eHub has a list of the week's Web 2.0 highlights including:

- BlinkSale
- FeedRinse
- EditGrid
- Teamslide

The Guardian has an interesting view on BBC's announcement that they are going to revamp their website to encourage more "user-generated" content which will take them into directo competition with the likes of Google, Yahoo and MySpace.

Sony is preparing to launch a service that will allow PlayStation Portable (PSP) users to watch live television, play back recorded programmes and set up recordings through their home TV tuners. The upgrade also adds support for Flash website content and podcast streaming, as well as allowing additional music file formats to be played on the console.

Microsoft are jumping onto the social networking bandwagon as they created a new social networking technology company called Wallop which it says will solve some of the problems current social networking technologies sites face and will introduce a new way for consumers to express themselves online. The product will be launched later this year.

Ad Age has reported that Apple are considering including ads in iTunes. Visual ads may be connected to podcasts, perhaps furnishing podcast producers with a revenue stream.

The Mirror has released a podcast interview with Tom Jones in which he discusses his life, his music and, of course, his new single - Stoned In Love.

The Motley Fool has a good look at podcasts and suggests a number of ways in which they may be monetized in the future including:

- sponsorship
- audio spots
- subscription

Jamie Oliver is to launch a podcast which will be give answers, tips, recommendations and advice on a whole manner of culinary and kitchen related issues.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Baris Karadogan has posted an exhaustive list of Web 2.0 companies. Wonder how many of these will be around in 12 months?

The number of podcasts managed by FeedBurner, a news feed service provider, now exceeds the total number of radio stations in the entire world, according to Rick Klau, FeedBurner's VP of Business Development.

It looks like Facebook will not be sold anytime soon as they have just received $25 Million in venture capital from some Silicon Valley investors.

Following the massive popularity of sites like MySpace and Facebook it was only a matter of time before everyone else started leaping onto the social networking bandwagon. Today's offerings are Sisterwoman.com which caters to women over 21 and JokeBox.com which invites users to share jokes and other funny material. Here are few more social networking communities that I predict will be launched in the next 12 months:

- over 50s
- gardening
- football fans
- pets
- venereal diseases
- etc
- etc

Specialist podcast producers Daisy Media have teamed up with Capital Gold radio presenter Alex Belfield to launch a series of free celebrity audio interviews. The first podcasts include interviews with Jordan, Katie Melua and Piers Morgan.

Visiblepath.com a new social networking site aimed at the corporate world has received $17million in funding. The site aims to do for the business world what MySpace has done for teenagers.

Here is a funny article from gigaom.com comparing web 1.0 with web 2.0. If you are a cynic you will not be suprised to see that there are more similarities than there are differences.

Technologyreview.com isn't too impressed by the raft of new web2.0 companies popping up. They lack of business models and reliance on Google Adwords for revenue will mean many of these sites will not be around in a year of two's time.

Engadget is one of the best tech blogs around and their podcasts are required listening for gadget freaks everywhere.

David Bowie is never one to miss a bandwagon and he is on the ball again with podcasting. His first podcast is an interview with one of his favourite new bands The Secret Machines.

The Times has a weekly podcast dedicated to the UK music scene. Recent podcasts have covered The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Embrace, Orson and Graham Coxon.

Money Talk is a weekly podcast hosted by David Kuo. David has been writing investing articles for the Fool since the summer of 2000 and also makes regular radio appearances, usually on BBC London. David is joined by a variety of guests, including Richard Cartmell, the humble lynchpin of the Fool's marketing team, and Ed Bowsher, our newest investment writer.

The Sun is getting in on the podcasting bandwagon with their Bizarre podcast which contains all the latest celebrity news and gossip.

BuzzShout which launched this week, is a collaborative review site for Web 2.0 companies. Anyone can suggest a new company. The process includes stating the company name and URL, uploading a logo, writing a description and adding tags to describe the company and its industry. Moderators review submissions prior to publication

Squido is a new site that enables bloggers to get paid for doing what they love ie. blogging about obscure topics. All you have to do is sign up and then create a "lens" about your topic such as "sunglasses". Squidoo claims that it's technology makes the pages easier for authors to maintain and more useful to readers than conventional blogs. Furthermore it also makes it easier to monetize the traffic as the user is helped to create affiliate links to ecommerce sites such as Amazon and CafePress. The revenue that is generated by the links is then shared between Squidoo and the blogger.

BBC Radio 2 veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan is launching his first podcast. Listeners will be able to download highlights of Wake Up To Wogan, the UK's most popular breakfast show.

A survey by research firm BMRB found that nearly eight million Britons will go in search of a podcast in the next six months.

StyleHive calls itself a collaborative shopping community, what might one of those be? Well , they allow you to create online bookmarks to your favourite fashion, shopping and designer sites. The bookmarks themselves can include photos and prices making it more interesting and attractive to look at than other bookmarking sites like De.icio.us. The site already has lots of great resources being shared in themed communities such as baby, bags, denim, jewelry, kitchen, shoes, sunglasses, watches and wedding

The New York Times has an interesting article on the rise of interchangeable software components that are made available by companies to external programmers to turn into new web services. Google currently allows programmers to use elements of its web search, maps, chat and advertising, whilst Yahoo is offering programmable services, including financial information and photo storage. This

A new report by Forrester Research has found that while 25% of online consumers were aware of podcasts only 2% of them had actually tried them and only 1% used the regularly.

Podzinger takes the audio content of podcasts and translates it to text so that you can then search the podcast for a particular word of phrase. It seems to work pretty well, I did a search for "Lindsay Lohan" and was presented with results such a Podcaster Entertainment News which included a feature on the actress.

InformationWeek has come up with a list of the Top 10 web start ups that you should be aware of. The list includes:

- Blinkx
- Writely
- SimpleFeed
- Six Apart
- HousingMaps.com
- Socialtext
- DreamFactory
- 30boxes
- Laszlo
- Jigsaw

A new survey by UPS Europe Business Monitor of 1,500 business leaders from Europe's top 15,000 companies. It confirms that blogging is slow to take hold in Europe, the study found the following:

- 42% have heard of blogs but don't read or contribute to them:
- 37% are not aware of blogs
- 11% said they read blogs
- 7% monitor blogs
- 7% find blogs useful as source of business information
- 2% write blogs

Yahoo has now added user powered ratings to its Yahoo Finance channel which helps identify the messages in the Yahoo Finance Message Boards worth reading. Which considering the amount of message posted could prove an extremely useful feature.

News Corp appear to be interested in buying more Web 2.0 companies. Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, told a Bank of America investor conference "I'm intrigued by some of these start-ups in the Web 2.0 space. They don't cost an arm and a leg, but they have no business model". However they are not interested in FaceBook which they consider too expensive at a valuation of $2 billion.

Sky News is offering a podcast that will let office workers catch up on the latest headlines during their commute home. The BBC is offering also offering a podcast featuring highlights from that week's Newsnight

The Guardian is leading the way with podcasts, currently they have Newsdesk, Mediatalk, Science weekly, Westminster Weekly and Prime Minister's Questions.

Cadburys are launching online talent show podcast for Cadbury Creme Egg. Consumers are invited to submit original audio performances to be showcased on the podcast, which is hosted by TV celebrity Kate Thornton.

Podcasting is big news these days with current estimates putting the audience of users regulary downloading podcasts at 9 million. Episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show generated 250,000 downloads per week from Apple's iTunes music store. However according to Reuters despite all this interest record companies are still not happy to allow any digital distribution of their content via podcasting.