Late last year, rumors surfaced regarding Yahoo shutting down its blogger community social network – MyBlogLog. I guess its no longer a rumor as I received an email today from Yahoo! officially announcing the discontinuation of its MyBlogLog service.

MyBlogLog was a social network for the blogging community that showed great potential. This service provided publishers, developers and bloggers access to very relevant information – personal, demographic, taste and activity data of a website’s readers. Unfortunately, things went south after Yahoo! acquired MyBlogLog and neglected it.

Here’s the email sent by Yahoo!:

Dear MyBlogLog Customer,

You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011.

After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages.

We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team

This is sad news but it surely doesn’t come as a surprise, as the popularity and interest for MyBlogLog has waned the past couple of years and also considering Yahoo!’s reputation with its acquisitions. As ReadWriteWeb mentions in this post, MyBlogLog could’ve been even bigger than Delicious. Too bad that something with so much potential would end up like this. I’m sure the folks who created MyBlogLog, if they can only turn back time wouldn’t sell it to Yahoo!.

I joined MyblogLog back in January of 2007 and I can say that I really liked it and found the service very useful. I had the MBL widget here on JaypeeOnline up until about two months ago when I replaced it with the NetworkedBlogs widget. I took down the MBL widget because it was no longer useful. It didn’t bring in that much traffic and data like it used to as there are only a few people left using the service.

R.I.P. MyBlogLog.

Anyone else who’s using MyBlogLog? Do you think it’s a good decision to discontinue the service? What alternative service are you going to use once MyBlogLog gets discontinued? Please share your thoughts.

For those of you who are regular readers, you know that I previously published blog updates regularly to keep you guys posted on the changes I’ve made to the blog like the plugins I’ve installed/uninstalled or the changes in the layout like adding, removing or moving banners, widgets or other stuff. I haven’t published a blog update for more than year and I think its about time I did another one.

Uninstalled Plugins

• Firestats – Firestats is a WordPress plugin that keeps track of real time statistics, recent referrers, search engine keywords, recent popular pages and other visitor information. It also displays the country, operating system and browser used by a person who left a coment. I used to love this plugin, but because it uses up too much disk space and increases the size of the WordPress database, I decided to uninstall it and instead use other online services to keep track of my blog statistics and analytics.
• WP Grins – A plugin that displays emoticons/smileys for readers to use in the comment form. I uninstalled this plugin because it had a conflict with the WMD Editor plugin.
• WP Post Ratings – Plugin that enables the readers to rate the post. Uninstalled WP Post Ratings because I felt like it doesn’t serve its purpose and it wasn’t really that relevant. Aside from that, I also discovered that there were a few visitors who purposely sabotaged the posts by rating posts low. I don’t know the reason why they did it but WP Post Ratings keeps track of the visitors IP address so I know who did it and what posts they rated.
• MyAvatars – Plugin that displays a commentators MyBlogLog avatar or Gravatar. Really liked this plugin but decided to get rid of it to minimize the use of plugins and instead use Gravatar which didn’t require a plugin.
• Lightbox 2 – Javascript that enables viewing of larger images within the same window.. Had a conflict with one of the scripts used by my theme – Fresh News.
• WP-Polls – Plugin that adds an AJAX poll system to any WordPress blog. I’ve temporarily removed it coz I have no use for it right now. I might put it back when I come up with something that I might need your opinion with.

Installed Plugins

• Blog Stats – Adds shortcodes so you can easily insert and display certain blog stats on your blog posts or pages.
• Global Translator – Plugin that automatically translates blog posts into 41 different languages using 4 different online translation engines Google Translation Engine, Babelfish Translation Engine, FreeTranslations.com and Promt.
• Google Syntax Highlighter for WordPress – Plugin makes using the Google Syntax highlighter to highlight code snippets within WordPress simple.
• UserAgent Spy – Plugin that displays the visitors operating system and web browser in each comment they make. Used this to replace the Firestats plugin feature that displays country, operating sytem and browser.
• WMD Editor – Adds the WMD Editor to the comment field, to make it easier for visitors to leave comments. You can see it in action above the comment form.
• WP-Clickmap – Plugin that creates a clickmap (similar to heatmap) that displays the areas where visitors click for each page.

Other Blog Changes

• Moved FeedBurner to my Google account so JaypeeOnline’s new RSS feed URL is now http://feeds2.feedburner.com/jaypeeonline/HhAk. Please update your RSS readers and aggregators.
• Added the Twit This Post option after each blog post. If you like any of my posts, please feel free to share it with others on Twitter.
• Installed the UserVoice feedback widget that lets readers/visitors anonymously give feedback and vote for suggested ideas. Feedback tab found on the left side of the blog.
• Moved the Previous Post and Next Post links from below the comment form to the section between the post and the comments.

For those of you who are still not aware of the Top Commentator of the Month award/contest, you might be interested to know that each month I’ll be giving away prizes like cash, tshirts and schwag to the person who leaves the most comments each month. Check out the official page to know more about the rules and how to join.

There are some WordPress plugins that I’ve recently installed that I will be writing a review of in the next couple of weeks so if you’re interested and would want to know more about it, make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss the upcoming WordPress Plugin reviews.

Also, if any of you guys have any comments, ideas or suggestions to make JaypeeOnline better, please don’t hesitate to share it with me via the comments or contact page. If you want to remain anonymous, you can use the feedback tab found on the left side of the blog. Thanks and have a nice day!

Anyways, here’s this week’s edition of the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

Blogging

• How Twitter Was Born
• Preparing For an Extended Absence From Your Blog
• 9 Tips To Pitch Your Blog Successfully
• Build a classic MyBlogLog widget

Technology

• Georgetown University bans use of Windows 7 beta
• Google Glitch Labels Internet as Malware
• One-Click iPhone App Cracker Released to the Public
  
• Fannie Mae Logic Bomb Attack ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’

Gadgets

• Nokia announces three new classic handsets: the 6700, 6303 and 2700
• Visenta V1 multitouch wireless keyboard gets the hands-on treatment
• MSI gets official with GT627 gaming laptop
• HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger finally up for pre-order

Pinoy Blogs

• Samsung Show W7900 Phone Projector
• Race to 100 – Social Networking Competition
• Get FREE LG Phone when you buy DELL Vostro A840
• How to Enable the Windows Task Manager

JaypeeOnline Weekly Recap

• HowTo: Disable HP Health Check Service
• Sectera Edge aka The BarackBerry
• WP Theme Review: FREEmium
• HTC Touch Cruise (09)

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or want your article or find an interesting story that you want to be featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

Thank you for your time and hope you guys have a great week!

Pinoy Blogosphere

• Looking for another way to earn money? McBilly shares some tips on how to make money from event festivals.
• Having a hard time choosing between Windows or Linux? PinoyTechGuy’s article points out the advantages and disadvantages of choosing one over the other.
• Yahoo! Answers is becoming popular especially among students and a reliable source of knowledge or information to others. Abe Olandres of Yugatech asks this question: Is Yahoo! Answers the new Wikipedia?
• Allen of Silkenhut made a compilation of essential plugins that most WordPress users should have. A good resource list for WordPress newbies.
• As most of you guys know, Fil-American Internet sensation Christine Gambito or more commonlly known as HappySlip, is now in the Philippines. Here’s a video of her being featured in GMA 7′s 24 Oras.
• PayPal users in the Philippines can now withdraw funds to local bank accounts. For a list of the official PayPal bank codes and other information regarding this matter, visit PinoyMoneyTalk.

Around the Web

• Ever thought of creating an ebook based on your blog? With the WPTex WordPress plugin, you can easily turn your blog into a PDF ebook using Latex.
• So you think blogging has no risks? Mani Karthik of BloggingTips published this post that talks about the risks involved in blogging.
• Does your MyBlogLog community already have the seal of approval? If not, you better verify your MyBlogLog community and claim ownership. I already verified mine.
• Frustrated that your post doesn’t make it to Digg’s frontpage? BloggingMix’s article entitled Are You Getting DIGGsperate? might just help you get over your DIGGsperation.
• Connect with your blog visitors with the Socialize Me WordPress plugin. How? It greets your visitors referred by social networking websites like StumbleUpon, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Pownce, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace with a link to your profile.

I’m glad to announce that just this weekend, JaypeeOnline has reached a milestone which is surpassing the 200 subscriber mark. Yay! I know it may not be a big deal for other bloggers but it is for me and my blog. Anyways, I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when my FeedBurner chicklet displayed 229 readers. To all my regular readers and subscribers, thank you so much for your continued support! It means a lot to me.

If you haven’t subscribed to my feeds yet, better subscribe now so you won’t miss out on the latest posts and updates!

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page. Stay safe and have a nice day!

A blogaholic is someone who’s addicted to blogging. Most of the time, this is true for someone who is new to blogging and for some it’s hasn’t changed a bit even after several years of blogging. What are some of the characteristics of a blogaholic? Checking your blog stats every few minutes, checking for new comments and your daily routine includes reading your favorite feeds and checking your Adsense earnings.

What’s with the title of this post? Well, after reading Jonathan Deamer’s list of “50 Signs You’re A Blogaholic”, I couldn’t help but ask myself “Am I A Blogaholic?” I didn’t count how many of the signs listed that I exhibit but after my wife read the article she said that it describes me. Hehe..

Here are some of my favorite signs. These were the ones that made me laugh:

• You’re considering naming your first-born child Scoble.
• You’re listening to the travel news and get excited by the phrase “heavy traffic”.
• Your breakfast of choice is toast, cornflakes and Google reader.
• You care more about what Technorati says about your authority than what your children do.
• When asked to feed the dog, you think “RSS or Atom?”
• Your lifetime goal is achieving a Page Rank of 10.
• People in the street recognise you from your MyBlogLog photo.
• Under the hobbies section of an online dating profile you just put “Googling myself”.
• Your lifetime goal is achieving a Page Rank of 10.

Wanna know if you’re a blogaholic? Checkout the complete list of 50 Signs You’re A Blogaholic.