November 13th, 2008

Microsoft gives Windows Live a social networking makeover

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:15 am

Categories: Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Mobile, Social Networks, Twitter, Yahoo

Tags: Network, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Social Networking, Operating Systems, Software, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion

Microsoft have announced a major overhaul of its Windows Live service that, similar to Yahoo’s ‘Open Strategy’, rewires the company’s suite of consumer web-based products — e-mail, instant messaging, photo sharing, blogging and more — to turn them into one interconnected social network. To do that, Microsoft is leveraging a user’s existing Windows Live Messenger contacts to create an instant friends list across all Windows Live properties.

And in a feature that borrows directly from Facebook, which Microsoft invested in last year, the new Windows Live includes a a “what’s new” feed that aggregate a user’s activities on Windows Live and third-party site across the web. Initial partners include Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, Twitter, WordPress and Yelp — though no sign of Facebook yet, despite that hefty investment.

See also: Yahoo wants to be your social web ‘control panel’ too

The strategy Microsoft is adopting is simple and a rather familiar one. The company wants to become a user’s one stop shop for all things social on the web. And conceding that it isn’t the market leader, and will probably never be, when it comes to the majority of social web products — aside from IM where Windows Live Messenger is number one — the new Windows Live is also attacking the social networking aggregator space, putting it in direct competition with singly-focused products such as FriendFeed or the social networking aggregator features of monolithic networks e.g. Facebook Connect. Read the rest of this entry »

October 29th, 2008

LinkedIn apps arrive - another platform play

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:58 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Steve O'Hear, App, Peer To Peer (P2P), Professional Development, Internet, Career

LinkedIn has finally switched on its own OpenSocial-powered apps platform, which, on the surface at least, borrows quite a bit from Facebook. Unlike Facebook, however, apps are being heavily vetted by LinkedIn to ensure that they remain focused on helping members enhance their professional profile, as well as collaborate on work projects and become productive.

As co-founder Reid Hoffman explains: “This initial roll out features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively. You’ll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips and many more.”

Initial launch partners include Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and WordPress.  Read the rest of this entry »

October 6th, 2008

LinkedIn and Xing set to benefit from downturn?

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:18 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Job, LinkedIn, Benefit, Slogan, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Steve O'Hear

LinkedIn, the social network for “professionals”, could actually be benefiting from the downturn, says the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. That’s because the site’s value proposition really kicks in for those that have or fear that they might be about to lose their job.

The site provides a simple way to publish a resume online along with references, as well as sophisticated tools for networking in order to make new introductions, check out potential new employers, and get spotted by recruiters.

Referring to LinkedIn’s job hunting utility, Cellan-Jones once jokingly called it a “Facebook for losers”. But in this time of economic uncertainly, LinkedIn, and other sites like it, could turn out to be the real winners. Read the rest of this entry »

September 15th, 2008

LinkedIn the ad network

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:54 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Advertisement, Network, LinkedIn, Social Networking, Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Steve O'Hear

Bucking the trend whereby advertisers are shying away from social networking sites, demand on LinkedIn is so strong that the site has decided to roll out its own ad network.

Announced today, the career-oriented social networking site for professionals will begin selling ads on partner sites, ads that specifically target its affluent user base. Read the rest of this entry »

April 17th, 2008

The best Facebook apps for business and career enhancement

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 10:55 am

Categories: Facebook, LinkedIn

Tags: Job, Facebook, Friend, App, Slates, SlideShare, TooDooz Project Management Toodooz, Facebook Files Files, Files, DivShare DivShare

This is a guest post by Aseem Kishore, a technology enthusiast and lead blogger for Online-Tech-Tips.

Even though most people, including myself, use Facebook to connect with friends, family and colleagues, Facebook can also help you become more productive. Yes it’s true, Facebook does not necessarily have to be considered a time sinker. With the thousands of Facebook Apps out there, many of which are useless, there are a few shiny gems that can help you turn Facebook into a super-charged personal assistant.

Keep reading to find out the best apps out there to help you be more productive in your business or career. Read the rest of this entry »

March 27th, 2008

Facebook adds me-too feature - "People You May Know"

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 10:46 am

Categories: Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Facebook, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Steve O'Hear

Facebook has quietly rolled out a new feature called “People You May Know”, which, as the names suggests, attempts to identify members of the social networking site who you likely know but haven’t actually “connected” with yet i.e. invited to be a “friend.”

If you’re a LinkedIn user, then the new functionality will be all too familiar — the business-oriented social networking site offers an identical feature with the same name! Having said that, LinkedIn recently copied one of Facebook’s most innovative features: the news feed that aggregates ‘friend’ updates and activity on the site.

Perhaps, however, the broader takeaway is that almost all social networking features are easily replicated, resulting in the broad functionality being a commodity. The end result is that it’s often the network effects only that distinguish one service from another.

(image via CNET)

March 25th, 2008

Microsoft in "spam" partnership with five social networks

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 11:32 am

Categories: Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Social Networks

Tags: Partnership, Network, Microsoft Windows Live, Spam, Microsoft Corp., Data Portability, Social Networking, Business Structures, Microsoft Windows, Online Communications

I’m not sure whether to call this data portability or just making it easier for social networking services to spam a user’s contacts. But either way, Microsoft have announced partnerships with LinkedIn, Tagged, Hi5, Bebo and Facebook, to enable Windows Live Messenger users to looks for contacts on either of the five social networking sites and vice versa.

Creating a “two-way street”, as a Microsoft calls it, the partner social networks will utilize the company’s recently announced Windows Live Contacts API so that members can import Windows Live contacts to their respective sites. — and in a return of favor, Microsoft is introducing a new website (www.invite2messenger.net) that people can visit to invite their friends from any of the partner social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list. Read the rest of this entry »

March 21st, 2008

Companies get profiled on LinkedIn

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:48 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: LinkedIn, Social Networking, Storage, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Hardware, Steve O'Hear

LinkedIn, the career oriented social networking site, has rolled out a new feature today called Company Profiles, described as “a new research tool that helps you find and explore companies that you might want to work for or do business with.”

Each Company Profile page, of which there are initially 160,000 or so, is deceptively simple, featuring a short description of each company, along with some other size and history (licensed from BusinessWeek’s Capital IQ database). However, the fun really starts (can you have fun on LinkedIn?) with the additional ’social’ data that LinkedIn supplements, pulled from existing user profiles. Read the rest of this entry »

March 18th, 2008

Lookout LinkedIn, Facebook adds granular privacy controls (IM to follow)

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 1:43 pm

Categories: Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Facebook, Network, IM, LinkedIn, Lookout Software, Instant Messaging, Social Networking, Internet, Online Communications, Marketing

At a press event today (Techmeme), Facebook unveiled new privacy controls for the so-called social utility, along with an official Instant Messaging application.

The improved privacy settings enable users to have much greater control over who in their social network can view specific content. One group of “friends” can be given access to certain content, a photo gallery for example, while another group will be restricted. Another setting allows more granular control, whereby profile information is visible to second and third-degree contacts rather than the site’s members as a whole (reports news.com), not dissimilar to the way in which LinkedIn or Multiply works. Read the rest of this entry »

December 11th, 2007

LinkedIn wants to be more than a glorified Rolodex - adds new sticky features

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 9:08 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Network, LinkedIn, Networking, Steve O'Hear

LinkedIn is commonly referred to as a social networking site aimed at professionals. The problem with that description is that, to put it bluntly, there ain’t a lot of socializing going on at LinkedIn. Instead, the site might be best described as a glorified Rolodex in which business contact information is stored in a way that can be dynamically updated and subsequently aggregated so that each user’s address book is always current, and users can get to see a snapshot of how they are connected to others.

While this core functionality is useful in itself, validated by LinkedIn’s nearly 17 million members, I’ve long thought that the site’s data was being seriously underutilized. For the most part, non-paying customers add all the value (through entering their contact data and making connections), while premium paying customers (recruiters) get most of the benefit, and LinkedIn profits. However, the “Answers” feature, which enables users to submit and answer questions limited to people within their own network or the wider LinkedIn community, shows how much more value can be extracted from the LinkedIn network to the benefit of all users. Additionally, if LinkedIn can persuade its users to spend more time on the site then it can move further away from a premium membership model, to one that relies more on advertising revenue driven by page views. Read the rest of this entry »