Category: social networks

The Real Social Map

Not only does Google Maps allow you to create your own custom maps, that include things like your favorite bike route or local restaurants, but now you can share a bit about who you are. As more people in your community create maps based on their interests, it becomes a real-world virtual-world where you can… Continue reading The Real Social Map

Advertisers Wary of “Open” Websites

Scott Karp looks at why more ad dollars haven’t been shifted to social networks and web sites that allow anonymous commenting: “Sites built on open systems, which turn content creation and publishing into a free for all, will find it increasingly difficult to get their share of brand advertising dollars. Sites that that can harness… Continue reading Advertisers Wary of “Open” Websites

How Cashing Out Affects Online Communities

Jeremy Wagstaff looks at MSNBC’s purchase of Newsvine, an online news sharing and citizen journalism community. His focus is that as “old media” companies buy social networking communities, that their is inherent risk that the community will leave: “How do you reward those who make a website like Newsvine what it is? Or at least,… Continue reading How Cashing Out Affects Online Communities

The Long Tail is Alive and Well on Facebook

Tim O’Reilly looks into the reality of the 5,000+ Facebook applications that developers have created: “The good news has already been widely disseminated: there are nearly 5000 Facebook applications, and the top applications have tens of millions of installs and millions of active users. The bad news, alas, is in our report: 87% of the… Continue reading The Long Tail is Alive and Well on Facebook

Online Success Lies in Community, Not Technology

Robert Scoble uses the context of Microsoft’s lack of Web 2.0 success, to talk about why some social networks such as Flickr and Facebook are more powerful than the mere technology they sit upon: “…remember eBay? Remember how dozens of competitors tried to get into the eBay space? (and still are?)” “Why aren’t they succeeding?… Continue reading Online Success Lies in Community, Not Technology

Waiting to Profit from the Facebook Bandwagon

Interest in Facebook is growing, as many smaller businesses are attempting to create profitable businesses on the platform: “Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., opened its service to outside developers this spring, inviting them to create tools for the site and to try to profit from them. Since then, more than 4,000 “applications” have flooded… Continue reading Waiting to Profit from the Facebook Bandwagon

Google to Take on Facebook and Second Life

Google is working on two new services that take on some of the biggest players out there: Google vs Facebook “Google will announce a new set of APIs on November 5 that will allow developers to leverage Google’s social graph data. They’ll start with Orkut and iGoogle (Google’s personalized home page), and expand from there… Continue reading Google to Take on Facebook and Second Life

Is Facebook Worth $15 Billion?

Kara Swisher looks at Facebook’s holdout for a $15 billion valuation, as it decides which companies and investors to partner with. She finds the scale of these numbers to be laughable, and offers the following reasons why Facebook is not as big as it thinks it is: Facebook is not Google Facebook’s revenue is not… Continue reading Is Facebook Worth $15 Billion?