Earlier this month, AOL bought Sphere, Sphere is a Blog Content Engine that at first tried to be a blog search and later turned into a relevant content suggestion engine. i remember that i used their service in Bloggeratto from the time they started out and i liked the idea, they later turned into a more in form Widget button and now it is a widget button that launch a lightbox where the relevant content is served so your visitors don´t leave your site. i must say i am not familiar with the latest version they updated fro WordPress as a Blogger, we still don´t have that version here at Widgets Lab. but i am interested in putting in place, now more than before because WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg said today they were going to integrate a Related Posts Plugin that will use Sphere as the backend to serve the relevant content.
This is not something truly new, there had been other similar implementations as WordPress plugins and i dare say that when i saw it in Blogger first almost two years ago. it is still nice to have WordPress trying the idea in a Official form. Blogger has not done it yet. but it would not surprise me if they followed suit this summer when Blogger gets updated.
Sphere now working for AOL is indeed a great idea because AOL recent acquisitions in both Social Networking (bebo) and in the Widget front (yourminis). so this is another smart purchase for them.
I look forward to see how well Sphere Works in Widgets lab later when we update the blog.
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