According to eMarketer, 24% of the 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007. This will rise to 34% in 2008 and by 2011, 53% will do so. Emarketer

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, an online brokerage company, said one of its databases was hacked into and the personal information for more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. The company found malicious code in one of its databases. DM News

According to the latest figures, 250,702 of the total purchased were standalone units, while 75,943 Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core bundles have also been snapped up. That’s a total of 326, 645 in just ten days. Next Gen

Compete introduced its Search Analytics solution to fill an unmet need for marketers at both large and small companies — the need for affordable and robust search tools that can have an immediate impact on online and overall business strategy. DM News

Users can also obtain an anonymous credit card with no name or account number on it, something that could cut the risk of identity theft, fraud and problems stemming from lost or stolen cards, Revolution said. Reuters

“We believe great advertising is interrupted all the time,” said John Lack, co-founder and chief executive of Firebrand. “We curate the best TV commercials and promotions -- connecting consumers directly with their favorite brands in an integrated environment.” New York Business

Facebook has overtaken News Corporation's MySpace site as the highest-traffic UK social networking site with 6.5m unique users last month, according to data published today by Nielsen//NetRatings. media.guardian.co.uk

Among the more than 120 arrests announced on Monday in what the authorities called the largest steroids crackdown in the nation’s history, five men charged in a Connecticut sting stood out not for what they were peddling, but for where they were suspected of doing it: on MySpace.com. NY Times

Democratic contender John Edwards will be first presidential candidate to dive head-first into a "presidential dialogue" jointly hosted by MySpace and MTV Thursday. Wired

David Burden, managing director of Daden Ltd, said: “This is an example of the power of Second Life, and virtual worlds in general, in providing a shared visualisation system....offering possibilities for both the consumer and for business operations and scientific research. Being able to walk around data, and view it with others, can bring out insight and analysis that would be impossible in 2D systems, or PC-based 3D systems." Flightglobal

Good use of Twitter?

News/Web 2.0/Website/Twitter
Found: twitter.com

Due to a power outage in San Francisco, many popular web 2.0 websites went down for several hours yesterday, sites like Craigstlist, Technorati, Yelp and Six Apart's VOX and Typepad. While most sites just waited patiently for the power to get restored, Six Apart was busy sending out updates via twitter.

Six Apart's twitter stream says it all:


An update on today's outage: http://tinyurl.com/2bebg4

TypePad blogs are back up; LiveJournal and Vox and the TypePad application are under way.

More at http://status.sixapart.com/ 04:50 PM July 24, 2007 from web

http://status.livejournal.com/ has LiveJournal status info, and we've got details back up on http://status.sixapart.com/ as well. 04:13 PM July 24, 2007 from web

http://status.sixapart.com/ is back up, and will be updated as we progress. 03:44 PM July 24, 2007 from web Power is being restored to our data center, and TypePad, LiveJournal, Vox are each bring brought back online carefully. 03:13 PM July 24, 2007 from web

TypePad, Vox, and LJ are unreachable for many due to a power problem @ hosting facility, also affecting Technorati and Craigslist.

NEWS: Roam Un-Free

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

HiPiHi's 38-year-old CEO and founder, Xu Hui, has some ambitious goals; not only does he want his new virtual world, HiPiHi to be China's answer to Second Life, but through strategic partnerships with U.S., Japanese and other foreign firms, he plans to establish discrete virtual continents and then have them all linked to Second Life, creating a vast metaverse - the big question being: will China's government actually allow him to do it? I guess only time will tell.



MSNBC Post:

Zhao Gang surveys his nearly empty virtual world, and finds it to be good. Zhao is head of the tech team that built HiPiHi—China's answer to Second Life. With the virtual world's basic landscape complete, one of Zhao's jobs these days is to wander HiPiHi, schooling roughly 10,000 ethnic Chinese from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore who have been specially invited into the test phase to help work out the kinks. The "residents," as they're called, roam, swim and fly around the new world. Zhao approaches two avatars for a chat. Face to face with the virtual world's Master Builder, they have an urgent question: "Can you tell us how to change our clothes?"

NEWS: FaceBook’s First Acquisition: Parakey

News/Social Networks/Facebook
Found on: techcrunch.com

Why would Facebook, currently the hottest property on the Web want to make Parakey, the "web operating system" created by Blake Ross their very first acquisition? Simple - Facebook is in the process of transitioning from being a Social Network into the first Social Operating System - right?

Techcrunch.com post:

Their first acquisition: Facebook has bought Parakey, the yet-to-launch “web operating system” created by Firefox co-founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. The price isn’t being disclosed, but Facebook should be issuing a press release this afternoon.

Parakey was founded in 2005 and raised a seed round of financing from Sequoia Capital (although this was never confirmed). There is a good background story on Parakey, which will include both browser and client software, here.

NEWS: Justin.TV Network Launches: More Shows to Come

News/Social Networks/Videos
Found on: techcrunch.com

Using a process called "lifecasting" sites like Justine.TV and Ustream.tv are taking off and reality television just made a huge shift over to the web. Both platforms provide a network and a set of tools to create your very own live show using a webcam.

Techcrunch.com post:

24/7 reality online TV show Justin.tv has has turned into a bit of a mini-phenomenon since launching just two months ago.Their apartment was raided by the police, and they were later evicted by their landlord. They were on the Today Show. Justin has hung out with famous rappers. They’ve taken extravagant dares from their audience, and a crowd always surrounds Justin and his ubiquitous camera. Hundreds of adolescent viewers watched (sort of) as Justin had sex on the show, although users were left with a black screen and silence until the Justin.tv team started playing porn music. The site has been far more successful so far than the founders anticipated.

NEWS: Companies try eBay to sell themselves

News/Web 2.0/ebay
Found on: news.yahoo.com

Looking for a deal on a Web 2.o dot-com? Well look no further - USATODAY.com is reporting that there are plenty to be had on the popular auction site eBay.

USA Today post:

What do Beanie Babies, Pez Dispensers and troubled Internet companies have in common? They're all for sale on eBay.

More than 10 dot-coms have recently sought buyers on the popular auction site. Search engine DigForIt.com sold for $25,400 this month after promising bidders "great revenue potential." SynapseLife, an online calendar and organizational site, sold for $60,000 despite warning it had "no advertising revenue."

NEWS: Europeans predominate in Second Life - study

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

Before you log into Second Life again, you might want to consider brushing up on your German, because chances are you'll be speaking to one -- Guten Tag Avatar!

Reuters post:

Second Life was born in the United States, but 61 percent of its active residents are Europeans, a study by research firm comScore said on Friday.

The number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the United States, although growth rates in the U.S. are the highest worldwide, said comScore, which
specializes in measuring various kinds of Internet usage.

More than 6 million user accounts have been created in Second Life, up from about 1 million at the end of 2006, but the number of active users is far lower.

NEWS: Digg.com User Revolt

Web Culture/YouTube/Videos/Digg
Found on: Youtube.com

HD-DVD crack code on Digg results in multiple users getting kicked off the site and banned - then all hell breaks loose.



Youtube Stats(as of this post):

Views: 214
Comments: 3
Favorited: 3 times

Bonus link:

Kevin Rose Speaks out

NEWS: 'Second Life' User Numbers Don't Quite Add Up

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Users
Found on: foxnews.com

Clay Shirky just completed a four-month study on the number of users in Second Life, based on his findings, Shirky claims that the actual number of regular users are less the 200,000 versus the 3.2 million Linden Lab reports to have...numbers don't quite add up?

FoxNews post:

How many people use "Second Life"? Not as many as you might think.

In December, New York University lecturer Clay Shirky launched a one-man Web crusade against the widespread misrepresentation of "Second Life"'s popularity, claiming most publications — including PC Magazine — were inadvertently overstating the number of users.

When reporters ask how many people are using "Second Life," the folks at Linden Lab typically respond with the number of "residents," and most reporters assume that "resident" means "unique user."

But as Shirky points out, a resident isn't a unique user. A single user can create multiple virtual residents. "Second Life"'s popularity is significantly smaller than the press claims, and though Linden Lab won't tell us how many people are really using the service, Shirky thinks he's finally gotten to the bottom of things.

NEWS: NBA Headquarters Unveiled in Second Life

Social Networks/Second Life/Sports
Found on: nba.com

With it's multiplayer games, retail stores and a variety of other features designed to draw repeat visitors, the NBA unveiled their Second Life "Headquarters" on Tuesday - anyone up for a game of HORSE?



NBA.com post:

The NBA announced the launch of NBA Headquarters, a new virtual destination featuring a variety of innovative and interactive NBA elements in Second Life, the popular 3D online world with nearly six million residents. The announcement was made by NBA Commissioner David Stern during a recent media event conducted in the NBA Headquarters.

The NBA’s 3D virtual destination, developed with The Electric Sheep Company, a leading creator of 3D virtual world content and solutions, will provide basketball fans and Second Life residents with access to comprehensive features including the T-Mobile Arena, broadband video of classic NBA games and highlights, and an opportunity to have their picture taken with the NBA’s championship trophy in the Toyota Larry O’Brien Trophy Room.

Additionally, in Second Life fans will be able to purchase NBA and WNBA jerseys and merchandise for their identity or avatars at the NBA Store, walk along a special path highlighting the 50 Greatest NBA Players and participate in a variety of basketball activities at the NBA Jam Session.

NEWS: US Army's computer game recruiting plan takes fire

News/Web Culture/Youth Trends
Found news.yahoo.com

The United States Army has invested an estimated 2 million dollars sponsoring an online gaming channel on the popular GGL website. The channel is centered around a first-person shooter based on the Army's training manual; groups opposing the war are calling this sponsorship as a blatent attempt to find new recruits among young online gamers in the prized recruiting age range of 17 to 24.

Yahoo News post:

Anti-recruitment groups are slamming a US Army deal to sponsor a computer war game channel, charging that real war is no game.

In June, the Army is set to sponsor a channel at the Global Gaming League website, a popular spot for Internet computer game lovers.

"It is part of this campaign for the last 20 years to invade youth culture with militarism," Project on Youth and Non-military Opportunities co-founder Rick Jahnkow told AFP.

"It affects the way young people think. It affects their world view. That is a very dangerous thing."

NEWS: MySpace offers news recommendations

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found: hosted.ap.org

Last week Myspace jumped into the "News Service Business" and with it's non-Digg like features (the rating system is based on a scale of 1 through 5) I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised but Newsvine is still my favorite site for news-aggregation and Mike Davidson is still my hero!



Hosted AP post:

The popular online hangout MySpace entered the news business Thursday with a feature that lets its users determine what items other members see.

MySpace News brings to a much larger audience the user-recommendation capabilities already available through Digg and Time Warner Inc.'s Netscape. It also marks the site's further inroads into becoming an Internet portal akin to Yahoo Inc. and others.

YouTube Offering 50/50 Revenue Split with Users Next Week?

News/Social Networks/YouTube/Videos
Found on: Mashable.com

Mashable.com is reporting that YouTube may offer a revenue-sharing model for their users as early as next week -- basically, offering a 50/50 revenue split similar to the one that their rival Revver.com offers.

Mashable post:

YouTube may offer a revenue-sharing model for their users, taking an important step in that direction as soon as next week.

The option to insert a video ad before or after an uploaded clip, with an offering to split the ad revenue 50-50 with users, is said to be in the works. With the issues surrounding pirated videos on the site as well as many advertisers not being able to ensure the type of content that their campaigns will be shown alongside, it’s no wonder that an ad revenue-sharing model has yet to be installed.

NEWS: Microsoft sheds light on Flash rival

News/Web Culture/Web Browser/Video
Found on: news.com

Microsoft's so called Flash "Killer" Silverlight, was announced at the NAB show in Las Vegas yesterday.

The Web browser plug-in will be available for both PC and MAC platforms and will play web videos as well as display interactive Web applications.

Microsoft's initial focus will be developing partnerships with advertising agencies, media and entertainment companies.

CNET post:

On Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft launched Silverlight, a Web browser plug-in for playing media files and displaying interactive Web applications.

The company intends to release a beta of Silverlight, formerly called Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E), at the Mix07 conference for designers and Web developers in Las Vegas later this month.




Bonus Link:

Stealing the limelight from Adobe?
With the rapid rise of Web video, the competition between Microsoft and Adobe is set to intensify.

Help Save Pandora and Internet Radio

News/Web Culture/Politics/Internet Radio
Found on: blog.pandora.com/pandora

Internet radio as we know it is in dire straits and could potentially be wiped off the web.

A recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC will almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora which will basically shut them down and put them out of business.

You can do something about it, here's how:

Pandora Blog post:

To add your voice to this movement, please take a minute to sign the PETITION urging your representatives in congress to act at the new website Savenetradio.org.

And please share this petition link with friends: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

NEWS: Groundbreaking Internet Drama to Air on UK's Top Social Network

News/Social Networks/Web Culture/Videos
Found on: sys-con.com

The team that brought us the world's most popular interactive drama: Lonelygirl15 is teaming up with Bebo.com to launch a spin-off called "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern," this should prove to be a really smart move on Bebo's part.

sys-con.com post:

Lonelygirl15 was launched last summer and the program has since been viewed over 50 million times. Bebo was founded in 2005 and has over 31 million users worldwide who spend an average of 29 minutes on Bebo each day.

Following the massive success of Lonelygirl15, "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern" will expand from the original storyline to that of a teenage university student in London and her struggle to balance her complex social life with the dark forces that shadow her. Containing all of the best loved elements of Lonelygirl15, "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern" will leverage the high involvement of its fan base, enabling them to post messages for the show's characters, exchange plot ideas with each other and upload their own videos to the characters' profile pages.

NEWS: MySpace Store Looks Promising?

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: mashable.com

Mashable.com is reporting that the long anticipated Myspace store may actually come to fruition.

On a side note, I noticed that Peter made his post around 1:30 AM this morning - god, I wish I had that kind of stamina again.

Mashable post:

Another good sign for MySpace-eBay and Bebo-eBay - a report being released on Tuesday from iProspect once again shows that web users make buying decisions based on information gleaned from social sites: 1 in 3 Internet users say they made purchase decisions based on information from social networks and sites.

NEWS: Keep track of your friends with The Coop

News/Social Networks/Firefox
Found on: labs.mozilla.com

A set of new tools could make Firefox the next Myspace?

I'm not quite sure about that but what I do know is these new social-centric tools could mean some serious trouble for Flock - the net's best social web browser currently out.



Mozilla Lab's post:

Just a few years ago, one of the most popular uses of the internet was to send jokes, cute pictures, and news stories to friends and family (social networks) via email. Fast forward to today, and you’ll find that not a lot has changed except the medium. Now one of the most common uses of instant messenger services and social networking sites is to send people links to jokes, cute pictures and interesting news stories.

This behavior isn’t at all surprising - it’s friends sharing experiences, the very backbone of social interactions and friendships. It’s also unsurprising that most “Web 2.0″ services have a feature that makes it easy for you to build a social network so that you can share things more easily, or subscribe to a friend’s activity as a way of keeping in touch.

MySpace competition? The world is big enough

News/Social Networks/Website
Found on: latimes.com

MySpace continues to dominate in North America but overseas it's a different story - Social Networks like the Friendster, Bebo and Google's Orkut are thriving.

LA Times post:

The online social networking site was on track to become the Internet's next big phenomenon a few years ago until an upstart called MySpace eclipsed it in popularity and media attention. But being spurned by America's fickle teenagers doesn't mean the budding social networking site went into hibernation or shrank to cater to a few true believers. While MySpace may continue to dominate in North America (more than half of its 100-million-plus accounts come from the United States), Friendster, Google's Orkut and other general-use social networking sites are thriving overseas.

In the Philippines, for instance, Friendster is used by an estimated 87% of the country's 8 million Internet users. About 70% of Friendster's 40-million-person user base comes from Southeast Asia.

NEWS: Second Life Sex Business Sells On eBay For $50,000

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Sex
Found on: informationweek.com

Virtual sex sells but who's buying? Apparently some guy named nedstede2769 form the Netherlands and he is shelling out some big bucks for it, over $50,000 US dollars -- isn't that like a 500 billion Linden dollars or something?!?



InformationWeek post:

One of the landmark businesses on Second Life, Amsterdam, sold on eBay Monday for $50,000 to a buyer located, appropriately enough, in the Netherlands, said the developer of the popular adult-oriented business.

Amsterdam's developer, Kevin Alderman of Tampa, Fla., put the site up for sale on eBay last week, and it sold at 6:34 a.m. PDT, according to the eBay listing. The buyer didn't bid; he just paid the asking price.

We weren't able to find out who the buyer is; he goes by nedstede2769 on eBay, where his 3-year-old account has no feedback. Alderman said he didn't want to give the buyer's name without checking first.

NEWS: Hacking John McCain

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Politics
Found on: newsvine.com

Presidential candidate John McCain announced today on his Myspace page that he had reversed his position on gay marriage and is now in support of it, particularly marriages between passionate females.

Sounds too good to be true - you're right, it's not. This now infamously delicious prank or what some are calling "the immaculate hack" was the handy work of Mike Davidson, CEO and co-creator of Seattle-based online news media company, Newsvine.com.

Newsvine post:

If you visit John McCain's MySpace page (as of 9am PST Tuesday morning), you will notice an interesting announcement from him. He's apparently reversed his position on gay marriage as well as revealed a bias towards attractive lesbians.

Why would a presidential candidate make such an important announcement on his MySpace page?

The answer? He wouldn't.

But I would.

You see, John McCain's people commandeered my world-renowned MySpace design template and did a few things wrong:

1. They did not credit me for the template, even though the template explicitly requested credit.
2. They used my own unmodified imagery, specifically for the "Contacting John McCain" table.
3. As if #2 wasn't bad enough, the McCain crew is actually pulling their image directly from my server on each page load. So every time someone visits the McCain MySpace page, my bandwidth is being used to deliver part of the page! Bad McCain!

NEWS: GDC 2007: Phil Harrison, Sony, Unveil 'Home'

News/Social Networks/Sony/Games
Found on: 1up.com

Sony's set to muscle in on Second Life and their market share with their forthcoming online social media metaverse called, "Home", should be available as a free download for the PlayStation 3 in autumn 2007.



1UP post:

Last week's reports on Sony's potential 'Home' service either generated even more hype for Phil Harrison's Game Developer Conference keynote or stole the thunder from Sony's big unveiling. Maybe it did both, and considering what Sony showed with 'Home' -- that may not be a bad thing.

Home is officially being branded as a "3D user community for PlayStation 3" by Sony, but it's also being called an "innovative user community title," effectively blurring the line between "service" and "game." The two-pronged approach to marketing this product may show some confusion as to what home is. That's a question Sony won't be able to answer until this Fall, when PlayStation 3 owners will get their hands on the final free download (the experience enters beta next month).

BONUS YOUTUBE VIDEO --> PLAYSTATION 3 HOME

NEWS: Taking Out A Second Mortgage In Second Life

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Real Estate
Found on: webpronews.com

Are you in the market for a new home? A new virtual home? Coldwell Banker, one of the nation's largest real estate brokerage firms has over 500 "inworld" homes with styles ranging from modern to southwestern colonial and if you're a little tight on "lindens" (second life currency) right now, no problem, you can take out a virtual mortgage to finance it and they'll even throw in a complete set of virtual furniture as a closing gift - now you know.

Webpronews post:

Buying a home is usually the single largest investment that the average individual will make over the span of their life. Careful thought and planning are exercised when determining how much of a mortgage to take on, how large of a home to purchase, and what realtor to use.

Indeed, home ownership is not something to be entered into lightly. Buying a home in Second Life, however, can be as simple as a point-and-click transaction, and Coldwell Banker has decided that it wants to be the real estate company to meet the needs of the virtual world’s potential homeowners.

NEWS: Most-Searched-For Brand In 2006?

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: publications.mediapost.com

Just when you think Myspace is losing some of it's luster, look who's brand is still on top and reigning supreme.

Market Daily post:

THE SOCIAL NETWORKING HUB MYSPACE was the brand most searched for in 2006, based on a 52-week average of industry search terms (excluding porn) among all U.S. Web sites, according to competitive intelligence monitoring service Hitwise.

Here's the complete list of Top 10 Searched for Brand Terms* (with spellings as reported by Hitwise):

1. myspace
2. ebay
3. yahoo
4. mapquest
5. craigslist
6. walmart
7. google
8. target
9. match.com
10. bank of america

NEWS: LONELY PLANET AND CURRENT TV

Web Culture/Website/Videos/Travel
Found on: lonelyplanet.com



Professional travel documentaries with user-generated content, sounds like a new online video network to me.

Lonely Planet TV post:

Lonely Planet and Current TV have teamed up to launch a new travel television franchise, “The Bluelist,” based on Lonely Planet’s well-known brand of the same name. The series of 26 short-form, three-minute “pods” will be hosted by writers and staffers of Lonely Planet worldwide, and will debut on January 18 on Current TV.

Lonely Planet’s “Bluelist” (www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist) brand presents hip “top ten” lists of travelers’ favorite travel experiences, and the new program on Current follows the same format. The show will spotlight some of Lonely Planet’s writers’ and staffers’ “Top 3” travel recommendations, from the expected (big wilderness escapes; best places for 24-hour party people) to the more unexpected (best places to have an existential crisis; best places to get into a fight).

NEWS: Man Behind the Clinton Clip Worked for Obama's Net Strategists

News/YouTube/Video/Politics
Found on: washingtonpost.com

With the presidential elections still a good two years away the fight for the democratic seat just got really nasty and the fireworks are already starting to fly - yeah, I'm talking about the Hilary video that's running viral on YouTube, "allegedly" sanctioned by Obama's camp.

Washingtonpost.com post:

The creator of a controversial YouTube clip that attacked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was an employee of the Internet strategy firm on the payroll of the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"I made the 'Vote Different' ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process," Phil de Vellis wrote on the liberal blog Huffington Post.

NEWS: MySpace News is for real

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: wired.com

Wired.com is reporting that Myspace "NEWS" site is a done deal and it's just a matter of time before Myspace starts slugging it out with the likes of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit and other Social news sites.



Wired post:

A leaked document from MySpace's parent company, Fox Interactive Media, confirms the existence of its rumored Digg-style news aggregation portal.

The leaked sales document outlines the structure and taxonomy of the forthcoming site, and includes screenshots of the site, but gives no details about when the portal will launch.

MySpace News will automatically collect news items from various news sites and blogs. MySpace users will then be able to discuss and rate each story on the site, and the stories will change position on the page based on popularity. The portal is rumored to launch during the second quarter of 2007.

NEWS: Tech Firms Push to Use TV Airwaves for Internet

News/Web Culture/Internet
Found on: washingtonpost.com

If the coalition made up of six of the biggest tech companies in the world (Microsoft, Google, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Philips) gets the green light from the FCC, we could start seeing unused television airwaves called "white space" being gobbled up to bring high-speed internet access to consumers as early as 2009.

Me in 2009; "Hey hun, come quick, look what's on TV -- it's the internet and it's fast!"

Washingtonpost.com post:

A coalition of big technology companies wants to bring high-speed Internet access to consumers in a new way: over television airwaves. Key to the project is whether a device scheduled to be delivered to federal labs today lives up to its promise.

The coalition, which includes Microsoft and Google, wants regulators to allow idle TV channels, known as white space, to be used to beam the Internet into homes and offices. But the Federal Communications Commission first must be convinced that such traffic would not bleed outside its designated channels and interfere with existing broadcasts.

NEWS: Wanted poster on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Police
Found on: smh.com.au

Talk about your virtual Dragnet - some web smart cop in Arkansas created a Myspace profile page for a serial bank robber in hopes to enlist the millions of other Myspace members to help the Arkansas Police Dept. track down the guy pictured in the image below.

SMH post:

Police have have created a MySpace account for a serial bank robber hoping to enlist the millions who use the popular social networking site as a cyber posse to help track down the fugitive.

The MySpace profile - Do You Know Me??? - is the work of Sgt. Jarrard Copeland from the Fort Smith police department in Arkansas.

The suspect, a man estimated to be about 60, is linked to four bank robberies across the US state.

NEWS: Andreessen's Ning.com takes on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Ning
Found on: news.com

I had a dream the other night that I got a phone call from my Granny; she was bragging to me about how she just put together a new "Myspace" in a just few minutes and that I needed to step up my game and before I could say anything in my defense she abruptly ended the conversation by dropping a "holla back youngin!" and hung up on me.

Alright, so I made all of that up, but if Marc Andreessen has his way there would be millions of little mini Myspaces and "Ning.com" would be leading the way.

Ning is a web based company that Andreessen is backing, he and the other investors hope that the new set of tools that they just launched will make creating your very own Myspace so easy, you guessed it -- your Granny could do it - holla!



News.com post:

In Marc Andreessen's vision of the future, MySpace is going to face stiff competition from a million mini-MySpaces.

One of the cofounders of Netscape and a symbol of the technology revolution of a decade ago is now backing a company called Ning, which launched a set of new tools on Tuesday designed to help even the most tech-challenged person build a social-networking site.

"(Ning) is essentially MySpace version 2," Andreessen said last week, adding that he is placing a bet that social-networking sites will follow a similar development as that of Internet service providers of the 1990s.

NEWS: A winning business plan for 'Second Life'

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Business
Found on: news.com

Minnesota-based research company, Market Truths took home first place honors in the first-ever business plan contest in Second Life.

Cnet News.com post:

The honors, announced Monday, went to Minnesota-based Market Truths, which devised a market research and analysis system to help real-world companies figure out what works and what doesn't in the burgeoning virtual world.

The contest's judges rewarded the Market Truths submission because the team has conducted similar market research in the real world for years, and because it appeared to have the best profit potential of the four finalists.

"I was really impressed by the quality of (all) the ideas we received," said Susan Wu, a contest judge and a venture capitalist from Charles River Ventures. "Each one of these businesses could turn into a viable ongoing enterprise, not only in terms of Second Life, but as a service that stands across multiple virtual worlds."

NEWS: Viacom lands video deal with Joost

News/Web Culture/IPTV
Found on: reuters.com

If you don't know what Joost is by now, here's the skinny: the boys that started Kazaa and Skype recently launched a new Ad-supported internet TV service, leveraging the P2P technology that they used to make Kazaa what it was back in the day (totally sucks now) and Skype what it is today.

Fast forward to this story; earlier this week Viacom agreed to provide video content to Joost and it's users in return for a piece of the pie - huge!

Reuters post:

Viacom Inc., engaged in a public copyright battle with Google Inc.'s YouTube, has agreed to offer videos to Joost, the Internet video service created by the founders of Skype and Kazaa.

Viacom said on Tuesday hundreds of hours of TV programing from its MTV and BET Networks and feature-length films from Paramount Pictures will be available to Joost users for free under a revenue-sharing deal between the two companies.

It did not disclose financial terms, but an industry source said Viacom was likely to have secured a slightly better agreement than its traditional deals to receive two-thirds of advertising revenue.

NEWS: New Portal to Second Life: Your Phone

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Mobile
Found on: technologyreview.com

Looks like Second Life's "metaverse" just got a litte bigger. Comverse, makers of the mobile software that allows Second Life users to connect to the "grid" using a mobile phone and communicate to other residents via text messages - scary.

Technology Review post:

With new software for mobile phones, citizens of the burgeoning online universe Second Life will never have to leave their cozy virtual world, even when they're away from their computers. The new software is a program that lets cellular users with Java-based, Internet-capable phones log in to Second Life remotely, see who else is "in-world," and communicate with them via text messaging.

Comverse, the wireless multimedia networking company that developed the software, demonstrated it this week for wireless carriers at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain. Attendees using Comverse's phones could see and manipulate avatars who appeared in Comverse's virtual 3GSM booth inside Second Life. Using simple commands, they could direct the avatar to walk around the booth, identify other avatars, and send them greetings via SMS, MMS, or instant messaging. And in a twist typical of today's virtual environments, people logged in to Second Life over traditional PC connections could walk into the virtual Comverse booth and pick up virtual phones that connected them directly to fellow members logged in from their real phones at the real booth.

NEWS: SXSW Web Awards Reveals this Year's Finalists

News/Web Culture/SXSW/Awards
Found on: sxsw.com

Hundreds and hundreds of developers and web designers from around the world submitted their work hoping to become a finalist in the 10th SXSW annual Web Awards.

Well, for a few of them the wait is over and for the rest there's always next year.

SXSW post:

We are pleased to reveal the 10th Annual Web Awards Finalists below -- all sites that have launched or been completely redesigned in 2006. Stay tuned for more in-depth information on each finalist.

Art
From traditional photography to untraditional performances, this category focuses on web-based collections of life, society and culture.

15x15

Craftzine

Ellipse Foundation

MyToons

Smithsonian Photography Initiative

Blog
Sites that revolutionize the power of publishing by providing regularly updated content of a personal or professional nature.

April Zero

BuzzFeed

Snook.ca

Superfluous Banter

Twitter

NEWS: BrowseGoods (Shopping Engine) Launches

News/Marketing/Brian Smith
Found on: comparisonengines.com

Did you know that 25% of all online purchases are unplanned and a result from undirected browsing? Well apparently the guys at Dotted Pair did and they developed a very innovating way to comparison shop using a Google-map-like engine called "BrowseGoods."



Comparison Engine post:

Last year at eTail, Rudy Patero from Fry talked about how Web 2.0 technologies could be used in the retail area. There was a lot of hype about everything Web 2.0, but not many etailers were taking advantage of this concept. A year later, a lot has changed. Many shopping search engines have implemented a newer look and feel taking advantage of AJAX, user generated content is everywhere in the form of text and video reviews, and there are a ton of social shopping experiments popping up.

Today, I’m excited to break the news that BrowseGoods has launched. BrowseGoods has developed a new interface for visual shopping. I hate to dumb it down, but the easiest way to describe it is Google maps for shopping; BrowseGoods allows a user to zoom in/out and pan around by clicking on a section and then dragging the catalog. I can’t do the service justice through words…you just have to go to BrowseGoods and start playing with it.

Do They Still Want Their MTV?

News/Web Culture/MTV/David Carr
Found on:nytimes.cm

Last week, MTV Networks laid off 250 people, cutting and trimming their television rank and file to make room for web savvy interactive hires at the same time bulking up their internet business - sounds like Viacom, which owns MTV, doesn't want to be caught with their pants down when the next generation of viewers will be spending more time on the internet then on the couch watching TV.

NYTIMES post:

MTV prospered for decades because it looked like what a network might look like if a 16-year-old were doing the programming. But now the music channel is trying to make its way in a multidevice, multiplatform, multichannel world, most of which is being programmed by a
16-year-old.

The velocity of change has left MTV occasionally looking as if were being programmed by an 83-year-old — namely Sumner M. Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, which owns MTV. The network, itself a stately 25 years old, has suffered a decline in ratings and cultural cachet.

NEWS: YouTube for Hipsters

News/Web Culture/IPTV/Videos
Found on: vbs.tv

Hipsters all over the world rejoice -- you now have your very own internet TV channel. A joint venture between Vice Magazine and MTV has given birth to VBS.tv, a full fledged online broadcast network.

VBS.tv post:

VBS is an online broadcast network. We stream original content, free of charge and 24 hours a day. We carry a mix of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, and the best music in the world. People have used words like eclectic, smart, funny, shocking, and revolutionary to describe VBS, but we kind of just snapped our fingers in their faces and went, “Whatever. Tell us something we don’t know.”

NEWS: Facebook and Comcast's Ziddio Partner to Create User-Generated TV

News/Social Networks/Facebook
Found on: prnewswire.com

Facebook inked a deal last week with Comcast's video site, Ziddio.com to enable Facebook users to create and share videos. Facebook is hoping to drive up usage by giving users the chance to have their videos included in a new television series which will appear on Comcast's On Demand menu.

PR NEWS post:

Facebook, the Internet's leading social utility, and Ziddio.com, a national multiplatform user-generated video site recently launched by Comcast Interactive Media, today announced a partnership that will allow Facebook users to create and share user-generated videos and give them the chance to become part of a new television series titled "Facebook Diaries."

Beginning in March, the companies will kickoff a program that includes contests asking users to submit short video segments about their lives. Throughout the contests, Facebook users will be encouraged to upload, view, share and rate the videos. Selected videos will be featured prominently online on Facebook and Ziddio.com and on television including Comcast's ON DEMAND service.

NEWS: Why Google and Gaming Isn't a Killer Combination

News/Web Culture/Google/Abbey Klaassen
Found on: adage.com

With more and more gaming consoles taking advantage of gamers "always on the web connections," it makes since that Google wants to Adsense and Adword their way on to my video games -- I can see it now, me and my friends rocking out to GNR's "Sweet Child O' Mine" on "Guitar Hero 2" and BAM! some pop up comes up with a link to Amazon offering me a deal to purchase GNR's "Best of Album" - hmm, it is a good album.


Advertising Age post:

Google getting into video games seems at first blush like a natural evolution -- after all, gaming is hugely popular and growing, console games are increasingly web-connected, and the search giant certainly hasn't been shy about trying to apply its selling efficiency and contextual tools to other media. But digital-media buyers have a hard time seeing how Google's simplified, automated buying processes could result in effective in-game ads.

NEWS: MySpace's China entry may fall to local partner

News/Social Network/Myspace/Geoffrey Fowler
Found on: post-gazette.com

With over a 137 million internet users, China would be a perfect match for Myspace but is there enough room in an already overcrowded sector and will Fox Corp have enough endurance to jump over all the political hurdles set forth by the Chinese government?

Post Gazette's post:

As News Corp.'s social-networking Web site MySpace tries to steer its way into China's challenging Internet market, it may find that it has to let someone else do the driving.

MySpace has been in talks with a former Microsoft Corp. executive named Luo Chuan, who until December ran the U.S. software giant's MSN online services operation in China. The 38-year-old has started his own company, and says he is in negotiations to team up with MySpace, along with additional partners including International Data Group's Chinese venture arm and China Broadband Capital Partners LP, the investment company of former China Netcom Group Corp. Chief Executive Edward Tian.

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: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

News: Social network sites battle to befriend US teenagers

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Cyworld
Found on: FT.com

In the red corner, weighing in at 15,000,000 users, the site with Seoul by way of Korea, Cyworld (ding, ding, ding) and in the blue corner, weighing in at an amazing 130,000,000 users, the undisputed, social network heavy weight champion of the WORLD, the one, the only, Myspace (ding, ding, ding)!


FT post:

At seven years old, Cyworld is a veritable veteran in the world of social networking. A dominant force in South Korea, where up to 90 per cent of under 20s are believed to be Cyworld members, the website is now looking for eyeballs in other parts of the world.

Top on the list of new targets is the US, the world’s biggest media market.

The American appetite for social networking appears to be just as robust as the Korean. Teenagers spend hours each day sending each other messages, pictures and videos. By some measures, more time is spent making and seeking entertainment on the internet than watching television – at the very least online chats are often done on laptops in front of the television.

Melo's MySpace apology

Social Networks/Myspace/Carmelo Anthony
Found on: charleston.net

The cheap shot heard around the world - yeah, I'm talking about Carmelo Anthony's punch that knocked down Mardy Collins of the New York Knicks during a basketball game that turned into a full on brawl last Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after the altercation, "Melo" posted a bulletin on his Myspace page apologizing for his actions to his Myspace friends -- someone needs to send his publicist an early XMAS present.

Charleston post:

Following Saturday night's brawl against the New York Knicks, this bulletin was posted from Denver forward Carmelo Anthony's official MySpace page:

To my MySpace friends,

(Saturday's) altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have. Please know that I take full respon­sibility for my actions in the matter. In the heat of the mo­ment I let my emotions get the best of me. I wish the incident could be contained to what is was - men losing their temper in the heat of competi­tion. In reality though, it can't be. I am on a worldwide stage and to the public, I represent my community and my NBA peers. For the good of all of us, I need to understand my burden and my responsiblity to be better.

Today (Sunday) though, I apologize to you, all the fans, the Nuggets, the NBA, my mother, and my family for the embarss­ment I have caused them.

NEWS: Social networks top Google search

News/Social Networks/Web Culture/Google
Found on: bbc.com

What are you searching for on Google these days? Well if you're anything like the millions of other surfers on Google's search engine, it's Bebo and Myspace...oh, and the Mexican soap opera Rebelde.

BBC post:

Social networks Bebo and MySpace were the two most searched for terms of 2006 using Google's search engine.

The two rival sites allow users to create individual web pages, with photos, music and video.

The football World Cup was the third most searched for term while Paris Hilton topped the news searches.

The top 10 searches were dominated by web 2.0 developments, such as video site Metacafe, music streaming service Radioblog and encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

TOP 10 GOOGLE SEARCHES 2006

1. Bebo

2. MySpace

3. World Cup

4. Metacafe

5. Radioblog

6. Wikipedia

7. Video

8. Rebelde

9. Mininova

10. Wiki

NEWS: Social Networking Awards - Nominations Open!

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

With over 412K subscribed readers, Peter Cashmore is one of the most read and influential bloggers in the world. Peter's blog "Mashable.com" is primarily a blog dedicated to what Peter refers to as "social networking 2.o"; Mashable is a must read for anyone looking for news on the newest and most innovating social networking sites.

That said, Peter announced on Saturday, that Mashable along with sponsors "Photobucket" are now accepting nominations for the first annual Social Networking Awards -- congrats Peter!!

Mashable post:

I wanted to save this up for Monday, but we thought we’d give you some extra time over the weekend for nominations. First up, many thanks to Photobucket for offering to sponsor the Social Networking Awards 2006, which will run from now until the end of next week. The winners will be announced late on Thursday, December 21st (which for some of you will be Friday morning).

A few notes to begin. The Awards are not specifically for social networks launched in 2006 - there are sites launched years ago that have made big strides this year (StumbleUpon, for instance). Also note that networks certainly don’t need to be US-based, but they should be open to registration from anywhere in the world and should have an English version available. Obviously, the nominees don’t need to have been mentioned on Mashable, since I’m sure we’ve missed plenty of good ones. You can nominate your favorite sites in the following categories. To nominate a site, put the site name and category in the comments. Alternatively, you can write a post on your own blog and trackback or link to this post. You can nominate one site in each of the twelve categories. Voting will begin on Monday night and continue until Thursday night.

1. Large Scale

This is for social networks with more than 500,000 users. That would include MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, hi5, Piczo, Tagworld, Bebo, Tagged, Orkut, Xanga, Facebook and many more. How is a social network defined? At the very least, these sites should have profile pages with the ability to add friends. If you need inspiration, Wikipedia has a good list of large social networking sites. Since there isn’t a huge number of small-scale business networks (apart from Ecademy, perhaps), LinkedIn and Xing will be eligible. Ryze would probably make the cut, too.

2. Widgets and Add-ons

This category is for companies that provide tools for blogs and social networks. Examples include Stickam, Slide.com and MyBlogLog. Photo hosting sites like Imageshack are not in this category. However, avatar services like Meez are eligible. And since we don’t have a specific category for instant messaging, we’ll include Plugoo, MeeboMe and other IM tools that can be embedded in web pages.

NEWS: StumbleUpon offers auto discovery of online videos

Social Networks/Web Culture/Video/Eric Auchard
Found on: reuters.com

With over 1.6 million registered users, look who just jumped into the online video search frenzy.

Reuters post:

StumbleUpon, which helps Web users discover sites based on the ratings of users with similar tastes, on Wednesday said it was offering a way to create personalized channels for viewing online video.

Stumble Video provides a way to watch a stream of videos from popular video sites YouTube, Google Video and MySpace that are automatically matched to individual interests, the company said.

While online video search systems have proliferated over the past year, discovering what to watch typically depends on simple popularity rating systems or text searches that count on the user guessing what terms were used to label the video.

NEWS: Virtual reality TV - Big Brother launched in SL

Web Culture/Second Life/Adam Reuters
Found on: secondlife.reuters.com

Looks like reality televison just got a little more virtual or has virtual reality gotten more reality televison?

Fifteen contestants compete against each other in the Second Life edition of Big Brother in an attempt to win their own island - fun!

Secondlife Reuters post:

Reality show Big Brother is getting a little less real with a new Second Life edition, which will pit 15 contestants against each other in an attempt to win their own island.

The popular reality TV show will select 15 Second Life contestants in three time zones. Contestants will have to spend at least 8 hours a day in the transparent virtual Big Brother house for a total of one month, and will complete various tasks such as building replicas of famous buildings.

NEWS: Wikipedia founder remakes Web publishing economics

News/Social Networks/Wikia/Eric Auchard
Found on: reuters.com

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is a freaking visionary!

He announced on Monday that his for-profit company, Wikia, would be giving away all the open source software, computing power, storage space and network access that website developers need to create community collaboration sites for absolutely free!

Here's the catch - he's asking that they link back to Wikia.

Reuters post:

Wales is betting the plunging cost of computers and networks can help Wikia support the free services offer. "It is becoming more and more practical and feasible to do," he said.

WISDOM TO PREVAIL

"We don't have all the business model answers, but we are confident -- as we always have been -- that the wisdom of our community will prevail," he said.

The move follows the announcement last week that Amazon.com had become Wikia's first corporate investor and is acting as the sole investor in Wikia's second round of funding. Terms were not disclosed.

Wikia took $4 million in funding in March from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, high-profile Silicon Valley "angel" backers including Marc Andreessen, Dan Gillmor, Reid Hoffman and Mitch Kapor and Joichi Ito of Japan.

NEWS: MySpace, Apple in patch snafu

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Joris Evers
Found on: CNET.com

In response to the worm attack that hit MySpace over the weekend, the social networking site has made available a security update. Here's where it gets really, really lame: Myspace users are being told to go to a generic MySpace.com page via a message that appears on their home page from Tom (one of the co-founders) -- what gives?

CNET post:

Where do you go to get security updates for QuickTime? Apple Computer, you say? Wrong! This week, the answer would be MySpace.com. After a worm attack hit the social-networking Web site, Apple provided MySpace with a fix for the media player, which was distributed on the MySpace site.

Both companies demonstrated how not to deliver a patch, say CNET News.com's Joris Evers and CNET.com's Robert Vamosi in this week's Security Bites podcast. It's especially bad since the MySpace worm attack, while not the first, is another sign that attackers are looking to exploit such Web 2.0 sites.

NEWS: Digg Cheaters Get Caught

News/Social Networks/Digg/Jim Messenger
Found on: famousagents.com

Systems designed to exploit, scam or cheat social networking sites like Digg, Reddit, and Delicious have been making headlines recently on several prominent blogs and websites - what's up with that?

Famousagents.com post:

Scammers, schemers, and cheaters watch out! Over 700 of you just got caught.

Recently, some “entrepreneurial” folks have built systems designed to exploit - or cheat - social networking sites like Digg, Reddit, and Delicious. These exploit-the-social-network-sites have even received attention from the likes of TechCrunch and CNet.

SpikeTheVote.com has been at the forefront of the corrupt movement, and interest was amplified when the owner of the site decided to sell it.

When we learned that it was available on Ebay, we immediately jumped at the opportunity to shut down a scheme that attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Digg’s voting system. We thought, “Hey, we’ll buy it and turn it over to Digg. That way future cheaters might think twice before starting or joining such networks.”

NEWS: Expedia founder in web property move

News/Social Networks/Web Culture/Daniel Pimlott
Found on FT.com

If Richard Barton the founder of Expedia has his way, Zillow.com could be the new Myspace... for Real Estate.

FT.com post:

Richard Barton, the founder of Expedia, wants to repeat the success of the online travel agency in the fast-growing market for US property websites, by opening up his Zillow.com to user-generated content similar to popular networking sites such as MySpace.

The move, to be announced today, will allow home-owners and estate agents to add properties’ photos, descriptions, improvements and selling price to Zillow – the company founded by Mr Barton in February.

The new service will be free but Mr Barton, who left Expedia shortly before Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp bought out the company for $3.3bn in 2003, said that Zillow wanted to tap into the estimated $6bn online advertising market for property and financial services.

NEWS: CBS, Comcast to Televise Videogames

News/Youth Trends/Video games/Ryan Olson
Found on: redherring.com

Don't tell my wife, but both CBS and Comcast just announced they will televise pro gaming events, making it the first time the coverage will air on network TV.

Redherring post:

With gamers and the media in a frenzy over the launch of the latest consoles from Nintendo and Sony during the thick of what looks to be a busy holiday season, network television is coming out to grab a piece of the gaming action.

On Tuesday Comcast became the second major player in the U.S. television industry in as many days to unveil an agreement with a professional gaming league designed to bring game-centric content to TV viewers.

NEWS: MySpace to Apple: Fix that worm

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Apple/Joris Evers
Found on: CNET.com

A worm that exploits a security hole in Apple's QuickTime caused some major chaos for my MySpace and it's millions of users over the weekend, now Myspace wants Apple to fix the problem.

CNET post:

MySpace.com wants Apple Computer to update its QuickTime media player software so it can't be used in attacks on the social-networking site.

The request comes after a worm in the form of a rigged QuickTime movie crawled onto MySpace.com over the weekend, changing people's MySpace profiles. The worm spread because of QuickTime's support for JavaScript code, experts have said.

"When we learned about an issue that exploits a feature in QuickTime and unfortunately targets MySpace users, we immediately contacted Apple to engineer a fix,"

Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer at MySpace, said in an e-mail statement Tuesday.

NEWS: MySpace Goes Wireless

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Mobile/Stephen Ellis
Found on: fool.com

MySpace will become available via Cingular's mobile phones, allowing the millions of MySpace users to access the site wirelessly. So what is this going to mean for HELIO? And can Sprint suck anymore then they already do...come on, get with it!

Fool.com post:

News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, the wildly popular social networking site, is reportedly lining up yet another big deal. The deal is expected to put MySpace on Cingular's mobile phones, thus allowing the millions of MySpace users to access the site wirelessly. While users can currently access MySpace via Helios, a joint venture of Earthlink (Nasdaq: ELNK) and SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM), this deal has the potential to be a game-changer.

Not only does it make sense for MySpace's largely younger user base, who are usually heavy mobile phone users, but it makes sense for MySpace as well. With the site's advertising revenues being relatively puny compared to its user base and site traffic, the wireless move offers a chance to increase user stickiness, as well as boost advertising, movie, and music sales, as subscribers might want to stream the content to their phones.