Last week it was announced that the long-anticipated separation of AOL from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is set to happen before the end of the year -- then what?

If all goes well, AOL will set its own course sustaining what's left of its internet prominence, after falling from what was once internet dominance before its merger with TWX, and the continuous contraction of its dial-up subscriptions.

AOL still attracts more than 100 million Internet users to its online content portal, which includes BloggingStocks, so the adventure will continue. And, an AD-venture it is sure to be.

The same is true for Time Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate with operations spanning film, television, cable TV, and publishing. It will have an AD-venture of its own.

We have always considered BloggingStocks to have an advantage over other financial content in that we are in a unique conversation between us, the writers, and you, the readers. This conversation takes place both on individual posts, where we hold forth and you respond; in posts in which two or more bloggers take on different sides of an issue; or in your tips and questions to us.

But today we bring a whole new level of intimacy and immediacy to that conversation with BloggingStocks chat. Sign in with your AOL or AIM user name (and turn on your webcam, if you have one and want to share your smiling face with us all), and jump in. Did you see some news you think we should be covering? Would you like to know one of our writers' takes on an earnings report, a new product, an analyst's point of view? Do you want to hear our buzz -- what stories about which we're gossiping or looking for coverage from one of our writers? Do you want to know who are the contrarians and who are the fanboys among us?

Come on in, chat us up. We look forward to meeting you. We'll talk to you soon!

What's the price of a blogger's soul? In some cases, it's as little as dinner with a guest at a nice restaurant.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "As online food sites become increasingly influential in the restaurant business, chefs and owners are plying bloggers with free meals to get good write-ups. Some are also posting favorable reviews about themselves on popular Web sites or becoming Internet scribes."

This is as clear a violation of journalistic ethics as you will find. Real food critics dine anonymously and pay their own bills -- a known critic is likely to receive special treatment, which of course could make their experience less than indicative of what their readers can expect.

And then there's another problem: Is it really possible to be objective in a review when you aren't feeling the sting of having paid for it?

Blogs are certainly giving the traditional media a run for their money. But in order for the coup to be successful, they will have to adopt some of the ethical standards of the traditional media. For what it's worth, this is the policy for all blogs in the Weblogs Inc. (owned by AOL; includes BloggingStocks) network:

• Bloggers do not receive free products or services from the companies they write about.
• Bloggers do accept review units (e.g., a new cell phone at Engadget, a video game at Joystiq, or a week-long car loan at Autoblog); however, when they're finished reviewing products, they return these items to the manufacturers. If the manufacturers do not take the items back, we give them to our readers. This is the same editorial policy as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Welcome to our first major redesign of BloggingStocks. We're relaunching the site today with a clean, sophisticated design and some new ways to highlight the best posts our team of world class investment bloggers has to offer.

Looking for information about a specific company? Use our new horizontal navigation bar to see posts about one of the 350 or so stocks we cover. You can also click there to see the latest stock picks, opinions on business news of the day, financial analysis or country-by-country research.

With this new design we also make it easier for you to check out what we consider the best crop of posts each day. On the left side of the page we're highlighting topics in the news today and the best of our in-depth features.

Most important, let us know what you think of the new design by leaving your comments. We are eager for feedback.

There may be many good reasons to own an iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Although I still haven't gotten my hands on one, I have been able to get a good look at some of what the device can do. Perhaps these aren't the ten best reasons, but they are ten good ones.

To the best of my knowledge, all of the photo gallery images that I'm providing here for you have been sent using the iPhone. Though I'm impressed, I did notice that the iPhone image quality declines slightly as light levels decrease, but it still does remarkably well for a phone. Yes folks, the attached gallery pictures were sent by mobile phones.

The gallery images are all at original resolutions and are all unretouched. If it is true that we can now take digital images of this quality and instantly download them to our favorite picture manager as well as e-mail them to anywhere in the world that we choose, it is my opinion that the makers of memory cards for digital cameras had better be working on some new product ideas, because I'm guessing that image data storage has just taken a turn for the best.

Please do enjoy the gallery.

As if General Motors doesn't have enough to fret about, could it be that GM is in direct competition with Apple and AT&T's iPhone? Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) would like to think so, and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is doing its best to make it so. General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) is remaining silent on the issue.

Our friends at Autoblog have revealed the results of a survey that indicates that only 20% of today's teens think that owning an automobile is essential for coolness, while 70% of the survey respondents ranked owning an iPhone at the top of the coolness measuring scale.

The survey conducted by CNW Marketing Research polled a sample group of 16 to 29 year olds regarding the trends in material goods ownership they find most appealing. The survey went on to report that other things more desirable to today's younger set were game systems, iPods, shoes, and computers. It seems that desire for the automobile didn't rank very well.

I'm thinking that this change in dynamics is brought on by two essential factors. First, a mobile communications device of any brand gives the younger consumers a type of geographical freedom, and exposure that we technology dinosaurs never had available Second, it's a heck of a lot cheaper these days to feed an iPhone that it is to feed a 1998 Crown Victoria.

And so it goes...

Regular BloggingStocks readers know by now that my investment strategies are fairly conservative and relatively coarse. Please don't begrudge me that. Although I don't track my picks in a portfolio, I do mentally track the general performance of the companies I tout, and I believe that overall I've done fairly well.

There are two major differences between my stock-picking efforts and what I perceive to be Warren Buffett's style. First, Mr. Buffett has years of experience that I myself do not have. Second, Mr. Buffett likes to have a greater working understanding of the nature of the businesses he chooses to investment in than I do. I choose my companies of favor with what I call my "big picture" strategy. All that means is that I use a broader view than most of my contemporaries who like to dig right down to the very roots of their picks.

I like to think that my strategy provides solid conservative support, which shall then free an investor to do some aggressive speculating with their profits.

Personally, I don't feel a compelling need to know about where exactly my beef comes from. Yes, it would be interesting to know where those burgers I eat originate, but to me that's not essential information. That's not to say that I don't think about my food's place of origin, and I can understand the value of meat packing tracking. I'm just not in much of a position to do anything about it so I choose not to worry about it.

However, in 2002 a labeling law for meat was enacted as part of the Farm Bill. That law has yet to become enforceable. This does give me cause for concern because what I see here is that those people who find meat labeling a vastly more important issue than I do have been routinely thwarted in their attempts to make those laws a reality, and it seems perfectly clear to me that the whole issue is being controlled by carefully directed political contributions. The Democrat-controlled Congress will soon be addressing the issue. You might want to send them word of how you feel about it.

An expose in yesterday's The New York Times addresses the subject very eloquently and it brings to light some of the facts regarding how corporate cash has held the implementation of meat labeling requirements in check. Yes, I know full well that's the way things work on Capitol Hill but that certainly doesn't mean everyone's best interests are being served. When those political contributions blatantly override the will of the people, we need to take a good hard look at where those contributions come from and why.

There are two arguments being fielded against the proposition of meat labeling requirements. The first complaint regards the costs to implement such a program. That complaint is just plain stupid on its face. The USDA is already on the job, so we can add a penny a pound surcharge onto the price of meat and cut a couple perks from the legislative bodies. Yeah, that should do it.

The second argument calls meat labeling requirements a "protectionist proposition." I took just a moment to analyze that. Protectionist: One who seeks to provide or receive an act, theory, method or device of protection.

Yes, I think I can accept that.

You probably wouldn't believe just how much I think about eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). You could say I'm obsessed with the company and you'd be right but it's more than just a fixation for me. It's as if eBay has taken up a part of my very being. I spend several hours a day thinking about ways to improve that company. People think I hate eBay because I express disdain for the current management profile over there. I don't hate eBay. I dislike the way it's being run, all the while maintaining that eBay is my baby.

There are some wild and outlandish things that I think eBay could do in pursuit of reestablishing its growth cycle. You see, like it or not, eBay is slowing down. Personally I'm not surprised by that but I think this stalling phase has come upon eBay much too early. Yes, eBay is stalling way too early ... early by a decade.

Dairy product marketers such as Dean Foods (NYSE: DF) and Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) are continuing to warn consumers, economists and investors of the pressures that rising corn prices will soon be placing upon our economy. The pursuit of an unfettered increase in corn based ethanol production is raising inflationary pressures on consumer pocketbooks by increasing the feed costs for dairy, beef , pork and poultry farmers. When coupling the feed cost increases with the higher prices for fuel and fertilizer, we have a recipe for inflationary spikes in consumer food prices which will most probably reach well into the double digits over the next three years.

National Milk Producers Federation spokesman Chris Galen said ethanol usage has led to higher costs for corn and wheat products, which in turn affects the cost of other products, as reported by UPI. Twice within the last six months Dean Foods has faced analyst downgrades as a result of the pressures that rising fuel and feed costs are putting on dairy producers large and small. One downgrade occurred in March and another occurred just this month. Those companies such as Dean Foods, which have their primary focus in dairy products, will be harder hit than companies which have broader focus similar to Kraft.

The opinion is expressed that investors who wish to play the ethanol game should be focusing their intentions on cellulosic ethanol interests rather than ethanol operations based on corn and sugars. While the profitability of cellulosic ethanol does not reach the same levels as ethanol from corn, in the long run the vastly lowered degree of raw material price volatility and the greatly reduced level of controversy will have cellulosic ethanol investors sleeping much more peacefully than their corn-fed brothers.

Here it is, right in front of you, the opportunity of a lifetime for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). With the Rivals.com deal now in hand, making Yahoo a larger internet sports media interest than ESPN, the iron is hot and ready to strike a working partnership between Yahoo! and ESPN. If the two entities can hammer something out that makes full use of each companies strengths, we would most probably witness the birth of an internet sports composite that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) couldn't touch. Wouldn't it be nice to see Yahoo! as the undeniable leader in something? Admit it to yourself, Yahoo! deserves it.

I have no idea if there have been corporate discussions regarding such a working partnership, but you must consider that Yahoo! and ESPN are more than a little aware of each other, and if there's one thing that Yahoo! must be tired of right about now it would be the concept of vainly slugging it out with other large internet properties.

Let us watch carefully to see if some new strategies start seeping out of Yahoo! Perhaps Jerry Yang has secretly been waiting for Terry Semel to be dislodged before instigating some new ideas. If I held Yahoo! shares right now I'd be very hesitant to sell them, and I'd even consider adding a few. Yahoo! has been floundering, but it is far from being counted out. I repeat my conviction that if Yahoo! will just just try to forget about Google and begin to cut it's own swath, it will do far better in the long run than by continuing to beat its head against the "Great Wall of Google."

About a year ago, the team at BloggingStocks started seeing articles and blog entries around the financial world start to creep up. Why? Because one year ago today, BloggingStocks went live to the world with the intent to bring a human and unfiltered face to commentary and facts reporting on a stable of eight stocks. To this point, that stable has grown tremendously, and BloggingStocks sits right up there with the most popular financial portals on the planet. Not bad for a one year-old infant.

• AOL Blog Experiment
• BusinessWeek Coverage
• Micro Persuasion likes us
• WebProNews gives us a mention
• CNN gives us up

In the last year, we've seen quite a bit happen on the financial landscape:

• Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) continues its dominance in web advertising (and $$ income) over Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
  
• Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has one scandal after another while U.S. same-store sales tank
• The DJIA moves above 13,000 (and stays there) for the first time in history
• Toyota (NYSE:TM) tops General Motors (NYSE:GM) in 2007 as world's largest seller of automobiles

There have been many other top-flight financial stories from the last year we've been here, and those above are just a few personal favorites. While I rarely make bold predictions for stocks, you can rest assured that the team here at BloggingStocks follows and obsessively tracks the entire financial landscape every trading day. Why? To give our readers the most informative and varied, colorful commentary we possibly can. No PR spin here -- it's unvarnished opinion. That's what makes financial blogging so unique (and blogging in general). There's no red tape here, so you get access to the relentless gunk floating around inside our collective brains.

Here's hoping to another productive year providing you -- our readers -- with the most entertaining and relevant content we can give. We hope you'll continue to join us for the ride.

If your'e a T-Mobile customer, you can bet on two things in the coming months. One: you'll no longer be subjected to the nagging question, just how much of my monthly bill is going to pay Catherine Zeta-Jones' retainer? [She'll be absent in the company's advertising after her contract expires next year.] Two: you'll soon be able to view BloggingStocks on many T-Mobile phones.

According to the Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile (a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG (ADR) (NYSE:DT)) is soon to roll out a line of phones that can roam onto wireless connections either in consumers' homes or in T-Mobile hotspots, such as Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) coffeeshops.

Just in time, as it turns out: now BloggingStocks is wireless-ready. It's now set to auto-detect that you're browsing from a mobile phone, including

• Pocket IE (Smartphone and Pocket PC)
• Blazer (Palm OS)
• BlackBerry handsets
• Current wireless handsets with WAP-enabled browsers (almost all current phones)

and, naturally, the new T-Mobile units. Because you finance whizzes, you need to be checking out the latest snark on BloggingStocks when you're hanging at the 'Bucks.

We've asked each of our bloggers to introduce themselves and talk a little about why they love the market and what positions they call their own. We encourage our bloggers to own common stock and abide by a common code of conduct.

Who are you, and why are you passionate about stocks?
My name is David Kretzmann and I live in Nevada City, CA.

I enjoy investing in stocks because I feel they are the best choice for long-term investors. For each stock in which I invest, I have a minimum of a seven-year time frame placed with that stock, because I believe that is the time you should let a stock "run." I have always liked the idea that you can actually invest in your favorite companies, whether it be Starbucks, Whole Foods, or Palm. It is a fun way to see your money grow.

What was the first stock you owned?
I first starting investing in stocks last July when I was 12 years old, starting by investing in a total of nine different companies (which was a mistake, because I didn't do nearly as much research as I should have). Some of those companies included Palm, 7-Eleven, Netflix, and Electronic Arts. All of the stocks I invested in were recommended by either David or Tom Gardner of The Motley Fool from their various newsletters.

What was your worst investment ever?
I haven't had that terrible of an investment yet, because I've only sold a stock twice (AT&T and Cutter & Buck), and you don't lose any money on an investment until you've sold. So, I haven't had any disappointing investments yet. Only if in seven years I see one of my investments is down, will I consider it not-so-good investment.

Do you spend the day glued to the your favorite finance news source, waiting for breaking stories to brighten your day? Are the stock quotes for your favorite companies always an Alt-Tab away? Do you know the difference between P/E and EPS and MSFT? Most importantly, are you passionate? And can you write with wit, charm and a tad bit of snark?

If this describes you, and you'd like to share your passion with the blogosphere, go to our main site and click on the "more info" button under the "Bloggers" tab. Don't forget to submit three samples of between 100 and 400 words.

The stocks we cover now include:

• Apple Computer (AAPL)
• eBay Inc (EBAY)
• Genl Electric (GE)
• Google, Inc (GOOG)
• Microsoft Corp (MSFT)
• Time Warner (TWX)
• Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
• Yahoo Inc (YHOO)