If you do happen to be a blog owner, you can add your blog (if not already present) by uploading an HTML file to your blog. However, this is considered the "Advanced" way to claim ownership. Keeping in mind that this app's users may not be as technically savvy as others, the app presents another way to confirm your blog: have your friends verify your blog for you. To claim your blog using this method, you use the app to send a message to your friends asking them to confirm that "such-and-such.com" is, in fact, a blog owned and maintained by you. Ten friend confirmations later, and you're designed that blog's owner.

The Blog Directory

What's unique about the Blog Networks' blog directory is that it utilizes geographical location retrieved from Facebook's demographics to organize blogs. So, in addition to the "World Top 50" page, there are also separate pages to show the Top 50 blogs in the networks that you're a member of like, for example, Tampa Bay.

You can also browse for blogs in the directory where they are organized by tags and popularity. At the moment, the directory has about 8000 blogs and is growing by 150 new blogs per day. As I browsed through the technology category, I personally came across a slew of new blogs I had not been exposed to yet, so even for less-than-casual blog readers like us, there's a chance you'll find some of value in this app, too - new blogs.

The only drawback to the directory as far as I could tell, was the inability to filter out blogs in other languages, but often the titles would give them away, so you knew which ones were in your language.

The Feed Reader

The Blog Networks' feed reader is designed to be used by people who don't know what RSS is or what it means to subscribe to a feed. Instead, after joining five blog networks, the app automatically guesses the type of stories the user likes and this is displayed in a simple form on the home page. (And nowhere are the words "feed" or "RSS" used).

Each story is displayed one-at-a-time and you can click a "thumbs up" to vote for any story that you find interesting. If your friends have also voted for that story, you'll see their profile images below in an area where it says "Recent Thumbs Up." To continue reading more stories, you then simply click the "More News" button.

With Blog Networks, there's also no need to worry about your blog content being "stolen" to build this app or any conversation fragmentation taking place. The stories from the various blogs are not shown in full - to read the entire story or to leave a comment on the blog, you need to click through to the web site.

The "My Blogs" Feature

The app provides an easy way to put a visual blogroll on your Facebook profile to show off the blogs you read. When you use the app, going to the "My Blogs" page will show the blogs separated into two categories: "Blogs I Author" and "Blogs I Like."

As a blog author, you have a page set up just for your blog which you can invite people to join much in the same way that you would invite your friends to join any app. The page features a Wall for your blog and a "Selected Content" section which you can customize to show some of your best posts.

While in beta testing, the Blog Networks app will only be pulling your feed and your popularity data if you have 15 readers (for the feed) or 20 readers (for the popularity data). Based on how you tagged your blog upon sign-up, you'll also see a list of "Related Blogs" on this page, too.

Conclusion

Overall, the Blog Networks app shows a lot of potential for generating interest in blog reading beyond the core group of the technically savvy who rely on RSS readers like Google Reader or FeedDemon. Although still in beta, the app now has 8000 blogs listed and 20,000 installs to date.

Although MyBlogLog offers some similar features, their Facebook presence is limited to this product page and this group. This is where Blog Networks can fulfill a need. Plenty of people actually do read blogs, but they tend to stumble across them in Google searches, sign up for them via email subscriptions, or occasionally visit their favorites via the blog's URL. Now, they have another way to read: on Facebook.

Of course, the popular Facebook app Feedheads already provides this service in a way. However, the Blog Networks app goes beyond just sharing stories among friends and introduces a real community aspect. Besides, the Feedheads app with its Google Reader integration isn't exactly aimed at the casual blog reader, anyway.

If you want to add the Blog Networks app to your profile, the link is here.

That's 10% more than Google paid for YouTube, and that deal was all for stocks. CBS paid a 45% premium over CNet's closing stock price and it paid it mostly in cash. CBS buying CNet is a big, complicated deal with a lot of possible take aways, but below are ours.

Founded in 1993, CNet is the granddaddy of all the blog networks on the web. It's had a good long time to marinate, has major internal problems like suit-happy shareholders and arguably fluctuating traffic, but CNet is as stable an online collection of brands as anyone out there.

What gets validated here is this: great online ad sales, high production value, serious talent, company maturity and breadth in both content and distribution. While all of those have always been important business traits, upstart content networks on the web have tended to focus far more on marquee personalities. Perhaps that's only a short term strategy until some of us can hope to build out networks with more fundamental business strengths.

CNet's content producers may not be flashy web 2.0 names but they've got rock stars of their own over there. Larry Dignan is an enterprise dark horse that our readers may or may not know about but who regularly rocks Techmeme more than anyone but TechCrunch. Declan McCullagh may be the best political tech blogger there is. Caroline McCarthy combines scoops, research and professionalism in a way that anyone would do well to learn from. WebWare may not get talked about in some Web 2.0 circles, but it's one of the very biggest blogs in that market and is written by people like Rafe Needleman and Josh Lowensohn - both of whom would be great on TV. I'd embed a CNet video here to demonstrate its production value, but few of the company's video properties allow embedding. So much for web 2.0, eh?

The above are just the Web 2.0 type names at CNet, we're less familiar with the company's powerhouse properties in gaming, consumer electronics and autos.

The importance of a strong ad sales team can't be understated. While most blog networks in this nascent medium end up selling ads with one side of the brain and writing content with the other, maybe teaming up with an ad network that pays the bills but doesn't power growth, CNet is lauded for their in-house ad sales team. If hiring top talent, doing in-depth research and offering high production value are important, then there are few aspects of content online more key than strong ad sales. Strong ad salespeople are hard to come by.

Finally, CNet's distribution of content (including some RWW articles) in China and Japan is more serious than any upstart blog network has been able to accomplish. What markets could be more important, other than India?

CNet is a mature, accomplished and broad network. While it may be more fun for some of us to read other, smaller, edgier blogs (RWW included, we hope), CNet properties are far closer to being household names than any one else in our market. Now they're part of CBS.

What Will CNet Look Like at CBS?

It appears that CNet will maintain a high degree of independence at CBS, but we can assume that some of its energy and brains will focus on bringing CBS into the next era online. Along with recent, much smaller, purchases of the recommendation technology behind Last.fm and the brains of Wall Strip, CNet should help CBS put more than just its toe into the waters of the web.

Will CBS TV content become available online more quickly? Will CBS TV content get better with an infusion of creative talent from the web? Will CBS create a show called "Everybody Loves Redmond," as one joker in our community of readers offered? Will all talent get diffused and leave innovation lovers wondering what happened to CNet in just a few short years?

It's hard to say for sure, but if nothing else - CNet offers one vision of what it takes for an online content network to cash out big time.