Category: Social Networks
November 13th, 2008
MySpace comes to Blackberry
It was only a few days ago that I noted how Facebook and social networking as a whole is fueling the mobile web. And news comes today that RIM have released a native MySpace client for its Blackberry line of smartphones. A move that also reinforces the company’s push to take the Blackberry brand beyond its enterprise roots to also target consumers.
Key features of the new MySpace client include the ability to:
- Send and receive MySpace mail
- Update your Status and Mood
- View and send Bulletins
- Add comments
- Post your photos
The new MySpace for Blackberry app is available at www.blackberry.com/myspace or m.myspace.com via the Blackberry’s web browser. Notably, RIM list ‘social networking‘ as a ‘device feature’ alongside email, organise, browser, media playback etc., with MySpace listed together with applications for Flickr and of course Facebook.
November 13th, 2008
Microsoft gives Windows Live a social networking makeover
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
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 27th, 2008
Social Web news: Twitter terrorism, YouTube ads, Social Networking on TV
A few interesting links from today on news relating to the Social Web…
Twitter could be a tool for terrorists. From Wired.com: “Could Twitter become terrorists’ newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.” (Wired)
YouTube hoping to attract advertisers through long form studio content. YouTube has begun running full-length episodes of TV shows, starting with a test of three CBS-owned shows: Star Trek, MacGyver and Beverly Hills, 90210. The move is being seen in part as a response to the success of Hulu, which as proved particularly attractive to advertisers. One analyst tells USA Today: “If you’re an advertiser, where will you put your money? In front of content you’re not sure about, or behind a series like 30 Rock, a known brand?” (USA Today)
Social networking through your television. Microsoft likes to boast that it has the biggest social network on television via its XBox Live service. Now others are hoping to emulate that success by bringing the ‘community features’ of the Web into the living room. (WSJ)
MySpace sued. A woman was ‘consumed with anger’ after MySpace took down her profile on the social networking site and has decided to sue. However, there’s more to the story: her profile page was set up specifically to verify official celebrity MySpace pages, who upon verification could display the plaintiff’s badge on their page. (Tech Dirt)
October 17th, 2008
Yahoo wants to be your social web 'control panel' too
Yahoo has begun rolling out a new profile page for its users as part of its ‘Yahoo! Open Strategy’, a major project to rewire the company’s web properties to make them more “open and social“.
Described by Jim Stoneham, the company’s Vice President Communities, as a “centralized control panel”, the new Yahoo! Profiles will let users manage their “identity, activities, interests, and connections across Yahoo! — and eventually the entire Web”. While a unified user profile and friends list across all of Yahoo’s offerings - Flickr, Yahoo Messenger, Mail etc. - seems like a no-brainer, Stoneham’s reference to a social ‘control panel’ for the entire Web is far more ambitious and sounds very similar to the thinking behind recent products from Facebook (Facebook Connect), MySpace (Data Availabiliy), Microsoft (Mesh) and Google (Friend Connect).
See also: Powering Facebook’s proverbial brain: your Identity, Social Graph, and Lifestream data
Although each company’s implementation differs, the broad concept (often disingenuously dressed up as data-portability) is the same. First, offer users a single place to maintain their profile and manage their social graph (friends list) that can then be synced with third-party sites through a publicly available and secure API. That way any update to your central profile or a new connection added, ripples through to those other social destinations that are linked, and at the same time conveniently locks users into the original source of that data. Secondly, enable certain data to flow back in - any social activity elsewhere on the Web - so that the central profile also acts as a lifestream or social web aggregator. The end result is a kind of ’social control panel’ for the web OS, a term that Facebook, MySpace, Microsoft and Google don’t actually use, but which Yahoo is actively embracing.
October 13th, 2008
Why MySpace's MyAds won't be the next Google AdWords
When it comes to online advertising everybody wants to be the next Google, and News Corp-owned MySpace is no exception. Today the company rolled out its latest advertising platform called MyAds, designed to service “individuals and small businesses” rather than the big name brands that the social networking site’s existing ad offerings cater for.
The new self-serve system enables anybody - “from local retailers to musicians and politicians” - to create customized Cost-Per-Click (CPC) banner ads that target specific demographics and interest groups using MySpace’s HyperTargeting technology. A technology that was previously only available to the company’s largest blue-chip brand advertisers.
Placing an ad comprises of “a few easy steps”:
- Sign-up on advertise.myspace.com
- Create a display ad using the MyAds Builder Tool
- Select a variable ad spend anywhere from $25 to $10,000
- HyperTarget to customers (based on self-expressed interests available on MySpace profiles, along with age, sex and geographical location)
- Measure ad performance with MyAds analytics reporting
The end result, says MySpace, is to democratize online advertising. Or to borrow another phrase from the Web 2.0 bible, the company is attempting to monetize the Long Tail.
If that all sounds very Google-esque to you, you’re not alone. Read the rest of this entry »
October 6th, 2008
LinkedIn and Xing set to benefit from downturn?
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 29th, 2008
UK secret service recruiting on Facebook
MI6, a branch of the UK’s secret service, is using Facebook as part of a recent recruitment drive to find the “next generation of spies”, reports The Guardian newspaper.
The ads, which begun appearing on the so-called social utility, reflect a change in tactics first introduced in 2006. Rather than targeting top tier Universities only, MI6 is reaching out via a number of public channels in the hope of attracting candidates from a variety of backgrounds. Last year the CIA also began using Facebook to reach out to potential candidates. Read the rest of this entry »
September 25th, 2008
Madison Avenue to Facebook: you'll never be the next Google
In a renewed attempt to woo Madison Avenue, Facebook is “making a huge push” at Advertising Week, an industry-wide series of events for media buyers and publishers, reports Valleywag. The social utility’s “push” includes a full-page ad in the events program, a number of sponsored sessions, and throwing a party tonight in which Ziggy Marley (son of Bob) will be performing.
The motivation: Facebook has yet to turn its 100+ million user-base into a fertile ground for advertisers, with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly estimating revenue in 2008 to be around the $300 million mark
An unnamed New York ad-executive (via Valleywag) offers Facebook some unsolicited advice: Read the rest of this entry »
September 15th, 2008
LinkedIn the ad network
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 »
Steve O'Hear is a London-based consultant, educator, and journalist, focussing on the Internet and all aspects of digital technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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