Mashable Acquires Blippr

Mashable yesterday announced that they have acquired the micro-reviews service Blippr. Blippr is a micro-reviews service that lets you review and receive recommendations on web applications, books, games, movies and music in 160 characters or less.

"Our first integration of blippr’s service is already live on Mashable, allowing you to submit a micro-review whenever we mention the name of a social media site. So words like Twitter, FriendFeed and MySpace now appear with a “face” icon next to them indicating the community’s rating of that site when you hover over it, and letting you submit your own rating. You can then syndicate your review to Twitter, FriendFeed and other social services. This is the easiest way to get started with blippr, and we’d love for you to create a micro-review today." said Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable.

There are number of new initiatives Mashable is starting this month. Blippr is the next step in these initiatives. Here is what Pete said on the blog about the intension behind Blippr’s acquisition :

“1. Community + Editorial = Best Combination: While blogs are a key source of information and insights about the ever-changing media landscape - websites to try, movies to watch, books to read, video games to play - those recommendations are increasingly being complemented by an influence much closer to home: your friends. By combining community recommendations and editorial insights, we feel we can offer the greatest value to you.

2. Personalization: Our editors pick out the sites and services they think are the most interesting…but wouldn’t it be useful to also have a unique view of what’s new in social media, tailored to your individual tastes? We think so.

3. The Rise of Short Form: The long form content provided by blogs is one of the best ways to gather insights about what’s new in media, but short form content also has a growing role, allowing communities to share their opinions more efficiently. We think short form content - reviews of 160 characters or less - is the best way to open up Mashable to the community.

4. Social Media IS Media: Why stop at reviewing new websites and applications? All media is becoming social, and the social media community already shares opinions on movies, books, games and more through micro-messaging services like Twitter. We feel blippr’s holistic approach to media reflects this long term trend: all media is becoming social media.”