the cute, with Kittens on a Plane. That sounds like a good holiday movie.

Lately, it seems everytime I am going to check out a few new videos at YouTube they are down for maintenance. Today they are saying that they will be back in a bit with a couple of new things, that sounds interesting. I sure hope that one of the new things is something to keep them from going down evertime that I want to visit them.

The second is YouTube Music, a new section for musicians to post their music videos. This presumably fits in with YouTube's plan to host "every music video ever created" and compete with MySpace Music, but so far it seems pretty incomplete--the YouTube Music section looks just like other channel areas on YouTube, making it very difficult to find your favorite artists. I can only assume this is slated to improve soon.

The report predicts that the traditional TV set will be replaced by a number of "flexible viewing devices".

The development of ultra-thin displays will result in the introduction of video "wallpaper" and tiles that can turn an entire wall into a screen.

Other innovations expected in the next 20 years are video displays on breakfast cereal packets, and screens that can show two different programmes at the same time depending on the angle from which they are viewed.

Internet access will be available through connected displays embedded in magazine pages.

Back to the good news for a moment. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported back in 1999 that 1 in 5 children aged 10 to 17 had been solicited for sex online. You've seen that statistic repeated again and again in online safety marketing campaigns. Well, things are a bit better now. A telephone survey conducted last year found that number shrunk to 1 in 7.

The good news ends there, however. The study found that the most serious kinds of solicitations -- those that involve a predator attempting to make real-world contact with a victim -- have not declined.

Also in the survey, one-third of children reported they were exposed to sexual material online, compared to 25 percent five years ago.

And there was an increase in the number of kids reporting cyberbullying -- from 6 percent 5 years ago to 9 percent today.

But those, I think, are the exceptions. Not wanting to risk unleashing a digital posse on me, but most blogs are pure noise. If you blog, you'll have to forgive me, but they can be the equivalent of the kind of white static hiss that your TV makes you reach for the off button. According to Pew's research, most bloggers (84 per cent) do it as a hobby, and 74 per cent do it based on a personal experience. In short, navel gazing.

Okay, it's easy to be skeptical of bloggers because so many aspire to the title of 'citizen journalist', yet fall short of what reporting means. Sure, your life is interesting. To you, perhaps, but unless you get caught up in the extraordinary, then it's really much like many other people's lives.

Surely an odd stance for an editor who spends his professional life writing about and experiencing the latest in digital trends? True, but bloggers will need to evolve from preening themselves in the mirror if they really are to become a force that rivals newspapers and TV.

News is what a CNN helicopter sees when flying over a shattered landscape – not the fact that someone on the ground got mud on their shoes. Bloggers have the numbers – a vast army of opinion formers. If they can now look beyond their personal bubbles, they might just change the world. Now, that really would be news.

The bigger question, perhaps, is just who the Iranian leader is targeting for his musings. The site is clearly designed for an international audience. Published in Farsi, it's also available in Arabic and English, with a French translation on its way. And with the approach of the Aug. 31 deadline for the possible imposition of sanctions against Tehran if the mullahs don't abandon their uranium-enrichment plans, it's hardly a surprise that Ahmadinejad wants a PR campaign to muster global sympathy.

There's also the fact that with a state-controlled media, Ahmadinejad has the means to get his message to the masses by more conventional means. A blog, however, with its connotations of hipness and modernity provides the Iranian with a counterintuitive way to deliver his message-and target a new domestic audience: youth. "He is trying to talk to people who ignore him through other media like TV or newspapers," says Mani Monajjemi, a Tehran-based blogger. Another blogger in Tehran, who requested anonymity because authorities closed down her site for six months, says Ahmadinejad is struggling to find a way to show that he cares about the way young people live.

Suddenly bored of the whole operation, the editors demanded that Gawker sell the site to the lowest bidder. Various suitors came a-courtin' -- including one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world (not the one that bought MySpace) -- and at one point the entire staff had been "hired" by a giant corporation while lawyers "worked out the details," "dotted the i's" and ran or knocked various things up flagpoles and around ballparks.

Needless to say, they pussed out at the last minute.

Thank you for reading Sploid, sending tips, blogging about us, and linking our stories on Fark or Metafilter or Digg or wherever. And thanks to Gawker, the archives will remain here for your enjoyment until somebody really buys the site just to get all this trash off the Google search results.

Backfence.com members will be able to get up-to-date statistics on local crime and then comment on safety issues through the new blog, which Alarm.com will sponsor. The ultimate goal, the two companies say, is to create a nationwide "citizen watch" focused on trends and tactics for protecting lives and property.

Backfence.com, founded in 2004, builds and operates community-focused Web sites that bring together content such as blogs, photo galleries and event calendars.

Alarm.com's technology allows customers to monitor and control their security systems remotely via the Web, and they can receive real-time text messages and e-mail alerts that keep them informed on all types of activity on their property. Alarm.com was founded in 2000.