(* Source: Steve O'Hear *)

Steve says...

Location-based social networking could soon go mainstream with today’s news that Nokia, the world’s leading mobile cellphone manufacturer, has acquired Berlin-based Plazes.

Founded in 2005, Plazes lets “friends” update each other about what they are doing when and where, resulting in a Twitter-like activity stream but with integrated geo-tagging. Users can then subscribe to any of their friends’ activity streams or to groups of friends, as well as to specific locations known as “Plazes”. Updates can be done either on Plazes.com or by mobile phone (via text messaging) or using a number of third-party applications that utilize the Plazes’ publicly available API.

Now that Nokia has acquired the service, “if all goes well” we can expect Plazes to be “made available to millions of Nokia customers both online and on millions of mobile devices”, according to the official Plazes blog

A few key takeaways from the announcement…

• It’s more evidence that Nokia is moving away from being purely a hardware manufacturer into a fully-fledged Web service company, with it’s consumer-facing Ovi brand.
• Nokia is placing a massive bet on Location-based Services. The company now includes GPS functionality in almost all of its most recent handsets, and has been bundling its own mapping software (based on a previous acquisition of Gate5, another Berlin-based startup). Additionally, Nokia is in the process of acquiring NAVTEQ, the world’s largest data mapping company.
• Plazes is still on track to release a native iPhone client, suggesting that Nokia understands the importance of network effects over platform exclusivity. No location-based social network will be able to go mainstream if it is limited to friends who use a particular handset or platform.

Moving forward, it’s clear that mobile, combined with location, represent the next social networking frontier. As evidence, Google’s Android developer contest is littered with location-based social applications, and the official iPhone SDK has already given birth to a number of location-aware social networking apps. What’s not clear yet, however, is whether the eventual winners will be established social networking services such as Facebook or Twitter that add location-based functionality or newer or specialized entrants who build in location and mobile from the get-go.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mack Collier *) 

Mack says... 

If your company is ready to dive into the social media waters, which tools such they examine first? Blogs? Facebook? Twitter? Wrong. Try Google Blog Search, Summize, and Technorati.

Before you can launch a successful social media strategy, you must begin monitoring existing conversations about your company. This has several advantages:

1 - It lets you be proactive in responding to complaints from customers. Want to impress a customer that's blogged about a problem they are having with your product? Leave a comment 15 mins after their post goes up, then follow up with an email attempting to help them with their problem.

2 - It helps create evangelists for your brand. See above. Often people that are complaining about your product can be converted into evangelists if you are proactive and sincere in your attempts to deal with their complaints.

3 - It increases your brand equity. By actively monitoring the blogosphere and other social sites, your company can develop a reputation of reaching out to and helping customers. Comcast is a great example of a company using Twitter to monitor conversations and provide customer service.

4 - It makes you more familiar with social media tools and sites. Once you begin monitoring the blogosphere, you'll begin to better understand how ideas spread in this space, and how blogs work. Same thing with monitoring talk on Twitter, it helps you better understand that space, and how your customers are using the site.

So before you start a social media strategy, lay the groundwork by putting tools in place that let you properly monitor these tools and sites so that you know what current and potential customers are saying about you. Some tools that you'll want to look into include Google Blog Search, Summize, TweetScan(Twitter), Technorati, and Plurk Lurker.

Bonus link, how to use these monitoring tools to Launch a Successful Blogger Outreach Program in One Day.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source:Liz Gannes *)

Liz has an interesting point of view...

Earlier this week, Om called social networks a feature. It’s a good point, though, one that seems all too obvious to someone like me who’s covered way too many social networks and often ends up bored before making it through yet another registration form.

But one thing I think he glosses over is a distinction between niche networks and social networks as a feature. Both are alternatives to the blank slate of MySpace and its wannabes. And both, especially the best ones, capitalize on communities that already exist — like people who love a certain videogame or parents that send their kids to the same daycare center.

There is a difference between setting up yet another ‘meeting place for pet owners,’ or a network for people who work-out, or a ‘MySpace for old folks’, and waiting for them to arrive, versus using social tools to connect people who already share a common interest or real-world relationship.

You could make even more of a distinction between social networks that help you do something or achieve a certain goal, like LinkedIn or Flickr, and networks that are just a social connection. Facebook also likes to consider itself a tool, putting it in the same category as LinkedIn, but making a site so functional may have the side effect of making it hard to monetize. LinkedIn and Xing, on the other hand, generate significant revenue from people who are used to paying for business expenses, though they’re both still hoping to gain better financial stability.

So here’s the beginnings of a taxonomy of social networks: blank slate (e.g. MySpace), target audience (e.g. any of the many SNs for mommies), existing interest (e.g. Flixster), existing community (e.g. local soccer league website), and purpose-driven tool (e.g. LinkedIn). Which of these could have the most opportunity?

Blank slates are pretty much over, though I would have said that before Bebo made its ascent.

Target audiences can reek too much of ad verticals. And once you start asking people to split their digital personas too much, you’re basically betting that they’re going to be willing to maintain multiple profiles on multiple networks.

Existing interests, I would say are a promising area, and existing communities as well. But this has to be extremely well-integrated into the activity — for instance last.fm participating silently in your music listening and there for you with up-to-the-minute stats whenever you’re there for it.

Everyone and their mother wants to build white-label social network to serve an existing interest or community these days, but most of the stuff I’ve tried using is pretty crappy. Marc Canter blogged about Om missing his contributor in the space, People Aggregator, as well as his competitors IBM, Five Across, KickApps, and CrowdFactory.

However, there’s clearly a market for these companies, even if it’s coming from Cisco (Cisco?!). As for a market for their products? Well, Yahoo Groups is clearly due for a dethroning.

As for social tools, these taxonomy categories are awfully close, and this could verge into my ideas of target audiences and interests a bit. However, there’s a difference between a place to hang out for X kind of people, and a place to get X done. Like I said above, social tools like LinkedIn and Facebook have had varying levels of financial success, but I have to think becoming an integral part of getting stuff done could be made into a business.

So can all these options coexist? One of the commenters on Om’s post brings up the very valid point of identity management. Some form of integration between the proliferating places to maintain your digital self is clearly due — and perhaps an opportunity for yet another kind of company.

 

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *) 

It was sort of inevitable given Facebook’s monster growth over the last few years, but April 2008 was the milestone: Facebook officially caught up to MySpace in terms of unique monthly worldwide visitors, according to data released by Comscore and shown above. Both services are attracting around 115 million people to their respective sites each month.

Most of Facebook’s user growth, however, has been in international markets - MySpace is still dominates Facebook in the U.S. market, with 72 million monthly uniques. Facebook has 36 million monthly uniques, up from 23 million a year ago.

Facebook added 75 million monthly uniques over the last twelve month, but just 13 million of those visitors are located in the U.S. MySpace added 5 million U.S. uniques during that period - at this rate it will take 4+ years for Facebook to catch up to MySpace in the U.S. market.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Dan Gould *) 

Dan says...

Just launched into public beta, Totspot is a one stop data stream for your kids life. Parents can create free profiles for all their children and keep a running time line of milestones and events. It’s a high tech scrap book where parents can post and share photos, videos and updates with family members. The site has gotten rave reviews for being both user friendly and secure. Only invited friends and family can view your children’s pages, and Totspot keeps a log of all visitors. Surprisingly, there are no ads on the profiles. Totspot plans on making money by selling printed keepsake books generated from site content.

Totspot

[via PSFK]

Posted by brian tiong at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)

Erick says...

Is a picture worth a thousand clicks? You’ve heard of contextual ads triggered by keywords on a Web page. Now, get ready for contextual ads triggered by images on the page. Visual-shopping search engine Like.com is running ads on Facebook that appear to match objects in profile photos.

Notice the ad by Like.com in the lower left for aviator sunglasses in the screen shot shown here, sent to us by TechCrunch reader Luke Bearden? Yup, those look eerily similar to the aviator sunglasses Bearden is wearing in his Facebook photo. Well, at least we know that Like.com’s technology works. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. (Can someone from Like/Riya let us know which one it is in comments?).

But if this indeed is Like’s image-matching engine at work, is it effective targeting? Bearden thought the ad was “creepy.” And, um, he obviously already owns a pair of aviator sunglasses.

He also obviously likes them enough to feature himself wearing a pair on his Facebook page. And maybe he lost those beloved glasses or they broke since the photo was taken. So I’d say the ad is both effective and creepy.

Would you click on it?

Posted by brian tiong at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Being involved with the Facebook platform for a year now, my feelings for it now is not really the same when I started.  How many times have I heard friends talking about the SPAM they receive on it and how it has almost become unusable as a utility.  It will be interesting to see where they take it from here.  Read what Jason has to say on its 1st anniversary...

Jason say.. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the release of Facebook Platform. We figured it would be a fitting time to take a look at what the platform promised, what it’s delivered, and where it’s going in the future. The summary: Facebook Platform has been a victim of its own success, offering an unparalleled distribution platform that has appealed to both tens of thousands of legitimate developers as well as shoddy shotgun entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck. Facebook has had its share of missteps, but no matter how much they improve the platform, it is only as strong as its apps (which at this point simply aren’t very good).

Facebook Platform launched on May 24, 2007 to widespread acclaim. It was heralded as the “Anti-MySpace”, which had until then been notoriously closed and unhelpful to many application developers. Suddenly we had a platform that offered unprecedented access to a social network’s API, enough so that 3rd party developers could potentially create apps that would rival Facebook’s home-brewed offerings.

Only four days after the platform’s launch, iLike (then the leading 3rd party app) had accumulated 400,000 users - nearly 5% of all Facebook users had it installed. Initial results were promising enough that a number of venture capital funds were established solely for Facebook apps.

But after a couple of months, the novelty began to wear off. The promised “revolutionary” applications were few and far between, and most of the available apps were really, really bad. Facebook users were also notoriously fickle, installing and discarding apps with abandon. To combat this, some developers chose to create an endless stream of mostly useless (but viral) applications that could be pumped out as quickly as users could get sick of them. The result? Spam. Lots of spam.

Facebook Platform had devolved into a cat-and-mouse game between developers and Facebook, as developers tried to maximize the number of users they could expose themselves to. Many of the most popular app makers, including RockYou and Slide, had resorted to so-called Black Hat tactics, exploiting loopholes to increase their exposure. Many users were constantly inundated with spammy application invites, some of which falsely promised personalized message left by friends.

By August, three months after the launch of the platform, Facebook started to respond to the abuses by changing the rules. Metrics listing the most popular apps began to measure actual use rather than raw install numbers (many popular applications were simply installed and forgotten about). Stricter limits were placed on the number of invites an application could send out. But Facebook didn’t take any steps to punish applications that had gained users through illegitimate means, effectively telling developers they were free to exploit the system if they could figure out how.

On the development side, Facebook Platform also presented a number of problems. Apps that went viral on Facebook often saw their usage rates rise exponentially in a very short amount of time, leading to slow responses and errors. Developers also had to deal with a constant competitive threat from the network itself - at any time Facebook could implement a new feature that could wipe them out of existence.

In September at TechCrunch40, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced fbFund, a joint funding venture from Accel and Founders Fund that would earmark $10 Million for Facebook apps. The project got off to a rough start - Facebook rejected all applicants after deciding to change its application process (it had previously asked for a simple email request).

One of Facebook Platform’s problems had more to do with stupid users than the platform itself. Many people had friends that, for whatever reason, liked to litter their profiles with obnoxious and annoying apps that destroyed Facebook’s classic clean feel. Finally, in January 2008 Facebook relented and allowed users to hide apps from their friends’ profiles. This was an oft-requested feature, and one that should have been available since the platform’s launch.

Facebook continued to further tweak app restrictions. In February the site implemented blocking, which allowed users to prevent a specific app from every contacting them. It also added a “clear all” feature, that allowed users to clear their Notifications box of all invites.

Perhaps Facebook’s most unsettling move came during March Madness, when it introduced the “official” CBS Sportsline NCAA Basketball app. The app was given an unprecedented amount of publicity across the network, and its invite restrictions were far more lenient than normal. Other developers were understandably outraged, as Facebook demonstrated that the rules only applied to the little guys - pay enough, and you’ll get free reign. Facebook has shown little remorse for the debacle, with its Senior Platform Manager stating “I can’t say it won’t happen again.”

Outlook: Who knows. Facebook is planning to introduce a micro-payment system in the near future, which may finally give way to useful, monetizable apps that don’t rely on spamming invites. But the damage has been done, and some users may be too jaded to care about anything the platform has to offer in the future. What’s worse, we probably wont see an end to the junky apps any time soon - a number of venture firms have poured millions of dollars into companies that thrive on cranking these things out, and they’re going to want to see results.

But the important thing to remember is that Facebook Platform is, in the end, all about Facebook. It keeps your data locked up tight under the guise of privacy concerns. What users really want (or what they should want) is to control their own data, and make it known that they, not Facebook, own it. Facebook has taken a few first steps in letting some of that data out. Perhaps if users start to demand more, the trend will continue.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hendrickson *)

Twitter is an efficient technology for spreading and harvesting concise ideas. Unfortunately, it’s not so great for sharing rich media. Want to broadcast a video? You’ll have to settle for a TinyURL to YouTube, or maybe switch over to Seesmic altogether.

Pownce improves on the Twitter model by supporting file transfers and at least one new data type: the structured event. It also appears to be evolving into a better system for trading music, possibly with a full-featured music player.

But if music is indeed a significant part of Pownce’s future, then Blip is one step ahead. Call it “Twitter for Music” since it’s essentially just that: a way to suggest music and share your thoughts about it with a network of contacts.

The beauty of Blip is that, unlike with Pownce, no file uploads are necessary. Just search for the song you have in mind and Blip will grab it from Seeqpod, Skreemr, or parent company Fuzz’s own database of music. Your followers (”listeners”) can hear full versions of the songs you post using a Songza-like player at the bottom of the page.

Of course, just as people are wary of joining yet another social network, they’re sure to think twice about leaving behind a network of followers for a new micro-blogging platform. So Blip debuts with the ability to push messages out to FriendFeed, Twitter, Pownce, and Tumblr. This may not ensure its survival in the long run, especially if Twitter or Pownce decide to integrate Songza, but it should help with adoption rates.

Fuzz, the company that created Blip, is a self-described “CRM for bands” - a place where indie artists can set up web presences and manage their relationships with fans. It also features a mixtape maker like Mixwit and Muxtape, but with songs contributed directly by artists themselves.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Max Gladwell *)

Green living has been a growing focus for the world today and Max shares some examples with us today on how aggregating communities with social media might be the way forward to saving our earth... read on. 

Max says... 

1. Do-Good Widgets: If you’re Facebook page was a car, these would be your bumper stickers. Only these do more than spread the message. Widgets are standalone web applications that can run inside any web page. They take many forms, ranging from the absurd to the truly useful and socially valuable. The best ones engage us in ways that lead to action, awareness, and even fund-raising. Facebook was the first to offer them, and MySpace recently followed. Other social networks offer widgets, but these two have a scale that gives them unrivaled potential. Causes is the 800-pound gorilla in the do-good widget space with millions of daily active users on Facebook alone. If you support a cause, chances are you can find it in Causes. We support 14 ranging from “Recycle not Waste” to “Ride Bikes” and “GREEN“. Each Cause enables you to recruit others and make donations.

A new suite of widgets from Dank Apps called Social Change offers widgets for three main initiatives: Stop Climate Change Now, which raises funds for The Nature Conservancy; Earn For AIDS, which raises funds for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative; and Earn for Breast Cancer, which raises funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Each of these allows you to send karma points to friends and play games, all of which generate donations from sponsors.

I’m sure I’d get hate comments if I didn’t also mention Lil Green Patch, which has helped to save over 20 million square feet of rainforest.

2. Get a Green Job: The business networking space is currently dominated by LinkedIn, but JustMeans has a new social media platform that “rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility.” As you make your way through the registration and profile-building gauntlet, you are posed with two unique questions: What kind of change do you want to create in the world over the next 12 months? How do you plan on creating this positive change? The site encourages networking between members by recommending matches based on shared interests. Plus, you can network with companies themselves as “stakeholders”. Companies as well as nonprofits set up their own profiles, similar to Facebook Pages, where they can post content about initiatives and CSR efforts. An entire section of the site is dedicated to job listings. This is business networking with a purpose.

3. Greenstream: Twitter is a way to stay in touch with friends and keep up with breaking news. It is a source of both cutting-edge news and unchecked banality. It all depends on how you want to use it. You can follow CNN, BBC, GreenOptions, and MaxGladwell as “micro-blogs”, where you receive bits of news and links in 140 characters or less. Or you can track the musings of iJustine and Aubs for pure entertainment value. Recently, we started a new Twitter channel called the “greenstream.” Whereas Twitter asks, “What are you doing”, this adds “that is green?” So if you’re shopping at a farmer’s market, drinking fair trade coffee, or carpooling to work, these qualify as Tweets for the greenstream. Just tag your Tweet with “#greenstream”, and it will be indexed for viewing by all. Alternately, if you want to Twitter a green tip, just enter “#greentip” and check the index page for those.

4. Hugg a Story: Hugg.com is the green counterpart to the wildly popular Digg.com. These are social news sites that enable users to vote and comment on what’s important (and what’s not). This process places the power in the hands of real people who, collectively, determine which issues get attention, rather than leaving it up to the major news organizations to tell us what’s important. The great thing about them, though, is that they get better and more accurate as more people participate. So it’s your civic and social duty to Hugg and Digg stories that matter to you.

5. Join the “Make The Difference Network“: Actress Jessica Biel, in a collaboration with her father and brother, just launched a social network that connects people and businesses with charitable organizations. Make The Difference Network already has a number of prominent celebrities signed up as members, complete with their favorite causes. Each of the site’s constituencies has a profile platform, and it’s free for all to participate. The “Find Your Wish” section gives people some direction in matching their personal interests or passions with charities ranging from addiction and animals to labor and literacy.

6. Go Shopping: Your purchasing decisions matter. Though presidential elections come once every four years, you vote with your wallet every day. Combined with the tools of social media, you get social shopping. Alonovo describes this as “the power of millions of informed, aware and caring people acting in concert. For a better world.” The company provides a platform in which to interact with fellow conscious consumers, to research products based on a range of social and environmental criteria, and ultimately make informed purchases through Amazon.com. You choose a charitable benefactor, and 50-100% of the commission paid to Alonovo is donated on your behalf.

OsoEco, which is currently in private beta, takes a different tact. Using a bookmark feature for the Firefox browser, you can pull products from any retail site and import them into OsoEco with one click. It’s much like a wiki in this way (more below). Then you review the product for others to see and rate. According to the company, they “created OsoEco to answer our own questions about what’s green, what’s sustainable, and what kinds of things we should buy and do that are good for our communities and, not to sound completely cheesy and cliche, our world.”

7. Contribute to a Wiki: Most are familiar with Wikipedia. It’s a fantastic resource for information and an even more incredible phenomenon of collaborative creation on a global scale. What’s incredible to consider, though, is that it’s just the beginning. As author Clay Shirky points out, it’s a drop in the well compared to the untapped potential of our cognitive surplus. PlayGreen.org is one example of how wikis are being built for specific topic areas. Anyone can contribute or edit articles such as How to build a green PC and RecycleBank. Imagine an entire Wikipedia of knowledge and human experience dedicated to specific issues like global warming, cancer, autism, and renewable energy. That’s where we’re headed.

8. Start Your Own Social Network: Ning has made starting a social network as easy as signing up for an email address. For an example, see the Max Gladwell network or any one of more than 100 networks tagged with “green”. The platform guides you through the customization process, where you can add features like a blog, news feed, videos, calendar, and assorted gadgets (widgets) to give it more utility. This is perfect for organizations on a tight budget that want a place to aggregate information, organize, and keep its members connected. With a bit of coding skill and a premium account, you can customize however you’d like and integrate your own sponsors or advertising.

 
9. Get Sponsored: SocialVibe is leveraging the traffic we generate from our social networking pages to fund various causes. It works quite simply. You sign up and select from a list of sponsors to endorse, ranging from PowerBar and Cherry Coke to Adobe and Apple. Next, you select a cause to support. We picked an environmental index of sorts that includes “water quality, global warming research and preventative measures, wildlife, agriculture, rainforest preservation and sustainable production of food and building materials.” SocialVibe places your ad on your social networking pages and can also generate code that you can embed most anywhere. When it’s viewed, you generate donations for your cause and also earn points and other perks for yourself.

10. Broadcast Your Message: The cost of web broadcasting (webcasting) has effectively dropped to zero. A number of new technologies are making it possible for anyone to have their own live online TV channel. Indeed, signing up for Ustream.tv is like renting your own production studio. While you’re broadcasting live, viewers can communicate with you and other viewers through a chat interface, and you can even add a co-host. Your “shows” can be archived for later playback, and you can post them to YouTube or your personal pages for further distribution. Ustream also provides a social networking platform and a number of ways to promote your shows, such as through Twitter alerts.

Seesmic has a much different approach with “video conversations”. It’s similar to Twitter in many ways, only instead of posting text entries you record video clips. Other users respond, which forms a thread of video clips that become a video conversation. These clips can be embeded anywhere you want, such as your MySpace page or blog. In fact, Seesmic offers a plugin feature for blogs where you can leave video comments. While there’s nothing particularly green about these video technologies, they represent a next step in communications and an efficient means for producing and distributing green messages.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Palin Ningthoujam  *)

Another great round up by the Mashables team.  This time for women...

Honoring mother’s day, we thought it would be nice to do another round up. This time, we have some of the most popular social networking sites for women. This is not a definitive list, but rather our choice of what’s good out there; feel free to add your favorites in the comments.

Also don’t forget 20+ tools for the best Mother’s Day ever.

iVillage

iVillage, started in 1995, is one of the oldest sites among this lot. It is today one of the best destinations for women providing content on health, pregnancy, beauty, style, among others. You can create your profile, blog, group, and share pictures, videos, and messages among your friends on this site. There are thousands of message boards on varied topics available. You will also find a section on weddings complete with bridal fashion, style, reception and planning, etc. Finally, there are also sections on dating, online courses, and shopping.

CafeMom

CafeMom is another popular social networking site for moms to discuss parenting issues. The site has done really well since its launch in 2006, having attracted more than a million members and 6 million visits a month. There are more than 35,000 groups on the site including those of pregnancy, kitchen recipes, marriage, and relationships, among others.

You can create your journals to share your stories with other members, participate in polls, surveys, or share pictures with other members. There is a section that displays birthday moms, expecting moms, new arrivals, new members, top contributors, photo of the day, theme of the day, post of the day, and group of the day.

Glam

Glam is a pink-color editorial-driven site from Glam Media, a leading media network with 43 million unique monthly visitors. Within the site, you’ll find sections on fashion, beauty, celebrities, entertainment, living, health, wellness, and shopping, photos, videos, quizzes, and a variety of blogs. The social networking channel called Glam Space allows you to create your profile, check out the profiles of other users, and voice your opinion on a variety of topics. For women with style and glamour, this site is a must see.

ParentsConnect

ParentsConnect is a leading parenting site providing daily tips, recipes, activities, product recommendations, and other parenting informations. You can also share your parenting tips, local activities, crafts, recipes, photos, war stories, and comment and rate on other’s posts.

Kaboose

Kaboose is another premier site targeting families and providing tips on pregnancy and parenting, recipes, health, craft, and a section called ‘Just for Moms’. You can create your profile, create a blog, join the discussion forums, and share pictures with other community members.

AOL Women

AOL Women is a premier women’s section on AOL providing content on a variety of topics like beauty, fashion, well being, and horoscope. This UK version has a chat & community section where there are various all-women discussion boards where members can discuss on a lot of topics. You can also create your AOL profile and blog.

TeamSugar

TeamSugar is a social networking site for the young women where they can discuss the latest gossip, play games, and share tips on shopping, fashion, beauty secrets, recipes, photos, videos, bookmarks, blogs, and more. There are separate sections on celebrities, fashion and style, beauty, entertainment, news & politics, love & sex, baby & parents, career & money, love & sex, health & fitness, food & party, pets, tech & web, food & party, jokes, shopping, communities, weddings.

You can create your homepage and a blog, or chat with other users. Doing various things on the site, like posting a comment, creating a group, posting a blog, creating a sales alert, or doing a review gives you points which you can redeem to earn Sugar points.

ClubMom

ClubMom has been present since 1999 and is a place for moms to connect with other moms. They can ask questions and get answers from other moms on which they can rate and comment on. Topics range from pregnancy to teenagers, and from cooking to relationships. They can also also share photos, and win prizes. There is also a ClubMom Rewards program where moms can earn ClubMom Points that they can redeem for rewards at the ClubMom online mall.

MayasMom

MayasMom is another place for parents to connect with others parents and share stories. They can also join groups, create their own, and seek advice from other members. They can also create their journals and share picture of their kids.

Minti

Minti is a nice site where you can connect with other parents and discuss parenting issues. They called themselves ‘the world’s largest parent to parent adviceopedia’. You can create content in the form of articles that can be rated and commented on by other members. Topics include pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, babies, early childhood, schooling, tweens, and teenage years.

By registering, you get your own family page, a blog and a photo album. There is Minti ranking system where you can go up by contributing parenting advice, blogging and by commenting. There are also more than 600 interest groups you can join.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *) 

News Corp. will have a full plate of Internet issues to discuss when it releases its quarterly earnings statement today. Foremost will be its plans regarding Yahoo!, and how whatever deal it does or does not do with Yahoo! will impact MySpace and Fox Interactive Media (FIM).

The drumbeat of skepticism over social network advertising has gotten louder in recent months. Much of the focus has been on MySpace, the US leader with a 41.5% share of US visits to social networking and community sites in March, according to Hitwise.

FIM reorganized its ad sales group in early April, leading to the departure of sales chief Michael Barrett. At the same time, news leaked that FIM might come up $100 million short of achieving the $1-billion fiscal 2008 revenue target set by News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch last June. (News Corp.'s fiscal year ends June 30.)

Financial analysts and the media have assumed that blame for the shortfall lies with MySpace, FIM's flagship, but FIM manages 12 other Internet properties, including IGN, FoxSports.com, RottenTomatoes.com and AmericanIdol.com. AmericanIdol.com will no doubt show strong revenues since the hot TV show is currently on-air. The smaller properties may not have fared as well and could very well take some of the blame.

eMarketer estimated last December that US marketers would spend $850 million to advertise on MySpace in calendar year 2008. Facebook is projected to reach $305 million in US revenue this year.

Even if MySpace does come up short of revenue goals, that should not sound the death knell for social network marketing. The conversation between brands and consumers has only just begun, and the advertising experimentation will continue.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

MyStrands has always had a very large push on the mobile front; being a European-based company has allowed MyStrands to explore this front more so than it could do strictly in the US. It’s latest announcement takes mobile access to MyStrands to another level, with scrobbling integration for Last.fm content.

With the latest update for MyStrands Social Player, Nokia users can scrobble tracks to Last.fm as they play music on the Symbian S60 3rd Edition and J2ME (optimized for Nokia S40) devices (download the respective applications here and here).

The beauty of such devices is that they do in fact act more like computers than mere cell phones, and Nokia has been at the forefront of app development towards this end. In doing so, Nokia has allowed companies like MyStrands to really pour a lot of resources into the development of mobile applications, which have large bearings on the web applications as well.

In providing scrobbling for Last.fm accounts, MyStrands bridges the gap between its own service, mobile devices, and Last.fm users, which can then broadcast listening activity and recommendations far beyond the realms of these three options.

Likewise, such mobile scrobbling integration with Last.fm means that users can search and discover new music from their mobile devices as wel, thanks to the MyStrands Social Player and reccomendation tools for songs and artists, as well as like-minded users.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hendrickson *) 

The Facebook developer community is thriving but faces a good deal of uncertainty about its future. That was the general message from a session held at the Web 2.0 Expo today called “The Facebook Platform: Finding Success in the Facebook Economy.”

The session started off with a disagreement over how much money developers are actually making through Facebook. Naval Ravikant from Venturehacks estimated that over $100M would be made in 2008, whereas Joyce Park of Renkoo and Matt Sanchez of VideoEgg predicted revenues as low as $10-35M this year.

All panelists agreed, however, that CPM rates on Facebook are miserably low, perhaps averaging 15 cents. Developers have begun experimenting with other sources of revenue, such as the sale of virtual goods and premium services, but advertising still generates more than 80% of the platform’s revenue.

The panelists also agreed that Facebook’s recent moves to block viral distribution channels have made life harder for the developers of low engagement apps such as Slide’s FunWall. These apps suffer most because they depend on Facebook’s viral channels for their adoption, having given users little reason to invite their friends proactively.

In the long run, more engaging apps such as Scrabulous are set to do better not only because they attract more dedicated users, but because they provide better opportunities for direct monetization, even if their CPMs are also quite low. Ravikant made a point to say that travel, dating, book, and game-related apps have the brightest futures whereas “everyone else is kinda screwed”.

Despite the shift away from low engagement apps, the platform will remain the most attractive economically for independent developers. Small teams can crank out applications within days and earn decent paychecks, but large companies only have a handful of opportunities to make worthwhile returns on their investments. Ravikant made a point to discourage multi-million dollar investments in Facebook app developers, citing the difficulties associated with monetizing and maintaining a strong user-base. The sense I got, however, was that independent developers will also face hard times, since traditionally they don’t deploy high engagement apps.

The consensus from the panel was that Facebook needs to continue building a strong infrastructure for its developers. Park even suggested that Facebook roll back some of its restrictions on viral distribution since they were hurting growth of many legitimate applications (the distribution mechanisms were the main reason developers came to the platform in the first place).

She also wants Facebook to enforce its policies more clearly and fairly, since there are currently too many incentives to cheat. None of the panelists, however, were concerned that Facebook itself would trample many 3rd party apps with its own feature additions, since Facebook has the mindset of a platform provider, not an app developer.

Ravikant particularly looked forward to Facebook providing a good micro-payment system since it will spur innovation in monetization strategies, which could in turn inform how Facebook itself does business. Providing developers with better ways to make money is perhaps the most important thing Facebook can do now, especially if it continues to restrict how quickly its applications can grow.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Aki Spicer *)

Aki gives a a good perspective on this topic. Read on...

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Posted by brian tiong at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Big spenders may be in the minority.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 (* Source: Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins *)

Pepsico is launching a social network, according to announcements to the press today. The social network will center around European soccer, and the system will be powered by white label social network Youniverse.com.  According to the press information, the site won’t be released in Europe for a while, but the site seems live already, and I was able to create an account and log in with no trouble whatsoever.

The account creation process was a bit bizarre, though. Rather than filling out interests and forms indicating my level of interest, it was automatically assumed from the onset that I was a pretty big fan of soccer, and my motivations for loving soccer were then indicated by clicking on a series of pictures, in response to various questions (i.e. “The worst thing about soccer is…”; I clicked on a picture of some dudes in mullets).

I can’t find the quote at the moment, but I want to say it was Chris Brogan who mentioned something about the difficulty or impossibility of building community around global brands.  I’m not sure if that’s the goal of this particular social network, but picking a subject of so much passion like soccer and using a unique approach like they are, I say they have a pretty good shot at pulling it off.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hefflinger *)

Thirty-three million Americans age 12 or older -- or 13% of the population -- listen to an Internet radio station during the average week, up from 29 million a year ago, according to a report from Arbitron (NYSE: ARB) and Edison Media Research.

The study found that 63% of online radio listeners have a profile on a social network site, compared with 24% of the general population of Americans 12 or older.

The top social networks among online radio listeners was MySpace (28%) followed by LinkedIn (24%).

Posted by brian tiong at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mike Jones *) 

Mike says...

People online are seeking new ways to connect and be social. To meet that growing need, a new wave of social media sites have germinated explicitly to provide tools and platforms that facilitate sharing in all its facets and forms. The recent popularity of online social networks gives testimony to our most primitive desire to belong, as we congregate around the things we are most passionate about.

Savvy marketers are beginning to see this evolution of Internet users, from passive consumers into brand influencers and ambassadors who are not to be underestimated.

Many brands are wary of exposing themselves on social media sites, but as anyone who's been involved in social media for more than five minutes knows, they're too late. Their brands are already exposed, and the community is talking about them, whether they choose to get involved or not. Rather than trying to avoid the conversation, brand marketers need to create a strategy to engage online influencers and social media users who have the power to make or break their brand.

Here are seven social marketing tactics to help your brand "get social" and join the conversation:

1. Boost the Fun Factor – Find out what social sites your customers and influencers frequent, and help them accomplish something new there. This does not mean inserting your brand as a social media billboard. It may mean offering an application that entertains or informs, or starting and growing a community based around your customers' areas of interest. Caveat: Start it, facilitate it, but don't try to control it.

2. See the Forest and the Trees – Pay attention to the smaller, niche social network sites, where people are gathering around their areas of interest and hobbies. Brand opportunities around these newer micro-social sites will increase as they begin competing and winning attention from the large, noisy social sites.

3. Widgets are Welcome – Incorporate a widget into your next online marketing program. Widgets are portable applets that appear on blogs, Web sites, and social networking sites. These self-contained applications allow page owners to personalize their sites quickly and easily. At the same time, widgets allow you to engage your audience with compelling content while also strategically and subtly branding your company or product.

4. Conversation is King – If you develop an application for use in social networks, or if you build a custom network, enable seamless conversations using the tools that users are familiar with. Promoting text conversation among participants is one thing, but also facilitating conversations using video and audio can help boost interactivity and brand resonance. Also give them a way to connect back to you by subscribing to a custom feed and giving them direct access to someone internally.

5. Engage – Find something that appeals to customers at an experiential level. Once upon a time, you built it and they came. Nowadays, they won't show up unless you effectively engage them. Show your customers that you thought about them at a human level and not as simply "users." This will impact every approach you take and will force the personalization for target demographics regardless of the tools you use to reach them.

6. Research and Listen – What is appealing to the people you want to reach? The only way to learn about their preferences and what they will or won't embrace is to monitor their activity, as well as the culture of the community you wish to reach and create. By observing, you'll uncover not only the ideas to build or deploy relevant tools, services or campaigns, but also the methods and strategies for creating genuine excitement and participation.

7. Don't Go It Alone – Making the wrong move in the social media space can do more damage than not participating at all. Look to technology, marketing, and strategic business partners to create an effective and appropriate presence on the social web.

Remember that your brand influencers are online to connect with people who care about the things they care about. They are there to make meaning, not to be broadcast to. They are there to participate and create, not to be advertised to. The more your brand can assist people in connecting with others online to create or share something new, the more favorably you will be received in these new and influential social circles.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Joshua Levine *) 

I'm been recently thinking about my past year in social media and realised that I've been pretty focused on the B2C part of social media related projects.  This week begins my quest in observing more about the B2B side of the equation.  Have a read on what Joshua has to say.

Joshua says... 

Wikis, blogs and social networking – once exclusively the Internet playground for techies, kids, and assorted enthusiasts – are being adopted by corporations at an explosive rate.

The race is on to embrace the power of the web to harness collective intelligence and sell products in new ways.

For anyone needing proof that Web 2.0 is big business, just look at Microsoft's battle with Google for an equity stake in Facebook, one of the leading social networking sites. Microsoft now owns 1.6% of Facebook after making a $240 million investment, marking a $15 billion valuation for the high-traffic website.

The Race Is On

ChangeWave Research recently completed a benchmark survey on Web 2.0, which confirms the explosion in Web 2.0 usage. Our survey of 2,081 companies shows a huge percentage not only believe in the benefits of collaborative Web 2.0 tools but are rapidly moving to implement them in a wide variety of ways.

Key findings include:

• One-in-four respondents (24%) say their company already uses Web 2.0 social software. Another 8% say they’ll begin using it in the next 12 months.

• Focusing on specific web technologies, we found that Wikis (20%), Blogs (18%), and Social Networking (15%) are attracting the most attention.

• Surprisingly, while current users find Wikis to be most beneficial to their company, future users think Blogs (26%) and Social Networks (21%) will be most beneficial.

All told, two-in-five respondents (39%) report their company is very or somewhat willing to use Web 2.0 social software for business purposes.

But why are companies so hot on using Web 2.0?

The top two reasons given by current users are both internally oriented:

• To improve internal employee collaboration
• To increase internal efficiency and productivity

However, a wholesale transformation is occurring between current and future corporate users in terms of why they’re making use of Web 2.0 software. While current users are more ‘internally oriented’ in their usage, future ones will be far more ‘externally oriented.’ Here are the top reasons given by future corporate Web 2.0 users:

• To improve internal employee collaboration
• To improve external customer service and support
• To increase external brand awareness and loyalty
• To increase external sales of products and services

Read more here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Experience Curve *) 

Karl says... 

Posted by brian tiong at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

Dan says...

Below are five apps which have particularly tickled my fancy in recent months.

Moody
http://www.crayonroom.com/moody.php



Moody is a small but perfectly formed desktop app (Mac or PC, although the Mac version is more fully-featured) which enables you to tag tracks in your iTunes library according to mood. The interface is a 4 x 4 multi-coloured grid with the horizontal axis representing a spectrum from Sad to Happy and the vertical axis ranging from Calm to Intense. So a track like Homesick by Kings of Convenience would most likley be tagged purple (bottom left - v. sad and v. calm), whereas Tubthumping by Chumbawamba would be tagged yellow (top right - relentlessly happy and intense). Arguably one for the Nick Hornbys amongst us as you need to put in a bit of tagging legwork to get maximum value out of it (it is possible to download other people's tags, although there's no saying their tagging criteria will match yours).

FIQL
http://www.fiql.com



What marks FIQL out from other playlist sharing communities is the recent addition of video, pulling in (mostly YouTube) videos to match the tracks in the playlist. Whilst its only ever as good as the tagging on YouTube, the random nature of the videos is strangely compelling - you never know if you're going to get an artist's official video or a bedroom cover version. Below is an embed of some of my favourite music videos of all time (see earlier post on Top 20 best music videos ever).



MeeMix
http://www.meemix.com



MeeMix bills itself as "Internet radio that gets you" and the homepage invites users to "start playing the soundtrack of your life, here and now". Soundbites aside, MeeMix is a decent personalised jukebox in the Pandora mold with a slick, if slightly cutesy, interface. You can create new stations by entering the name of an artist or track and then rate tracks using a Hot or Not slider. There's also a Mood Control panel with Pulse and Surprise Me sliders, enabling you to adjust the tempo and serendipity of the suggestions.

Mixaloo
http://mixaloo.com



Mixaloo is an online playlist creator, positioning itself as the digital successor to the analogue mix-tape. Users are invited to select between 10 and 15 songs (from a library of over 3 million) and then share/promote their mix (via a selection of embeddable widgets - see below) with the added incentive of a revenue share on any resulting purchases. Whilst 3 million tracks sounds like a lot, in reality the library feels frustratingly limited - mix-tapes by their nature tend to include more obscure tracks and Mixaloo's catalogue is decidedly mainstream. Still, it's nice to have an alternative to Apple's iMixes, with the added bonus that some tracks are available to listen to in their entirety (rather than just a 30-second preview).



Songkick
http://www.songkick.com



You wouldn't guess it from the name but Songkick is all about tracking tour dates for your favourite artists, which you can either enter manually via the site's 'Band Manager' or get automatically scraped from your music library by the downloadable Songkicker plug-in. Whilst it's potentially a bit of a one-trick pony, the site does offer an appealing alternative to sifting through multiple email updates from assorted ticketing companies (NB. Currently only covers the US and the UK).

Posted by brian tiong at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)