Matt Mullenweg #14 most influential on the web – BusinessWeek.: According to BusinessWeek, Matt Mullenweg is one of the 25 most influential people on the web. He shares the accolade with the likes of Steve Ballmer, Steve jobs, Joi Ito and Jon Stewart. At first I thought that this was a ranking much like the 50 most important people of the web from PC World but this appears to be more of a collection. Matt is labelled as “The Publisher” and WordPress as “the blogging service that most serious bloggers turn to”. The associated article is more about how the web is magnifying the influence of jon Stewart and others like him in engaging the American Public in online discourse about the political campaigns. Be sure to check out the whole slide show.
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Automattic Has Acquired IntenseDebate
Automattic Has Acquired IntenseDebate’s Enhanced Comment System: Automattic has acquired IntenseDebate for an undisclosed amount according to TechCrunch and this post on the IntenseDate blog. They are planning to delve into a closed beta once again while they ramp up their hardware for an onslaught of new users from Automattic. Plans include a tight integeration with WordPress (I am assuming with WordPress.com initially and maybe as a plugin for WordPress.org, thus the need for ramping up resources) but will continue to exist as a separate service and will be available for other platforms beside WordPress. Expect more news on this front very soon. Matt and Toni also talk about the acquisition.
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