links for 2008-04-21

• Bob Eggington on BBC onlineThere remain many serious challenges if 12-year-old BBC Online is to prosper and grow into its teens. Source: Guardian
• Steve Hewlett on the launch of KangarooKangaroo still has some pretty formidable fences to jump. Source: Guardian
• The opportunity of downloadsOngoing battles between the entertainment industry and illegal downloaders are contributing to a damaging fall in consumer trust, according to new research from the PR agency Edelman. Source: Guardian
• Bidders announced for UK spectrum auctionIn the UK, Ofcom has released the bidders for the L-Band block of spectrum sitting between 1452 and 1492 MHz. Source: mocoNews
• Social media's inconvenient truthBut there's an inconvenient truth that proponents of these sites tend to ignore - the average person just doesn't have the ability to participate fully in social media. Source: E-consultancy.com
• Mad.co.uk editorial jobs at risk in multimedia shake-upSeven jobs are under threat across editorial and marketing as Centaur changes its multimedia strategy. Source: Press Gazette
• Six Apart launches ad networkSix apart is launching an advertising network for blogs and will begin offering professional services including design and development after acquiring New York based creative agency Apperceptive. Source: TechCrunch
• Skype to sell unlimited international calls for $9.95 per monthSkype said its subscribers called phones for 1.7bn minutes in the first three months of the year, compared with 14.2bn minutes used in computer-to-computer sessions, which are free. Source: Associated Press
• Web guru targets malaria with social network siteThe British entrepreneur who sold a soccer Web site at the age of 17 for $40 million has switched his attention to help launch a social networking site on Sunday designed to fight malaria. Source: Reuters
• Microsoft signs letter of intent to acquire XobniTwo independent sources tell us that the Microsoft/Xobni deal is moving along. Source: TechCrunch
• Radio 1 launches music trackerWith record sales tumbling as online listening rockets, the Beeb has essentially created a next generation music chart. Source: Guardian
• Yahoo earnings? What Yahoo earnings?Tomorrow! Will they be good or bad? Are you on the edge of your seat? Source: AllThingsD
• Yahoo hopes a solid profit report bolsters its leverageYahoo will get more attention than usual when it announces earnings, and not just from investors wondering how its revenue stacks up against Google's strong quarter. Source: Wall Street Journal
• Ning raises $60mThe make-your-own social network has raised a $60m fourth round from unspecified institutional investors investors, valuing the company at $500m. Source: paidContent
• Join the web content conservation movementHow do you reduce noise on the web? Simple - produce less content. Source: Publishing 2.0
• Social networking advertising will be harder than we thinkEven if these networks could demonstrate that they were driving referral behavior based on social interactions, why would advertisers want to pay for the resulting transactions? Source: Charles Hudson's Weblog