By itself, Dotspotter seems to represent a questionable investment.  It’s less than a year old, is not exactly popular, and, in the words of Mathew Ingram, has “a user interface and site design that seems to have been designed by colour-blind gerbils.”  Despite the success of TMZ, I’d rather have an office full of La-Z-Boys.

CBS may also have had its eye on Anthony Soohoo, though; Soohoo was a vice president at Yahoo, and is Dotspotter’s co-founder and CEO.  Perhaps this added incentive to buy will keep people from whispering about a bubble.

Either way, the Dotspotter purchase appears to be part of a trend.  As Valleywag noted, CBS has previously acquired Wallstrip and Last.fm.  It’s created communities, brought content online, and in related news, CBS’s “Entertainment Tonight” just signed a promotional deal with Ask.

CBS may or may not fully understand Web 2.0, but it sure is trying to embrace it.