TECH BUZZ: National Public Radio has a launched a social networking element to their site, which builds upon their noticeably aggressive (and successful) foray into accruing digital prowess with free podcasts and downloads. While it’s all well and good, we’re still waiting for a Carl Kasell video blog.

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The Best Links:

1. NPR Community Home Page!
2. NPR Goes Social
3. NPR Community: Facebook For Prius-Driving, Sushi-Eating Bleedinghearts?
4. NPR <3’s Schweddy Balls

MUSIC BUZZ: Soulja Boy’s MySpace and YouTube accounts were hacked! It’s a case of social network kidnapping! The hacker changed log-in info for both of Soulja Boy’s sites, then demanded a ransom of $2500. Dutifully, Soulja Boy released a video more or less explaining what happened to let the world know he’s back.

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The Best Links:

1. Soulja Boy Myspace Hacked
2. Perhaps his password shouldn’t have been SupermanDatHo.
3. What Money Can Do…
4. Screenshots of the Hack
5. He’s Finally Hit It Big!
6. Soulja Boy’s YouTube Page
7. Soulja Boy’s Myspace Page

TECH BUZZ: Finally, a social networking feature that mirrors the half-attention of real life. FriendFeed now lets you tell people you’re following them when, in fact, you’re ignoring their feed. Sort of like a cocktail party or family gathering, minus the face-to-face.

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The Best Links:

1. Arrington Coins the Term “Fake Follow”
2. FriendFeed Beta
3. “Follow” People Without Actually Getting Their Updates
4. “The most important feature in the history of social networks”
5. “This is a little bit genius.”

TECH BUZZ: The New York Times has launched a plug-in (still in beta form) that will function as an intra-site social network without the whole “self-branding” thing. Academics and liberal boomers will finally have the chance to imitate their kids, only they’ll be swapping shared interest in “random play” with, you know, “foreign policy” and stuff.

The Best Links:

1. New York Times Goes Social
2. Download TimesPeople Beta [With Firefox]
3. “It’s Not Trying to Get You Dates Or Make Friends, It’s Just Trying to Use the People You Trust to Help You Find Good Stuff.”

The web designers at Fox Interactive take their stab at making MySpace look more like Facebook. It’s not an earth shattering change, but, for the ugliest social networking site of all time, its a welcome one. It should launch sometime next week.

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The Best Links:

1. More Screenshots
2. “… the largest scale relaunch of a website of its size…”

CELEBRITY BUZZ: Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the notorious couple from The Hills, have announced the launch of their own social networking website Speidiweb. Watch out, Mark Zuckerberg! Heidi and Spencer claim their site does everything Facebook and Myspace does, and more. The site’s been down for the past few hours (hax0rs??) so we can’t verify if this claim is actually true or not.

The Best Links:

1. Here’s the Official Site
2. Connect To Your Assholes, And Your Assholes’ Assholes
3. A Website Where They Post All of Their Uber-posed “Candid Shots”
4. Heidi and Spencer Reveal All
5. The Site Is Down - Does That Mean Their Relationship Is, Too?
6. 15 “Candid” Pics of Heidi and Spencer Vacationing in Mexico

Imagine if your life worked just like it does on the mammoth social network. Scary, right? Because, really, if someone ever actually claimed aloud to be looking for “random play,” you’d probably suggest they immediately get tested for “random STD’s.”

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CELEBRITY BUZZ: Jessica takes part in an online staring contest in order to promote Cash Warren’s new social networking site. This makes me feel dirty, either because this is the second Jessica Alba thing I’ve posted within 24 hours, or because I can’t help comparing Jessica Alba to Magibon with bigger boobs.

The Best Links:

1. Jessica Alba Stare Contest - Watch the Videos
2. Cash Warren Started a Social Networking Site Called ibeatyou.com
3. Forget Staring Contests, Check Out My Online Rock-Paper-Scissors Competition
4. Tech Start-up News; Photo of Jessica Alba On All Fours in a Bikini
5. Jessica Alba Still Uses MySpace?

TECH BUZZ: MySpace Karaoke will allow users to belt out their favorite songs, record their renditions, and stick them up on their MySpace profile. A place for friends…and terrible singing? It seems kind of random. But it has inspired us to start working on our BuzzFeed side project, the Glow Dick (you can send any inquiries to editor@buzzfeed.com).

The Best Links:

1. MySpace Karaoke: A New Opportunity To Laugh At Others
2. Dear MySpace, It Certainly Took You Long Enough
3. Here’s an Example of How it Works
4. “Expand Your Musical Douchiness”
5. Seems Like a Fun Feature for MySpace Users
6. As if You Needed Another Reason to Delete Your Account

TECH BUZZ: PMOG, currently in private beta, is a Firefox add-on that lets you interact with other users asynchronously on websites you visit. It stands for “passively multiplayer online game.” What does all this mean? We think it means that your boss can leave virtual bombs for you every time you log into MySpace.

The Best Links:

1. The Idea of Multiple Information Layers
2. Play A Multiplayer Online Game While Surfing The Web
3. PMOG - Get Your Invitation On InviteShare and Start Playing
4. Users Can Build Traps and Set Off On Missions On the Web, and Even Wage War
5. You Can Leave Mines for Your Friends? Can We Leave Them on DrudgeReport?
6. It Hasn’t Launched Yet, But Sign Up for the Beta
7. Come See PMOG Get Demoed at the Game Developers Conference
8. PMOG Finally Gets Funding from O’Reilly Ventures
9. Using the Web’s Topology for Gameplay
10. Here Are the Official Details