The buzz on everyone's lips this morning comes in the wake of LinkedIn's announcement of an application platform designed to get its users collaborating with each other through the business networking site.

Called InApps, the platform's initial rollout provides LinkedIn's 30 million users a bundle of applications which Rick Turoczy at ReadWriteWeb describes as in keeping with LinkedIn's specific purpose of helping you find a job: a trip application from TripIt , presentations from SlideShare and Google Presentation, blog feeds from Six Apart and WordPress, file storage and collaboration from Box.net, online workspaces from UK start-up Huddle, and Amazon Reading Lists that will allow users to share the books they are reading.

VentureBeat's Eric Eldon thinks it looks good
but notes: "The question, of course, is whether LinkedIn’s … users
want to use productivity apps on LinkedIn — as opposed other
productivity apps on their desktops or on the web, like Powerpoint. …
Productivity apps haven’t generally gained much traction on other
social networks, maybe because those sites were too, well, social.
Because LinkedIn is about business, this is perhaps the most obvious
place for such apps to succeed."

Turoczy's verdict: "No matter what the economic conditions, people will always be looking
for new jobs. If LinkedIn continues to add features and applications
that facilitate that inevitable searching and hiring, they're sure to
succeed. And this new application platform appears to be right in line
with that focus."

More on the death of print: Christian Science Monitor leaps for the safety of online
From the turbulent world that is print media comes the news
that the 100-year old Christian Science Monitor, winner of seven
Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, will in April 2009 put its weekday
print edition to bed one last time and head for the brave new world of
online-only publishing. It is the first US national newspaper to do so.
It's not abandoning print completely – a new weekend magazine is on the
cards.

Mathew Ingram was more than a bit taken aback by the news: "I confess that despite having spent the past couple of years watching U.S. newspapers caught in a death spiral, cutting costs and laying off staff only to see their advertising revenue continue to sink, the closure of the
CS Monitor’s print edition came as a shock. It’s one thing to talk
about what newspapers have to do to survive, how online is the future
and so on, but it’s another thing to see a 100-year-old paper leap off a cliff like that."

Writing for Salon.com, Cyrus Farivar thinks
it's a sensible move for any publication that wants to stay in the
game: "Yes, I get that a newspaper is more foldable and portable than
reading
electronically — and yes, you can lose it on a train without worrying
about it — but honestly, how much longer can any newspaper executive
justify the huge operating expense of printing and distributing the
printed page?"

Arrington eats crow at Hulu birthday party
One company that is right at home in online publishing and distribution (in the US only, alas) is Hulu, which celebrates its first birthday today. TechCrunch's
Mike Arrington confesses to eating crow given the company's success:
"We provided nearly constant criticism of the site since it was announced in March 2007 (no name, billion dollar valuation, name translation issues, trademark absurdity, etc.). But despite a slightly bumpy launch, we had to admit that they did an outstanding job. And today I can safely say I spend more time watching Hulu than I do my standard home cable connection."

Arrington
continues his public practice in humility by saying he was wrong to
doubt the company's model: "Hulu rocks. Despite ridiculous odds, the
company was able to pull off a joint venture between two humongous
parent media companies and provide users with a compelling, sexy
product. The only thing I can really criticize is the continued lack of
international availability, which is a licensing issue beyond their
control. Happy birthday, Hulu. Please add HBO soon."

–Basheera Khan