Internet, Cnn | featured news

Well, well, well. A ‘little bird’ apparently informed Reuters reporter Felix Salmon that CNN is buying Mashable, a blog that covers social media-related news, a lot of lists about anything from the funniest cat videos of the day to the most pinteresting Pinterest pinboard of the hour and whatnot, often with the CAPS Lock key turned on for the headlines, for “upwards of $200 million”.

Celebrity Ashton Kutcher narrowly beat out CNN early Friday in an online popularity contest to see who could more quickly attract 1 million followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The 31-year-old actor recently threw down the gauntlet, challenging CNN and its founder, Ted Turner. In a Web video posted earlier this week, Kutcher said he would ding-dong-ditch Turner’s house if he beat CNN to 1 million.

27 top Internet publishers – New York Times, CNN, CBS Interactive, ESPN and the Wall Street Journal – say they’ll try the supersize ads in an attempt to get the attention of Web surfers who have learned to ignore banners. But doubters say more intrusive ads won't work. "We will tune those out as well," says Jose Castillo.