: October 2007 Archives

Who's Who in Mobile Worlds: 10 Plays to Watch

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Obviously mobile tie ins for virtual worlds are a big deal. From a marketer's perspective, the best things about virtual worlds--their immersive, tight communities--suddenly become all pervasive. From a user's stand point, well, it's pretty much the same. While the Yankee Group's recent study has had its math called into question, its argument that Anywhere Consumers will drive the future is still a compelling one. "Companies that provide remote access—through mobile devices or other means—to their web experience will have a greater impact than pc-centric companies," said Senior Analyst Christopher Collins. With companies from Sony and Microsoft to third-party hackers in Second Life looking at ways to give users another screen to head into the world on, it looks like consumers will have plenty of options. We present a round up of the major plays being made.

1. Sony's Playstation3 Home: Although it's been delayed until Spring 2008, this console-based virtual world has a lot of people--both hardcore gamers and worldophiles--excited. Sony is working on tie ins to its games, portable devices, and marketing partners for business, but it wants to take all of those connections mobile. Executive Vice President Phil Harrison said ,"We have the Home client now running on a mobile phone. The touchpoints and community experience of home are expanding to the mobile environment." At the very least, users should be able to upload and download content like pictures from their phone to their Home.

2. Microsoft: No one knows what Microsoft's virtual world play will be, but at the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, Daniel Schiappa, Microsot's General Manager for the Strategy Entertainment and Devices Division, set out some plans for the future: "If a year from now we don’t have anything, then we probably won’t have anything." While Microsoft already has outlets in the Xbox 360 and PC, Schiappa said the company's goals would be to include all of its devices, including mobile.

3. Second Life: Linden Lab isn't doing anything official for a mobile client--at least that they've announced--but there's a flurry of activity out there for third parties to fill the gap. The ngi group's 3Di.jp released its Web-based application, Movable Life, earlier this month, which is also accessible through mobile applications. Comverse Technologies, though, was working on its mobile client back in February, and there's plenty more out there.

4. Habbo Hotel: Earlier this month, we reported that Sulake had 110,000 users on its experimental mobile client. At Virtual Worlds Fall, CEO Timo Soininen told us that the world had 120,000 users, and Sulake had plans: "It's just been a research project up until now. We wanted to have a proof of concept to show it could be done. We're currently using the Nokia Symbian platform, so you need a Nokia phone. But it is exciting. We're discussing with various parties how to take it to a new height. Because it's clearly proven that there's demand. For Habbo we've had the basic technology for almost two and a half years, but the operating costs for data has been preventitively expensive up until now, especially with the young demo. And the technology reach for the young demo has been low, up until about a year ago. So it might go for a slightly older audience."

5. Disney: Disney's had its fingers in virtual worlds for a while, but it made a gigantic leap in August with its acquisition of Club Penguin. Tucked away in the press release for the sale was this tidbit: "Strategically, Disney plans to develop a Disney-branded connected entertainment network that allows users to access Disney-branded content, including virtual worlds and Disney.com games and videos, any time and anywhere, as well as communicate with each other across platforms, through a Web-based hub connected with PCs and mobile devices such as cell phones and game platforms." Disney already has firm plans to create a sort of metaverse network for its Nintendo DS games with DGamer, which will allow users to "chat, create personal avatars and trade game-themed items, across the room or anywhere in the world with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection."

6. Cyworld: In June the Cyworld US offices explained that they had plans to go mobile for the US market in the first quarter of 2008. Cyworld's parent company SK Telecom has a relationship with Sprint (via Helio) and T-Mobile USA’s parent company in Germany, so the corporate infrastructure shouldn't be too hard to put into place. In Korea, the mobile application has brought Cyworld 2.5 million users, so it's an understandable desire. “We’ve been dragging our feet on this, because we want to get it right," Cyworld USA Vice President of Marketing and Sales Michael Streefland told GigaOM . "We commissioned a research report to figure out what Cyworld Mobile would be in the U.S., and we’re still figuring that out.”

7. There.com: There doesn't seem to be any rush to go mobile, but when we spoke with CEO Michael Wilson in July he remarked that "We believe in extending the platform to as many devices as possible and to more light-weight devices. We’ll be making an announcement next month about lighter weight devices. The problem is that the just doesn’t have a good network. If we were in Asia it would be easier." We haven't heard that announcement yet, though, and There.com says there's nothing to report at this time.

8. Trion: When Trion received $30M in funding in July, CEO Lars Buttler said that the company is pursuing a technology that "essentially build games that are more real time and dynamic, so we can deliver storylines on a daily basis." The game will feature multiple channel-like components across multiple platforms, allowing users to access their information from PCs and mobile devices."

9. Moshi Monsters: These upcoming toys from MindCandy, I don't think, engage directly through a cell phone interface, but they do work with your ring tone. The Guardian reports, in Aleks Krotoski's take on mobile worlds, that the release asks users to "Clip your moshi monster to your bag or jacket, then relax and do whatever you want to do! When your mobile rings your MoPod magically springs to life!"

10. Everybody Else: Because no day is complete without a little rumor mongering, let's not forget that Google is supposedly working on a virtual world, and it's set to make an announcement about its (separate?) mobile platform within a matter of weeks.

More seriously, mobile is booming as its own separate channel for entertainment, marketing, and engagement. In June Forrester reported that 3 of the 15 largest interactive agencies in the U.S. see virtual worlds as having one of the greatest impacts on their design practices. But 12 of 15 see the mobile channel as significant. If virtual worlds want to go mainstream, there's not a much simpler direction than mobile. And as more virtual worlds place a premium on casual elements, it seems like a sure thing.

Did we forget someone? Maybe. Do you know of more happening in mobile virtual worlds? Hopefully. Let us know.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Humane Society Taps There.com To Reach Gen-Y

(* Source : Tameka Kee *)

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE United States (HSUS) has partnered with Makena Technologies to launch an interactive campaign at There.com. HSUS will use branded virtual and real world merchandise, as well as live events to raise awareness and funds in the fight against animal cruelty.

The effort is a departure from HSUS' typical marketing campaigns, which are geared toward the 50+ demographic. By establishing a presence in There.com, the organization is aiming squarely at the 20- to-30-year-old market.

There.com members can purchase HSUS merchandise for their avatars--and even acquire the corresponding real-life version at the HSUS storefront, connecting real merchandise to virtual sales.

"We are always looking for new ways to celebrate animals and confront cruelty; and working with There.com to take animal protection into the virtual world reaches a new audience with a message of compassion," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Very Modern Mix Tape

(* Source: Max Zabramny *)

Design your own USB blank cassette just like the old mix tapes. All for around 40 bucks.

http://www.makeamixa.com/

Posted by brian tiong at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN Goes Virtual

(* Source : Mike Shields *)

As news organizations slash budgets and scale back bureaus, CNN is expanding—except not in real life.

In the week of Nov. 5, the news giant is set to open a news-gathering outpost in Second Life. And unlike news service Reuters, which embedded a real reporter in the online virtual world last year, CNN will rely on Second Life "residents" to do all the legwork.

In the space, the network will create a variation of its i-Reports, the real-world vehicle through which average citizens contribute eyewitness reports. CNN will equip Second Life denizens with kits enabling them to transmit copy and photos. Visitors to Second Life will be able to get the latest news via kiosks scattered throughout the virtual community.

And the network will act as a sort of journalism school, offering guidance to avatar citizen journalists via weekly "news meetings" directed by CNN.com staffers. And top CNN personalities including Larry King will conduct virtual training sessions for budding cyber journalists.

Given that Second Life users tend to be highly passionate about the virtual space, CNN execs believe the community will embrace user-generated journalism—more than they would embrace simply repurposed content.

"We looked at what are people doing [in Second Life] that is meaningful to what we do," said Susan Grant, executive vp of CNN News Services. "I love that we don't have to take things from the real world and force them in."

As for whether the world of Second Life will generate news events worthy of reporting, i-Report producer Lila King is not concerned. After all, visitors to the online world include news-making personalities like Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who most recently had the public guessing whether he'd jump into the presidential race (he hasn't).

CNN's association with Second Life comes at a time when the digital phenomenon is awash in media hype but still far from cracking the mainstream. Its unique user base has hovered between 400,000 and 700,000 per month over the last year, according to Nielsen Online, and has twice fallen below the research firm's minimum reporting threshold.

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MTV, Cisco drop 100K on rapping social net, RapHappy

(* Source : Webware.com *)

Jessica Dolcourt says :

Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.

Today they announced a prize even grander the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.

Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shout out on the website instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."

In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.

Originally posted at Webware.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MTV Networks launches online lyrics initiative

(* Source : Caroline McCarthy *)

On Monday, MTV Networks is set to unveil an initiative to connect its television, online, and mobile presences by helping music fans answer that crucial question--"Who the (expletive) sings that song?"

In other words, MTV Networks, the Viacom division that encompasses the MTV, VH1, and CMT brands as well as a host of other pop culture channels, is aiming to renew its focus on music by bringing lyrics to the forefront. This will begin rolling out in November and is expected to be complete by the middle of 2008.

On television, several of the networks' existing music-related programs will start to incorporate "lyrics and the artists' inspirations for their words" into their structure, and all three channels will air a new "Name That Tune" series, according to a release from MTV Networks.

Online, the networks' Web sites will feature lyrics search data from digital music database Gracenote, accompanied by multimedia artist information, trivia games, and a link to purchase the song in question--which will undoubtedly be tied into MTV Networks' Rhapsody-powered music store when that launches. And in the mobile space, curious music fans will be able to text-message inquiries (an artist's name, song name, or snippet of lyric) to a SMS code and receive a link to a mobile Web site containing data pertaining to the song and artist.

This is a potentially lucrative move for MTV Networks, which has not only struggled to bring its pop culture influence to the Web but has also fallen from some music fans' favor as its networks increasingly prioritize reality shows. Unlicensed lyrics sites are currently facing incipient copyright scrutiny--not to mention the fact that there's no such thing as a Google Lyrics Search.

Not yet, at least.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Video game giants slaughter the opposition

(* Source : Timesonline *)

Nigel Kendall says :

The video games industry was told yesterday: “Television used to be accused of corrupting the youth of today. Now you are.”

David Mitchell, the TV comedian, was talking to 750 representatives of the industry at the 25th Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by public vote. In that quarter of a century, Mitchell observed, video games have gone from “being a few dots dancing around a TV screen to a full-on film that you are in”.

Generations of creative Britons who once dreamt of making films and cracking Hollywood are now just as likely to seek fame and fortune in the video games industry.

Tom Dowding, 25, is a graduate in computer science from Bristol University. He has been playing games since he was 10 and last year set up Mobile Pie, a developer of games for mobile phones. His efforts were rewarded at the Golden Joysticks with a prize of £2,500 and a work placement with Electronic Arts, one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Mr Dowding’s winning game is called Let It Grow.

“You install it on your mobile phone, then, using your phone camera, you nurture it and make it grow,” he said. “Then you post your growing flower on Facebook.” He has licensed the game to a distributor.

For many would-be developers, mobile phones offer a way of making games and minimising expense on programming. A leading game, such as the recent Halo 3, can cost $70 million (£34 million) to develop and a mobile game a fraction of that. The possible rewards are vast. Halo 3 outstripped many blockbuster films in the week that it went on the market, generating sales of $300 million.

Video games have quietly overtaken older entertainment forms such as films and popular music. According to the latest figures from Elspa, the industry body, game software sales in Britain for the first half of 2007 were £519 million, 17 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2006.

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As with sex, computer games can be casual

(* Source : Timesonline *)

From the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco

The 'next big thing' in computer games has been officially identified and it's called 'casual gaming'. Partly because of innovations like the Nintendo Wii, which have made gaming accessible to a whole new audience who wouldn't traditionally have been considered gamers, and partly because of increasingly sophsticated mobile phones, more and more people are playing basic games. (The gaming industry likes to refer to these as having low production values. The 'mini-golf' common on mobile phones is a good example: it doesn't look great, but it's a happy distraction on the Tube.) During a session on the future of gaming, panelists said there was an enormous opportunity for publishers to capitalise on this audience, who didn't care so much about the traditional values of games - like sophisticated graphics - and played games because they were simple and convenient.

Unlike other web-based services where people connect with one another, like Facebook, there was good opportunity to try different revenue models such as subscription, contributors suggested. Trip Hawkins, a co-founders of Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest gaming companies, pointed to the example of Avapeeps - a'virtual dating' game, where players send virtual versions of themselves (avatars) into 'virtual watering holes' to make friends. "It took four days before players got in touch asking if they could have the real contact details of the people whose avatars they'd met in the game," he said.

Robert Kotick, chief executive of Activision, the company behind the popular air guitar game Guitar Hero, said: "It's true the bulk of our audience have been 16-35 year-old guys who can't get a date on Saturday night, but the number of people who want to have a short-term gaming experience is growing."

Posted by Jonathan Richards

Posted by brian tiong at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PanRaven’s Online Scrapbook used to Promote Nelly’s Album

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

PanRaven has teamed up with Universal Mowtown Records to create a promotional story for Nelly, who’s getting ready to release his first album in 3 years, “Brass Knuckles.” You may remember that PanRaven is an online tool for creating stories, similar to scrap-booking services like ScrapBlog.

With this particular partnership, a story of Nelly’s filming of the video for his most recent Single “Wadsyaname” is being published on PanRaven’s website, as well as Nelly’s website and MySpace profile. PanRaven is also promoting the story through its Facebook application. The story contains exclusive, behind the scenes footage from the filming of a music video.

And in an effort to encourage users to virally spread this promotion, PanRaven and Universal are holding a contest. The person that spreads the promotion the furthest and widest across the web will win a trip to a future filming session of a Nelly video. The runner-up gets some autograhped merchandise. Not too shabby, as far as prizes go. Kanye West, 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen have all held similar promotions on MySpace in recent weeks.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MyItThings Holiday Widgets

(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

MyItThings, which is a user-generated lifestyle magazine of sorts, will soon be offering a widget for your Wish List and Virtual Closet, which can be placed on other websites, blogs and social networking profiles, like MySpace and Facebook. A few of these widgets are holiday-themed, so MyItThings is taking advantage of the holiday season and letting you spread some Christmas cheer (i.e. your gift list).

The new widget is powered by Clearspring,so you know there are easy sharing options, including embed code for a variety of social networks and blogging platforms. Wishpot and Glimpse have similar wishlists and widget-sharing options as well.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero

(* Source : Brian Hiatt *)

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

In a Boston office with a Fender Strat leaning against the wall, Eric Brosius, a sound designer for video-game developer Harmonix, is staring at clusters of tiny blue bars on his computer screen: Keith Moon's madman drum part from "Won't Get Fooled Again," as mapped out note for note by an on-staff musician. The company that developed Guitar Hero has spent the past year transforming that song and dozens of others -- from the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" to Metallica's "Enter Sandman" -- into playable pieces of its new music game, Rock Band. Soon, players will be furiously banging electronic drum pads to replicate Moon's stickwork, mashing buttons on guitar-shaped controllers to match Pete Townshend's and John Entwistle's parts, and even trying to scream "Yeeeah!" at the right moment into a microphone. "You get to experience what it's like to play every single part of 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and to see how the parts interact," says Eran Egozy, who co-founded Harmonix as a graduate student at MIT.

Guitar Hero may well be this decade's biggest rock & roll phenomenon. Guitar Hero I and II have grossed $360 million since the first game came out in 2005 -- vastly more than any album released in the same period. And the games -- in which players re-create songs' guitar parts by pushing buttons that correspond to notes and chords while hitting a "strum bar" in rhythm -- have inspired kids by the millions to memorize the intricacies of "Free Bird" and "War Pigs." One measure of the games' clout: MTV purchased Harmonix for $175 million last year, and video-game giant Activision paid $99.9 million to acquire RedOctane, the company that owns the Guitar Hero name and manufactured the game's guitar- shaped controllers.

With MTV and Activision unwilling or unable to collaborate, the franchise's future has split in two: Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -- a straightforward sequel with a few twists, including a new "battle mode" -- hits stores October 28th, while Harmonix's Rock Band -- which adds drums and vocals to the formula -- comes out November 23rd. Analysts say that the market is big enough for both games to succeed (music games represent about eight percent of the U.S. video-game market, according to the research group NPD) -- so their near-simultaneous releases could become the music event of the year.

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rockband.com Offers Social Networking

(* Source : David Radd

Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."

Posted by brian tiong at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SOCIAL NETWORKING GOD: 350+ Social Networking Sites

(* Source : Daksh Sharma *)

One of the main topics here at Mashable has always been social networking. In the past several years, some networks have thrived, some vanished, while hundreds of new ones appeared. It has become a huge area to follow, and this article illustrates this well: a collection of over 350 social networking sites, all of which were covered in one way or another here at Mashable. We hope to have created an extensive and useful resource for anyone interested in social networking. Enjoy.

Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources.

Books

Americabookshelf.com - One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.

BooksConnect - A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.

BookCrossing.com - A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.

Bookhopper.co.uk - Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.

Bookins.com - Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.

BookMooch.com - An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.

Booksalescout.com - Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.

Bookswim.com - Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.

ConnectViaBooks - A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.

GoodReads - GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.

PaperBackSwap.com - Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.

Pazap.com - A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.

Read It Swap It - A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.

Revish - Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.

Shelfari - Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.

Socialbib - Book swapping network between students.

Business Networking & Professionals

AdvisorGarage - It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.

ArtBreak - ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.

Blogtronix - Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.

Commutal - Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.

CompanyLoop - An online co-working community for global businesses.

ConnectBeam - Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.

Decorati - An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.

DoMyStuff - A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.

Doostang - An invite only career community for professionals.

Fast Pitch - It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.

iKarma Inc. - iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.

ImageKind - ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.

Jambo - Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.

Jigsaw - An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.

Konnects - Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.

Lawyrs - A professional social networking community for lawyers.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.

mediabistro.com - mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.

Pairup.com - Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.

Ryze.com - A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.

Spoke.com - Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.

Visible Path - Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.

WebCrossing Neighbors - It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.

XING - XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.

Family

Amiglia - A family networking service enabling users to connect to family members by publishing and sharing family trees, photos etc.

CafeMom - CafeMom is a social networking site for mothers to connect and share thoughts with each other.

Cingo - Cingo users connect with each other to organize their family life.

CommonGate - A social networking platform that enables users to create their own social network for their friends, family or organization.

Family 2.0 - Family 2.0 helps you create your own family social network, you can add family members, send personalized emails and create event alerts.

Famiva - A premier social network to connect with family members and relatives in a secure environment.

Famster - A private secure social network for family members.

Geni.com - An exciting social networking site enabling members to create their family tree. Although it’s a relatively new site, it has grown tremendously fast, and has hundreds of thousands of users.

Genoom - Genoom creates a meeting place for its site users. They can create a family network by inviting their relatives and discover their past memories.

Kincafe - An ideal social network for families to connect with their beloved ones.

Kinzin - Kinzin is an online meeting place for families to share family events, photos, stories and recipes.

MayasMoM - A family networking site for parents.

Minti - A collaborative parenting site.

MomJunction - MomJunction allows mothers to find reliable answers to questions, create private spaces with friends and build communities.

MothersClick - MothersClick connects mothers in a neighborhood with each and provides parenting advice to them.

myfamily.com - An excellent way to connect with your family members.

OneGreatFamily.com - An online shared database with combined knowledge and data at a single place.

OurStory.com - OurStory enables users to share stories of their families with others.

Parentography - A social network offering advice and advice for families.

The Family Post - A sharing network for communication with family members.

Friends

43 Things - A tagging based social networking site. Users create accounts and list a number of goals or hopes and these are parsed based on similarity to goals of other users.

Amitize.com - Amitize is a worldwide friendship network.

aSmallWorld - aSmallWorld is a private online community designed for individuals who would like to connect, re-connect to share similar thoughts with each other.

Badoo.Com - Badoo is a dynamic multi-lingual social networking site with innovative photo and video features that allows its users worldwide to gain an instant mass audience and interact both locally and globally.

Bebo - Bebo is a hugely popular site (especially in the UK), and similar in philosophy to MySpace. It allows users to communicate with their friends in multiple ways including blogging, sending messages and posting pictures.

Eons - An online gathering place for the elderly; most of the users are over the age of 50 years.

Facebook.com - Facebook is a social networking phenomenon connection people with their friends, family and other users with similar interests.

Faceparty - A UK based community social networking website. It started for youngsters but has now risen to popularity among all age groups.

Flingr - Flingr allows users to connect with all categories of friends – colleagues, college mates and school buddies.

Friendster - It is a popular global social network for finding new friends and developing friendships as well as searching old friends.

hi5 - Hi5 is a prominent social networking service in India with over 40 million users. However, Hi5 has recently experienced an upsurge beyond India and has shown increasing popularity in EU too.

Lovento - Lovento allows you to discover news friends and also find information about latest events.

Multiply.com - Multiply is a social networking website providing easy way to share digital media which includes photos, videos and music.

Mycool - Mycool enables members to find and share their interests with special groups.

MySpace.com - MySpace is an interactive social networking website consisting of personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. It’s currently the biggest social networking site out there, and while it might not be the most advanced one, the users seem to love its simplicity.

NetFriendships.com - A comprehensive social networking site enabling users to make new online friends and discover old ones.

Netlog - A social community of more than 20 million young Europeans.

Orkut - Orkut is a social networking service owned by Google. It enables users to meet new friends and create communities.

Passado - Passado is Europe’s no.1 re-union website connecting members with friends from school to workplace.

Piczo - Piczo offers safe social networking environment to youngster around the world. Piczo users can design their personal website with photos, videos etc. and share it with their friends.

Plazes - A social networking website for connecting with local users.

Pownce.com - Pownce is a mix of social networking and microblogging. It enables users to send messages, files, events and links with each other.

ProfileHeaven.com - A UK based social networking site for teenagers.

reunion.com - A leading online service for discovering old friends, classmates and family members.

Vox.com - Vox is a social blogging service where users share their ideas, photos, videos with family and friends.

Xanga - Xanga is one of the biggest social networking platforms with features of sharing photos, photos and videos.

XuQa - An online college social networking site with poker gaming features.

Hobbies & Interests

ActionProfiles.com - It is social networking community for sports and action. The features of the website are profiles of users with photographs and videos, reviews of products and job discussion boards.

Arts community - Arts community provides a dynamic community experience by providing extensive listing of exhibitions, events and openings.

BeGreen - BeGreen is a community that aims to generate environmental awareness for users.

beRecruited - beRecruited is a dedicated online community for sportpersons and coaches.

BottleTalk - BottleTalk is a wine lover’s community making it easy for members to share their drinking experiences.

CarGurus - An automobile community website enabling users to post car reviews, photos and share opinions.

Change - Change is a nonprofit social networking website that connects like minded users and allows them to exchange information.

ChangingThePresent - A nonprofit fund raising community with membership of over 400 nonprofits.

ChickAdvisor - ChickAdvisor is a sharing community for women users.

CircleUp - CircleUp is one of the best community website connecting users to groups, clubs for knowledge sharing, information exchange.

Coastr - Coastr connects beer lovers with each other.

ColShare - ColShare is a community for people who have hobby of collecting items like coins, stamps etc.

coRank - A rating community for users to share interesting information on internet.

DailyStrength - A huge community of over 500 groups dealing with health issues and various medical challenges.

Dundoo - Dundoo enables users to create image collages out of social networking profile. A big amount of ads on the site somewhat diminishes the overall impression.

Flixster - Flixster is a community for movie lovers.

FuelEmpire - FuelEmpire brings automobile enthusiasts together at one place.

GirlSense - A community for girls to promote their fashion designs & creations.

Greenvoice - An online networking platform for people who are conscious about the environment, who want to inform each other on environmental issues and create a difference.

iYomu - iYomu is an adult social networking website and it allows users to search for site members who have similar interests or for business needs.

Motortopia - Motortopia is community for automobile lovers. It consists of passionate lovers of bikes, planes, cars and boats etc.

MyCatSpace - MyCatSpace is a community for lovers of cats passionate to share experiences of their cats with others.

MyDogSpace - MyDogSpace users can share their dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.

Uniteddogs - A social networking website for dog owners. The dog owners can creae profiles of their dogs, create blogs and share their thoughts.

vSocial - vSocial is a video based social networking platform allowing content owners, site operators to deliver the message online with video.

Language

15+ Language Communities

Media (Photo, Video & Audio)

25+ Video Sharing Services

30+ Photo Sharing Services

20+ Music Sharing Services

Buzdeo - Buzdeo provides secure video sharing service with friends and family.

Fotki - A photo sharing service enabling users to connect with friends.

Fotolog - A big online photo sharing community.

Music

Asoboo - Asoboo is a sharing network for cultural artists from around the world.

BandChemistry - A network for musicians uniting music bands all over.

BandWagon - BandWagon is a music community website for music fans to manage their web pages, profiles, videos and music.

CrackSpace - A common place for fans of hip-hop music.

Moob - A dedicated community of hip-hop fans.

MOG - An online community powering site members to discover music and music lovers.

Mobile

CrackBerry - A community dedicated to BlackBerry users.

Dodgeball - A New York based service facilitating social interactions through mobile phones.

Friendstribe.com - A mobile phone based social networking site.

GotZapp - A mobile social network for sharing images, audio and graphics with your friends’ mobile phones.

Groovr - An ultimate mobile social networking site for staying connected with friends. It is compatible with iPhone.

Jaiku - Jaiku is essentially a microblogging service with an SMS gateway, very similar to Twitter. They’ve recently been acquired by Google.

Loopt - Loopt is a cool mobile based friend locator website. It uses GPS to show its users the location of friends by updating maps on mobile handset.

Mixxer - Mixxer enables users to content on their mobile with site members.

Mobango - A mobile community service powering users to search for user generated music content, videos and other data.

Mozes - Mozes enables members to connect & socialize with each other through mobile phones.

Partysync - Partysync helps users to interact with people using mobiles.

Peepsnation - Peepsnation allows users with similar interests to connect with each other on location basis.

Rabble - A location based social networking service for mobile phone users.

Socialight - Socialight is a mobile based social networking site where users share their travel experiences with other mobile users.

Wattpad - A mobile phone social networking platform allowing users to discover, read and share their stories with each others.

Shopping

18 Sites for Social Shopping and Deals

3LUXE - A community generated product research site.

AgentB - A common place to find out the best shopping deals on internet.

bringsome.com - A global goods delivery platform enabling community members to assist each other with access to best items from across the world.

boxedup.com - Boxedup.com users add their favorite products to their list and share it with others.

CoWorkersAds - An online marketplace listing allowing site members to discover and sell items among coworkers community.

iliketotallyloveit.com - A user generated marketplace where users submit cool products.

MyItThings.com - A user generated magazine for shopping.

MyStore.com - A social market place for buyers and sellers.

Productwiki.com - ProductWiki is a common place for users to share information about consumer products.

RedFlagDeals.com - RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most popular shopping community which offers huge discounts to site users.

Sale Grab - SaleGrab is a social shopping site for best sales and discount deals.

Shoppero - Shoppero offers profit sharing to site users for writing product reviews.

Smashing Darling - A collaborative market place connecting buyers and sellers at one place.

Social BookMarking

50+ Social Bookmarking Sites

Students

AlumWire - AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.

B4Class - A social network for high school and college students.

Campusbug - A college student social networking website.

CampusRank - CampusRank members select and rate their old school friends and group them into various categories.

College.com - An online community for college students.

CollegeMedium.com - A student classifieds website for buying and selling items, jobs search etc.

College Tonight - A great place to meet fellow college students and alumni.

DormItem.com - A local classifieds listings for schools in various cities.

Graduates.com - A social networking site assisting graduate school students to stay in touch post completion of course.

Half.com - A leading student market place for buying and selling textbooks at discounted prices.

iHipo - An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.

LocalSchools - A networking site connecting students with local US colleges and universities.

Pazap.com - A student trading site for buying and selling on-campus books with other students.

Quizilla - Quizilla is a social network for young teens.

RateMyProfessor.com - RateMyProfessor connects students aspiring to study similar courses by assisting each other.

Student.com - Student.com is a big online community for college students, high school students and teens with around 1,000,000 members.

Studentbid.com - Studentbid.com is a student market place for sales and purchase of items without any fees.

StudentSN.com - A social network allowing users to create home pages with contact information, personal information and photo albums.

Uloop.com - Uloop allows students to trade textbooks, promote community events and do host of other activities.

Travel & Locals

Amicoz.com - Amicoz is slightly different from conventional social networking sites; it doesn’t have some of the common features found on socnets. It is dedicated to assist users in sharing their travel experiences, nothing more, nothing less.

Citizenbay - Citizenbay is a user community for discovering local information.

CityTherapy - CityTherapy is an easy way to find and share places of interest (restaurant, bars) in Europe.

CouchSurfing - A global travel network connecting travelers with local communities.

fatdoor.com - A fun and an interactive way to connect with the folks from your neighborhood online.

Going.com - A fun way to interact with people locally.

iloho - An online travel community with similarity to social bookmarking services like digg.

MatchActivity - A site connecting people on the basis of their activities. Users can find things to do and join people in their area.

Matador - A travel based social network with an integrated blogging service.

myTripbook.com - myTripbook.com is a place for people who want to share their travel experiences through photos, videos and blogging with others.

OurFaves - OurFaves is a community of urban savvy folks who enjoy the Toronto city and find out cool places to hang out at.

Outside.in - A nice way to explore local communities to keep track with neighborhood news.

Rummble - Rummble enables users to discover as well as share places of interest in your neighborhood.

TravBuddy - TravBuddy is a cool site for sharing travel experiences, finding new travel friends or reading travel reviews of fellow friends.

Travellerspoint - An international meeting point for worldwide travelers.

TravelTogether - A travel based social networking service enabling users to share travel plans, travel deals and experiences.

tribe.net - Tribe.net is one of the easiest ways to connect with people for finding a restaurant, a killer apartment, a gentle dentist or a hiking friend.

TripUp - A travel community site for finding travel information and planning for trips.

Triporama- Triporama provides an easy way to plan and collaborate on group trips.

VibeAgent - VibeAgent is a site about hotel reviews, travel meta-search and social networking.

WAYN - A social networking website uniting world wide travelers.

WeExplore - WeExplore provides an online platform for volunteers and travelers from all over the globe.

Wikitravel - Wikitravel is dedicated project for creating a trusted, up-to-date travel guide. It has over 16,641 travel destination guides maintained and written by Wikitravellers from around the world.

Zoodango - Zoodango is a website enabling users to connect with urban professionals either online or face-to-face at local venues.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MySpace to Launch New Gaming Section

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

MySpace is set to launch a new casual games area on the site early next year, reports The Wall Street Journal. The games will be provided by Oberon Media, a company that specializes in developing private label gaming sites for major Internet brands including Yahoo and Microsoft.

Overall, it’s not an unexpected move from MySpace, who has arranged similar deals with other companies to power different sections of the site, such as Simply Hired for MySpace Jobs.

With other recently launched sections including News, Sports, and Weather, it’s clear that MySpace is taking a very 90s approach to development, looking to turn its social network into a portal in hopes of keeping people on the site as long as possible. However, the completely stagnant News area and poor integration of other new features raises some questions as to whether this strategy has any chance of working.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WSJ: Advertisers Should Look to Other Virtual Worlds

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

"People have been ignoring the fact that there are 12 other virtual worlds out there that have hundreds of thousands of visitors," says Jonathan Nelson, special adviser to Omnicom CEO John Wren. "My bet is this stuff is here to stay." Omnicom recently took a significant stake in Millions of Us, and the Wall Street Journal story gives a fair amount of time to Millions of Us projects. The main point, and one that developers like Millions of Us have been touting for a while now, is that virtual worlds are prime for advertising, but Second Life isn't the only or even the best option out there. Based on Comscore figures for the month of September, Second Life ranked at the bottom of 12 worlds in numbers of unique visitors. And, yes, the number (235,000 for last month) is drawn from users accessing the software for the world, not just visiting the website. Even the rapidly declining Millsberry.com--down 17% from last year, but still at #5--saw 2.5 million unique users. Webkinz led the pack with 6 million unique users. [via WSJ.com]

Posted by brian tiong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Glam vs. Geek?

(* Source : Newsweek *)

Brian Braiker says :

Photo illustration: Newsweek.com; photos: istockphoto.com

Fighting for members, MySpace tries to outcool Facebook

Do you Facebook or MySpace? Increasingly, membership in one social network does not necessarily rule out the appeal of belonging to the other. Of course, each company wants you visit their site more often than the other (if not exclusively)—all the more reason to differentiate. To that end, MySpace, the 800-pound News Corp.—owned gorilla, made three major announcements this week—two of which served to underscore a deepening fundamental difference in philosophy from its closest rival, Facebook. "MySpace is Hollywood and Facebook is Silicon Valley," says David Card, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research. Or you could put it this way: MySpace is glam; Facebook is geek. Not that there's anything wrong with either.

MySpace announced Tuesday that it has forged a splashy licensing agreement with Sony BMG—the world's second largest label—for access to streaming videos, music and other content. The partnership calls for the social-networking giant and the music studio to share advertising revenue. And in a bid to conquer the social-networking world beyond U.S. borders, MySpace will soon be offering its 110 million active monthly users free voice chats via a new partnership with Skype (220 million strong, mostly outside of the States). In a new service called MySpace IM with Skype, the Internet phone company will enhance the MySpace instant messaging service with new free VoIP capabilities starting November. (The companies will split the revenue, but specifics of the arrangement were not disclosed.)

These moves stand in direct contrast to Facebook, which instead of teaming with major media players to build services for its network of 47 million active users, allows third-party developers to build applications. A staggering 6,000 applications have been built for Facebook just this year. "We are not a media company," Mark Zuckerberg, the wunderkind brains behind Facebook, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week. Analysts are inclined to agree. "I think there's a core philosophical difference, but [it's] the same revenue engine at the end," says Jupiter's Card. That engine, of course, is advertising. But with its Skype and Sony BMG announcements, original programming and hosting concert tours, MySpace seems to be morphing into an entertainment portal where everyone is in your extended network (and a potential audience member).

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Advertising in Virtual Worlds?

(* Source: Dan Neumann *)

Creating a successful advertising model for virtual worlds should be easy. There are more potential ad forms, but, until recently, the market was not diverse enough to encourage the adoption of meaningful standards. Once ROI standards have been established, media buyers, marketers, and brand managers will have more persuasive arguments for continued or increased brand involvement in the medium.

One of the great promises of virtual worlds is contextual ad delivery. In most virtual worlds, advertisers will have access to almost every detail about your avatar and have the ability to scrape and save chat data. Since most people’s avatars are well removed from their true identities, privacy concerns are reduced. An obvious example of this would be to serve ads for virtual goods based on keywords in your chat. Another might be to serve ads based on one’s in-world physical interactions and activates. Ad models for real-world goods are still being worked out, but even these lines are becoming blurred.

The potential for contextual ad delivery in virtual worlds is huge, but there are still many unanswered questions. How should ads in Virtual Worlds be sold? How should ad value be measured? The CPM model works well in 2D, but in 3D its accuracy is diminished. Some interesting ideas under discussion are CPA (cost per action) and duration of engagement models. These models better reflect the nature of avatar-based interaction. It makes sense that the amount of time an avatar spends engaging a brand is a good reflection of ROI.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sliderocket

(* Source: Jim Bachalo *)

For all of you out there that love slideshare. Here's another...

Built in Flash and Flex, another web2.0 application for creating quality presentations.

You can sign up for the private beta here: http://www.sliderocket.com/index.html

Some of the buzz: http://www.sliderocket.com/buzz.html

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are Facebook apps a Long Tail market?

(* Source: Chris Anderson *)

Tim O'Reilly has posted a very interesting analysis on the "Long Tail of Facebook applications" (chart from the report shown). He notes that it's very top-heavy, with the top 84 apps of the 5,000 analyzed having 87% of the traffic. People have rightly pointed out that this is just the opposite of Long Tail theory, which would argue for a "fat tail", with the top 100 having, say, only a bit more than half the market.

Which, in turn, raises the question as to why not. Facebook does all the usual things to help people discover new apps, including search, categories, rankings by users, activity and even newest. And one presumes that the the missing tool of finability--recommendations--are addressed by the built-in social network effect of seeing what your friends are using, which amounts to a sort of playlist sharing.

So it's not obvious why the bottom 4,916 apps are faring so poorly. I can only think of two possibilities:

The social networking on Facebook is too powerful. This is the tyranny of network effects, where viral success is the only kind and popularity snowballs into an avalanche or goes nowhere at all. That sort of herd behavior is usually a sign of an immature market.
Most apps are total crap. That, in turn, may say something about the whole idea of Facebook as a platform. But I'll leave that discussion for another day.
[UPDATE]: As Neil points out in the comments, there is limited screen real estate on your page for apps, so you really can't take advantage of unlimited choice. In a sense, this is a case of limited "shelf space".

Full article here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Artists Create New Music Revenue Models

(* Source : David Fischman *)

Years after the Napster revolution liberated music, industry labels are still hot on fighting the war on piracy. Earlier this month, the association representing big players like Capitol Records and Sony BMG hailed their first victory ever on the legal front, a $222,000 penalty against a Minnesota woman found guilty of illegally sharing music online. But few, if any, believe this isolated win will alter the decisively linear trend of those swapping tunes on the web. At this point, people see the content issue as settled: free music is their right. If the establishment standing in their way has any knowledge of history, they’d work to find new ways to engage “the people” in order to stay relevant—or perhaps more importantly, employed.

This past week at CMJ, musicians, managers (and those aspiring to be) filled rooms at NYU’s Kimmel Center to hear industry advice on how new bands can “make it” in these changing times. One panel, “Music Business Primer: Marketing and Promotion”, had a message for the music industry—you’re not going to win this one, recognize that free music is the future and just work to control it. The panelists suggested that bands should consider releasing free downloads as a way to build community around their music. The MuseBox’s George Davis described the new revenue model well: “It’s all about tickets and t-shirts.”

Prince has been working this model with much success. The artist, who escaped his contract with Warner Music in 1994, had the music industry in a huff when he gave his most recent album away with a British newspaper. A digital music pioneer, Prince also lent early support to P2P and was one of the first to sell music directly from his website. Madonna Now Madonna is following suit by leaving Warner Music and signing with Live Nation for a $120 million 10-year deal. As she explained, “The paradigm in the music business has shifted.” While the deal will require Madonna to produce three more albums, the real focus is clearly on expanded touring and merchandise that Madonna, as her own brand, can sell to fans. The Live Nation deal includes all-things-Madonna, including everything from her website to DVDs, music-related TV and film projects, and corporate sponsorships. For someone who is a walking commodity, perhaps this is the best way to go.

But free music can actually make money again. Bands and labels should stop working outside the trend and, instead, ride the digital wave by directly engaging fans.

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

15 virtual worlds currently in development

(* Source: Dan Taylor *)

Thanks Dan for the great work on finding these new 15 after he listed the 50.

Following on from my previous round-up of 50 virtual worlds, below are fifteen virtual worlds currently in development.

	Adventure Rock bbc.co.uk/cbbc/adventurerock/ Larian Studios / BBC Virtual world for children ETA: Fall 2007
	Flowplay http://www.flowplay.com/ Flowplay Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Meet-Me http://www.co-core.com/ Co-core Virtual rendering of Tokyo ETA: Fall 2007
	Novoking http://www.novoking.com/ Novoking Chinese 3D avatar environment ETA: Fall 2007
	Pirates of the Caribbean Online http://apps.pirates.go.com/pirates/ Disney MMOG based on Disney IP ETA: Fall 2007
	Planet Cazmo http://www.planetcazmo.com/ Pileated Pictures Browser-based teen world ETA: Fall 2007
	Twinity http://www.twinity.com/ Metaversum Virtual/real life mashup ETA: Fall 2007
	Whirled www.threerings.net/whirled/ Three Rings Design Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Zoodaloo http://www.zoodaloo.com/ Zoodaloo Virtual world for kids ETA: Fall 2007
	PlayStation Home http://www.homebetatrial.com/ Sony PlayStation virtual community ETA: Spring 2008
	Spore http://www.spore.com/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Will Wright's god game ETA: Spring 2008
	Uworld http://www.uonenet.com/ UOneNet Chinese virtual community ETA: Spring 2008

b - s i d e : observers of the new world
we explore the cultural behaviour on how people create, consume & share media across the globe & how these social media content, communities & conversations are transforming the marketing and media world today

October 31, 2007

Who's Who in Mobile Worlds: 10 Plays to Watch

Humane Society Taps There.com To Reach Gen-Y

A Very Modern Mix Tape

October 30, 2007

CNN Goes Virtual

MTV, Cisco drop 100K on rapping social net, RapHappy

October 29, 2007

MTV Networks launches online lyrics initiative

Video game giants slaughter the opposition

As with sex, computer games can be casual

PanRaven’s Online Scrapbook used to Promote Nelly’s Album

MyItThings Holiday Widgets

October 26, 2007

Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Rockband.com Offers Social Networking

October 24, 2007

SOCIAL NETWORKING GOD: 350+ Social Networking Sites

MySpace to Launch New Gaming Section

WSJ: Advertisers Should Look to Other Virtual Worlds

October 23, 2007

Glam vs. Geek?

Advertising in Virtual Worlds?

Sliderocket

Are Facebook apps a Long Tail market?

Artists Create New Music Revenue Models

15 virtual worlds currently in development

b - s i d e : observers of the new world we explore the cultural behaviour on how people create, consume & share media across the globe & how these social media content, communities & conversations are transforming the marketing and media world today _uacct = "UA-933481-1"; urchinTracker();

October 31, 2007

Who's Who in Mobile Worlds: 10 Plays to Watch

Humane Society Taps There.com To Reach Gen-Y

A Very Modern Mix Tape

October 30, 2007

CNN Goes Virtual

MTV, Cisco drop 100K on rapping social net, RapHappy

October 29, 2007

MTV Networks launches online lyrics initiative

Video game giants slaughter the opposition

As with sex, computer games can be casual

PanRaven’s Online Scrapbook used to Promote Nelly’s Album

MyItThings Holiday Widgets

October 26, 2007

Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Rockband.com Offers Social Networking

October 24, 2007

SOCIAL NETWORKING GOD: 350+ Social Networking Sites

MySpace to Launch New Gaming Section

WSJ: Advertisers Should Look to Other Virtual Worlds

October 23, 2007

Glam vs. Geek?

Advertising in Virtual Worlds?

Sliderocket

Are Facebook apps a Long Tail market?

Artists Create New Music Revenue Models

15 virtual worlds currently in development

b - s i d e : observers of the new world
we explore the cultural behaviour on how people create, consume & share media across the globe & how these social media content, communities & conversations are transforming the marketing and media world today