There are two features related to LJ that people continually ask for on DW. One is cross site friends-list reading, which is in progress, but will only be IIRC for paid users. The other is importation of communities.

The first I expect to cause some kerfluffling, but in practice, any impact will be probably limited, as there are only a small amount of DW paid users, and quite a few of them may feel no need to use the service; also, the usage of cross site friends-list reading will not really be visible. The second may potentially have a much bigger impact socially, if it is ever implemented (I have no idea whether it can be implemented presently, or to what extent it is planned.

( more on the issues of importation )

Recently, Buzz introduced a form of reblogging (and it had liking embedded in it from the beginning).

Now Wordpress.com has joined in, it seems: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/we-all-like-to-reblog/

Notably, the like aspect is not embedded in within the post itself, but within the wordpress.com toolbar; this is similar to how it is when you view a tumblr post on its own page (although Tumblr's is much more esthetically pleasing). I think this is better because it doesn't clutter the blog with a function that non-logged out users can't use. I've long been an advocate of the 'liking' feature on various websites (and actually, I wish that this existed as an option on DW).

They're also saying they want to create a wordpress plugin related to this, though I'm not sure how it would work on self-hosted WP.

I don't use WP.com much now, except for as an archive/testing site, because I prefer having my own site on my own domain. However, it is interesting to see what things they've implemented within the site for managing inter-blog interactions.

Tag Surfer: allows you to subscribe to a tag, sitewide. WP.com's implementation of tags I find irritating, because when you click on a tag, you instead get the global tag stream instead of posts on the blog tagged with that tag. However, the idea of a global tag stream is one w/ great potential.

Blog Surfer: This allows you to subscribe to WP.com blogs, which appear as an aggregated feed, including private blogs which do not have RSS feeds. So vaguely like an LJ-style friends list, except sans external feeds. I'm not sure, though, how far it can go. There's an option for "posts since last login," though.

Readomattic: Confusingly, this seems to be partially an alternate way of accessing Blog Surfer (or Friend Surfer: they seem to be confused about the terminology). However, you can also view, or subscribe to, categories of top Wordpress posts, tags (confusingly overlapping with Tag Surfer), and twitter. Twitter? I don't really get why I would want to subscribe to Twitter via WP.com, but now I can.

Except for the ability to view private blogs, I'm not sure how Readomattic/BlogSurfer is superior to simply using my own RSS reader, except that it's faster. At least if I wanted to view something like the "top business posts" vertical, though, they allow me to block posts from blogs I don't like. I wonder if private blogging on WP.com really is that popular. Since the blogs are so invisible, I have no way of knowing.

( rambling about Wordpress.com, Wordpress, privacy features, and LJ )

Recent events have cast a spotlight on LJ's ad practices. As you know, LJ uses Google Adsense and other third-party ad-serving companies to put up ads. It would probably be costly for LJ to run its own advertisement department and directly accept ads from sponsors, as the kind of content which runs on LJ is so various (also, aren't a lot of the heavy traffic comms/LJs paid, and thus not available for running ads anyhow?).

LJ has a page directed at potential advertisers. On the page, they explain that in 2009 "Livejournal is relaunching its brand and service." What this means, I am not sure. Apparently, LJ has "Leading Edge Media & Advertising Models," (uh... really?) and soon there will be additional services for paid subscribers, as well as the "introduction of search and discovery." I wonder what this is? The page stresses the community features of LJ, rather than the individual journals, as well. Probably because "a bunch of people writing about their daily lives and what they had for breakfast" doesn't sound like something you can sell ads for easily.

Under "Media and Advertising Opportunities," LJ has listed "Display – Flash, Rich Media, IAB Standard, Email inserts." What does Rich Media mean? Ads that make noise? Or do they mean hosting the advertiser's site, and allowing them to host pictures or videos/audio? I wonder if the sponsored communities etc worked very well at all?

I also don't see why they don't use more unobstrusive advertising like WP.com. On the other hand, maybe that's because WP.com can afford it, as they make a lot of money off of consulting and hosting major enterprise blogs. Also their prices are a lot higher than LJ's for individual add ons: see here. Interesting to see that now Wordpress.com does allow an unlimited number of people to access your private blog, albeit for $30 a year. Getting rid of ads is $30 a year.