John Battelle interviewed Vint Cerf for Business 2.0 but because Fortune ran an interview the piece was spiked and it has ended up on his.site for all to read – for free.

After what seems like a lifetime, Yahoo! and MSN finally announce a beta service where users of both services can view each others’ online status and exchange messages. It only works with Messgenger Live and Yahoo!’s lastest version. Still, it’s a start!

Here’s eWeek’s take on the story

Micro Persuasion reports that  Wikipedia has added RSS. As Steve Rubel points out, this means you can easily track revisions on articles about things which are important to you – people, brands etc.

If this (from VC Ratings) is correct Google’s health portal plans, the subject of some speculation, may be more extensive than originally thought.

The BBC’s annual report is out and among other things it confirms that 36p from our £126.50 licence fee was spent on bbc.co.uk (over £72m.)

BtoB Magazine has a list of the top 100 people in the b2b space. Don’t be too disappointed if you find you aren’t on it…. 🙂

PaidContent is quoting the JEGI database reporting that there were 315 deals totalling more than $37bn in value in the first half of 2006, more than a third up on the same period last year (by value). More detail from PaidContent here.

FT To Axe 50 As Online-Print Merger Happens – from PaidContent.org

The Financial Times plans to cut 10% (about 50) of its 500-strong editorial staff as it merges its online and newsprint operations…the job losses will be mainly in production, as the reporting operation was integrated several years ago.

Some thoughts from Rafat following the publication of The Long Tail which coincided with the all-time-record opening weekend of Pirates of the Caribbean which brought in $132m.

The conclusions: Blockbusters will continue to succeed even as niche media proliferates…a long-tail world doesn’t threaten the whales or the minnows…It threatens those who cater to the neglected middle, such as writers of “mid-list” fiction and producers of adult dramas. Also, competitive economics aren’t going away. As long as people herd, there will be blockbusters in one form or the other.

Wired News report that Condé Nast is buying…. Wired News

Lycos is selling its Wired News unit to Condé Nast Publications for $25 million, Lycos parent Daum Communications announced in Korea late Tuesday, a deal that brings Wired.com and Wired magazine under the same owner after an eight-year separation.

Lycos acquired Wired News as part of its June 1999 acquisition of Wired Digital in a stock transaction valued at about $83 million at the time. Since then, Wired News has published Wired magazine articles on the web under a contractual relationship, while reporting independently on technology and science news.

Tuesday’s deal includes all the assets of Wired News, such as the website, news content and domain name, but leaves Lycos in control of former Wired Digital properties such as HotBot, Hotwired and Webmonkey. Upon completion of the transaction, the assets of Wired News will be operated as part of Condé Nast Publications’ web division, CondéNet. No layoffs at Wired News are planned as a result of the deal.