I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

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.

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

Web Strategy Summary
Unlike last week’s series’ of major announcements, we’re seeing brand deploy with social networks, facebook applications, and the typical deployment of social networks for just about every vertical. MyYearbook receives funding, as well as tracks high growth rates.

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Best Practice: Twelve best practices for online customer communities Fantastic resource by Dion Hinchcliffe on how to best organize, prepare and manage online community projects read these 12 best practices. A must read.

Growth: My Yearbook exhibits growth and raises $13mm
Data from Hitwise indicates that MyYearbook shows fast growth among social networks, but what these graphs don’t indicate is myYearbooks’s current registered active base, which Forbes indicates it has 4.5 million unique visitors –still a long way from MySpace of Facebook.

Data: IBM’s Smart SOA to connect communities
A growing trend to connect many companies, IBM’s Smart SOA promises to connect communities such as User Groups, Developers, Architects, Business Partners, Universities.

Deployment: Swiss Re connects alumni with SelectMinds
SelectMinds will support Swiss Re in the implementation of its first alumni network using their community platform. Specifically, Swiss Re will implement SelectMinds product AlumniConnect, designed to connect former employees, or corporate alumni, with each other and the organization, learn more from Marketwatch.

Features: introNetworks enhances suite
introNetworks launches community managers new features to enhance Groups, Collaborative Resources and Targeted Messaging and Advertising capabilities highlight the latest introNetworks release, see PDF for more.

Deployment: UK’s Sky to launch community platform
British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) is working with Pluck to launch a variety of social media tools across it’s various web properties, see Sky News to see where they’re headed.

Deployment: Neutrogena launches Widget by LiveWorld
In support of it’s Beautiful For Good community, LiveWorld, often notable for it’s community platforms, is now launching a widget to extend their client’s campaign. You can view the application on Facebook. Expect other community platforms to offer widget services in the future.

Marketing: Bebo reaches to alien planets
In this latest campaign, Bebo to build a time capsule to send to a near ‘earth-like’ planet. While an interesting undertaking there will be no ROI or tremendous ROI perhaps several centuries from now. I always thought we should put our best humans forward, if that’s Bebo users, so be it!

Reputation: How your LinkedIn profile impacts your company’s brand
While true for any social network or blog, how you behave online can impact how others perceive you or your employer, follow these tips from Steve Patrizi at LinkedIn to make sure your company is seen in the right light.

Global: LinkedIn launches Spanish Version
A few months ago, Facebook launched in Spanish then many other languages, LinkedIn, also extends it’s global (and local) reach by launching a Spanish version.

Infringement: Copywriting “Branded Communities”
I see so many issues with this, Jennifer responds to a vendor who claims ownership of that term. First of all, communities can’t really be branded, secondly, this is a common term used by the industry.

Verticals: Even Zombies get their own social network
sloth like? armless? need braaaains? Everyone gets in the social network action, even the undead, see this Zombie dating and social networking site.

PR professionals that have clients in this space, should subscribe to this blog, and ensure their clients are put on this digest by sending me an email, or better yet, leave a comment.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

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.

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

Web Strategy Summary
This was a very busy week. Facebook launched a major redesign, with a commitment to developers and improving the application experience for users. LinkedIn cut a content deal with NYT, the media heats up about social networks. MySpace offers OpenID, yet advertising attemps still struggles to make money on these growth platforms.

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Facebook: Redesign, Developer Program
Perhaps the most important info of the week is the newly launched redesign, which some feel isn’t aimed at mainstream, which some suggest looks like Friendfeed, as well as developer program to improve the widget experience (tiering of applications, most trustworthy apps score the best) and Facebook Connect, which I covered in depth.

Partnership: New York Times and LinkedIn
Hot on the heels of a content deal with BusinessWeek, LinkedIn continues to extend it’s network to New York Times online readers by providing shared content, another example of the spread of social and content.

Standards: MySpace offers OpenId Support
Open ID allows anyone to have a single sign on from one site to another. Essentially, you’ll have one user name and password for any site that embraces OpenID, now including MySpace, one the largest social networks in north America.

Stats: Facebook stats by region and applications
South America has the largest growth rate and US growth is slow and steady, read this report from O’Reilly.

Research: White Label Social Network to be $1.3B in Five years
This article, focused on the white label folks makes predictions based off report from ABI Research predicts the industry will reach $1.3 billion within five years.

Hivelive to sponsor Community Design Challenge
I’ll be one of the judges for this event, the winner gets a free community platform, great marketing and for a good cause.

Fraud: Man sues for fake profile
A man sued for damages in UK against someone who created a fake profile and slandered them.

Community Theory: Build vs Join
Aaron Strout, of Mzinga provides an analysis and viewpoint of join vs build, a discussion we’ve had on this blog for some time.

Advertising: Getting less effective and therefore cheaper
Social networks still haven’t figured out how to monetize. The price of advertising with Lookery and other social network ad price plummets, “7.5 cents per thousand ad impressions (CPMs). Back in January, Lookery was offering 12.5 cents per ad impression. So that means Lookery has cut its ad rates nearly in half. ” sheesh.

White Label: Enterprises get ready
I’m always glad to see news about the white label social networking space, in this article, they indicate that they are starting to be taken serious for enterprise use.

Branded Community: MTV launches Community
Following the many brands that have already launched their own communities, MTV launches a community (two actually) aimed at youth.

Applications: Living Social
This suite of applications called living social allows people to rate, rank, and organize their belongings as a Facebook application.

EMC Delivers Version 6.5 Of Documentum ECM Suite
While it’s not super clear from this page of what they delivered: “a family of products that marries the great user experience of Web 2.0 and the strength of the enterprise-class Documentum platform to deliver a balance between business agility and IT control.” one could assume that EMC is delivering social features to the latest version of Documentum, a CMS suite (they call ECM)

Save your boss time, send them this digest, leave a comment if I missed any. If you work for any company in this space (or represent them as their PR agency) keep me updated by sending me emails. (subject line “Digest”)

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

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.

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

Web Strategy Summary
With many B2B companies asking how to reach business folks through social networks LinkedIn launches it’s Advertising product at an ideal time. Also the trend for social networks to become ‘containers’ continues to be a common feature, this time Xiaonei. Despite deflating home prices and increasing gas prices, small spurts of funding continue to inject this social networking space.

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Product: LinkedIn launches Advertising Product
These ‘direct ads’ are ways for marketers to reach LinkedIn customers. With the CTR rates being so poor for other social networks, will this work for LinkedIn? It’s possible as with organic social networks like Facebook and MySpace the primary task is on socialization and self expression –however with LinkedIn one task may to be get information quickly.

Funding: Webjam receives 1.9 Million in funding
Another white label player receives funding, I’m keeping track of this busy market on this post, including funding, partnerships and acquisitions.

Asia: Xiaonei Launched Developer Platform
Chinese social network Xiaonei now becomes a container platform and offers developers the opportunity to build applications that interact with it’s community –some critics suggests its not open.

Leadership: HiveLive CEO launches a Blog
There’s nothing like hearing directly from a CEO of a company his or herself, now CEO John Kembell of Hivelive has launched his own blog, if you’re watching this space, do subscribe.

Bezos invests in Social Gaming Network
I was recently over at the SGN headquarters in Palo Alto, and they appear to be on a growth track, and now with Bezos investments, this could catapult them further.

Article: Fight over enterprise social networking
Covering how startups and enterprise software vendors are going to battle out who will have the biggest footprint, this Infoworld piece discusses Visible Path, IBM, and other vendors.

Analyst: “Social Networking Just for Fun”
Gartner who has been bearish on Social Networks in the enterprise is starting to see some business opportunities for social networks.

Social CMS: CMS and White Label Social Networks to collide
More press around my blog post showing how CMS systems are leaving money on the table for community offerings.

Features: Widget Galleries
Widgetbox launches a gallery feature, this way any social network/platform can embed this gallery tool and extend widgets to their community. Also they are vetting widgets to ensure standards for security and privacy.

Save your boss time, send them this digest, leave a comment if I missed any. If you work for any company in this space (or represent them as their PR agency) keep me updated by sending me emails.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

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.

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

Web Strategy Summary
There appears to be some headway with new executives appointed in regional areas to spearhead local efforts from MySpace and Bebo. Yahoo attempts to stay relevant in the space and launches social features for MyYahoo.

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Executives: Myspace in Canada, Bebo in Europe
MySpace appoints a new general manager (think Country Manager) to head the charge to move into the Canadian web time. On a similar note, Bebo hires former Google exec to spearhead European efforts for Bebo.

Features: MyYahoo to get ’social’
This story didn’t get much coverage by the latest iteration of MyYahoo has more social features. With the overall success of this feedreader, they stand to gain a growing opportunity by linking in it’s social graph data from the network of Yahoo Mail, pictures, Upcoming, and groups.

Case Study: How Mozilla used Social Networks to set a world record
Aside from having a loyal and zealot like fan base, Mozilla set a world record in downloads by using social networks to spur on word of mouth. Brilliant.

Partnership: UserPlane partners with ConVerge to deliver Chat
Were seeing more and more partnerships and alliances between the large and fragmented white label industry, now with the opportunity for those to build fully functioned communities complete with bells and whistles. Userplane and ConVerge partner, benefiting chat features, esp for sites like Mashable

Vertical: Kiwibox Targets Youth Market
I was recently briefed by Kiwibox, who did a great job in a Q&A session with me. While having a very small community of active users, they really know the teen segment. If you’re looking to do something targeted and flexible, starting a conversation with them is a good idea.

Platform: RockYou gets punished by Facebook
Due to some changes in Facebook, there has been a radical change in numbers from the friends applications.

Interview: CEO of BrightIdea
White label social newtworks and internal innovation tools can help enterprises move forward, the CEO of Brightidea, a white label social network is being interviewed by Bambi Francisco

Mobile: 8 Mobile Social Networks
This list demonstrates how mobile social networks are appearing –a dime a dozen –expect mobile carriers to acquire these social networks, those who have limited ability to create their own.

Departmental: Why HR should embrace social networks
Aside from recruiters flocking LinkedIn, Human Resource departments, have for the most part, often missed the opportunities that social tools can do to increase corporate knowledge, connect talent, and build relationships for retention. This article explains why it’s important.

OpenSource: Many platforms available
While I encourage large brands to work with vendors that have the experience, services, strategy, and support, there is often a need for open source projects for inhouse development teams, or small and medium sized organizations, see this list of 50

Psychology: Social Networks harmful to Youth
This article suggests that youth will continue to become insensitive to the real world as they interact within social network. While a simliar take as we heard in the 1980s about television –time will tell as this new medium is here to stay.

Save your boss time, send them this digest, leave a comment if I missed any. If you work for any company in this space (or represent them as their PR agency) keep me updated by sending me emails.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

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.

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

Web Strategy Summary
The white label space continues to grow, investments flow to Lithium. I’m noticing more in the social networking indsutry (white and organic) are starting to talk to each other more, a sign as data becomes more open, and platforms realize to win, one must share.

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Industry Report: White Label Vendor Product Catalog coming soon
I recently conducted research to catalog the large and growing white label industry. A report called the Vendor Product Catalog of Community Platforms will soon be published for Forrester clients.

Funding: Lithium, White Label Social network, Raises $12mm
This white label social network is growing it’s reach and raised a cool 12, I’ve updated the bottom of the index page that is keeping track of funding, partnerships, and alliances. For many white labels (I have the stats) this 12 can take them pretty far, or prepare them to go shopping.

Interview: Q&A with LinkedIn
Get up close and personal with Allen Blue who shares his post-funding plans, Company Groups and corporate intranets, do see references to where I think they can succeed in the enterprise.

MySpace launches Data Availability
MySpace is fully launching Data Availability, a nod to the open movement where hopefully members, their graphics, and data will quickly move from one network to another.

Legal: Facebook anointed over Connect U
Connect U and Facebook have been going at each other over who was first to the sandbox, judge now hampering down, anointing Facebook the winner.

Verticals: More niche social networks appear
Many, many, many more social networks for every niche appear, one for investors and enterpreneurs, and another for those what want to breastfeed. Read more from the Guardian.

Campaign: Cartier Embellishes MySpace
Famous Jeweller Chooses MySpace to Introduce Latest Collection ’Love by Cartier’, this multi-media microsite has social features, media, and brand assets.

Mobile: Whrrl supports Razr, Blackberry and Samsung
We continue to see more social networks appear for mobile devices, now Whrrl will spread it’s reach by adding additional devices.

People: Marc Andressan (ning) joins Facebook BOD
This is interesting, could it tell of the future of Ning and Facebook? Located a few blocks from each other, they have a lot of similarities and could eventually benefit from tying data, resources, and even members. To watch for sure as Marc moves closer to Facebook by joining the Board of Directores.

Save your boss time, send them this digest, leave a comment if I missed any. If you work for any company in this space (or represent them as their PR agency) keep me updated by sending me emails.

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

Web Strategy Summary
This week’s focus delivers more on data and web usage, primarily after the launch of Google’s “Trends” tool, which offers a way to track activity on all websites. More reports on the growth of social networks, it’s funny how bloggers twist it each month, just a few weeks ago people were talking about the decline or lull of social network activity.

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Nokia acquires Plazes
Although Nokia has been experimenting with mobile software such as maps, and other social applicaitons (I recently was briefed by one of their teams) they’ve acquired mobile based Plazes, a social network.

Web Usage: Friendster shows Growth
I see conflicting data all the time, so it’s very hard for me to determine who the actual leader is, or sometimes to be more accurate, the intrepretations of data are often different. Great pieces by Eric at VentureBeat who does analysis to show how Friendster has growth in Asia.

Web Usage: Facebook and MySpace
Although I see many different graphs and patterns about the ‘top’ website, Andrew Chen breaks down that Facebook is growing faster via vistiors in Australia over MySpace, and has more growth internationally, on the other hand, he demonstrates that most ad revenues are in the US, an interesting way of thinking about where the ROI could lay.

Web Usage: 25% Use Social Networks
The Consumer Internet Barometer, a sample size of 1000 in North America found that a quarter of North Americans use social networks. For North American adults, this is very similar to what Forrester’s own data says, glad to see correlation.

Upgrade: NYT adds social features to site
Much in the theme of the future of the web is that the web will become connected to your personal networks, in this case the NYT (who has been innovating) is developing new ways for the content of their site to become social with Times People Beta.

Intranet: Microsoft leans on Townsquare
Although only a prototype, Microsoft office labs are working on a new intranet product that has social features, called TownSquare.

Vertical: Intel launches site for family caretakers
This community site which is for those that are managing ill or elderly family members provides a connection for others, who may need a support group that may not have been able to connect prior.

Revenues: Facebook Developers Get Paid
The company social media, essentially an advertising network for widget developers has paid out $8million to developers who are involved in their network over the last year, there are 5000 apps, for about 100 developers, although there’s apparently a curve, some cashed in and some did not.

eCommerce: How shopping is a social activity
eWeek picks up a story (I’ve a quote in it) that outlines how Pluck’s module based white label social network can embed social interactions into an eCommerce experience –a certain future trend.

Education: Social networks spur learning
This summary of a study indicating that students from a variety of backgrounds were able to learn from social networks, improving social and technology skills, more details from this article. From colleague Jennifer Doctor

Web Usage: Facebook king of the globe
Comscore reports that Facebook’s Global Traffic the king, I see different takes at data from different companies, so I can never quite be sure of who’s interpretations –or data set to rely on. Therefore, I watch trends, not specifics.

China: Facebook, Tencent launch against Xiaonei
Chinese versions of Facebook and Tencent are now launched in China, to reach to one of the world’s largest online populations. The dominating player, Xiaonei has 22 million users, still a long way off from Facebook –but watch growth.

Valuation: How to value social networks
Techcrunch does an interesting analysis quantifying social network value –by looking at several values based around user size and valuation.

Leave a comment if I’ve missed anything specific.

I took a few weeks off from doing this digest, after my Hawaii vacation, but am now back in the groove. If anyone wants to contribute to this on an ongoing weekly basis as a guest editor, let me know.

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

Web Strategy Summary
I’m mainly stirred to write this post as two major occurances have woken me back up: LinkedIn acquires quite a bit of cash, (I met with Dan the CEO last week) and MySpace is trying a different strategy to monetize. As usual, more verticals for social networks appear, and cultures continue wrestle with the impact of these tools.

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Funding: LinkedIn gains 53 Million in new investing, valued at 1 billion.
What will they do with this money? Go shopping for a competitor to beef up their portfolio, or move into the enterprise 2.0 space with collaborative tools –or both.

Redesign: In a struggle to monetize, MySpace redesigns –ready for brands
Social networks (aside from LinkedIn) are struggling to monetize, myspace, the very cluttered self expression network is now redesigning it’s site, making it easier for brands to advertise and market.

Awareness (White Label) partners with Sharepoint
Awareness is opening it’s doors, making it compatible with CMS/Collaboration tool Sharepoint, which needs ’social’ features to compete in this market. Expect large companies to make acquisitions in the white label space in the near future.\

White label: yet another launch, Soceeo, Dotster
Soceo launches it’s white label solution (so any brand can have their own Facebook), as well as Dotster, you can already see the very crowded space due to commodity technologies.

Asia: Facebook clones appear
Social networking features are a commodity, that’s why there are so many white label vendors. In this article, it discusses how some are directly copying the success of Facebook and creating their own versions.

Aggregation: Ways to easily follow your friends on the web
Content has fragmented on the web, it’s difficult to find all the conversations your friends and colleagues may be having, this list of tools indicates a growing trend of aggregators.

Culture: Is it bad manners to not friend a requester
I’ve heard of some employees feeling very cautious about adding their boss to their myspace of facebook account –with great reason. Explore what proper netiqqutte is and what’s not.

Verticals: Social Network for Truckers
Layover.com, MyTruckingSpace.com emerge for the transportation professional, I’ve seen examples of these in nearly every vertical and niche.

Verticals: Social Networks for everyone
This 50 most odd social networks listed out by Cnet shows some communities for nearly every niche possible, from medical, sports, babies, and even the deceased.

If I’ve missed a key article or post, leave a comment below.

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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