Huffington Post launches two new co-branded sections with Oprah and TED

The Huffington Post is on the move again, adding two new high-profile sections in the last two days thanks to new partnerships with TED and Oprah Winfrey.

The Huffington Post is adding two high-profile new sections to its site, bringing both the high-falutin TED Talks and the much-beloved Oprah Winfrey to the table in the last couple of days.

First to launch was HuffPost OWN, a new lifestyle section of the Huffington Post website that will be curated by (and branded as an extension of the brand of) Oprah Winfrey. HuffPo owner Arianna Huffington described Winfrey as being made for the Internet, and the new section is very clearly playing on the idea of Winfrey as inspirational figure as much as any type of content creator or editor; the site as it stands now makes good use of Oprah herself with top stories including 9 Irresistible Gifts Oprah Had To Share With The World and Oprah Announces Her New Favorite Things (Theres also 13 Things You Dont Know About Oprahs Favorite Things and WATCH: A History of Oprahs Favorite ThingsIn 190 Seconds; clearly, youre supposed to care about what Oprah likes) amongst areas telling you to Empower Yourself and Live Happier.

In her blog post introducing the site, Winfrey wrote tha! t she hoped the site would extend the conversation about empowerment and how we can grow and evolve ourselves to the truest expression of who we each are meant to be. (She also clearly hopes to use the Huffington Post audience to extend the reach of her own OWN television channel, using much of the introductory blog post to discuss the shows on the channel.)

Alongside the OWN section, which debuted yesterday, today saw the announcement of the TED Weekends section, a partnership between Huffington Post and TED, the non-profit organization best known for its TED Talks events and related podcasts and video releases. The section will update every Friday with content based around a particular TED Talk and idea presented therein. Every weekend for the next year, well introduce a theme, anchored to a TEDTalk we think has at its core a powerful and timely concept, wrote TEDs Chris Anderson and Huffington in todays introductory piece. But rather than simply offering it up as is, were opening it up to you to write your own post about it, leave a comment behind, and help refine it TEDTalks are famously limited to 18 minutes, but the essence of TEDWeekends is that when the TEDTalk ends, the evolution of the idea begins. So along with the TEDTalk youll see blog posts written by others giving their own take. Were also inviting graphic artists to illustrate the essence of an idea visually. Meanwhile, the speaker behind the talk will be online chipping in to the conversation.

(In addition, TED Weekends will also premiere brand new TED Talks occasionally.)

Whether these two launches are coincidental in their timing or a sign of co! -branded ! things to come remains to be seen. Its possible that the future of the Huffington Post has arrived, and we just havent realized it yet.