NEWS: Sweden to open first virtual embassy in Second Life

News/Social Networks/Second Life
Found on: reuters.com

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Nordic country in Scandinavia. It is bordered by Norway in the west, Finland in the northeast, the Skagerrak Strait and the Kattegat Strait in the southwest...uh, okay whatever, here's my point: I just went to Wikipedia and ran a search for "Sweden" to get this info but in a couple of weeks, you'll be able to go to Sweden's virtual embassy called the "House of Sweden" in Second Life and get answers to questions on all aspects of Sweden.

Reuters post:

Sweden plans to be the first country to open an embassy in popular virtual world Second Life.

"It will have answers to questions on all aspects of Sweden," Olle Wastberg, general director of the Swedish Institute, an organization which promotes the country's image abroad, said on Tuesday.

The embassy will be called House of Sweden and modeled on the country's new embassy in Washington. It will open in a couple of weeks.

NEWS: Ford To Use Video, Music To Snare Buyers

News/Web Culture/Youth Trends/Steve Miller
Found on: brandweek.com

In an attempt to entertain and educate potential new customers, Ford just launched a new video podcast based on their urban-centric SUV "The Edge," entitled "The Edge Music Videocast" (which is slatted to be a year-long series), will have free downloadable videos and music files from other popular pod and vod cast sites.

BrandWeek post:

Ford on Wednesday will kick off a year-long series of monthly video podcasts, or vodcasts, that will include music videos and content promoting the Edge crossover, which hit the market late last year.

Called “The Edge Music Videocast,” the free video broadcasts can be downloaded to portable media players from a number of popular pod and vodcast Web sites. The first installment will include videos with A-list hipster cache: Cat Power, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolfmother and Gomez.

NEWS: Fox subpoenas YouTube after "24" clips posted

News/Web Culture/YouTube/Andrew Wallenstein
Found on: today.reuters.co.uk


Someone's in big trouble...Fox just served YouTube with a subpoena to try to identify the person or persons that uploaded entire episodes of their hit series "24" and "The Simpsons".

Some of the episodes of 24 actually appeared on YouTube prior to the premiere of the new season - yikes!

Reuters UK post:

20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena Wednesday demanding the Google-owned viral video site disclose the identity of a user who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of primetime series "24" and "The Simpsons."

The subpoena, which first came to light on the blog Google Watch (http://googlewatch.eweek.com/index.html), was granted by a judge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after being filed by the News Corp.-owned studio on January 18. It is not yet known whether YouTube has complied with the request.

In addition, a second, lesser-known video site, LiveDigital, was also served with a similar subpoena.

NEWS: MySpace confirms upcoming launch of Mexican version

News/Social Networking/Myspace/Caroline McCarthy
Found on: news.com

With a soft-launch already rocking on the web, News Corp has just confirmed that it has launched a Mexican version of Myspace -- Viva La Myspace!

Cnet News post:

MySpace.com has confirmed rumors that it will be launching a Spanish-language version of the popular social-networking service for Mexican users.

Word of "MySpace Mexico" began to spread on Tuesday when information about the site leaked to entertainment news site Billboard.com.

Travis Katz, head of international media for News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, of which MySpace is a subsidiary, on Wednesday confirmed the development of the site to CNET News.com. According to Katz, the site has been "soft-launched," meaning that a preliminary version is live but that MySpace doesn't inform anyone of it and does not direct any traffic there.

"It's really a testing phase for us, not something we're pushing out," Katz said. "That phase normally lasts about two weeks, and then we move into what we call our beta launch."

NEWS: Beyond Google: Social Media Engines First, Other Search Engines Second

News/Social Bookmarking/Google/David Sullivan
Found on: searchengineland.com

According to Sullivan's post on Seacrch Engine Land, people that are looking beyond Google to search the internet are flocking to social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit -- this could mean big trouble for Yahoo and MSN.

Search Engine Land post:

I've never encouraged a "Google First" or "Google Only" mentality for search marketers to follow. This is where you focus only on Google, figuring the other major search engines don't matter. Instead, I've said that all the search engines are important traffic channels to pursue. Don't forget the search engines beyond Google! But over the past few weeks, I've found myself more and more thinking that if you want to go beyond Google as a search marketer, the other search engines that matter first are the "social media search engines." After them come the other major general purpose search engines like Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.

NEWS: Web buzz-wise, the Hot shows this Fall

News/Web Culture/Television/Diego Vasquez
Found on: medialifemagazine.com



I got about 2o minutes to write this post before the new season premiere of my favorite television show Heroes airs, so here it is: NBC's hit series Heroes is generating a lot of Web-based buzz but what does that really mean for ratings?

Media Life Magazine post:

Most media people agree that NBC’s new fall shows look the most promising among the five English-language networks, and apparently web users agree with them. According to a new report released by PropheSEE, the online buzz monitoring arm of Interpublic’s Consumer Experience Practice, four new NBC shows rank among the top five in amount of buzz generated online about the new season. In fact, NBC generated a dominant 57 percent of online buzz, compared with second-place ABC at 18 percent. NBC’s “Heroes,” the drama about people who think they have special powers, ranked No. 1 at 26 percent of all buzz, followed by the network’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” with 20.4 percent. Fox’s “Vanished” was No. 3, followed by NBC’s “30 Rock” and “Friday Night Lights.” But the question is whether that actually means anything good for NBC.

NEWS: Indie music labels create Merlin to conjure licensing deals

News/Social Networks/Music
Found on: news.com



Looks like the indie music scene as we know it will never be the same - a group called Merlin formed by "players" in the independent music sector just signed a deal with Snocap allowing their label's music to be sold via downloads on websites like Myspace and other popular social networks and from the looks of it, this is just the beginning. This move along with other future licensing deals will essentially make Merlin the fifth major music distributor in the world, the other four being: Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music Group.

News.com post:

The world's independent music sector, which has produced such artists as the Arctic Monkeys, has grouped together to launch an agency to secure licensing deals with emerging media such as MySpace and YouTube.

The group, called Merlin, was launched at the annual MidemNet music industry conference with its backers saying it would become the "fifth major" in the industry.

The launch follows the rapid growth in popularity of sites like YouTube, where fans post video clips carrying their choice of music without permission from copyright holders.

NEWS: Social Retailing- Combining Social Networking and Shopping

News/Social Networking/Youth Trends/Amanda Gore
Found on: fashion.psfk.com

Could this be the "killer app" retailers have been waiting for? The technology that will bridge the gap between popular social network websites (e.g. Myspace, Bebo, Facebook) and real world profits aka - cha-ching!

Amanda Gore reports in her article how Social Retailing technology uses an in-store three-paneled "magic mirror" that can send photos or videos of shoppers in outfit options to their MySpace page or to friend's emails and mobiles for instant opinions.

Fashion PSFK post:

Interactive services firm IconNicholson has created a new type of in-store experience that combines social networking and shopping, known as Social Retailing.

Demonstrated at the National Retail Federation conference earlier this week, the Social Retailing technology uses a three-paneled "magic mirror" in-store that can send photos or videos of shoppers in outfit options to their MySpace page or to friend's emails and mobiles for instant opinions. Friends 'yes' or 'no' votes are then visible on the mirror itself. The interactive technology also allows customers to see what others have purchased, view similar options that are not in stock in the store, check out using MasterCard SecureCode and have their orders delivered to their home.

NEWS: Universal Turns to Social Nets

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Brian Morrissey
Found on: adweek.com

How cool is this - Universal Pictures launched a Second Life in-world promotion (action game) that's giving away a million "Linden" dollars and all you have to do is hunt down other players with your weapon of choice.



Adweek post:

Universal Pictures is looking to connect with young moviegoers in new places for its upcoming release, Smokin' Aces.

The studio is complementing more traditional advertising on TV and Web sites with a Second Life action game that will let users hunt each other down for the opportunity to win a share of 1 million Linden dollars, the metaverse's
virtual currency, or about $3,750. It is also running a widget campaign that encourages movie fans to spread the word by placing trailers on their blogs and MySpace profiles.

NBWS: Interactive campaigns build buzz with fun

News/Web Culture/Youth Trends/Laura Petrecca
Found on: usatoday.com

Here are two examples of great buzz branding websites that advertisers are using to reach out to their client's customers online.

1) OfficeMax did it with their holiday promotion ElfYourself.com

2) M&M's the "character creator" on its new BecomeAnMM.com which was promoted during Tuesday night's season premier of American Idol.

Viral marketing is key these days to get the consumer to pass along the product message -- believe the hype!

USA TODAY post:

Some marketers are getting personal in their viral marketing as they continue to invent ways to interact with consumers online and try to get them to pass along the product message.

Today, job site CareerBuilder.com will announce the launch of Age-O-Matic.com, a site where consumers can upload a photo of a themselves or someone else, alter the image in a way that ages the person about 50 years and pass the result on to others via e-mail. The underlying message: The stresses of a bad job will age you.

A Brick in the Toilet

Web Culture/Myspace/Green
Found on: Popyourit!

I just spent the last hour trolling through Myspace trying to find subject matter for future posts — sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t, but tonight was one of those lucky nights.

The Myspace “Myplanet” profile page promotes greener living and has a lot of great links to other green-centric profiles.

My Planet blurbs:

In 1983, a group of determined students in Southern California were sent home by their teachers on a mission to help combat a serious drought. They promptly dropped bricks into their toilets, and reduced water waste in their households by more than a third. Today, as a result of what we now call the “California Toilet Revolution”, the states sell only ultra low-flush toilets, and saves enough water to fill 28 gallons jugs per household, each day. If you have a toilet, and it is not a ULF, you can easily find one.

NEWS: Boost Mobile and RETNA Team up to Present an Exclusive Mobile Art Content Collaboration

News/Youth Trends/Mobile/Artist
Found on: businesswire.com



Renowned graffiti and street artist, RETNA has partnered with urban niche - mobile service provider, Boost Mobile to offer exclusive content to their wireless customers.

Business Wire post:

Boost Mobile today announced an exclusive content deal with Los Angeles-based artist RETNA offering its youth wireless customers an opportunity to own and experience a piece of artwork from the renowned artist on their Boost Mobile phone, for a fraction of the high gallery fees.

“We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with talented artists such as RETNA, and are pioneering in our efforts to differentiate this high quality content,” said Jeff Park, director of business development for Boost Mobile. “We are developing an intense and immersive experience on the web that is consistent with the quality of the artist’s work and enables Boost customers to experience their art in a meaningful way.”

On display at Boost Mobile’s Street Culture Lounge and Gold Box Mission during the MAGIC and ASR tradeshows, the partnership with RETNA expanded beyond wireless content. Boost Mobile also plans to collaborate with the artist to design limited edition mobile accessory collections, as well as other products that are relevant to mobile communication and pop culture. Boost Mobile’s support of a creative lifestyle, culture and attitude is represented by this exclusive deal as an extension of the brand’s commitment to enhancing the youth wireless experience.

NEWS: Edwards reaching voters in cyberspace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Jamie Shuman
Found on: heraldsun.com

If Barak Obama decides not to run for President in 2008, a) That would totally suck. b) I'll have to take a hard look at John Edwards. c)Tom from Myspace could be his running mate.

On John Edwards campaign web site, you can find links to his MySpace and Facebook pages.

Herald Sun's post:

His Facebook page says he likes basketball and Bruce Springsteen, as well as "fighting poverty," "stopping the genocide in Darfur" and the "The Shawshank Redemption."

On MySpace, the Chapel Hill resident tells the cyber-world that he's a Gemini with a graduate degree and a job. The 53-year-old is married and a "proud parent," but, rest assured, he is interested in networking and making friends.

The local Gemini is John Edwards, and as he begins his presidential campaign from this small town, he is making big use of the new media to reach perspective voters and donors.

Second Life Screening of Four Eyed Monsters - Update

Web Culture/Second Life/Video
Found on: Youtube.com

Well, the premiere SL screening of "Four Eyed Monsters" came and went and wouldn't you know it, I was no where near a computer...long story, but it had something to do with the wife and meeting friends for drinks -- in the "real world", crazy. Anyway, I found these videos on Youtube, it's some guy who taped himself watching the movie, although the commentary is a bit annoying, it's still pretty cool -- rock on Sundance Channel.

Tags FourEyedMonsters second life film free screening avatar movie





Hey, don't bogart all the popcorn!

Make smart money decisions with Web 2.0 social networks

Social Networks/Web 2.0/Finance/Andy Chun
Found on: zdnetasia.com

Is your 401K not performing as well as you'd like? Are your stocks taking a dive? If you answered yes to either one of these questions, then you have to read this article by Andy Chun -- in it Andy writes about how emerging financial applications using Web 2.0 services are being used to pick the minds of hundreds of thousands of investors around world to help you make smarter investments.



Zdnet Asia post:

Everyone knows that you can't go wrong when you have the wisdom or "collective intelligence" of millions of people. This "collective intelligence" is what drives Web 2.0.

Successful Web 2.0 applications are usually successful because of its ability to harness collective intelligence; the ability to provide very simple mechanisms to collect and aggregate data that can then be turned into something useful for its users, such as for decision making or to find information.

For example, collective intelligence makes Wikipedia the most popular online encyclopedia. Collective intelligence in the form of spam reporting helps GMail filter spam. Collective intelligence on what people like to read makes digg the most popular site to find blogs. Collective intelligence, in the form of social bookmarking, makes del.icio.us the most popular site to find tagged links.

NEWS: Sling Media, Second Life to take stage with CBS

News/Web Culture/Second Life/CBS
Found on: reuters.com

Look who CBS is teaming up at this year's Consumer Electronic Show -- Sling Media (the creators of Slingbox) and Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life), apparently there's going to be some big announcement.

Reuters post:

CBS Corp., which has pushed to reach new consumers on the Internet, will be joined by representatives from Web-savvy companies Sling Media and Second Life in a Tuesday presentation, CBS said.

The broadcaster did not give details of the speech or upcoming announcements by CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, who will give a keynote address on Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sling is known for its Slingbox, which plugs into a TV and transmits the feed via the Internet, allowing consumers to watch their favorite local TV shows no matter where they are. It also has a new device that does the opposite, putting Internet content on television.

NEWS: Second Life Screening of Four Eyed Monsters

News/Web Culture/Second Life/Sundance
Found on: prnewswire.com

Award winning indie film "Four Eyed Monsters", will have it's premiere Second Life screening tomorrow (Jan 9th) at the new Sundance Channel Island, the screening will be followed with a Q&A session with the creators of the film; I plan on attending and hope to have something to report back to you guys sometime this week.



PR Newswire post:

Sundance Channel announced the screening of the independent feature film Four Eyed Monsters is set for Tuesday, January 9 at 8pm EST in the Sundance Channel screening room in Second Life. Following the screening, the filmmakers Arin Crumley and Susan Buice will be on hand for a question and answer period from the audience. Live feeds of the event will also be presented from other Second Life locations. More information on additional locations can be found on.

Stylehive bookmark of the week: Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

Web Culture/Social Shopping/Stylehive
Found on: stylehive.com

This has to be one of the coolest looking headsets out in the market today and if it delivers on it's promise of eliminating background noise...wow, sign me up!

Description: Jawbone is the world's first adaptive Bluetooth headset for mobile phones. Noise Shield technology eliminates almost all background noise from your call.

Price: 119.99 USD

Tags: bluetooth, cellphones, headset

URL: stylehive link

NEWS: Teen Website Uses Social Networking to Boost Email List

News/Social Networks/Emails
Found on: mediabuyerplanner.com



Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the increased traffic in the amount of "Friend" spam (emails, bulletins and/or comments left by a website, brands or marketers posing as a "Friend") on Myspace? I noticed a lot on all the Social Networks I belong to and from the looks of it, it's just the beginning.

I found this interesting article on mediabuyerplanner.com, basically explaining how a website geared for teenage girls that are into surfing, skating and snowboarding called GLTR (girls learn to ride) is using social network sites like Myspace and Facebook to increase it's email list -- check it out.

Mediabuyerplanner post:

Girls Learn to Ride, a website for young women who like to snowboard and do other extreme sports, is reaching out to social networks in order to increase its email list, writes DM News.

The site currently has 10,000 names in its email database, but has a combined 50,000 friends in social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Sponsorhouse. It sends out daily bulletins to its social networking "friends," encouraging them to sign up for the email list.

NEWS: Bebo to Roll Out Ad Widgets

News/Social Networks/Bebo/Advertising
Found on: adweek.com

AdWeek is reporting that social network Bebo is set to launch it's first ad-supported widgets (small web applications that users can embed into their profiles):

In 2007, Bebo plans to add advertiser-supported widgets, like interactive games, which users can opt to add to their profiles. Advertiser applications will get a featured spot in the Bebo Widgets gallery.

Adweek post:

Bebo is readying the launch of its first advertiser widgets, small Web applications users can embed in their personal Web pages.

The social network last week began allowing users to embed miniature Web applications into their profile pages, letting them choose from three photo-sharing widgets from Slide, Photobucket and Rockyou. Bebo plans to build a collection of widgets users can choose to add to their profiles.

Burrito Project makes an Impact

Web Culture/Myspace/Awards
Found on: Popyourit!

The Burrito Project in under two years has grown from a couple of people on bikes passing out some burritos to feed the hungry to several hundred volunteers in multiple chapters all over the United States.

The Los Angeles chapter was awarded the very first Myspace Impact Award last Tuesday, and I can't think of a better group of people that deserve it.

Burrito Project’s blurbs:

Burrito Project is an idea, a tool for groups of friends to become active participants in their communities. This Myspace page is dedicated to the promotion of burrito project and is meant to be a motivational tool for new projects to begin. The projects make and hand out bean and rice burritos, or other foods, to the homeless. They operate as independent self-sufficient groups throughout the country and world. Burrito project is constantly expanding and new projects are popping up on a weekly basis!!

Boedecker Cellars 2003 Stewart Pinot Noir

Social Networks/Corkd/Wine
Found on: corkd.com

I found this yummy Oregon Pinot Noir on Cork'd, I can't wait to try it out for myself.

Pinobob's review:

An elegant wine for lovers of classic Oregon Pinot Noir. This wine is full of vibrant cherry and raspberry, yet maintains a crisp backbone and a delicate, spicy finish.

• Average Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (1 Review)
• Winery: Boedecker Cellars
• Vintage: 2003
• Varietal: Pinot Noir
• Country: United States
• Region: Oregon: Willamette Valley
• Price: $28.00 USD · Buy this wine
• Description: Classic Dundee Hills Pinot from old-vine Pommard and Wadensweil from the Maresh and Murto vineyards in the Dundee Hills. Aged 19 months in French oak barrels
• Created by: pinotbob

NEWS: Disney to Launch MySpace Knockoff

Social Networks/Myspace/Disney/Laurie Sullivan
Found on: redherring.com

Looks like Mickey and the rest of the Mousketeers what to jump on the Myspace bandwagon.

Disney CEO, Robert Iger will unveil a new Disney web site on Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the new site will be full of web 2.0 standards like social networking, chat and video clips.



Red Herring post:

Similar to News Corp.’s MySpace, the site will feature social networking, chat and video clips, but will incorporate parental controls for web-crawling kids. The site also offers Disney Xtreme Digital, a broadband tool that allows web surfers to create custom profiles and personal pages and share them with others, as well as Mickey, Pluto and the gang.

Redesigning Disney.com with digital media has been a top priority for Iger, according to reports. Critics of the old Disney.com say the revamp couldn’t have come too soon. The old site was difficult to navigate and doesn’t live up to Disney’s standards.

NEWS: Xmas day attack on Second Life

News/Web Culture/Second Life/Emma Boyes
Found on: gamespot.com

Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas this year are greenish worm-like penises wearing jaunty Santa-style stocking caps to invade second life -- wishes do come true.



Gamespot post:

Recently the flourishing virtual economy of online community Second Life produced its first real-life millionaire, estate agent Ailin Graef, and announced it had reached the one million member mark.

However, all's not entirely well in the virtual world--a series of "grey goo" attacks from malicious users over the last few months have been invading the system while Linden Lab technicians have battled to fix the problems and restore the world. One attack in November led to a temporary loss of service.

Hot Feature: Search Your Hive (Or Other's Hives)

Social Networks/Social Shopping/Stylehive
Found on: Stylehive.com

Googled-powered search feature now on the hive? That's right, my favorite social shopping site Stylehive just keeps getting better and better... now I can find all the things I can't afford to buy.

Have you bookmarked something and had trouble finding it again? Now you can search your own Hive with Stylehive’s latest Google-powered search feature. Go to “My Bookmarks” and scroll down to the right you will find a search box where you can enter any search term and hit “enter”.

By default the search will return tags that are related to your search query. But, you can focus your search by clicking on a refinement to search only that type of content. The current search refinements cover your posts, wishlists, tags, and follows of your Hive.

Social Networking Awards - The Top Social Networks of 2006

News/Social Networks/Awards/Peter Cashmore
Found on: mashable.com

Back in December, I blogged about the first annual Mashable "Social Networking Awards", the results are in and although there aren't a lot of surprises, there were a lot more smaller niche networks that made it onto the list then I thought there would be.

Mashable post:

For those who are interested, our picks were made by Mashable, Mashable Labs and Advantage Consulting Services, the team that oversees social network consulting for our clients, in addition to recommending the best partners and white label social networks. The ACS team also has a background in web development (they were behind the stats service CrazyEgg, for instance), but they don’t have any competing services in the social networking space. Our criteria were: Growth and Momentum; Design and Usability; Uniqueness/Innovation. There are two winners in each category, followed by the sites that are “Hot for 2007″ - a combination of your votes and our picks.