Update: This is a summary of this Clickz story...we inadvertently missed out on adding the link to the headline earlier.
LiveJournal, the original “my space” before MySpace was MySpace (simply put, where blogging meets social networking), has slowly begun opening its door to advertisers, and has started rolling out new sponsored communities and sponsored features like text messaging integration. LVJ has been selling ads on its site since April.
The first sponsored community is hosted by Warner Bros.’ quirky ”Science of Sleep” movie. Among the first sponsored feature is SMS integration with LiveJournal, sponsored by Amp’d Mobile. The feature will allow subscribers to interact with the LiveJournal site via text messaging.
Six Apart, owner of MovableType and Typepad blogging tools, which acquired LiveJournal at the beginning of 2005, has done its best to honor a promise made to users by Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournal founder and current chief architect at Six Apart, that the company would never force users to see ads, the company said.
There has been some backlash against this commercialization, but the company said it was more due to miscommunication from their side rather than problems with the sponsored communities and features themselves.