Entries Tagged 'Social Networking' ↓
November 2nd, 2007 — Social Networking
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Today Google officially launched a new project called Open Social. There have been tons of stories about Open Social prior to today, but there is still a lot of confusion about what it is. Open Social is a set of open APIs that Google is releasing to web application developers to create web apps for social networks like, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, Beebo, etc. To date web app developers have had to recode their applications from one language to another for each of these social communities. Google’s Open Social is trying to make it easier for these developers to port their apps from one community to the next.
What Open Social Isn’t?
Many people think that Google’s Open Social is a new social media network. It is not. It is just a common set of APIs.
Why is everyone saying that Open Social is the Facebook Killer?
To be honest, I think these people are dreaming. Facebook is here to stay. However, Open Social is taking a huge swing at Facebook and it is hitting it right in a very vulnerable spot. Facebook is a closed network that is coded in its own programming language. If developers want to create an application to work on Facebook, they have to use Facebook’s own programming language. This makes it very difficult to port the Facebook application to another social network.
While this will certainly create some problems for Facebook, I don’t think that this it the killer app that brings Facebook down. But, only time will tell.
Why is Open Social good for us?
More web applications. That’s right. These open APIs will allow web application developers to develop a lot of cool new applications. I can’t wait to see what they bring us!!
If you are interested in learning more about Open Social, here are some more great articles.
October 28th, 2007 — Social Networking
According to Valleywag, Facebook employees are in the habit of checking out people’s profiles and snooping around to see who certain people have been checking up on. Is this a violation of our privacy? Well, I am not sure, but I had to laugh at the Fake Steve Job’s response,
Some of us are still trying to get our heads around the idea that Valleywag is pretending to be outraged at the idea of someone snooping into the private affairs of other people. I mean, hello? Valleywag? The guys who follow Eric Schmidt around on dates? Man oh man.
That is too funny and so true.
Michael Krigsman from ZDNet is not surprised, but thinks that Facebook should prohibit their employees from doing this. In fact, he compared it to the IRS snooping around people’s tax returns.
Mac Beach thinks that this is a much bigger problem at Facebook. According to Mac Beach, Facebook consistently and pervasively disregards people’s privacy.
I think that Facebook should implement a policy prohibiting employees from doing this. But, I think that the more important thing to gain from this story is an awareness of the privacy concerns that the Internet raises.
We need to be careful about our online activities. Social Networking is great, but it is social. Just like you wouldn’t share certain things with your colleagues at work, you shouldn’t share certain things about yourself on social networking sites. These social networking sites leave a trail on the Internet about you. People can piece together a lot about you by doing a Google search, checking out what pages you Digg, and who your friends are on Facebook and Linkdin.
Tell me about your online privacy concerns.
October 22nd, 2007 — Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, stumbleupon
I would like to say that I thought of this all on my own, but I can’t. Mohsin from Blogging Bits had a Free Backlink Giveaway on Saturday requesting that Bloggers submit their best article to Blogging Bits and he would link to their article. Please check out the awesome list of articles that were submitted.
Well, now it is my turn, but with a little wrinkle.
My Goal: To create the ultimate list of articles about StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is my favorite social bookmarking site. It is a tremendously easy bookmarking tool and an great social site. I think that StumbleUpon has some of the best social features of any site. You can see what sites your friends like, send articles to your friends and send traffic to well deserving content.
How To Enter: There are two ways to enter and get a backlink.
- Leave a comment listing one or more articles about StumbleUpon that you have written.
- Leave a comment listing two or more articles about StumbleUpon that you have really enjoyed.
What You Get: If you participate, you get the following,
- A free backlink to your site or articles
- A great list of articles about StumbleUpon
Deadline: Sunday October 28, 2007
Please note that I reserve the right not to post to any spam sites or sites containing inappropriate material.
Update: Please note that I am looking for articles about StumbleUpon, not articles that have been submitted to StumbleUpon. As an attorney, I am embarrassed that I created this confusion.
October 9th, 2007 — Social Networking
Google is acquiring Jaiku!! As set forth on the Jaiku blog, Google has acquired Jaiku and integration efforts are beginning immediately. While they have declined to state what these engineering efforts will entail, I can’t wait to see the outcome.
Jaiku, like Twitter, is a microblogging platform. Jaiku advertises itself as an activity stream and presence sharing service. I have used both Jaiku and Twitter and must admit that I like Jaiku better than Twitter. However, I have more friends on Twitter so I tend to do more tweeting.
Jaiku has halted sending out new invitations, but existing members can still send out new invitations. If you would like one, please send me an email. Otherwise you can apply for an invitation here.
October 7th, 2007 — Social Networking, Uncategorized
MSNBC.com, the online arm of the cable news station MSNBC, has just acquired Newsvine. With this acquisition MSNBC is getting into the social news business. According to Newsvine’s blog, Newsvine will continue to operate independently of MSNBC.com. However, MSNBC.com and Newsvine are going to try to incorporate each other’s content where it makes sense. Newsvine has stated that the reason for the acquisition is,
Although going from zero to over a million users a month in less than two years is heartening, msnbc.com operates on another scale entirely. While Newsvine may be well known in early adopter circles, we want every college student, every farmer, every weekend journalist, and every household to have their own branch on the ‘Vine. In order to spread this idea further, we could have gone out and raised a lot of money, quadrupled our staff, and gone it alone, but when one of the finest news organizations in the world is headquartered right across Lake Washington, the potential of partnering with such a great team is dramatic.
This is a very interesting development. Mainstream media is starting to gobble up social media sites. While this is just one acquisition, I believe that we will see more mainstream (or old-stream) media sites move to more social distribution. However, it will be interesting whether Internet user will embrace these ventures.
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