In June Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com for you non-geeks) began granting users access to their latest and greatest beta VaultPress.

Unlike other services of Automattic, VaultPress is geared strictly towards self hosting WordPress blogs (aka WordPress.org) as a data backup service that protects a bloggers data in the even that their hosting company dies, kidnaps their site or (worse case scenario) is attacked by hackers.

Despite being in a limited beta, WordPress is charging brave souls $15 a month per blog (which works out to be $180 a year) to entrust their blog’s entire content to the VaultPress crew.

For those of you wondering if you should give Automattic your cold hard cash or choose an alternative, here is this authors take on VaultPress (both the good as well as the bad). read more

With Google Me rumors picking up over the last several weeks yet another rumor has begun to make the rounds. This time it’s being said that a dedicated Google research team has been charting Social Networking functions to gain a better understanding of social media intricacies.

Apparently the researchers efforts include a 216-slide presentation with footnotes which has been posted on SlideShare. The slideshow is being used to help all people involved with Google Me build the new system, including designers, interface designers, programmers and other people involved not just with Google Me but with the social web as a whole. read more

This is a guest post by Gary Kohler from LifeCover.ca.

To get noticed as a blogger you need to stand out.

You need to pick a niche and be the strongest voice of that online community. To get attention you need to stir the pot every once in a while but most of all you need to keep people wanting more.

There are many ways that this is similar to the world of gangster rap and here are five reasons why.

1) “Final” Goodbyes

Bloggers and rappers both love the “final” goodbye. The brackets are there because usually the final goodbyes are not actually final.

Some rappers will retire every second album but they will inevitably come back for another record or three. Bloggers do this too. They might need a vacation or some time to focus on their family but a lot of times they’ll come crawling back to their little soapbox.

Rappers do it to sell more records and to hype their newest effort. Bloggers likely do it for comment love and to send people to their newest blog or website. Once in a while a blogger or rapper will quit for good but most of the time they’ll be back for more. read more

TweetDeck is a popular desktop application that makes for an enjoyable experience when sending and receiving Tweets, among other Twitter options, now the company behind the program has announced that their app has been downloaded over 15 million times.

The desktop apps astronomical rise is all the more impressive when you realize that their download rate is five times higher than their closest competitors. read more

For those of you who skipped Blog History 101, WordPress (the platform many have come to know and love) has a sibling by the name of b2evolution.

Despite their differences in elegance, power and (most importantly) user interface, both platforms have the same mother by the name of b2.

Fast forward towards today and WordPress is dominating the blog scene while b2evolution struggles to maintain relevancy. However the latter’s obscurity may change with the launch of its much belated alpha release. read more

While the Like button may have integrated websites to Facebook, the companies newest option, the “Panic Button” could actually help save lives.

Built to help fend off cyber bullying, the new button encourages users to report bullying, cyber abuse and other “suspicious activities” that users see through the social networking website.

Launched in the UK, the button when pressed sends teens to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) resources website, a free organizations operated by the UK Government. On the website teens can find information about dealing with bullying, while reporting users as they deem necessary. read more

Facebook will remove their “Gift Shop” feature on August 1, ending a program which has allowed users to send pointless presents such as pictures of dogs and virtual flowers to their friends accounts.

Facebook has quickly placed themselves as a big player in the online transactions market with their Facebook Credits option, the removal of the program makes me believe the program has been so wildly unsuccessful that keeping it active would have been more of a distraction than it’s worth.

There’s also a good chance that Facebook wants to focus their “Credits” appeal on Facebook based games and use based application which have created a great deal of revenue for the world’s largest social network. read more

Today is a sad day for Six Apart, who was unable to slow down Tumblr’s rise against Typepad, despite copying the former’s reblogging feature in 2009.

According to Quantcast, Tumblr is now receiving 10.7 million uniques when compared against Typepad’s 10.6 million stateside, although the gap between the two services expands once you include international users. read more

MOL, the online micropayment company that also owns Friendster has announced that they are making Facebook Credits available through various outlet locations throughout Asia and Australia.

Facebook Credits can be purchased using MOLPoints, a form of virtual currency which can be purchased in the following countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand. At some locations users will also be able to purchase Facebook Credits without needing to first buy MOLPoints.

Adding to the hype of the new program is the fact that co-branded cards can be purchased and given to other users as gifts.

Prepaid cards are used as a main form of internet purchases in several of the areas in which this program has been rolled out and a Facebook rep told Mashable that the new program will allow them to obtain more “invested users” in Asia, while doing a good job of promoting the social network. read more

RIM has just announced that the Twitter for Blackberry app is no longer in beta, and is now ready to be embraced by Blackberry addicts everywhere (at least officially that is).

But what may surprise Blackberry addicts is not the new features added to the app, but rather the social network RIM decided to embrace within their Twitter client.

Reading, writing and responding to tweets is the core of the Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones experience. Below you’ll find instructions on the three basic ways to send a tweet out to the world (posting a tweet, retweeting and replying to tweets), as well as sharing tweets with others and adding cool things to your tweets like links and photos. [...]

Send a tweet to an external application (ie. Facebook or email) (Official Blackberry Blog) read more