In an enigmatic turn of events, Social networking site hi5 hired pioneer video gaming veteran Alex St. John. This anticipative move reflects hi5’s intentions to transform its site into a social entertainment hub. John would be the new president and chief technology officer of the company. He would be responsible for its product development, technology, network operations and audience acquisition. He has been one of the pioneers in Microsoft’s efforts in computing and evolution of XBox gaming. More recently, St. John founded the online gaming company WildTangent. St. John inclusion in the management could make a big difference for hi5.

Most of hi5 fans must be eager to know, what’s going on with their site.  hi5 thrives with 60 million of its own registered users. Developing games especially for them (complete with in-game ads and virtual goods) makes smart business sense.

Let’s take a pick at St.John’s plans about hi5 as provided to VentureBeat

hi5 thrives with 60 million of its own registered users. St. John acknowledged in an interview that hi5 needs to prove it can be more competitive in the social gaming market against the likes of Facebook and its game publishers like Zynga. But he said that the social gaming market isn’t locked up; rather, he said, it is just beginning…. [I]n today’s market it will be easier to use the large audience and platform of hi5 to grow a social games and entertainment business.

To dig further into the matter we need to go through the excepts of the press release by Hi5

St. John led several key revenue innovations at WildTangent, including a highly successful virtual currency, WildCoins, used for microcurrency transactions, and an advertising partnership with WPP to sell sponsored microcurrency to Fortune 500 brands.

Hi5 has already embellished its site with a virtual currency, a games portal, chat and avatars for users. It’s only matter of time before hi5 would realize St. John’s impact on their business.

Source:  VentureBeat

1. Reddit: Popular social news website with a large user base. Covers a wide range of news. Includes several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topics like programming, science, politics and business.

2. Digg: The largest and most popular social news website on the internet. Covers all topics including politics, entertainment, technology and general news. Includes a separate video and image section.

3. Propeller: A social news site that covers all topics from technology to politics and entertainment. Operates in a similar fashion to Digg.

4. Fark: A community news site which allows users to comment on news articles. User submitted links will be posted on the main page once they are approved by the administrators.

5. Slashdot: Primarily a tech news site, Slashdot also covers topics like books, games, politics and entertainment. Users can submit stories and they may be published after editors approve it. A popular site that can send a large amount of traffic.

6. Metafilter: A community weblog which allows users to share links and discuss interesting websites/topics. Moderation is done through editors as well as peer pressure in order to prevent gaming.

7. I am bored: Covers general topics with a strong focus on weird and offbeat news. You can submit a link which may be posted after the editors approve it.

8. Mixx: A general social news sites which has a category for all types of news. Topics covered include business, entertainment, sports, health and tech. Includes the ability to create groups to share news with other users.

9. Shoutwire: General news site that is well populated with a loyal group of users. Topics covered include technology, politics, entertainment, lifestyle and sports.

10. Newsvine: A website consisting of community-driven news stories and opinions. Users have their own blogs and can write articles, save links to external content and vote/comment on other user stories.

11. IndianPad: A general social news site that with a large indian userbase. Topics covered include entertainment, sports, videos and tamil news.

12. Linkfilter: Covers all sorts of news. All links are posted and moderated by users. Links can be ranked on several levels: clicks, votes, age, or a combination of all three called points.

13. NewsCloud: A general social site with a focus on news in all topics. Similar to Newsvine, each user has their own blogs and can publish content to be voted up by other users.

14. Hugg: Hugg is a social news site with a strong focus on environmental issues. Also includes other categories like politics, science, fashion and technology.

15. Plime: A general news site which features a wide variety of topics ranging from religion and sports to technology or business. Odd news performs best in this community.

16. C2NN: An active social news site with a variety of topics including environment issues, business, politics, animals and offbeat. Similar to Hugg in focus but much more populated and active.

17. Kirsty: A general news site with a focus on fashion, entertainment and design on top of other topics like technology and food. Has a strong female user base.

18. Nowpublic: A participatory news network which focuses on citizen journalism. Each user has their own individual profile blog/page and can upload videos, images and news stories.

19. Stirrdup: General social news site with four broad categories: politics, technology, news and entertainment.

20. Searchles: A hybrid social news sites which covers all topics. Includes a video section and offers personalized filtering features and the option of joining groups made up of other users with similar interests.

21. Linkinn: A social news site that specializes in pictures and video. Covers a broad range of topics, particular offbeat and weird content.

22. Earthfrisk: Covers topics like humor, politics, entertainment and business. Combines a social network and group features with digg-style news voting.

23. Truemors: A social rumor news site which focuses on the publication of “true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting.” Users can post links anonymously via text, voicemail, web or email. Editors moderate content.

24. StumbleUpon: A social network and browser toolbar which allows users to channel surf the internet. Technically not 100% a social news site, although users can submit webpages to be rated by other users. Here is a guide to StumbleUpon.

25. Linkswarm: Covers a wide range of topics from celebrity gossip to funny media, science and politics. Focuses on pop culture and bizarre news as well.

Niche Social News Websites

Here are social websites which focus on a specific niche. For best results, only submit to them when your site falls within the same niche or covers the same topics. Or else you’re likely to be marked as spam.

26. Sphinn: Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.

27. Dzone: DZone is a free link-sharing community for developers. Other topics commonly featured include web design and programming.

28. Tweako: A user-powered site and social network with a focus on guides and tutorials in all categories like computing, technology, and the Internet.

29. Autospies: A social site that focuses on automotive news, car reviews, auto show photos and videos.

30. Design Float: A social news site for design-related content. Topics covered include business, freelancing, advertising, digital art and branding.

31. Ball Hype: A site that aggregates content from thousands of sports blogs. Users can submit stories and votes will determine if they make it to home page.

32. YCombinator Hacker News: A news site that focuses on technology, startups, business and entrepreneurship.

33. SWiK: A community driven resource for people who use open source software.

34. Buzzflash: A user driven progressive political news website that allows you to submit political stories.

35. DNHour: DNHour.com is a user-powered news portal built specially for the domain name industry. Most members are generally from the domain name industry, which includes domain name owners, companies or professionals.

36. PlugIM: PlugIM is a user driven internet marketing community. Topics covered include search engine optimization, products, business and marketing.

37.Showhype: Operates in a similar way to Ballhype. Stories come from two sources — users and aggregated content. Users can also submit a link to a story that they’ve found or write their own article on ShowHype.

38. Small Business Brief: A niche social site which focuses on small business news. Topics covered include marketing and sales, website development, management and entrepreneurship.

39. Hypediss: Social news site with a focus on design, fashion, urban culture and art.

40. Chictini: Product-oriented social site which a focus on new trends and styles. It’s possible to submit news stories although most of the submissions feature products from online retailers.

41. DotNetKicks: DotNetKicks.com is a community based news site that focuses on topics like NET development techniques, technologies and tools including ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, C++ and Visual Studio.

42. Lipstick: Reddit-style social news site for celebrity gossip.

43. Hubspot: Social news site for marketers, entrepreneurs and business professionals.

44. Winelifetoday: A niche social site for wine lovers. Topics covered included news and opinion articles to do with wine.

45. iliketotallyloveit.com: Allows users to publish and share products with the broader public which they find cool, innovative, exceptionally beautiful, or just weird. Included with every item is a link to an online shop where it can be purchased.

46. Wordsy: A niche social news site for people who love reading and books. Topics covered include small presses, fiction writing, authors, book awards and poetry. (Note: Wordsy has suspended its site since Dec 2008)

47. Value Investing News: A niche social news site that covers stocks and investment news. A small but active community.

48. Teenwag: Focus on celebrity gossip. A hybrid social network with digg-style voting. Users can submit links to be voted up by other users.

49. Muti: Muti is a social bookmarking site inspired by reddit and Digg but dedicated to content of interest to Africans or those interested in Africa.

50. Tip’d: A social media site for finance, investing, and business topics. Tip’d users vote on stories they like by clicking the ‘Tip it’ button that appears next to each story, and then can comment by pressing the ‘Discuss’ link below the story.

Trouble magnet Lindsay Lohan has once again found herself attracting, uh, trouble — this time in the form of a lawsuit.

The actress is being sued by the three men who were in the SUV she drove during a 2007 car chase that resulted in her subsequent DUI arrest, People reports.

Ronnie Blake, Jakon Sutter and Dante Nigro are suing Lohan for unspecified damages in the case.

The plaintiffs have said that Lilo was “angry and aggressive” and that they “felt surprise, shock, fear and panic” when she allegedly commandeered the SUV in which they happened to be sitting to chase her personal assistant through the streets of Santa Monica, Calif.

“Dante and Jakon continued to implore Lohan to slow down, stating specifically that she was endangering all of their lives and that they could be killed,” People quotes the lawsuit as saying. “Lohan refused to slow or stop, but instead responded with abusive cursing and vulgar language, including a statement that she did not care about the risk of death.”

But the best part, according to the lawsuit, is this: “She also stated that because she was a celebrity she could do whatever she wants.”

Of course, where would a Lindsay Lohan-related scandal be without its instantaneous and ubiquitous rebuttal from a member of her legal and/or publicity corps?

Ed McPherson, Lohan’s attorney, chimed in to TMZ, saying, “These guys had the night of their lives, playing with the radio and leaving the vehicle at one point and getting back in.”

After being arrested, Lohan worked out a deal and spent 84 minutes in jail proving her original statement that, as a celebrity, she really could do whatever she wants.

Rap star Kanye West was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday after scuffling with photographers and smashing a camera, an airport spokesman said.

West’s bodyguard also was taken into custody after he grabbed a television camera and threw it to the ground, said celebrity Web site TMZ.com, whose cameraman was involved.

Los Angeles airport spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said West, 31, and his bodyguard were booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. The bodyguard also faces a possible charge of battery.

They were released on bail. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to press charges.

“We will wait for the police to complete their investigation,” said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

Rodriguez said the two were arrested on Thursday morning outside the passenger security screening area.

TMZ, which caught much of the incident on camera, said West rushed toward a photographer and grabbed his camera. A struggle followed and West took the camera and threw it to the ground.

His bodyguard then ordered the TMZ cameraman to stop taping and to hand over his camera.

“The assistant then grabbed the camera, ripped off the mic and viewfinder and smashed it to the ground,” TMZ said.

Lindsay Lohan said Friday that police have no business getting involved in her personal life, a day after the police chief explained that the paparazzi were no longer an issue — in part because the 22-year-old actress had evidently “gone gay.”

“Police chiefs shouldn’t get involved in everyone else’s business when it comes to their personal life. It’s inappropriate,” Lohan said in a video shot by paparazzi Friday and posted on TMZ.com. In the footage, Lohan and gal pal Samantha Ronson are trekking through the Los Angeles Airport on their way to catch a flight to Chicago.

The day before, Chief William Bratton said the paparazzi have become less of a problem thanks to Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lohan leading more moderate lifestyles.

“If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue,” he told KNBC-TV.

Bratton was speaking about his refusal to participate in a meeting held by elected officials Thursday that was called to discuss new laws to curb problem paparazzi.

He called Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine’s special session — which was attended by the likes of John Mayer, Eric Roberts and Milo Ventimiglia — “a complete waste of time.”

Bratton later called a news conference outside police headquarters to clarify his position on the paparazzi. When asked about the Lohan remark — which followed months of tabloid speculation that Lohan and Ronson, a DJ, are dating — Bratton said his sister is gay and he is a proponent of gay rights.