First Take: Google+ Gets Features Right –But Offers No Reason to Leave Facebook

Finally, after many mis-starts and social media product debacles, Google gets their social networking offering down right. The downside is, there’s no reason to call this a “Plus”, it’s just catchup. Google has learned from failed attempts Historically, Google has been complacent when it goes … Continue readingFirst Take: Google+ Gets Features Right –But Offers No Reason to Leave Facebook

FirstTake: Dachis Group Clinches Powered, Threatening Incumbent Consulting Firms

Acquisition of ‘Powered’ Grows Social Software and Services Footprint in Enterprise Companies. Austin based Dachis Group, who has a war chest from Austin Ventures, has been on a buying spree and has pre-briefed me in their acquisition of Powered, a social and marketing platform with … Continue readingFirstTake: Dachis Group Clinches Powered, Threatening Incumbent Consulting Firms

First Take Analysis: Jive Fills Warchest, Ready to Battle Enterprise Software Giants, IPO

By Industry Analysts, R “Ray” Wang @rwang0 (Enterprise Strategy) and Jeremiah Owyang, @jowyang (Customer Strategy) both founding partners at Altimeter Group Community Platforms Evolve to Social Business Category Having tracked the social business category for some years now, and have been watching the category grow, … Continue readingFirst Take Analysis: Jive Fills Warchest, Ready to Battle Enterprise Software Giants, IPO

First Take Analysis: Facebook’s Crusade of Colonization

Today marks yet another important era in Facebook’s saga, they are expected to make a big push to extend the Facebook experience to every webpage. Today, I attended the f8 developer conference hosted by Facebook, they’ve made some key announcements on what they want their … Continue readingFirst Take Analysis: Facebook’s Crusade of Colonization

First Take Analysis: What Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” Means To The Ecosystem

The Altimeter Group was pre-briefed by Twitter COO Dick Costolo last week about this upcoming launch, we’ve had some time to think over what it means to the industry.  Help your boss fight through the clutter, send them this post. Summary: Twitter has launched Promoted … Continue readingFirst Take Analysis: What Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” Means To The Ecosystem

FirstTake: Facebook PayPal Deal Spurs International Ad Sales

Web Strategy Summary Facebook to now offer Paypal as an additional way to buy advertisements and virtual currency for social games (press release).   This paves a way for Facebook to reach global advertisers who prefer PayPal vs traditional credit cards. Although this partnership is … Continue readingFirstTake: Facebook PayPal Deal Spurs International Ad Sales

FirstTake: Powered, A Social Marketing Suite, Acquires Crayon and Social Media Agencies

News hit this Monday that Powered has acquired three social media agencies: crayon, Drillteam and StepChange. I just had a skype video conversation with Aaron Strout and Joseph Jaffe to learn more, here’s my take.  You can read crayon founder Joseph’s take and Aaron Strout … Continue readingFirstTake: Powered, A Social Marketing Suite, Acquires Crayon and Social Media Agencies

FirstTake: Extend LinkedIn’s Community To Your Website

I was briefed as an analyst by Adam Nash, LinkedIn’s Vice President, Search & Platform Products to learn about today’s announcement around opening their network as a platform. Announcement: Access LinkedIn Data From Other Locations Using The LinkedIn Platform Starting today, developers worldwide can integrate LinkedIn … Continue readingFirstTake: Extend LinkedIn’s Community To Your Website

FirstTake: The Web Strategist should watch –but wait– for the MySpace Developer Platform

(Left: I met and interviewed MySpace’s team Will and Jim) I just got back from the brand spanking new SF MySpace office, an event tonight that was catered to the new developer platform which they announced today. This post isn’t aimed at developers, but at … Continue readingFirstTake: The Web Strategist should watch –but wait– for the MySpace Developer Platform