Yahoo! acquired MyBlogLog around January 2007 for about $10 million. MyBlogLog is a web tool that is used by bloggers and another publishers to showcase what web sites they are visiting or who is visiting their blog. The official announcement was made by Robyn Tippins, Community Manager at Yahoo!’s MyBlogLog.

The e-mail signature can be set-up when clicking on “Edit Profile” and then “Email Signature”:

If you look at the above screen shot, you will notice that there is a MyBlogLogo icon logo under myname. Other icons a user can add is icon links to their YouTube profile, Pownce profile, MySpace profile, Blogger account, LinkedIn profile, Digg profile, Twitter page, del.icio.us profile, Facebook profile, etc. After the signature is fully customized, MyBlogLog generates the code.

Then users simply take their code and embed it into Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

I could see this as being a very useful tool for Web 2.0 addicts like myself, but I don’t foresee a lot of people to use the signature generator. Great tool though.

There are some very exciting changes coming with Yahoo!’s MyBlogLog. MyBlogLog is a service that focuses on building a community of friends around blogs. MyBlogLog is famous for the widget that displays who the most recent visitors were on a blog in the form of avatars. As you will notice, we have the widget on our sidebar.

Some of the upcoming changes may include a website redesign, a new widget, a new branding strategy, and faster performance. There will also be an increase in privacy settings.

One feature that I think will be great if implemented is real-time messaging. Let’s suppose that I am logged into my account and someone is visiting my blog at that current moment. A message should appear stating “this user is logged on now” and provide me the ability to message that user would be an amazing feature. Of course, this would require tons of server power though.

There aren’t any details out on when the changes will take place, but I’ll assume before the end of the summer.

MyBlogLog, the service that allows you to see who is reading your blog has been officially acquired by Yahoo! Inc. for $10 million according to Forbes. MyBlogLog has found its community-powered services used on the homepage of many blogs. MyBlogLog also monitors reader actions such as what pages that the readers move to next. MyBlogLog.com is based in Orlando, FL.

“This closes the loop between readers and publishers,” stated Bradley Horowitz . “Every publisher wants to know his readers, and the readers want to find out about each other. It’s the power of implicit networking.” Remember Horowitz’s [correction: Bradley Garlinghouse's] ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto Memo?’ MyBlogLog will remain independent, but Yahoo! users would be able to access MyBlogLog with their own accounts and MyBlogLog users would be able to access Flickr and Yahoo! Answers. Over 45,000 blogs use MyBlogLog and 1 million users [correction : 3 million users (see comment by Scott Rafer)] read through these blogs per day.

“The biggest thing in blog search is ego search – my name, the web sites I love,” stated MyBlogLog chairman, Scott Rafer. “People search Google and Wikipedia for information; with blogs, people look for cool things and serendipity.”

Although snagging information from MyBlogLog users would give Yahoo! a competitive advantage for tailoring advertisements to the clients that use MyBlogLog, Horowitz mentioned that this is not their intention. “The thing is growing like a weed in the viral pattern you want,” stated Horowitz. Using reader data for personal gain is not the direction Yahoo! wants to take in the case of MyBlogLog.
[Source: Forbes]