With the massive restructuring at EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), one of the casualties is municipal Wi-Fi. The company was a backer of a roll-out in San Francisco – along with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) – and in Houston.

Yes, free Wi-Fi can be a boon for cities, such as in terms of bringing in new business. However, it's not easy to pull off.

So, might the actions of EarthLink mean the death knell to the movement?

I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, who is an expert on muni Wi-Fi and the author of Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless.

According to him:

"Last week's string of announcements by EarthLink serve as a huge exclamation point on the reality of where we are with the muni wireless trend - no more free lunch courtesy of the vendor community. What started off as a good idea, a marketing loss leader of building Philly's network for free because if was such a high-profile city in muni wireless at the time, created a Frankenstein as almost every city in America then wanted the same thing.

On the one year anniversary of BloggingStock.com's launch, I took a look back at our inaugural posts-

Sarah Gilbert was writing about the phenom YouTube, and AOL's (Time Warner, NYSE:TWX) investment in a rival Veoh.

Anne Metz wrote about the success of Skype and Vonage in the VOIP business. Skype (eBay, NASDAQ:EBAY) had just hit 100 million customers. If you still want some Vonage stock, you can get it real cheap.

Brian White reported on the growing dissatisfaction of WalMart (NYSE:WMT) suppliers with the company's requirement that they maintain inventories of product at the beck and call of the retail giant.

Howard Tsung related Steve Jobs' assurance to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stockholders that, regardless the purchase of Pixar by Disney, his role in Apple would remain unchanged.

Sarah also wrote about the one-day 11% drop ($31 billion) in Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) stock and how some readers were livid at the press, blaming the messenger for the message. By the same thinking, perhaps Sarah should be credited for Microsoft's subsequent growth.

Brian filed a story about a new Sam's Club product; for $30 grand, one could buy a junket with Jimmy Buffet of "Cheeseburger in Paradise" fame.

Anne Metz covered AOL's hopes that product placement with a new TNT series, Saved, as well as their hit The Closer, would help push the pay service to new heights. How'd that work out?

Brian launched our obsession with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) with two stories, about implications for the company of widespread click fraud, and its interest in ad-supported municipal wireless.

Looking back, I'm struck by how quickly the market changes, especially the e-economy, and how on top of trends our BloggingStocks writers have been. Pretty good work for a one-year-old, eh?
444546474849505152535455