It’s a widely used open-source blog platform with enormous potential for future growth and evolution - and some think it’s a viable alternative to Facebook-style social networking. (It’s running this site).

Analysis: News companies remain painfully focused on their internal woes and remarkably disengaged from investments in innovative new opportunities. The New York Times Co., which purchased About.com several years ago, can’t compete against News Corp. or other giants for high profile mega-deals. It may wind up being acquired in such a deal. But like other newspaper companies it can use its cashflow and capital for shrewd strategic investments focused on the distributed, networked information and creation culture (as opposed to the closed one-way monopoly markets of old).

Source: NYTimes.