Google’s social ambitions
October 9, 2007
So Google owns a social network called Orkut. I’ll forgive you if you didn’t know that as it’s not the best known of the social media darlings of the moment, that accolade sits with the Facbook, MySpace and Bebo’s of this world.
However, Orkut is actually doing really well, organically growing in markets around the world where even Facebook doesn’t really get a look in. Orkut is doing really well in both Latin America and the Asia-Pacific regions. In Latin America they command double the traffic of Facebook and MySpace combined with approx 12 million monthly visitors. In Asia-Pacific they command 11 million visitors per month and have recently taken the lead as the most popular social network. In the US however they receive just 600,000 visitors per month, although that is climbing.
Business Week has a good article on Google’s social ambitions which muses that they will be releasing a new set of API’s for Orkut (around November 5th) and some of their other services, allowing developers to build on these and turning Orkut into a platform (similar to Facebook). Google may take a slightly different tack to Facebook though and open up much more transparently, allowing developers to create much more value from applications than purely poking or throwing things at Facebook pals. Orkut may see apps such as one that allows users to see who is online of their friends on Facebook and vice versa. There’s also talks of Orkut and Google Maps mashups, GMail and Calendar apps etc. Sounds much more useful than Facebook already!
Of course the article mentions Socialstream too, which I blogged about in August. That’s the biggy! Get this kind of cross platform social network integration working and you’re onto a winner. Make your social network the hub for it and you will see immense growth (in my opinion).
I wouldn’t write Google off quite yet. Orkut has a lot of potential and Google have the tools and the muscle to make a big dent in the other social networks traffic graphs!
Filed in facebook, Google, MySpace, orkut, social media, social network, social networking
So the backlash has begun. There are groups on Facebook devoted to keeping it free of the kind of useless apps that are popping up daily on the platform and other groups begging it not to turn into another MySpace (which is interesting when MySpace has recently added structure and clarity to profile layouts). Brad Stone wrote a great article in the NY Times about the proliferation of applications for the platform.
And now we have the ultimate app! Dramatic Whitespace is just that, a square of whitespace which you can place on your profile. Developed by a guy called Adam Bildersee it has 21 active users (not bad for something that does nothing).
I get loads of app requests from friends to become anything from a zombie to a keeper of virtual goldfish. Now none of that adds any value to my experience of Facebook, what I want are apps that add functionality, add value, integrate with other web services I use, deliver me useful information and allow me to make Facebook a homepage for my browser. Currently my homepage is Netvibes (including a Facebook app which means I don’t have to visit the social network too often) which I love, Facebook has a long, long way to go before it could ever provide that much usefulness.
Filed in facebook, MySpace, netvibes, social media, social network, social networking
More subpoenas for Facebook
October 3, 2007
It must be a sign of social networking success I reckon, first NY State now New Jersey State Attorney General Anne Milgram said on Tuesday her office has subpoenaed Facebook to discover whether convicted sex offenders in the state have profiles on the popular social networking site.
Milgram issued the subpoena on Monday to Facebook along with letters to 11 other social networking sites asking them to compare member accounts against a list of sex offenders.
Facebook has until October 12 to respond to the subpoena, which asks for all information concerning any user identified as a convicted sex offender.
I’m sure there will be more to come from other states as they all jump aboard the legal bandwagon with the latest hyper-successful social networking darling!
Filed in facebook, lawsuit, legal, social media, social network, social networking
Rumours are flying about that Facebook is planning it’s own ad network and will end up killing off all the start-ups currently offering those services with Facebook.
It’s natural for Facebook to have the desire to own this itself. After all, the data that’s so attractive to all these start-ups is sitting on their servers and should be under their control, the fact that they opened the doors and let everyone have access won’t matter in their eyes, they can easily shut the pretenders out.
Could be the end of many start-ups working on the best way to integrate ads into Facebook and target them according to the content of profiles.
Of course, Facebook does currently have a deal with Microsoft so they could also be seen as a loser if Facebook do build their own network out.
Filed in advertising, facebook, microsoft, social media, social network, social networking
Facebook offering rewards and javascript
September 18, 2007
Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new rewards system for Facebook developers. They are offering up to $250,000 for new, innovative apps built on the Facebook platform. There’s been a huge rush to build apps resulting in over 4,000 currently (a lot of which are less than impressive), this should see the hype continue in the developer community and maybe tease out some more valuable applications. Anyone can submit their app and they’ll be judged as to their worth with some receiving a cash injection.
In other Facebook news, they’ve announced that they’re brand of JavaScript, the catchily named Facebook Javascript (FBJS), is now out of beta and into version 1.0. This should give developers more hooks into the platform and enable creation of seamless ‘web 2.0′ style applications to embed into users profiles.
So now developers have more tools at hand to try to win a reward for their apps. How long till the platform hits 10,000 apps? I reckon about three months at this rate!
Filed in facebook, javascript, rich internet application, social media, social network, social networking, web 2.0
So what is Yahoo Mash
September 14, 2007
The rumours are flying around after a Yahoo (YHOO) employee mistakenly let the cat out the bag about a new service called Yahoo Mash. Best guesses at the moment are that it’s a social network built on top of exisiting Yahoo 360 technology. Worst guesses are a mashed potato recipe site or that it could just be something to do with presidential debates (how boring!).
Let’s hope it’s a really good social site which will put the cat amongst the pigeons in social networking land!
Facebook opening the floodgates
September 5, 2007
Facebook has announced a new era in their service, the era of no-privacy.
Public search listings are coming from today, while profiles have always been searchable by members, now they can be searched by the public at large too. And more worryingly, your public search listing can also get indexed by search engines like Google now.
Facebook has always seemed to favour the walled garden approach to social networking but this shows they are willing to open up the walls and let the public in.
Personally, I’m not too bothered as I wouldn’t post anything on my Facebook profile that I didn’t want people to see. The people who will be really bothered will be professional networks (Linkedin etc) and white pages search engines as this move brings Facebook firmly into those territories.
Social networking patent up for grabs!
August 31, 2007
Now if I had some spare cash I may be tempted by this!
Forbes report that a groundbreaking patent related to social networking is coming up for auction very soon. The “Jaipuria Patent”, U.S. Patent 7,047,202, and a pending continuation-in-part application, which are amongst the foremost patent filings related to the social networking industry. The Jaipuria Patent was filed in 2001 and claims priority to an earlier application filed in India in 2000 — before the growth of the social networking industry. These patent assets will be offered as Lot 54 at the Ocean Tomo Fall 2007 Live IP Auction on October 25th at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.
The patent involves means for building a user and community driven secure social network, flexible privacy features for users in maintaining their online social network, and a means to refer users to one another via a referral network. In addition, the patent covers a social networking technology that is driven by user privacy features – fundamental to all successful social networking services today. Now that all sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it?
Other features are (quote from Forbes) ‘Among the many social network features disclosed and claimed in the patent and pending application are: fundamental technology used to develop and maintain an online social network; creating an online social network including individual users and groups; searching a social network to identify users and groups for keywords and then identifying a chain of contacts leading to the targeted user or group; flexibility in granting user defined privacy rights and access levels to control availability of user’s personal information and contacts with respect to others in user’s personal and extended network; process of anonymous referral networking using a link by link request forwarding system; and accessing and using social network via the Internet or wireless devices.‘
Now, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo all use these types of functions as fundamental parts of their services. I’m confused as to why the owner of this patent hasn’t tried taking legal action in the past. The only reason I can see for selling this is to try to make money from someone who may use it either in a lawsuit or to sell it to an existing network. Although if it hasn’t been used up to now then I’m a bit sceptical as to its value. Will be interesting to see what it goes for!
Filed in bebo, facebook, lawsuit, linkedin, MySpace, social network, social networking
Trade Unions step into the Facebook argument
August 30, 2007
So we’ve all read the recent reports of businesses banning Facebook, Bebo and MySpace to try to prevent employees wasting time. We’ve also read the stories about recruiters and employers using social networks to check out prospective hires. Now the TUC (Trade Union Congress) have stepped up and issues some guidelines to help employees and employers make informed decisions about usage in the workplace. They also discuss the possibility of it being discriminatory to not hire someone based on their Facebook profile when they might be the only candidate with one (good point!).
There’s some guidelines for TUC members here, and some guidelines aimed at employers here.
It’s quite amazing to see something like this happen. The TUC is generally an old school organisation so to see them tackling this kind of issue is testament to the huge popularity and buzz surrounding social networks at the moment.
Open Friend Format could solve my problems
August 29, 2007
One day…
I’ve been blogging recently about the problems with multiple social networks and keeping in touch with everyone and how good it would be to have open standards and API’s to allow intercommunication and development between platforms.
Well now someone has taken the brave leap to propose and open standard called Open Friend Format. From their blurb: OpenFriend is a set of standards that allows Social Networks to discover any of your friends already on their networks while still protecting your privacy. The ultimate goal is to standardize and make transparent the user experience between importing and exporting of contacts from various social networks. OpenFriend allows for social networks to implement a standardized way of exporting their contacts and discovering relationships between new and existing users. It also allows for sites to generate documents detailing the relationship between people on different social networks.
This is a great step in the right direction and I for one am right behind this push to standardise and aggregate the networks!
