December 12th, 2007

"Friendster Developers Platform" launches

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:52 am

Categories: Facebook, Friendster, Social Networks

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

Following Facebook’s lead, it seems that almost every other social networking site has announced its intent to create a developer platform for third-party applications, either as part of Google’s OpenSocial or by going it alone (or both). However, very few have yet to deliver. Not so Friendster, reports News.com, with the social networking site having unveiled its own developer platform today — dubbed “Friendster Developers Program”.

At launch over 180 applications are available including offerings from Slide, RockYou, Imeem, Jangl, Clearspring, and Gbox, all of which were invited to join the platform’s pilot phase. In an attempt to attract small and large application developers alike, Friendster will allow advertisements to run in the application’s space and developers will get to keep all associated revenue. This is similar, if not identical, to the arrangement that Facebook has with participants in its Facebook Platform.

Unlike Facebook, however, Friendster has also committed itself to Google’s OpenSocial APIs, which once released and tested, will be integrated into the Friendster Developers Program to make it “easy for applications designed for other sites to make their way to Friendster, and vice versa”, writes News.com’s Caroline McCarthy.

October 31st, 2007

"OpenSocial" - Google's combine and conquer social networking strategy

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:25 am

Categories: Facebook, Friendster, Google, LinkedIn, MySpace, Social Networks

Tags: Strategy, Developer, Google Inc., Facebook, Network, API, OpenSocial, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing

More details of Google’s social networking plans have emerged (TechCrunch and the New York Times), revealing a “combine and conquer” strategy aimed squarely at Facebook and, to a lesser extent, MySpace.

Dubbed “OpenSocial”, Google — joined by partnering social networks which include Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, and Friendster — will launch a set of three common APIs on Thursday, designed to create an alternative developer platform to that offered by Facebook (and soon MySpace), which embraces the “small pieces, loosely joined” philosophy of the web, and in doing so, should help to re-balance third-party developer efforts away from Facebook’s proprietary platform, and back towards the web as the platform. Read the rest of this entry »

June 26th, 2007

Friendster page views up 40%

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:14 am

Categories: Friendster, Social Networks

Tags: U.S., Friendster Inc., Steve O'Hear

According to Comscore data, the social networking site, Friendster saw a 40% increase in page views for the month of May. As you may remember, Friendster was the leader over three years ago, before losing pace to MySpace in particular and then a host of others including the new darling, Facebook. So a 40% increase is a big deal: is it too early to call it a come back, and what’s beneath the numbers?

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April 13th, 2007

YouTube spotlights presidential candidates; CBS excludes YouTube/MySpace from content deals; Can YouTube Hear Me? (update); and more

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 5:04 am

Categories: Friendster, Joost, MySpace, Politics 2.0, Social Networks, Video Sharing, Widgets, YouTube

Tags:

The social web weekly: a quick-fire roundup of some of the news, announcements and conversations that have occurred throughout the week…

• YouTube invites presidential candidates into the spotlight. YouTube is putting each of the US presidential hopefuls into the 'Spotlight'; a weekly event on the video sharing site where each candidate will solicit a 'video dialogue' with the YouTube community. From YouTube's official blog: "Candidates will post a video asking the YouTube community a question, and you'll have a week to upload response videos. The candidates will monitor your reply videos and, before the week is through, will post another video reflecting on what they've seen".
• CBS announces content deals with everybody but YouTube and MySpace. The CBS Interactive Audience Network includes content deals with AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh. But no YouTube or MySpace (owned by rival Fox). All content will be "free" and ad-supported, although the majority will be available to US viewers only — ensuring that CBS retains tight control over the various international markets.
• Can YouTube Hear Me? Yes they can. A YouTube user's campaign to get featured on the video sharing site's front page, appears to be nearing success. Brandon Fletcher reports on his blog that he was able to enter YouTube's head office. "I was quite surprised that people from the YouTube office recognized me, and let me know that EVERYONE knew about the site and were waiting on my arrival". In the next day or so he expects to be meeting a YouTube editor.
• How to deal with being blocked by MySpace. GigaOm has a good post detailing the history of how companies have responded to being blocked from accessing the MySpace eco-system. A curious tidbit at the end of the piece is a pitch from Friendster promoting itself as the open alternative to MySpace. Oh the irony.
• Rolling Stone magazine to launch social network. Yawn. Another 'dead tree' publication to try its hand at social networking.

March 20th, 2007

Is MySpace's widget policy upsetting users?

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:22 am

Categories: Friendster, MySpace, Social Networks, Video Sharing, Widgets

Tags:

Back in the days when Friendster was the social networking destination of choice, MySpace — then a cheeky young upstart — promoted itself as a different kind of social network, where users were free to engage in commercial activity, and could pimp out their profiles at will. Many users of Friendster had become disgruntled with restrictions imposed on the site, which if they violated, often resulted in having their accounts closed, and so were very willing to embrace the new kid on the block and to encourage others to do the same. We all know what happened next: the site experienced unprecedented grow, and was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $580 million. Today, MySpace ranks as the number one social networking site in the world.

And as MySpace has grown, so has its eco-system of third-party widgets and add-ons designed to bring additional functionality to the site. But Murdoch and co. aren't too happy seeing other companies profit from MySpace's success — with YouTube often cited as the biggest offender, which in hindsight, the social networking site says it should have blocked.

MySpace now aggressively cracks down on its eco-system — often blocking third-party widgets without warning or explanation — and it's become a huge risk for any web-based startup to rely too heavily on traffic generated from the social networking site (see my post 'Beware the MySpace eco-system'). The MySpace Terms of Service state that the site can block third-party widgets which "engage in commercial activity", though most commonly products are blocked if they compete directly with MySpace's own offerings. 

MySpace's abandonment of its laissez faire attitude to commercial activity hasn't gone unnoticed by users. The New York Times in an article titled 'MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users' reports on one of the site's earliest and most high profile users, Tila Tequila, being unhappy with the change in policy.

"The reason why I am so bummed out about MySpace now is because recently they have been cutting down our freedom and taking away our rights slowly," wrote Tila Tequila, a singer who is one of MySpace’s most popular and visible users, in a blog posting over the weekend. "MySpace will now only allow you to use 'MySpace' things."

In particular, Tequila is upset about the blocking of Hoooka, a music player and store similar to MySpace Music (powered by Sean Fanning's Snowcap). Justin Goldberg, chief executive of Indie911, the company behind Hoooka, responds:

"We find it incredibly ironic and frustrating that a company that has built its assets on the back of its users is turning around and telling people they can’t do anything that violates terms of service."

One solution which I've considered previously, would be for MySpace to introduce a toll for commercial access to its eco-system by third-party web services — though this is a road MySpace says it has no intention of going down. Whatever the solution, if MySpace continues to block popular third-party widgets then I think it runs the risk of alienating users, and, ultimately, damaging its own interests.

Related post: Beware the MySpace eco-system and Will MySpace try to monetize its ecosystem?

March 15th, 2007

Social network traffic up 11.5 percent; MySpace still dominates

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:14 am

Categories: Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, Social Networks

Tags:

According to Hitwise, the US market share of Internet traffic to the top 20 social networking sites grew by 11.5 percent from January to February 2007, to account for 6.5 percent of all Internet traffic in February 2007. Perhaps unsurprisingly, MySpace is still the heavyweight in a market made up of featherweights, with an 80% share. Facebook is MySpace's closest challenger with 10% of the market.

Whilst it's hard to envisage anybody stealing MySpace's crown, Friendster, which pre-MySpace was dominant, now has a measly 0.34% share — reminding us that MySpace's pole position is theirs to lose.

The fastest movers and shakers were both social networking sites that specialize in building communities around music and other media — Buzznet (up 148.4%) and iMeem (up 145.7%). Other fast growing sites include Hoverspot (up 19.6%) and Bebo (up 17.8%), which both compete more directly with MySpace.

Related post: Social network ad spending in the US could top $2 billion by 2010

February 16th, 2007

LinkSViewer.com: follow the money around Silicon Valley

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 4:12 am

Categories: Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags:

The New York Times recently argued that, when it comes to creating innovative technology, geography matters — and that Silicon Valley is still the place to be for anybody with start-up ambitions.

Give birth to an information-technology idea in Silicon Valley and the chances of success seem vastly higher than when it is done in another ZIP code.

This is a topic close to my heart, as a few years ago I wrote and directed a documentary called In Search of the Valley, whereby I traveled to Silicon Valley and — over the course of a month — visited and talked to many of the valley's luminaries to ask the very question of: what makes the Valley so conducive to producing innovation, compared with other parts of America and the world?

That's not to say that tech innovation can't in fact come from anywhere — it frequently does!. The internet allows ideas to be shared easily and more quickly (wherever they might originate) and for people to collaborate over time and space, like never before.

However, Silicon Valley still has at least one thing in abundance, compared with other innovation hot-spots around the world: the much needed cash, or to be more specific, Venture Capital and the connections that enable money to flow from one new company to another.

About one-quarter of all venture investment in the United States goes to Silicon Valley enterprises. And, according to a new report from Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a regional business group, the percentage has risen, to 27 percent in 2005 from 21 percent in 2000.

I was therefore delighted to be contacted by Brad Cohen of GroupScope, to tell me about their product LinkSViewer.com –- a web-based visual networking tool for exploring capital relationships in Silicon Valley.

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