Billy Bragg Wins MySpace Fight

Myspace/News/Article/Gordon Finlayson
Found on: thedigitalmusicweblog

Veteran English rocker Billy Bragg has been well known for his support of left wing causes throughout his prolific career, so he must be pleased with his latest victory - forcing Rupert Murdoch owned MySpace to change their copyright ownership terms and conditions. In May Bragg withdrew his songs from MySpace, in protest over the legal terms and conditions of the site that claimed ownership over any copyrighted materials posted on the service.

As a direct result of Bragg's protest, MySpace has now changed its basic terms and conditions to indicate that it does not claim ownership over any of the materials posted onto the site. It's a good move for MySpace, the adoption of the service by the music industry has given MySpace an edge over competing community sites such as Friendster and the departure of musicians from the service would be a major blow.

Stylehive bookmark of the week!

Stylehive/Social Bookmarking/Web Culture
Found on: Stylehive.com

Description:
For the wine lover short on space, we present this sleek countertop cellar. Three removable steel racks hold up to eleven 750 ml

Price: 179.00 USD

Tags: bar, cooking, home accents, kitchen, refrigerator, wine

URL:http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=210&...

Now only if I had a bottle of Cockburn's 1963 Vintage Port to put in it.

It was fun while it lasted...

Myspace/Social Network/Website
Found on: Datinganyone.com

What was DatingAnyone.com?

DatingAnyone.com was a free service which would monitor a user's Myspace friendslist for any changes in dating status. When the DatingAnyone.com spider detected any changes, it would generate an email alert to the user letting them know which of their friends had changed their dating status and what that change was.

Jared Chandler, the founder of Datinganyone.com was recently sent a cease and desist letter from the lawyers of Myspace, basically shutting down the site. This was the second site that Myspace has shutdown this month, the other being, SingleStat.us, which basically offered the same service...SCARY!

Today's Top 3 Digg Entertainment Stories

Digg/Social Bookmarking/Web Culture
Found on: Digg.com

I thought it would be fun to start posting the top three "NON" tech news stories users are digging on the new and improved Digg version 3.0.

Here's today's top three "Entertainment" stories as of this post:

1) Wolverine Film Confirmed for 2007 Release

From the wow-that-was-fast department comes the news that Fox and Hugh Jackman both confirmed that they will be releasing the X-Men franchise spinoff Wolverine next year.

708 diggs

2) 40 ft statue of Optimus Prime in remote southern China

Even though he towered above me at an awesome 40 ft, it was his proportionate perfection and engineered beauty that made me immediately fall in love with him. His right hand held his gun down by his thigh, the left was raised, pointing in the direction his grand head faced; towards the horizon, towards the future.

675 diggs

3) Clerks II director commentary track to be offered on iTMS

The track will be synced to the scenes of the movie and is meant for movie-going fans to listen to while watching the upcoming sequel to Kevin Smith's Clerks

453 diggs

Now rememeber, depending on the number of diggs these stories get, you may or may not see them on the Entertainment homepage and since Digg version 3 is still in BETA, you will need to have a Digg user account to access "NON" tech containers

social network web service

People Aggregator/Social Network/Web Service
Found on: PeopleAggregator



I first heard about Marc Canter and his social networking site "PeopleAggregator" in an article I read in Wired magazine almost a year ago called "Cracking the Code to Romance". There was a little blurb in the article about how Marc's site was going to be built on (at the time) an untested open source protocol called FOAF (friend of a friend).

Almost three years after the article was written, the site has finally gone live.

So what's so special about the site and why did it take so long to launch?

Michael Arrington from Techcrunch put it best:

PeopleAggregator is the product of 3 years of self funded work by Canter to bridge the gap between all the online social networking services available and move the industry towards a standards-based place of collaboration. I took a look inside the system today and talked to Canter on the phone. I wasn’t convinced that this was important before today - but now I am.

While others like Garrick Van Buren from MNteractive weren't impressed.

Three years to get anything off the ground is a long time but that's almost an eternity for a social network start up -- there's got to be something special about this site, right?

Review Pending

Cork'd Social Networking for Wine lovers!

Corkd/Social Networking/Web Site/Wine
Found on: Corkd.com

My wife Molly and I went to a dinner party that our friends Derek and Kasey hosted last night at their home in Los Angeles. Wow, we had the best time; awesome food, fantastic company and OMG - THE WINE!

Okay, guess this is a good time to segue into my blog entry:

Corkd.com is new social networking website that Dan Cederholm (one of my all time favorite web designers and personal hero of mine) and his partner in crime Dan Benjamin started due to a mutual "like" for wine and it's ability to act as a design enhancer.

I'll let Dan give you a quick overview of the site in his own words:

The basic gist of Cork’d is this: after painlessly creating a free account, you’re able to keep track of wines you’ve tried in your Wine Journal. You can rate, review and tag wines (more on that below), and these “tasting notes” end up attached as comments to each wine in our database. You can also build a Shopping List of wines you’d like to buy (think of this like you would a Netflix queue), and a Wine Cellar for wines that you own. Keeping track of what your friends are tasting is as easy as adding them as a Drinking Buddy. You can also recommend wines to your buddies after you’ve rated and reviewed a bottle.

I created a user account on Corkd a few weeks ago but never really got around to try it out. Don't get me wrong, it's a great looking site and I like wine just as much as the next guy but I just didn't see the need to write about the 10 dollar Pinot Noir I got at Trader Joe's last week or any other wine for that matter -- until last night.

Right before dessert, Derek reached down to a cabinet near the dinning room table, (this is where he stored the "good stuff" not to be confused with the "really good stuff" that he has stashed in some closet in the house) he get's back up with a bottle of Port, it's a Cockburn's (pronounced Coh-burns) 1963 Vintage Port . He starts to fill everyone's glasses.

I admit it, the name made me giggle but after I swirled it around in my glass, starred at the deep red color and inhaled the pungent aroma, the giggles were quickly replaced with "ohhs and ahhs". And then after I took my first sip, it hit me like a ton of fermented grapes; this wine has just transcended every other "OMG, this wine is amazing" experience I've ever had - I owe you Derek!

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, this sweet like candy and perfectly aged Port straight from the "Douro Superior" region of Portugal was paired with an assortment of "cheese snobbish" type cheeses - some soft, some hard and some extra moldy and I swear, I thought I had died and gone to the Fine Living Network. And when I finally came back down to earth from my state of Nirvana, I knew right then and there that the Cockburn's 1963 Vintage Port would have to be my first post on Corkd.com.

So without any further ado, here is my first ever "Wine Journal" entry:










Wine Journal#1

Can you Digg.com it!

Digg/Web Site/Social Bookmarking
Found on: Digg.com

Kevin Rose and his team of developers just released Digg 3.0 and man is it cool!

My favorite new feature is something called "containers", this feature adds a whole new dynamic to the site and makes the user experience so much more intuitive.

Here's what Kevin had to say about it:

"We are launching what we call containers which are groups of topics bundled together.

"So inside of Digg, when you go to the new home page, you’ll see containers on the left-hand-side that can collapse and expand to display all the different topics that reside in the containers.

"All the existing topics we have for technology will be bundled inside the technology container, and we have other containers: science, world and business, entertainment and gaming.

"We are also launching for the first time the ability to Digg things other than news and we are launching a container for videos online.

"We want to be the clearing house for all things, Youtube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and we'll have several topics that will fall into that videos container."

They've also added several new topics like "Entertainment", "World and Business", "Gaming" and the aforementioned "Videos", these new topics will definately appeal to a bigger, more mainstream audience and should really differentiate Digg from the likes of "Slashdot" and it's tech only news content.

Digg is social bookmarking at it's best and it looks like all the Digg wannabes have a lot of work ahead of them to catch up to this new and improved version .

I'll end with this, in the imortal words of Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs from the movie "The Warriors"; "Can you digg it suckas!?"

Apparel brand gets 'Second Life'

Second Life/News/Article/Nicole Girard
Found on: CNET News.com

American Apparel, a fashion brand known for its ability to make cotton shorts and leotards hip and sexy, has entered a new realm.

The retailer, which has 80 locations nationwide, is adding one more. As soon as this weekend, it will open a store on a private island in the virtual world of "Second Life," Mark Wallace said in a 3PointD.com blog Thursday.

Video: Meet the virtual worlds maven

Second Life/News/Interview/Video
Found on: CNET News.com

Linden Lab--where 'Second Life' is first

At Supernova2006 in San Francisco, Linden Lab founder and CEO Philip Rosedale appears in the flesh and talks with CNET News.com's Neha Tiwari about real-world events.

CNET Video
5 minutes 43 seconds

This Social Networking Site Means Business

LinkedIN/Social Networks/News/Article/Pete Barias
Found on: Yahoo News!




Few if any social networking Web sites, and none of the big ones, have yet claimed to make money. But one has come close.

Konstantin Guericke says the site he co-founded, LinkedIn, broke even last quarter.

Whereas MySpace and most of the other social net sites depend on ad revenue, LinkedIn is going the subscription route.

By focusing strictly on business -- as opposed to friends, music, videos, photos or hobbies -- and working to assure the "quality" of its network, LinkedIn is selling more and more subscriptions to individuals and businesses, Guericke says.

Youtube and Sony partner up?

Youtube/Web Culture/Videos/Contest
Found on: Youtube

Sony Pictures and partner, You Tube, are joining forces to select an official Sony Pictures Comic-Con blogger! Comic-Con International is the largest comic and pop culture festival in North America.



Here's the Skinny:

• STEP 1 : MAKE YOUR VIDEO
• STEP 2 : SIGN IN TO YOU TUBE & UPLOAD YOUR VIDEO
• STEP 3 : JOIN THE GROUP & ADD YOUR VIDEO

User Submissions as of this post:

video submitted by:
AngiBear





video submitted by:
mistersh0w






PRIZE DESCRIPTION :

After July 7th, a panel of judges from Sony Pictures Entertainment will select one lucky winner who will receive roundtrip airfare for two to San Diego, CA, four nights standard hotel accomodations, two tickets to Comic-Con and a Cyber-shot® DSC-S600 Digital Camera. Total ARV of Grand Prize: $2,829.99.

Looks like Sony's marketing monkeys are trying to use social networks to find new ways to penetrate the "Fanboy" demo.

There will undoubtedly be hundreds of blog posts about this contest all over the net submitted by the aforementioned "Fanboys", getting Sony and Youtube more pub - it's brilliant!

See you at Comic Con - Fanboy.

What's your NICHE?

MOG/Niche/Social Network/Web Site/Music
Found on: MOG

MOG, a music-oriented social netowork that just launched last week threw their hat in what analysts are calling the "NICHE" social network space.

Other niche networks like imbee and Mommybuzz (reviews pending) all focus on just a few things that make them stand out, so instead of being the all-in-one, do everything and slow as hell hangout site, the niche networks actually allow you to get things done.

Okay, back to MOG -- what is it and why MOG?

Here's what the kids from MOG are saying:

Creating a MOG lets you share your musical side like nothing else. Our "MOG-O-MATIC" application creates a basic MOG page for you, so your friends can see your music collection and the artists, albums and songs you actually listen to. As you collect and listen to music, MOG-O-MATIC keeps score for the world to see. Customizing and making your page an extension of your musical soul is made easy. And you can even add MOG to your Blog or MySpace page. Just register for MOG, then download MOG-O-MATIC and get your page up and running. Then explore what some other moggers are into. MOG is FREE.

Site Features:

• Find others like your badass self. MOG automatically points the way.
• Express your thoughts on music and everything else. MOG supports full blogging.
• Man still reigns supreme over machine? Who wins? The MOG brain or your brain?

MOG may ultimately become just as cluttered and full of the same crap that's found on the general purpose sites like Myspace and Bebo but for now, it has everything I look for in a social network; easy to use tools, a community vibe, great content and creative people all sharing their "niche", our passion for music!

Hit me up on my MOG page:
http://mog.com/Mochipopstar

Stylehive bookmark of the week!

Stylehive/Social Bookmarking/Web Culture/Fashion
Found on: Stylehive.com

I love tee shirts! I love wearing them and I love collecting them -- in fact, I collect them like a little kids collects yugioh playing cards...okay, maybe not, but if I had the money, I would.

Tonight, while I was bookmarking new favorite things on my Stylehive page, I ran across this little gem:



Maryink is the name of the company and they specializes in woman's clothing and accesories.

Our solid t-shirts are printed on the highest quality 100% cotton jersey. These feature exposed side seams and unfinished bottom and sleeve hems. These run a bit small, so order a size up if you are unsure about the fit.

I'm going to get this shirt for my wife Molly...shh, don't tell her, it's a surprise!

The shirt's on my Hive page -- go check it out for yourself!

Three In Five Teens Visit Social Networking Sites

Myspace/News/Article/Wendy Davis
Found on: publications.mediapost.com

Media Post Publications is reporting some really interesting statistics:

MORE THAN THREE OUT OF five Web users between the ages of 13 and 17 have visited social networking sites like MySpace, with the majority of those who visit also joining such sites, according to a new study of teens' online media habits by Burst Media.

Teens also gave the Web high marks for providing information about entertainment. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said the Internet was the best source for information about music acts; teens' impression of TV, radio and word-of-mouth was not as favorable, with about 17 percent citing each of those media as the best source for information about bands. In addition, 26 percent of respondents said Web sites were the best places to learn about TV shows they like or new movies, compared to television (29 percent), word of mouth (16 percent), local newspapers (10 percent), magazines (6 percent), and radio (3 percent).

Myspace cost Rupert and Fox $600m but with numbers like this, the skys the limit to what Myspace can be worth one day...sucks for Tom.

Stephen Colbert and Congressman

Youtube/Social Network/Web Culture/Video
Found on: Youtube.com

Stephen Colbert asks Congressman, the one who sponsored the bill to display the 10 commandments in Congress, to name the 10 commandments.



Youtube Stats:

Views: 60,818

Comments: 95

Favorited: 267 times

Some of my favorite comments:

chaminex (14 hours ago)

This "dumb ass" got elected by the dumb asses in pickup trucks
and Reb.flags who live and vote in Georgia.

ekai (8 hours ago)

why do people continue to elect IDIOTS to Congress? no need to answer, it's rhetorical.

The best way to share everything?

Multiply/Website/Social Network/Review
Found on: Multiply.com

Is there room for another social network? If it were up to Peter Pezaris, CEO of Multiply.com there is, and here's why:

Multiply gives you an easy way to share all kinds of digital content, including photos, blogs, videos, music and more, all in one convenient place: your own personal web site. With Multiply, you can share and discuss your stuff with everyone in your "social network," and also be alerted whenever they have something new.

Your personal web site on Multiply - http://YOURNAME.multiply.com - is the one place where you can share many different types of content. No longer do you, or your friends and family, need to learn how to use separate sites (and keep track of separate IDs, passwords, and links). Multiply lets you do all of the following:

• post digital photos, videos and music
• publish your own blog
• schedule events and parties on your social calendar
• share movie or restaurant reviews

Using one of the many site templates, it literately took me just a few clicks to set-up my Multiply web site and I was up and running in no time. The GUI was very easy to navigate so things like uploading images and videos was very simple to do.

At the end of the day, the social network looks and feels solid but it lacks the "cool factor" that sites like Myspace and Tagworld have. That said, if you're looking for a no frills, straight forward, Mother in-law friendly clone, Multiply.com is the site to use.

Flock you - I'm on Myspace!

Myspace/Web Culture/Advertising/Spotlight
Found on: Myspace



What do you do when you have an upstart web browser that has all these cool features like "Social Browsing" and "Flickr intergration" and you want get the word out on the street so you can start competing with the big boys? Easy, you get a Myspace page and start building your friends list.

Here's some info I found on "Flock Web Browser's" Myspace page.

Flock Web Browser's Interests

Groups: Flockstars, Aerosmith Fans

Flock Web Browser's Details

Status: Single Ethnicity: Other Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Here's my favorite comment someone left on Flock Web Browser's Myspace page:

Holy crap, that was easy! Thanks, Flockers, for letting me browse through all my Photobucket friends and drag and drop pics into MySpace comments.

I've been using Flock on and off since late 2005 and yes, they've had their share of issues but if there is anything I can say about these guys, they know their user base and they have a good pulse on what we want in a web browser and what we look for in a Myspace friend ;) -- good luck Flock Web Browser!

Open for Business

Second Life/Web Culture/Business
Found on: Second Life

It's been a few days now since I posted my blog entry on Nylon Pickney's Second Life store "Nylon Outfitters", a store that sells nothing but virtual products. This really made me think about some of the great businesses opportunities that are out there for someone with a good idea and some real world or should I say "in-world" ingenuity.

So I went online and searched around Second Life's website and found this:

There are as many opportunities for innovation and profit in Second Life as in the Real World. Open a nightclub, sell jewelry, become a land speculator; the choice is yours to make. Thousands of residents are making part or all of their real life income from their Second Life Businesses.

By way of example, here are just a few in-world business occupations which Residents founded and currently run, and make part or all of their real life living from. Try searching for these categories via the in-world Find menu:

Here are my top 5 "in-world"occupations:

1. party and wedding planner (yes, people are getting married in SL)

2. machinima set designer

3. casino operator

4. tattooist

5. hug maker (not sure what this occupation is but it sounds like fun)

Man and to think my parents thought I spent way too much time playing Dungeons and Dragons!

Read "Business Weeks" cover story on SL; Virtual World, Realy Money.

Myspace popularity contest!

Trackyourspace/Myspace/Web Culture/Web Site
Found on: Trackyourspace.com

Trackyourspace is a daily Myspace contest.

The site keeps track of unique visits to your Myspace page and ranks you based on the results. Once you sign up and get an account you can add a tracker to your Myspace page which allows your friends or other Myspace members to vote for you.

How many JibJabs does it take to change a light bulb?

JibJab/Social Network/Website
Found on: jokebox.com

The JibJab brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis have created a new social netowrk they describe as a cross between Comedy Central and Myspace.

Jokebox.com is a place to store your favorite email jokes, funny videos, pictures and written jokes all in one place to share with your friends or people you meet online.

Like Myspace and the millions of Myspace clones, you create a profile page, customize it, add new friends. That's it, now just sit back and relax and start sharing the laughs!

24 thousand friends and counting?

Myspace/ebay/Auction/Business
Found on: ebay

I admit it, I'm a ebay junkie but these days instead of searching for new Bape shoes or Fred Perry track jackets, I'm trolling around ebay for social network related auctions - yikes.

Tonight, I found this little gem: auction item number 9530991379, it's an auction for a 24 thousand plus friends' Myspace account, here's the auction description:

You're looking/Bidding on a myspace account, This is my own account, Which i don't need anymore, There's a bit over 24,000 friends, It could have a little less, Or a little more by the time the auction ends.
IE: 24,000 could have 23,970, Or 24,100, ect.
This is a one day auction only, I don't neeed the account anymore, And i rarely use it, It's great for:

Advertising, Clothing lines, Bands, People wanting more friends in general, Music industry, Record lables & so much more.

It's only a one day auction and as of this post, there's only three hours left on it...hmm, I wonder if my wife would mind if I blew four hundred dollars on a Myspace account; did I tell you I was an ebay junkie?

Meet the Habbos!

Habbo/Web Site/Virtual Community
Found on: Habbo

Habbo is a FREE virtual community for anyone aged 13 years or older where you can hang out with your friends, make new ones, create and design your own personal room, and take part in many activities and contests or even make your own!

The game is centered around Habbos, virtual
representations of users of the service. These Habbos can be dressed by each user individually using pre-supplied virtual clothing. Each character has a different name, and they are identified within the service solely by this name. The service's other focus point is virtual furni, which can be bought by Habbos using credits bought via a variety of methods, including SMS, home phone, and money order. This furniture can also be traded between users.

The service began in 2000, and since then it has expanded to 17 countries, making it one of the largest online communites on the Internet.

(source: wikipedia)

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft competing for MySpace search advertising business

Myspace/News/Article/Donna Bogatin
Found on: ZDNet

News Corp. is exploring a “strategic combination” to better monetize search at its MySpace.com property and is approaching Microsoft, Yahoo and Google to evaluate the optimal way to grow MySpace search revenues.

Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp., said, according to AP reports: We will redesign the pages to make search more prominent…We will auction off our search business to Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Datelyne.com Online Social Network for sale?

Social Networks/ebay/Auction/Business
Found on: ebay

Anyone in the market for a social networking site? Well if you play your cards right you may be able to get one on the cheap.

Just log onto ebay and make a bid for Item number: 7629263270! So far the auction has one bid from some user named fxm28ow but fortunately for me it hasn't met the reserve yet -- I still have a chance ;).

Here's a part of the ebay item description:

Up for auction is a social networking site called Datelyne.com! This site has had over 15,000 hits and over 325 users in just a few months of operation! I created this site with the intent to offer a free match making site for the people. I am also including the following domains. DuraDate.com and D8lyne.com both mapped to http://www.Datelyne.com.

Features of the site:

• -Free Live Intergrated Chat with Mp3 player!
• -Send and receive emails
• -Instant messanger
• -Upload over 30 pictures (public and private photo galleries)
• -Featured members areas
• -Full forum built in as well
• -Site is set up to be viewed in 11 languages and much more...
• -Advertisment space on the site!
  

You got 3 days 15 hours and counting -- happy bidding!

Martha Stewart plans online women's social network

Social Networks/News/Article/Staff Writers
Found on: Reuters

The network would appeal to women aged 25 to 45, and allow members to share photographs, scrapbooks, recipes and similar projects with each other and home design experts, said the company's chief executive, Susan Lyne.

"There is no place like MySpace, like Friendster, for that demographic," Lyne said at a financial conference.

The social network would be part of the Marthastewart.com Web site, founded by lifestyle expert Martha Stewart, rather than a separate Web site like MySpace.

Youtube Second Life Machinima commercials?

Youtube/Second Life/Marketing
Found on: Youtube

Nylon Outfitters is a "Virtual" store that sells virtual clothing, cameras and other v-products in the immensely popular online world Second Life.

Nylon Pickney, the owner of Nylon Outfitters decided to promote her products by producing three machinima commericals and posting them onto Youtube for both virtual and non virtual world to view.

Here are the links to the commercials found on Nylon Pickney's blog Newly Born:

-Video Camping is for the Camcorder, its a horror parody. Its more of a short movie then a commercial, but its definitley my favorite, its a little longer compared to the other two.

-Beatiful is for the 35mm (my favorite camera) and its about a photo project to take something beautiful.

-The Motel is for the Polorid, its about what happens when a guy, a couple of drinks, a polorid camera, and a pair of legs are put in the same room.

Sells have gone up with all the new exposure and things couldn't look any brighter for Nylon Pickney and her store's future.

Nylon Pickney's Youtube profile page

Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking

Tickle/Website/Social Network
Found on: tickle.com

Tickle Social Network is the first social networking product to deliver deep user profiles that go beyond basic demographic data to include group affiliations, career history, and personality traits.

The Tickle Social Network provides user profiles that are deep in self-knowledge and self-expression. The unique profiles reflect career/university and other group affiliations as well as qualitative attributes such as personality traits, and career aspirations, resulting from users taking Tickle's tests.






*review coming

Next Target: Cell Phones

Social Networks/News/Article/Knowledge@Wharton
Found on: informit.com

Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless are starting a service that will allow users to post messages on Facebook’s home pages or search for other users’ phone numbers and email addresses from a cell phone. MySpace has a pact with Helio, a wireless joint venture between SK Telecom and Earthlink, that will allow users to send photos and update their blogs or profiles by cell phone.

According to ComScore Media Metrix, Myspace, with its 70 million users, ranks second behind Yahoo in pages viewed and time spent on the site. Facebook, founded by a 21-year-old student on leave from Harvard and backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, has 7.3 million registered users.

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

Social Networks/News/Article/Paul Marks
Found on: www.newscientist.com

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals

Pornstar promotion lead to Myspace Advertiser Revolt

Myspace/News/Article/Tom Tapp
Found on: hollywood wiretap

Hollywood WireTap.com reported recently that the biggest porn stars in the world are using NewsCorp's MySpace.com to promote themselves, sometimes to teenagers, sometimes on pages replete with ad support from corporations like T Mobile and Weight Watchers.

As a result, Weight Watchers has pulled its advertising from the site. "Our rep has issued an immediate order to pull our ads from MySpace," says company spokesperson Grace Ann Arnold. "We'll be reevaluating that buy." T Mobile is "working with MySpace to rectify" the situation, according to the company's Tom Harlin.

Social Media Sites Start Snagging Big-Name Marketers

Social Networks/News/Article/Gavin O'Malley
Found on: adage.com

Attempting Internet alchemy, MySpace has been busy turning its immense popularity into revenue. In the last month, it has launched a microsite sponsored by Pepsi-Cola's Sierra Mist for aspiring and established comedians, and entered a sponsorship deal with Walt Disney Pictures to build buzz for this summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

Wendy's integration strategy
Wendy's, which is the exclusive site sponsor through this month, is hoping for a little of that creative magic to rub off. "Bolt amplifies the creative energy that has become a defining characteristic of this generation," explained Robyn Simburger, Wendy's director-media. "Wendy's partners with companies that integrate our brand with dynamic programs that foster community and collaboration."

Visitors statistics of US social networking sites

Social Networks/News/Article/Jeff Clavier
Found on: blog.softtechvc.com

Quite stunning to see that 23% of US Internet users are visiting MySpace (1 in 4).

It would also be very interesting to see the percentage of overlap among visitors of these services.

AIM meets MySpace

AIM PAGES/News/Article/Kevin Maney
Found on: pressconnects.com

So what's coming? Well, for one, the whole MySpace personal Web page phenomenon is about to merge with instant messaging. This will start with AOL's AIM Pages, which AOL Executive Vice President James Bankoff calls "a social network optimized for real-time communications." I doubt that's the marketing slogan.

AIM Pages itself is a MySpace competitor. But it takes the concept another step by connecting the pages to AIM's instant messaging.

Social Networks are the New Media

Myspace/News/Article/Robert Young
Found on: gigaom.com

No one can argue that MySpace has been the “it girl” for the past year. And the fact that she belongs to Rupert Murdoch only seems to have heightened the envy, and gotten everyone’s knickers in a twist. As a result, it seems that nearly every media company and venture capital fund on the planet is out on the dance floor stumbling over one another to see if they can identify the next breathless social networking beauty.

Yet in all this craziness, it would behoove those looking into this space to step back for a moment, take a deep breath, and realize something fundamental… social networking is a micro-phenomenon of a much larger macro-trend that the Internet has spawned since its birth… digital self-expression. And today’s social networks (along with other forms of social media, like blogging and online video-sharing) are just the tip of iceberg when it comes to the long-term potential of digital self-expression.

Hitwise Data Shows Overall Visits to Video Search Sites Up 164%

Youtube/News/Article/Staff Writers
Found on: hitwise.com

New York, May 24, 2006 –According to Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, the market share of Internet visits to the 10 leading online video sites has increased by 164 percent in the past three months (week ending May 20, 2006 versus week ending February 25, 2006).

Video sharing site YouTube saw the most traffic among video sites, accounting for 43 percent of category visits for the week ending May 20, 2006 and ranking at number 42 among the more than 500,000 sites tracked by Hitwise. YouTube’s market share of visits has increased by 160 percent in the last three months (week ending May 20, 2006 versus week ending February 25, 2006), keeping it well above MySpace Videos, which saw a increase in market share of 3,825 percent during the same period. Other rapidly growing sites in the category in that period were Grouper (up 765 percent) and Daily Motion (up 300 percent).

·YouTube — 42.94%
· MySpace Videos — 24.22%
· Yahoo! Video Search — 9.58%
· MSN Video Search — 9.21%
· Google Video Search — 6.48%
· AOL Video — 4.28%
· iFilm (owned by MTV/Viacom) — 2.28%

Online Shopping - Bees buzzing for the best?

Stylehive/News/Article/Beth Hughes
Found on: sfgate.com

Paris has the grand dame of flea markets, Le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen. In Marrakesh, it's suuq. Kyoto offers temple markets, Minneapolis, the Mall of America. As is true of all alluring retail districts, shopping in such places is elevated from mere hunting and gathering into a social, even sensual event, one filled with assessing, touching, smelling, discussing what's on offer.

Stylehive, a new Web site based in San Francisco, wants to do the same for online shopping. Think of it as Flickr and MySpace with a hangtag or assembly instructions.

Describing itself as offering "social bookmarking for the product and shopping obsessed," it targets a global community of people "who are really passionate about finding and sharing the coolest stuff," says founder and "king bee" Michael Carrier, an entrepreneur with a robust and successful Web-based resume.

It is, he believes, a notion that combines technology and trendsetting fashion, shopping and online retail. "A lot of things have converged, and we're in the right place at the right time. Eighty percent of shopping online is research ... what to buy, where to buy it, comparing prices."

Learn how to create a buzz?

Popist/Social Network/Website/Review
Found on: Popist.com

Popist claims they can show you how to create a buzz.

All you have to do is become a member, create a profile page and set-up your Hotlist...what's a Hotlist you ask? It's basically a place to showcase your favorite music, fashion, video games, tech toys, books -- you get the picture.

You then start earning Buzz points by finding things first, loading them to your Hotlist and watch your score go up when other Popist users add things on your Hotlist to theirs. And finally, see how you rank with other Popist users by getting your Buzz ranked.

Here's my current Hotlist Buzz:



Popist isn't just another Myspace clone, it's more of a hybrid of Myspace and digg with plenty of unique features that will keep you coming back for more -- consider yourself BUZZED.