Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: May 11, 2009

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an industry analyst. By creating this digest (I started this over a year ago) it really helps me to stay on top of the space I cover.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

Subscribe to this blog in your feedreader, or use the email subscription box in the right column. Or you can subscribe to this digest tag only and not receive my other posts.

Web Strategy Summary
Been a light week as far as significant news goes. Facebook and Digg start to connect their social identities. Ning launches an application gallery, and MySpace trims staff.

---

Social Colonization: Digg adopts Facebook Connect
In an ongoing effort to spread its network, Facebook allowed third party sites to connect to it’s user and member base, now Digg users can use this to access their account info and social graph. The challenge is you can’t register FB with Digg if you’re using the same email address in Digg –the social profiles don’t yet merge.

Apps: Ning provides application gallery
Previously, Ning applications had to be installed by individuals, but now they can be replicated across networks, with what appears to be a widget gallery type feature.

Downsizing: MySpace trims workforce
While other social networks have also had layoffs (Hi5 in particular) MySpace trims 45 members of it’s staff, and is undergoing a major executive change out.

Findings: Wrapup from Inbound Marketing Summit
What was learned at the Inbound Marketing Summit? This excellent wrap up summarizes the key findings.

Ads: blogs come into their own
A few months ago, GigaOm’s network left Federated Media, and now Techcrunch sprouts it’s own advertising capabilities. Blogs are maturing now where they can reduce third party dependency on advertising revenue, demonstrating they’re their own media outlets.

Interview: Thor, of Get Satisfaction
Interesting audio interview from the founder of Get Satisfaction, a third party support site, that’s quite disruptive to corporate websites. Thor, the former CEO is now the CTO, having recently hired Wendy Lea. The chatter is casual at first, but gets focused as it progresses.

To watch: Cisco Eos puts stake in ground for media
Cisco’s Dan Scheinman is a general manager at the Eos, a community platform aimed at reaching media industry. While still early to market, I’m carefully watching this vendor as they have large backing from Cisco, that has a large enterprise footprint. Dan’s post suggests that Eos is intended to help Hollywood make money online, leveraging the disruption that new technologies have brought them.

Google: Analysis on Ad Behavior to improve TV ads
Google is doing some interesting and hopefully interesting analysis that will improve the context of ads, see their lengthy explanation and charts.

Accolades: Neighborhood America gets second award
Neighborhood America announces today that it has won its second consecutive CODiE Award for ‘Best Social Networking Solution’ for enterprises. See the many other categories and finalists.

Personal: Happy Mother’s Day Mom
Thanks for all you’ve done for me, supporting me when I was a young snot, and still supporting me as I’m an older snot. Love you mom. Now, I’m off to Amsterdam to help clients and speak at conferences, then going to Paris the week after.

Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under Digest, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.