I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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 analysis, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), or follow me on Twitter.

Web Strategy Summary
Culture continues to be impacted by social networks, more real world case studies emerge and adoption continues to rise. Watch OpenSocial as more containers (social networks) adopt the protocol and widgets will spread in an easier method.

---

Guide: Picking a Community Partner
A great practical guide on how to select a white label social network or community vendor.

Web Usage UK: 25% of 8-11 year olds on Social Networks
The trend continues on as social networks become a major form of communication for our next generation. It really seems as if the adoption of social networks is happening at a faster rate than nearly all other forms of communication.

Jobs: Facebook ad Career Builder partner
Facebook to now received Career Builder job modules to help it’s highly educated member based to benefit from job listings. Expect to see job posting widgets appear from competitors.

Art: Social Network Visualized
Social networks visualized in this fascinating graph where members relationships are seen.

Trend: Real time chat to be new Social Networking feature
Expect to see more containers –and vendors –offering chat features for social networks, expect attention rates to increase on social networks as members communicate longer periods of time.

Culture, woman murdered over Facebook usage
This sad article depicts a father angry over a daughter’s Facebook usage in a conservative culture.

Segmentation: Social Networking for Small Businesses
Great to see Rodney Rumford featured in this recent article from Forbes discussing how small businesses connect using social networks.

Container: Hi5 launches widget platform
In the next container to launch it’s widget container for opensocial applications, Hi5 now opens it’s doors. Hi5 has a launch program with restrictions on how much an app can distract the user experience.

Verticals: More music artists launch social networks
A great opportunity for the white label social networking industry to grow communities for fans including Kylie Minogue, and 50 Cent.

Leave a comment if there’s a story I missed.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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 analysis, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), or follow me on Twitter, (I’ll follow you in return).

Web Strategy Summary
This week is slow, as my host Dreamhost has been down. Updating this draft post has been difficult. The most significant news is Yahoo joining the OpenSocial alliance. Expect to see more social networks and widget creators focusing on building OpenSocial compliant applications.

---

OpenSocial: Yahoo steps into the fold
In a not so surprising move, Yahoo joins the OpenSocial collective, and a non-profit organization is formed.

Market: VCs: “No More Social Networks”
I have to agree with this, I can’t stomach another social networking pitch either. We need to stop deploying the same tools and figure out what really matters: how to communicate and be part of communities.

Privacy: How to use Facebook’s Privacy Features (video)
Teresa did a great video on how to use the privacy features on Facebook. Well done.

Widget: Mytopia launches pan networks
This widget game creator is launching several widgets on multiple platforms without being OpenSocial compliant. Unlike OpenSocial the games work across the different social networks, not as individual installs or instances.

Profile: Widget creator slide profilled
Money magazine dives into the world of slide and interviews Max Levchin. With a large inventory, and disappointment with advertising on social network sites, can Max’s ‘engagement’ metrics be they key?

Money: Hong Kong Investor pours more into Facebook
Li, a HK investor continues to put more cash into Facebook: “Li had previously invested US$60 million for 0.4% of Facebook. Li didn’t specify Thursday how much of a stake he now owns in Facebook”

This digest is a bit thin compared to previous weeks, so please leave a comment if there was something relevant that was missed.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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 analysis, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), or follow me on Twitter, (I’ll follow you in return).

Web Strategy Summary
Bebo acquired by AOL, a major consolidation in the industry, with both companies have strong media plays, and may have reach for familiar demographics, this could be a partnership made in heaven. Facebook continues to sport new features, and society continues to be impacted from the adoption of social networks

---

Acquisition: AOL buys Bebo for $850
The largest news for the week is AOL’s surprise move to purchase 3rd ranked social network Bebo for $850 million. At first glance, the demographics line up well for both parties, yet it’s unclear what their media strategy will be for this experiential social network.

Acquisition: Demand Media Buys Pluck
I’m a few weeks late on this (I’m not sure how it slipped by me) but Demand media has decided to buy Pluck.

Debate: Up with Widgets, Down With Widgets
Interesting counter viewpoints here, this article on why widgets are a success barely alludes to the opportunities, and this counterpoint says why widgets won’t work.

OpenSocial: MySpace rolls out OpenSocial Library
The OpenSocial protocol is now starting to grow as MySpace launches it’s library of OpenSocial apps.

OpenSocial: Hi5 to launch developer platform
Like Facebook and MySpace, Hi5 is next to announce that they will allow applications to quickly and freely move from one social network to the next.

Privacy: Infamous Dupre tries to control MySpace profile
Dupre, who was pointed out in the prostitution scandal had her Facebook and Myspace page scoured by press, she tried to control but too little, too late.

Politics: Election battle fought on Facebook
CNN reports that the campaign could be fought –and won — on Facebook for the next president of the United States.

Analysis: Linkedin and Xing
RWW does some analysis by the numbers comparing the two business social networks, Xing and LinkedIn. Although Xing has a smaller user base, the attention data is much higher.

Culture: Will members outgrow embarrassing photos?
Facebook, which was intended to be a social hangout for college students has now grown to be much more than that, as business and family personas creep in. How will users react?

Findings: Social Network users consume media
Highlights from a recent digital entertainment survey show that “27% of respondents say that social networks could become the main way they access music and video content”

Growth: Ning exceeds 200,000 networks
Semi-white label social network Ning sports growth as over 200k communities have been created. Of course, that’s a non-stat if the active user base is low, apparently 70% of them are active, but how do you count this? one user visiting?

Usage: Facebook traffic to Eclipse MySpace
While never the sole attribute we should measure success on, total traffic to MySpace reduces yet attention data increases, with the opposite happening for Facebook.

Features: Privacy and IM to be added to Facebook
Facebook continues to ratchet down constraints to improve the experience at Facebook with a new IM feature that will be interested to see how it takes hold.

Leave a comment if you’ve any suggestions, or I missed any stories.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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 analysis, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), or follow me on Twitter, (I’ll follow you in return).

Web Strategy Summary
The possible intent for Yahoo to Join OpenSocial (Google’s alliance to allow widgets to freely travel between social networks) is expected. This is an industry shift, and we should be watching –and adapting– to this. Compete shares top visited social networks, where MySpace and Facebook continue to dominate, and growth spurts from smaller players like Myyearbook are good to watch.

---

OpenSocial: Yahoo could Join
I’m confident this would be a smart move for Yahoo, this is something they should take seriously. Yahoo to join OpenSocial. The only player that’s not going to be part of OpenSocial out of the large organic networks will be Facebook. But since they’re sharing a seamless transition with Bebo (who’s part of OpenSocial) it could now be a forced hand for them.

Usage: Social Network Visits, Feb 2007 vs 2008
Compete graphs the top visited websites, MySpace and Facebook continue to dominate, although Myyearbook makes quick gains.

Evolution: REM sells next album on iLike
The Might Be Giants was the first to sell their albums on MP3 in the 98 or 99, Pearly Jam in 2007, Radiohead in 2007, and now REM sells their album on iLike.

Whitepaper: Increasing the Density of Connections to Power Business Performance
SelectMinds, who has made some recent announcements of funding and new products is offering a white paper on how businesses can improve by enabling employees to connect.

Deployment: Awareness power travel social network
Awareness, announced that its Enterprise Social Media platform is powering GlobalTravelBlog.com, a community where travelers can share their experiences and connect with each other.

Analysis: Performance of Widgets
Interesting graphs and analysis on how many applications are growing –then ‘epic’ failing– through loss of usage and user interaction.

Interview: Zuckerberg on the future of Facebook
This short interview, which starts with the recruitment of the newest COO sheds light on the direction –and lack of– that Facebook is headed. One thing is clear, cocktail parties are serious social networking events here in Silicon Valley.

Acquisition: Pluck acquired for $75m by Demand Media
Demand Media has purchase Pluck, the “social media platform provider to high profile clients including USA Today, The Washington Post, and Fox News.” reports MashableChris in last week’s digest)

Features: Newsgator powers Sharepoint to go ’social’
Newsgator, with strength in embeds now is going to empower Microsoft’s sharepoint to have social networking features, enabling it’s strong CMS and collaboartion tools to let members connect and share.

Schools: Don’t get Facebook/Real World
The education system appears (at least in this case) appears to be completely withdrawn from the fact the real world is about collaboration, and it often happens online. This student, who lead group collaboration has charges brought against him, as he created a virtual study group. On the other hand, maybe this was an individual assignment, and he didn’t follow orders.

Drama: Zuckerburg Interview takes a very wrong turn
Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg experiences a very awkward interview, too many opinions to point to, just see techememe.

Expansion: YouTube extends, Kickapps hosts
YouTube announced that it would let it’s player be more of an embedded application. Kickapps is the first to let the experience be available from it’s own social networking platform.

If I’ve missed anything, leave a comment or send me an email for the next digest.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), or follow me on Twitter, (I’ll follow you in return).

Web Strategy Summary
We’re starting to see more consolidation of the White Label Social Networking space, and it’s probably a good thing for the overall market. Mzinga acquires Prospero, and I think this will be the first of other companies coming together.

---

M&A: Mzinga Acquire Prospero
Mark at Techcrunch gets the story about Mzinga increasing it’s stature by this recent acquisition of Prospero, my thoughts are on the TC site.

Executive: New COO for Facebook
Facebook continues to attract top talent, Kara Swisher breaks the news that Facebook’s new COO is Google’s Sheryl Sandberg.

Content: MySpace launches Hidden Camera Reality Show
This non-scripted reality hidden camera show called Special Delivery (in association with Avalon TV) was launched on MySpace TV.

Global: Facebook translated to German by Users
Facebook recently translated it’s site to Spanish (with mixed reviews) and is now letting it’s user and member base translate to German, in fact over 2000 members will crowdsource this site.

Widgets: How brands are getting in on the action
BusinessWeek shows how A&E gets in on the widget craze by creating an interactive game.

Segmentation: Social Network for Infants “TotSpot”
Niche coverage for nearly every interest, demographic, or focus continues as “TotSpot” gets coverage. This social network, aimed at infants gives them a way to network (well their parents at least) before they can even type.

Community: Fanista launches a media based community
Fanista, self-described as “a community-powered marketplace for entertainment enthusiasts that offers a whole new way to discover and shop for music, movies, games and books” we see yet another online community launched. Expect this to be in similar market area as MySpace and Bebo.

NewsFeed: Facebook opens Newsfeed to 3rd parties
Facebook has allowed third party web sites to signal changes to member news pages, (of course in opt in) but Sean from RWW does some analysis and suggests they didn’t’ allow for enough access to the those developers.

Usage: Bill Gates ditches Facebook, joins LinkedIn
This probably makes a lot of sense for what Bill’s trying to accomplish as he’s now joined LinkedIn, where he can connect with other business and political figures.

Community: How to build one
Francine Hardaway gives some examples of companies and organizations that have built some communities, see this extensive list.

Analytics: The team at ‘Developer Analytics’ brings new measurement
Measurement is key, it drives marketing and advertising spend. The Developer Analytics team launches new features to help developers measure their widget growth and campaigns.

Limitations: Clamps on invites for Facebook Developers
I’m conflicted on this one, but the less invites may drag down growth for Facebook developers, but I’m sure it could increase the user experience.

Normalization: Social Network feature spread to Wikis
Jimmy Wales new project, Wikia launches social networking suite that invades the white label social networking space.

If it’s not apparent to you yet, I cover this space as an Analyst, this really helps me (and everyone else) stay on top of what’s important.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything, leave a comment, or submit to me over email, see my contact page.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest (you can see archives) where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
I was pleased to see that consolidation of the white label industry is already starting, this is needed as there are too many players in the space, expect more consolidations then some major acquisitions later this year. Continued scrutiny over social networking fatigue continues to pound away at Facebook and others, although the social networks are fighting back, and insisting that fatigue is only a temporary dip.

---

Adoption: Helpful map shows adoption of SoNets on Earth
Worthy as the first story, this map shows how each social network has dominance in certain geographies, Out of all of those listed, I only did not know 4 of them, I’ll study up for next week. There’s an additional list here sorted by Alexa by country.

Downtime: Bebo has over 12 hours downtime in two months
This is downright embarrassing. 12 hours is barely acceptable in a whole year, let alone Jan-Feb of this year. Other culprits include Microsoft live spaces, Friendster then Hi5. Let’s hope downtime reduces for the rest of the year.

White Label: Acquisition of Social Platform by ONEsite
Expect more acquisitions to occur in this crowded market, Social Platform now mergers under ONEsite. I’m tracking this space closer on this post.

Mobile: Social Network for iPhone
Fon11 is a vendor planning on creating a social network for iPhone users. But why limit this to a particular phone type? Why not extend this to all mobile devices.

Innovation: Facebook allows 3rd parties to update newsfeed
Smart move here by Facebook, allowing it’s lifestyle social network to hook and display other areas of a members life right on it’s newspage. As long as this doesn’t get too spammish, expect this to be a success.

Fatigue: UK Facebook dips?
Facebook, the top social network in UK had a 5% reduction in usage in recent months, and reports from BBC, and techcrunch. Despite these claims, Facebook declares traffic is not dipping.

Fatigue: Piczo sees tough times
Once promising startup Piczo (aimed at teens, girls mainly) is seeing a slowdown in growth, and as a result has had some downsizing and layoffs. Maybe there are too many players in the space, or they didn’t differentiate.

Advertisements: Google to sell ads on YouTube
YouTube, a social network is a Google property that is going to monetize by selling ads, there’s a great opportunity to gain the TV advertising dollars if they can demonstrate success.

User Experience: Facebook ads Flash
With the added ability to add flash applications added to Facebook, an improved experience could result from members watching or interacting using rich media, games, or video.

Sensationalism: Fox blasts Facebook
Fox fires off a hot title to get readers, please friends, no website is going to rule over the other, there are no absolutes, no zero sum game.

User Experience: Design features keep Facebook organized
In an effort to constantly improve it’s clean looking user experience, Facebook is creating a tabbed based experience to organize a members wall, about, and photos section.

If I’ve missed anything, let me know, I’ll be happy to add it to the next digest.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest (you can see archives) where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
Much more global perspective in this digest, expansion starts to occur in other ares of the globe, or social networks are appearing based on culture and geography. One thing is certain, this is a global phenomenon and will continue to persist.

---

Predictions: 2009, the year of Enterprise Social Networks
Dan Farber’s latest post captures that social networks will hit the enterprise in the following year. I gave some specific quotes on how companies should proceed –just like any other project.

Future: Mobile SoNets could reach $52 billion by 2012?
As social networks continue to grow along side mobile phones the opportunity for revenue (ecommerce, contextual advertising, or other premium services) could be at hand. This predictions piece suggests that 52 billion by 2012, if every person on the planet (6 billion of us) were to participate that would mean a about 8X per person?

Latin America: Sonico, a upcoming Social Network
Great exposure from Duncan Riley at Techcrunch on elevating Sonico, a social network that is popular in Colombia, El Salvador, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Cuba and Mexico.

Expansion: Japan’s Mixi to expand to China
A mere 13 million members in Japanese Mix’s social network (aimed at youth) and they are already planned at expansion in Shanghai, then growth to the rest of China.

Lawsuits: Users sue social networks
Expect this trend to continue, as users have bad experience with social network sites they’ll often want to sue those with the deepest pockets, and often that’s the social network managers.

Limitations: Facebook preserves user experience
By limiting the amount of invites an application can send to users, Facebook preserves the user experience and hopefully will prevent members from becoming inundated with a spammish experience.

Crime: Gangs Turn To Social Networking Sites To Recruit
Social netowrking sites are great for just that, meeting new people and communicating with them. This also goes true for gangs, according to this article that suggests that recruitment for criminal groups is now easier than ever.

Roles: What about the Community Manager
Melissa of Passenger gives some excellent information about her role as a community manager, a role that I prescribe to every company that wants to get involved with communities. It’s important to note however, that you can’t outsource all community management, get closer to customers, and be part of their community.

Verticals: Music integrates with Bebo, MySpace
Coordinating with SXSW Bebo launches a ‘find the next’ band campaign. A good fit considering their heavily media social network. There’s additional discussions on the deals between MySpace and a potential media partner.

Performance: Bebo struggles with downtime
The more popular the social network, the more outages, latency, and other scale issues we continue to see. Apparently, Bebo is no exception.

Leave a comment if this Digest was helpful, or if you’ve anything to add. Email me if you’ve suggestions for next week’s digest. In case you were wondering, I cover this space as an analyst.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
This week’s news has been rather quiet, if you enjoy case studies or analysis, see what the initial analysis I did on Fast Company. Facebook continues to be in the news as the hotest most talked about site, I look forward to your submissions.

---

Teens reading less books, but reading online
“Oh dear Marge, Johnny can’t read!” Is yet another concern many are having, they don’t realize that reading has just shifted, to online places. Sure they may not be reading those novels (unless prescribed by the teacher) but they are interacting, talking, hunting for info and sharing.

Launch: Fast Company launches community
Fast Company, is making some noise with their latest social network add-on. While it’s certainly not news to see yet another social network, this is one of the first magazines/publications/journalist orgs to launch this, it will be a unique experiment. They are also pushing an open garden approach.

Applications: Facebook to protect user experience
Users are getting fed up with endless notifications from applications (myself included) and are going to be policing the experience. This is the right move, as without users, you’ve no developers, and certainly no advertisers. Expect MySpace and Bebo to put on the brakes for these annoyance once they get traction.

Government: CIA monitors YouTube
Let’s not be surprised about the government is watching social networks, local agencies should be monitoring YouTube as well, it’s amazing to see what idiocy people upload as they become proud of their exploits.

Localization: Facebook launches in Spanish, crowdsources translation
Facebook releases it’s first language specific version of it’s site, in Spanish, a logical first language choice to pick. I’ve seen other social networks localize to different languages, but until you understand it’s culture, you can’t expect success from simply rewiring the navigation in another language –every culture is different. In this case it looks like they’ve crowdsourced the translation to the community, let’s see if it works. See video from users, a critique.

Aggregation: Friendfeed, a social network via feeds
I could as easily categorize this in digital lifestyle aggregation, if the feeds extend to every possible application. Friendfeed a ‘collaborative newstream’ aggregates all your information to once place, using RSS. Not a novel idea, but certainly a trend we’re seeing from many other players.

Disable: Remove Facebook Applications
Don’t like Facebook applications, this video shows you how to disable them, with concerns over social networking fatigue, expect more users to remove apps from their profiles

Findings: Online Chatter fuels record sales
A new report shows that the more people talk about an album before it’s released will directly impact it’s sales, in a positive way. Expect to see more viral components, mysteries, games, and rumors get circulated to amp this up.

Perspective: We don’t want to join your branded social network
With the rise of so many private social networks being created by brands, Brian Oberkirch suggests that he doesn’t want to join these social networks, instead suggests companies should join existing ones.

Retention: Facebook makes it easy to arrive, difficult to leave
Interesting article from NYT demonstrating how leaving Facebook will be difficult, as accounts are never really deleted, but just saved for later use.

Leave a comment if this Digest was helpful, or if you’ve anything to add. Email me if you’ve suggestions for next week’s digest. In case you were wondering, I cover this space as an analyst.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
MySpace releases it’s developer platform, causing in influx of current Facebook developers to swarm over the new platform, expect more experimentation to occur as we see widgets explode on many social networks. I see a clear trend of information continuing to be distributed and amorphous, moving from one network to another.

---

MySpace Developer Program cometh Feb 5th
The MySpace developer program is opening so third party widget and application creators can launch on MySpace, just as Facebook does.
Ben is working with the team and welcomes you in. I’ve done some analysis on what it means in this quicktake, why most should just wait and watch while the widget developers experiment. Dan Farber has additional analysis on what it means.

Security: Concerns about image uploader vulnerabilities
The industry has concerns over there being security flaws in image uploaders for MySpace and Facebook.

Features: Facebook Suggests Friends
Using it’s matching and contextual enginges, Facebook is spawning a feature that recommends friends, something similiar to dating sites.

Advertising: Google admits social networking ads not working
The use case of social networks vs search engines are radically different, people use social networks to connect with others, communicate and to self express, it’s often not a hunt for information. Google admits that advertising on social networks is not working.

Social Graph: Google releases an API to aggregate your many networks
I’m really glad to see that Google has taken a step forward to releasing an API that let’s you connect users from the many different networks. Brad Fitzpatrick has lead the charge here, watch his video. New to the concept, read this primer on how to explain the social graph to your executives.

Generation Gap: Kids not pleased with adults on Social Networks
As self-expression continues to be one of the top uses of social networks, kids find parents activities on social networks intrusive. If you’re a parent and have to deal with rejection from a child, follow this child relations template I created. (humor)

Marketshare: MySpace leads but Facebook closing gap
You can see the marketshare of the top 10 social networks in North America, MySpace dominates, although Facebook is following, Bebo has just a small marginal audience with little growth rate by market share.

Tie-In: WSJ adds social features with Facebook
WSJ will now have social features that let readers know which articles are popular, fueled by a users’ friends in Facebook. Beyond recommendation engines, this is a social powered recommendation engine, which should in turn, provide higher relevancy.

Version: Kickapps announce next iteration
Kickapps touts it’s newest version 3.0 which is aimed at making social networks easier to deploy. In our briefing with them, we were impressed with their strong widget development tools.

Fatigue: Are people getting tired of social networks?
There’s so much effort going into building the next generation social network, have we taken the time to think about users becoming tired and fatigued with social networks?

Campaign: Movie marketing on social networks
I really like this movie placement, they’re using many of the social tools that Facebook offers, acquires fans, and encourages discussion in this Cloverfield movie campaign.

Aggregation: Six apart lets you aggregate social media on blog
After a briefing with blogging software company Six Apart, they’ve now released a feature called Activity Streams that lets the blogger aggregate activity from other social sites (like twitter, digg, delcicious) in a news feed or news page type box on your blog.

Leave a comment if this Digest was helpful, or if you’ve anything to add. Email me if you’ve suggestions for next week’s digest.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
More money moves into this market in the form of investments and new versions of social networks are launched. Wordpress, Moli, and Mig 33 receive the largest chunks. As a potential recession looms, the companies that have raised capital will have a chance to outlast the storm.

---

Investing: Mobile Social Network Mig33 raises $13mm
Mig 33 a friendly branded social network lets users connect from anywhere on the globe to their contacts has raised a serious amount of money. I’ll expect a majority of that money to be pushed to the marketing budget in these crowded markets.

Investing: Blogging Software Wordpress get funding –go social with $29mm
Automatic, the parent company behind wildly popular wordpress blogging software has received $29.5M in funding, (that’s a lot), which will likely develop social features, including a social networking type of model. Expect social networking to become a feature of nearly every site, including someday this blog.

Investing and Launch: Moli launches, funded $30mm
I was briefed by the Moli team, they’ve launched a social network with an emphasis on user privacy, it appears to be a website with a robust user experience, and many controls for the user to see who can access their information. Of course, time will tell as this crowded market decides on which network will gain adoption. They’ve also received $30 million in funding from private investors.

Valuation: Widget ad revenue was estimated at about $20 million in 2007
MSNBC has an interesting article on widget valuation, and looks forward to 2008. Expect widget networks to continue to gain in growth in 2008, this is where advertising dollars will shift to.

Data: Enterprises concerned over Security and Resources for Social Media
Awareness ran a survey and found out the two many concerns for corporations revolve around the control over data, as well as the lack of resources to manage these programs. They’ve provided a white paper here.

Features: Facebook allows users to optimize profile
It’s safe to assume that many profile pages are overwhelmed with applications, as a result, Facebook has launched a feature that lets you create a separate profile page where you can segment applications. It’s a similar approach to tabbed browsing.

Copyrights: Hasbro misses a key opportunity with Scrabulous
Scrabulous is no more, but does this give birth to a new industry? Hasbro may have missed a huge business opportunity, but we should expect this same issue to occur again as the crowds take control of our brands.

Features: Geni launches news Timeline
With the popularity of Facebook’s newspage, Geni has launched an events update type of feature that lets you keep track of your family members updates, as well as post your own updates. Secondly, they’ve added an improved photo feature, all good features built on top of our first social graph: our family.

Upgrade: Facebook applications easier to embed
Although overhyped (partly my fault) Facebook has made it easier for widgets to be embedded on static websites now using client side javascript code, rather than depending completely on server side code. I’ve outlined exactly what this means for the web strategist.

Widgets: Low revenue from widget advertising
Mashable reports that videoegg’s eggnetwork of advertising is providing low advertising generation for it’s 3rd party widget network. Two things to remember: 1) this is the early days, and adoption and acceptance of this medium has not yet been realize to internet marketers and advertisers 2) Only a few will make a lot of money, and it will come from mass scale.

Leave a comment if this was helpful, or if you’ve anything to add. Feel free to email me if you’ve suggestions for next week’s digest.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
Investments continue to flow into this space, primarily with Slide and Badoo getting funding. Expect more money to drop at the door steps of widget networks over the coming months, the distributed web is a marketing opportunity.

---

Investment: Slide raises $50 million, will grow
Slide gets huge valuation at $500 million after raising $50 million dollars this week. This really nods to the power of the network of applications that will flow on top of social networks. watch this space carefully.

Investment: Russian Social Network gets $30million
Badoo, a russian social network with heavy video and image sharing features has received funding, and is expected to grow in Russia.

Index: List of companies that measure widgets
I created a list of different services that allow measurement of widgets, you can track them as this space grows. I expect this list to double within 3 months.

Usage: Teens Use Social Networking
Apophenia has some analysis on how teens use social networks, key findings include: email is less relevant, girls appear more active, teens are more sensitive about what is public and what’s not, and most importantly she points out how those that are active online are just as active offline.

Measurement: MySpace Dominates Traffic over all others
Owning 72% of market share for traffic in the social networking industry, MySpace owns the vertical. Of course this doesn’t mean much, as true engagement, interaction, and attention isn’t being measured. So have some context in this measurement.

Measurement: MyYearbook has 400% growth in 2007
This is linking to the exact same post as above, but it’s worth noticing that the chart indicates that MyYearbook has 407% growth rate. This is clearly amazing growth, we’ll have to explore deeper to see what’s happening.

Scale: Social Networks’ not robust for for Emergency Communications
A great move by Google, they’ve called upon the two other popular social tools (where’s MySpace?) to start planning to be involved in disaster communications. As you may know, Twitter was used extensively in the recent southern California fires to give critical alerts. Sadly, the service went down and died due to Steve Jobs keynote. We can’t rely on these tools at the moment. That’s why a decentralized version owned and managed by many, may have many more fail safes.

Privacy: Personal and Public lives Collide
The information housed and contained within social networks continues to be a concern, some critics, according to this article by BBC, discuss how some Facebook members are trying to understand how their profiles are being used even after they delete their account. For one woman who married another woman, she found about her sexual and public lives colliding in a way she never expected.

Growth: MySpace growth and expansion
This high level article from WSJ covers the growth and future expansion that MySpace will have in the coming years. This new media network, yes I called it a media network, is changing how the youth interact, self-express their fandom.

Revolt: Jan 30th, national delete your MySpace profile day
MySpace members have given several reasons to delete your MySpace profile this coming week. Many of the complaints are due to user experience, and feature functionality.

History: Evolution of Social Networks
Where did people first start connecting with others online? It started in the 80s and GigaOm looks at the different tools from bulletin boards, usenet, online services and other areas before this space really started to explode. Let’s see if anyone is really reading this, next week I’ll be hosting my annual birthday (as opposed to semi-annually), which inevitably comes every year. Interestingly, I never put my real birthdate on social networks for a variety of reasons.

I’m covering this space as an analyst, leave a comment if I missed any, or email with any things to include in next week’s digest.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
Seems like a lot of media announcements this week as more entertainment brands get in on the action. On the flip side, CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a TV debut and appears on 60 minutes. More people’s lives are impacted as their online and professional lives collide, often with bad results.

---

Copyright: Scrabble recalls Scrabulous game on Facebook
Sad move, but Scrabble makers don’t get the new world we live in, and recall the usage of their scrabulicous game on Facebook. A bad move, passing up some real advertising, sponsorship, insight, and ability to up and cross sell related products is now gone.

Distributed: Year of Widget Advertising
If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know how I continue to focus on the distributed web strategy. This article by Red Herring outlines how the future will involve widgets that spread from site to site. I was quoted.

Customer Insight: Del Monte uses social networks
Del Monte developed it’s latest product “snausages” based upon insight from customers with it’s “I love my dog” social network. Expect other brand to get into the action and build communities around lifestyles and work with customers to build next generation products. Link via Jeremy Pepper.

Social Graph: Xobni aggregates email
If the original social graph is your email and all the contacts within it, then Zobni (inbox backwards) is going to create a social network that leverages this common communication tool. Which is in the same space as VisiblePath.

Container: Bebo opens Application Platform
Having announced it would port certain applications over in the past, Bebo is now announcing that developers of all shapes and sizes can now build applications on it’s platform, connecting with it’s young and media hungry community. And no, OpenSocial still remains a myth.

Performance: Facebook and Twitter “slow and inaccessible”
In a study showing the agility and performance of social sites, many are poorly rated, with Facebook, and even worse ratings for Twitter, which just about crawls.

CEO: Beacon and 60 Minutes, Zuckerberg steps forward
Well it’s official, now coming from 23 year old CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Beacon needs work“. You can learn more about Mark in his recent interview with 60 Minutes. Colleague Charlene Li was one of the experts interviewed in the segment, she recaps on her blog. On a related note, the ability for members to hide applications is expected to come.

Crime: Police subpoena for MySpace related suicide
Recently, a mother impersonated a young boy on MySpace wooed a young girl, then humiliated her in public. The girl committed suicide and now legal action will take place against the accused.

Public Eye: MySpace launches Celebrity pages
A play to their strength, MySpace releases celebrity pages that let members connect to celebrities, build affinities and self-express. As our worlds collide on social networks, this female mayor bared too much on her MySpace profile and resulted in her leaving office.

Web Usage: Facebook penetration in UK, US, and Canada
Apparently London, Toronto, then New York have the most registered Facebook users. If wish they would break it down by population percentage, so we can see real pentration percents.

Media: Bebo launches next version of Lonely Girl
KateModern a new unique show for the web launched on bebo. There are episodes that center around kidnappings, drama, and mystery. Expect more TV shows to move to the social web and for shows native to social networks to appear.

It’s my job to watch this industry, so if you’ve other similar stories, please submit a link below.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
Many are watching Yahoo’s promise to make Yahoo Mail it’s core platform as it adds additional social features around it. The move for open data and the movement of it, are making headway as Google, Facebook, and Plaxo join a working group devoted on this concept. These are both announcements, the actual work has not happened, so look past the buzz and wait for the action.

---

Announcement: Yahoo to add more social features to mail
The big announcement in the social networking space is Yahoo’s intention to create more social features around it’s network. They will tie together the various other social tools using the mail platform. Of course, some risk comes with this, as getting users to adopt these new tools will be a long and slow process. New features for an email client need to happen slowly, with options to opt-in for the first couple of phases until things are right.

Data Freedom: Google, Facebook, Plaxo join Data Portability
Members from these three web companies have joined the working group, who’s agenda is to allow user data to freely move from one website to another, at the control and management of the users. While just an announcement, it’s an indicator of what could come, but until we see actual changes, it’s a big challenge for these large web companies to make these changes and let go of customer (and potentially revenue) data. The trick is to understand that by letting go, and building a website users want, they’ll come back…with their friends.

Security: Widgets have security trojan
Reports are coming in that there is malicious widgets mining data or burrowoing back doors to access infromation about users. Fortinet provides some analysis on screenshots of what to look for.

Content: Porn social networks emerge on Ning
Marc Andreessen has addressed the growing commentary of social networks forming on Ning around adult content. While certainly a passion interest, there is no stopping this from happening on some social network. Ning pleasds “we’re a host” and remains with an agnostic viewpoint, letting it’s communities grow. This will be interesting in the future as other social networks need to address this same issue.

Rankings: Bebo named “top” social network
Although the methdology of the survey and ranking isn’t clear, Bebo scores a top placement, barely over Facebook, in this survey by a group known as “Computing Which?”.

Brand: Managing your image on social networks
Mario Sundar, LinkedIn’s evangelist send me this article showing how successful online folks manage their online presence and reputation. They’re selective in what they write, what they talk about, and what pictures they share.

Asia: Alibaba to reach to large Indian market
Alibbaba, one of the largest social networks in China for SMB businesses is reaching to expand to India, another large population in hopes of becoming the commerce platform for businesses to trade, buy and sell.

Media Platform: Cisco to unleash EoS social network for big media
Recently, Cisco acquired Five Across and Tribe, both social and community software companies/websites. They’ve now started to repackage this (on top of their networking infrastructure) as a play for big media to get into the social networking space. It’s called entertainment operating system (EOS) could be a brilliant move.

Case Study: American Football teams use Social Network
Submitted by the vendor The Port, the Atlanta Falcons have launched a social network for it’s fans called FalconsLIFE. According to a recent press release the features include: ” fans can develop their own unique profile pages, publish blogs, upload and share videos and photos, initiate surveys, participate in online discussions and more.” I hope to see features like this integrate with the rest of the NFL site, in addition to franchise owned and managed websites, the community is larger. Expect to see other teams to launch similiar social networks.

What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
The biggest concerns this week are privacy concerns, both of Facebook’s Beacon, as well as data portability and scraping. Community requests ownership of data, although the infrastructure to support this is not yet available. The trend over data ownership and personal privacy on social networks continues to hot topic.

---

Metrics: MySpace Latests Stats Available
The following stats were sent to me from a reporter: “Launched in L.A. by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, acquired by Fox Interactive Media in October 2005, has 110 million monthly active users around the globe, 85% are 18 or older, 1 in 4 Americans is on MySpace, On average 300,000 new people sign up daily, localized and translated in more than 20 international territories, 100 Billion rows of data, 14 Billion comments on the site, 20 Billion mails on the site total, 50 Million mails per day (more than Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google), 10 Billion friend relationships, 1.5 Billion images, 8 Million images being uploaded per day, 60,000 new videos being upload to MySpaceTV each day, More than 8 million artists and bands on MySpace Music.”

Privacy and Data: Concerns over Fan based ads and scraping
Megan McCarthy, new journalist at Wired documents the ongoing concern of users that are endorsing brands, without their full knowledge of what that means. I provided my recommendations to companies deploying social ads within the article. On a related thread, Robert Scoble has scraped many of this contacts using an automated script causing Facebook to remove his account and banning him, issues over data portability and ownership are questioned.

Analysis: Visualization of a social graph
Great analysis of actual social networks, and what they look like. These diagrams show how observers and those that are highly connected differ based upon their location on the concentric circles. Link via Patrick Lambe.

Crime: The many dangers of Social Networks
Criminals are now targeting social networks as an information rich repository to steal data, impersonate, or be mischievous. Users should be aware of who they connect to, as org charts, birthdays, and relationships are much for the public eye.

Privacy: A Roundtable discussion on User Privacy
David Berkowitz, who has recently been unknowingly endorsing Blockbuster is captivated with his privacy and the privacy of others, and has assembeld a roundtable (myself included). Great perspectives from different users.

Crossover: Fuser bridges MySpace inbox to Facebook
Red Herring asked me for my predictions on the future of social networks MySpace and Facebook regarding cross-over of applications and social graph. While Fuser is a signal that there will be more ‘bridges’ to come, it’s not the beginning of the end, as demographics differ on each network. Fuser let’s members check MySpace inbox on Facebook, aggregated on one spot.

Widgets: Analysis Why Applications Fail
Rodney Rumford, Widget expert, does analysis on why Sony’s snowglobe application failed, and what could have been done to prevent this. A must read if you’re going into this space.

Summary: Broadband Mechanics reviews it’s past year
Marc Canter makes some year-end announcements from his blog, summarizing some recent funding totals, provides some customers stories, and even some case studies of current successes. If you’re in the industry, I want to know about these successes, please keep me informed.

Trends: Social Networking goes small
Kim Hart of the Washington Post writes a well researched article with many examples on how social networking is getting more refined and focused in addition to the growth. The article also points out that advertising will increase 75% in the next year

Facebook: A year in review
The San Jose Mercury tells why Facebook has become so key as a social network in 2007, but of course, outlining the pitfalls and challenges. I add my insight in the article, so look for my quotes.

Usage: Americans Create, Teens ready for Mobile
Research indicates 32% of Americans consider themselves broadcasters, and they use mobile devices, social networks and web tools. eMarketers reports in that teens use mobile devices, and social networks, some of these stats are from 2006, although likely accurate.

What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening. The next digest will be in the near year, kind of exciting!

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary
A very, very quiet week, there’s just a few pieces of analysis from bloggers and media after the flurry of anouncements two weeks ago (everyone was trying to push out features before the Holiday). Most interestingly, Bebo has widget growth from opening up it’s container for other applications to publish on it’s social network.

---

Container: Bebo’s Applications proliferate
Just a few weeks ago, on Dec 12th, Bebo announced that it would open it’s social network up to third party developers, starting with a push form existing Facebook applications. Development partners include: NBC Universal, CBS, NBA, Yahoo!, The Gap, Flixster, Gaia Online, RockYou, Slide, BeFunky, iLike, WidgetBox, Wallo Bebo has informed me last week that there are currently 4,250,409 installs of applications. Two weeks growth at 4 million is pretty successful, considering there are over 12,000 apps total in FB. We’ll compare direct numbers (installs to instances) later.

Widgets: Worklight provides business Applications
This February, we’ll see a growth in productivity applications from Worklight, a widget that sits on Facebook (and then likely other social networks) that will provide secured communication for employees. See? The intranet has already left the firewall.

Profiles: Many new social networks emerge and grow
BBC summarizes the various social networks of interest, including: Habbo, Perfspot Freecycle, Webjam, Capazoo, Wayn, Realbuzz.

Social Graph: IBM to launch mapping tool in Lotus Notes
IBM is launching a tool that will map and track the mavens within the usage of a community, this one, in Lotus Notes. This tool, called Atlas, will help large organizations map out important topics, networks, and people.

Ubiquity: Social Networks a Commodity
I’m surprised to hear Marc Canter say this, just a few months ago he violently opposed others saying that it was a feature, and now he suggest that these social features are a commodity. Either way, the scope of this very digest grows every week, it’s difficult for me to keep up.

Money: Kyte gets $15 million, to grow mobile social network
Raising a considerable amount from a Spanish telephone carrier, Kyte will continue to provide a platform for mobile web users to publish, share, and connect with each other. One challenge is going to be able to create a common platform or utility that will work with all carriers and phones.

Usage: Majority of teens interact on the web
Pew releases some helpful technographics data of teen web usage: “Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.” I’ve compared this to some of the data from work and it’s very close.

Features: Add Digg like features
Build your own Digg=like feature for your online community or social network. Pligg suggests that it’s 5 minute installs can move a static site to member interactive in a few easy strokes.

Ownership: Corporate program management of community programs
Respected community expert Bill Johnston asks the important question of who owns the community? For the many companies that are struggling internally to understand the social media sphere, the question of program ownership comes up, Bill gives a few scenarios.

Privacy: Social Ads invasive
David Berkowitz, of popular blog Marketer’s Studio was surprised to find out that he was an brand advocate for Blockbuster, after I sent him a screenshot. He suggests that social ads need an opt out and was frustrated to find out there was little he could do, read the extensive comments.

What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening. The next digest will be in the near year, kind of exciting!

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, read the summary, then quickly scan headlines, read the bullet, then click to learn even more.

I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary: To know
Google announced it’s intent to build a profile system, which will allow social networks to be built anywhere, and used by anyone. Coupled with OpenSocial, this could break down any silos that many are concerned about. The ’socialization’ of the web (all the web) continues to be a theme.

---

Identity Systems: Google to launch profile feature
The root of any social network contains two major features 1) an individuals profile 2) The connections they have to other profiles. Google is launching part one with their individual profiles that allow users to upload their identity and preferences. Expect them to make their entire web experience (from search to docs, to picassa) more of a social experience where people share with others, comment, and collect.

Insight: People not brands lead social networks
Doc gives an very interesting perspective in response to my debate on join vs build, be sure to read his post and ask yourself how this applies to your own life.

Platform: Wordpress could be a Social Networking Platform
Chris Messina suggest that Wordpress could be a Social Networking platform, while currently a publishing CMS tool. The first thing to do is look at the technographics of a community, and identify does everyone want to be a creator? Not likely.

Platforms: Social Network Platform Wars
Great graphic from Dave McClure showing a visual representation of what the platforms are starting to look like. With many platforms emerging and APIs don’t give up on opensocial (but recognize the challenges)

Watch: Cisco’s Entertainment Operating System (EOS)
Cisco recently acquired Tribe and Five Across and are now starting to consolidate these one off acquisitions into real products. EOS is supposadly supposed to provide media to social networks, as well as a potential platform. The challenge? Does Cisco know media? even social media? The upside for Cisco? More bandwidth for their infrastructure products.

Usage: Social Network adoption continues to rise
eMarketer has some useful stats that indicate that the growth of social networks will continue in terms of adoption and monetization. Interesting to see the saturation of the teen market already.

Acquisition: Penthouse buys lifestyle social networks
Penthouse expands it’s online reach by acquiring Various, which owns adultfriendfinder, Italianfriendfinder.com, gradfinder.com and bigchurch.com. Smart move for a media company. Projected price? $340 million.

Mobile: Sprint and MySpace serve web experience
Not uncommon to see, as iPhone serves up a very nice Facebook experienece, Sprint and MySpace are working to serve up a mobile experience. I can’t wait for the day when mobile devices all render the same experience from a single browser.

Friending: “Whales” are insecure
A whale is a person with more than 1000 contacts on a social network, this article suggests that some of them insecure. While this may be true for some, for me it’s a business networking tool, i’s my rolodex, a listening tool, and a way to reach thousands. Nearly limitless business opportunities. For those who are trying use this as a social tool (college, dating, etc) I can see why this may make sense.

What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, please send to your busy executives.

I’ve created a new category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, I’ll add you back.

Web Strategy Summary: To know
Busy Week: LinkedIn, Bebo, and Friendster launches their platform the opportunity to build a business platform and expand it’s value is at hand. Facebook withdraws the Beacon feature to make it more of an opt-in capability, although users continue to use website and media starts to simmer.

What it means: Trends
It’s very clear the trend for social networks to become ‘containers’ for ‘widgets’ to be deployed on top of them is at hand. The challenge is that OpenSocial has not arrived and multiple APIs are being delivered. Every community is different, so apps wont adopt consistently regardless. No one has done a great job figuring out how to most effectively monetize, expect more experimentation to occur.

---

Platform: Friendster launches platform with 180 partners
Boasting over 50 million users, Friendster launches it’s widget application platform with 180 applications, this is clearly a trend as many social networks become ‘containers’ for developers. They’ve also localized the site for Japan, Korean and Chinese. The challenge of course is that there are multiple APIs and datasets for each app.

Platform: Bebo also launches platform
With over 40 million users, Bebo launches it’s platform with many of the same developers from other networks. There