Microsoft to take on Facebook and MySpace
After unsuccessfully trying to get the "in" to Facebook and MySpace, Microsoft decides to battle these two social networking behemoths with its own social networking site, Wallop.
Wallop was launched this past Tuesday in beta. It operates as an invitation-only network and offers free profile customization that doesn't require extensive knowledge of HTML code. One could also buy "mods" designed by Flash developers and designers to differentiate your profile.
Like Cyworld, Wallop is assuming that users want to outdo other users in site customization, so these users will buy as many "mods" as possible to have their profiles shine. As a result, there are no ads and banners on its site.
Businessweek has a somewhat lukewarm review of the site
here. As it turns out, most users are in their 30s thus the site has no way to attract the young and hip crowd where online social networking is at full force. With the lack of pop-ups and flashing ads, Wallop is a pleasant browsing experience compared to the cluttered horror of MySpace. Nonetheless, there is nothing that differentiates Wallop from the rest of the social networking group besides that.
If someone has an account on Wallop, I would love to try it. Please invite me! I like trying new things despite the fact that I may leave it in a week.
Goodbye MobileESPN
This MVNO had so much promise... but it will close its door by the end of the year. Instead, it will provide these services through another carrier.
I though sports-obsessed America would jump onto this service since it's basically the sports fan dream. I watch SportsCenter pretty religiously and the thought of being able to watch shows anywhere at anytime sounded beautiful.
Of course, I was turned off to the service's ugly phones. It's basically the same problem as Helio. MobileESPN phones were not pretty. Of course, I understand the slim pickings because what cell phone manufacturer would make a phone for a small market. Helio is interesting because it's half-owned by SK Telecom, which is the Korean telecom behemoth. However, only Pantech and the now defunct VK (two companies who showed a lot of SK Telecom love) provide phones for Helio. I mean.. if I was in the position of CEOs like Nokia and Motorola, I would say "no way" in providing phones for small MVNOs. The risk is too great, and development costs nowadays (especially for media phones) are very high.
I realize that this is not about social networking, but I thought it was interesting. Helio, on the other hand, better be banking on its partnership with MySpace. I wonder how many subscribers there are now. I also wonder what's going to happen when Cyworld enters the US mobile market.
VideoEgg gets some Starbucks love
I'm sure all of you have heard of YouTube. However, YouTube isn't too user-friendly when it comes to storing videos and streaming them to other sites.
VideoEgg is a website plug-in that allows users to easily capture, edit, encode, and post digital video online. No worries about compatibility. This site has almost every codec covered.
By using this site, you can post video to TypePad, Ebay, and Blogger with a click of a button. Can you post to other sites? Yes you can! You just need to copy and paste a few lines of html into your website of choice. Unlimited storage and bandwidth... but the free feature preview only allows 5 minutes of video time. There is plenty of love from social networking sites as VideoEgg announced deals with Bebo, Dogster, Hi5, AOL, Current.tv, and Tagged to name a few.
As web video is growing at such an explosive rate, it's no wonder that consumer goods and services companies are using this medium as a marketing monster. According to
BusinessWeek, a venture capital firm led by Starbucks CEO, Howard Schulz, agreed to invest $12 million. This is rumored to be about a 20% stake in the company.
VideoEgg should not be confused with YouTube, as VideoEgg sees no value as being a similar site to the popular YouTube. Instead, VideoEgg wants to build an efficient distribution infrastructure to enable users to easily post video on sites.
How is it going to make money? Well, that's the question for all media-sharing sites. Currently, it's following an ad-revenue model through its new VideoEgg Network. Companies such as Unilever and Fox Searchlight have already placed ads in the network. VideoEgg is also working with another company to integrate online ads into its service.
1 million people are del.icio.us!
Membership on del.icio.us has just hit one million. Joshua Schacter must be having a good day as he is named Innovator of the Year.
Here's the
link to a video interview, courtesy of Beet.TV.
Facebook is now public
As of September 26th, Facebook is open to the public. I even get a nice reminder on my home screen: "Now all your friends can use Facebook."
People who are not in high school, college, or employed by a company can join Facebook via regional networks. What about my privacy? Facebook understood that its network structure is very important, so the only people who can see your profile are your confirmed friends and the people in your networks. If you join a regional network, then everyone from that regional network can see your profile. Of course, you do have the option of limiting your profile to certain people. You can also control what new people see on your profile. You can tell everyone what your favorite books are but only a few people know your cell phone number.
Facebook also installed a self-policing feature in which any user can report an suspicious profile or activity going on in Facebook. It's a nice feature, but it's not too practical. Anyone can report someone as a joke, and it would be hard to discern what is a real threat. Facebook is not as big of a company as one might suspect despite floating rumors of a nearly $1 billion buyout. Also, the eyes of high school and college students are not too reliable. For all we care, we just want everyone to see how much fun we are having at school without our parents seeing what we do.
Carolyn Abram, a Facebook blogger, even written a post about the recent change significantly stressing the new privacy controls and that Facebook is useful to everyone.
There are still some people protesting this change. Some have begun to place "Facebookistryingtogetmestalked" as their middle names, so everyone can see. Another example is "FacebookMadeMeChangeMyName."
It's actually quite ironic that these students are so concerned with privacy. Why do these people create profiles in the first place if they are so uncomfortable with sharing "sensitive" information? Facebook made it pretty clear that you have total control over who views your profile and what they can see. Also, it's the responsibility of the user to be cautious of the information he or she puts on his or her profile. It seems like Facebook is roling out the regional network entry slowly, so no one dies of shock.
Yahoo! to buy Facebook?
After all this talk about keeping the company independent, I guess money talks for Mr. Zuckerberg as Yahoo and Facebook may approach a deal worth
$1 billion. Apparently Microsoft and Viacom failed to reach a deal with Facebook, but Yahoo seems desperate to attract the younger generation and will pay any price to own the coveted youth market held by Facebook.
Implications... ever since Newscorp's acquisition of MySpace, the social networking market may be saturated enough for giant media companies to snatch the most popular social networking sites. There are many social networking sites popping up every week, but only few of these sites become successful. For example, there are many different sites that offer to share video (i.e. YouTube, Google, dailymotion, AOL, etc), but users keep returning to YouTube and Google. Almost all social networking sites have the same features, so what sets them apart? Branding and marketing. Facebook was successful because it built on established networks of colleges and universities. MySpace was successful because its foundation was in sharing music. YouTube became successful because it offered a relatively easy way to store and share video content.
It'll be interesting to see if Yahoo! actually succeeds in buying Facebook as the popular social networking site claims it is worth $2 billion. If the rumors of $1 billion are true, then maybe that wasn't a preposterous estimate.
Do I really want to know what other people own?
So apparently there are about 4.9 million users on
Zebo, a social networking site where users share lists of what they own. This is pretty significant as it is only a site where you see what other people own. I guess people have this inferiority complex with ownership. "I'm not going to be showed up by other people who own more things than I do, so I will either buy more stuff or pretend that I own a lot of stuff to make people feel bad."
You also price each item that you own by linking it to retailers' listed prices. Another way to show the world how much money you have. Instead of spending time and effort to list everything you own, why don't you spend that time volunteering your time for a good cause. Or better yet, instead of spending $300 plus on a new down comforter, donate it to charity.
Admittedly, I am a materialist, and I do enjoying buying new things and showing it off to my friends. However, showing it off to the entire world is excessive and unnecessary. I do understand that users with little or no luxuries would feel inferior to users who own everything; nonetheless, what is the purpose of being on this site to begin with? I wonder if people actually have the time to devote to such sites when they are marginally more useful social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, or even MySpace).
Not sure whether that video is on Google or YouTube
No fear...
ScoopVid is here. This baby is like the Dogpile.com for video searches. It will search for the videos you want on almost every video site available. (I can list them all, but that would be a waste of our time.) You can search by tag, channel, or category or just plain browse through all the videos listed as "top rated" or "most searched."
Although it's still in beta stages, my experience with this site has been positive. It will return a lot of video results with any query you type. Although my primary video site is YouTube, it is nice to see results from Google or dailymotion without having to actually visit the site.
Social networking travel site makes its debut
Debuting today,
TripConnect is an online service that allows people to get travel advice from people they know, others who share similar interests, and also from established and relevant information sources. On the site, you can make friends and see where people in their network have traveled. Membership is free, and the running count for number of places visited is 199425. Pretty impressive for a site that debut just today.
You could also choose to join groups with tags such as "adventure travelers," "budget travelers," "shopping," and "food and restaurants." The most popular tags are bolded by varying degrees. You can send messages, write reviews, and post photos of various destinations. Privacy controls are also available so that you can keep your favorite secluded getaway a secret and available to only your friends.
This site is awfully similar to
TravelPost, another site that basically offer the same social networking features. In fact, it's practically the same except for branding.
I won't be surprised if bigger giants such as Expedia and Travelocity begin to offer these social networking features. They will jump on this bandwagon soon enough.
Virtual Girlfriend coming to a mobile device near you...
As I was reading the social networking tagged posts on Technorati, I came upon
this interesting entry. After viewing the online video, the first thing that came to my mind was that this "virtual girlfriend" application would be something that the crazy Japanese would come up with.
However, this interesting avatar application was developed by Italian tech firms,
Kallideas SpA and
REITEK SpA. Kallideas provided its avatar technology while REITEK provided the mobile video technology to run on mobile networks. What a way to reel that socially awkward teen in by giving him or her the sexy/hot woman or man of his or her dreams. This application is optimized for 3G phones, but it could be an interesting app as teens view their phones as their own.
There's not much to say... Watch the video! It's really amusing.
YouTube and Warner reach music deal
So in contrast to Universal's threat of legal action, Warner Music will put its entire music video collection on YouTube
according to the Associated Press. The Warner deal gives YouTube users access to the music videos and the ability to remix these videos with their own content. This seems like a promising direction in bringing all media entertainment through this new distribution channel. NBC and Capitol Records have already made use of YouTube's broad reach to promote their content.
As I always said, traditional media and entertainment companies need to suck it up and embrace web 2.0. Ever since the launch of Napster, these companies have lost their stringent control over distribution channels and need to be more innovative in getting the consumers to pay for their content. As a frequent YouTube and Bittorrent user, I enjoy the fact that I can access and sample almost any form of entertainment without risk of hating something strange. If I like it or love it, I will buy the record, DVD, or other digital medium that the content comes in. I am a proud owner of way too many CDs, DVDs, etc. for my own good, but I do have a sense of righteouness when it comes to intellectual property rights. (It also helps that CDs and DVDs usually have the content in much higher quality than what can be distributed online.)
Now back to the actual point of this entry, how are Youtube and Warner going to make money? From the looks of the revenue-sharing business model, it looks like they are banking on making money through advertising revenue when these music videos and/or amateur videos with copyrighted content are viewed?
What happens if the amateur video did not make an "appropriate use" of the copyrighted material? According to YouTube, the site has installed a royalty tracking system so that the company can review any amateur video that uses its copyrighted content.
It looks like YouTube wants to remain independent, yet there are some rumors about a YouTube IPO... (see
here) YouTube did hire Gideon Yu, Yahoo!'s former Treasurer, as its CFO. The company also took away some more of Yahoo!'s talent such as Rob Solomon, VP of online shopping, and Tony Nethercutt, Yahoo!'s National Sales director.
Hmm... YouTube won't be as big as Google. However, with its ridiculous traffic growth rate, it may be the company to watch in the near future.
Boost picks up Loopt's Mobile Friend Finder
Although I do think it would be cool to know where your closest friends are just by looking at the phone without calling them, I do agree that it can be a little stalker-ish.
Loopt has found a customer for its Mobile Friend Finder service in Boost Mobile. The service maps the location of buddies on a Google Map-like display. No worries though. People must opt in before they can be tracked. Nonetheless, the value only lies in being a Boost customer, so the service is pretty useless if all of your closest friends are on other carriers.
Of course, that is the problem with the U.S. mobile phone market. It's entirely dominated by the carriers. The gigantic behemoths such as Verizon and Cingular can bully around the mobile phone makers into making devices with the features they want.
Personally, I think the mobile friend finder is more useful if it's enabled through any phone and any network, but what kind of network would allow another network to access freely? Probably none.
I'm waiting for that day though. Honestly, I can't call any of my friends while I'm at a concert since I won't be able to hear them, so this service is not an entirely bad idea.
It was inevitable...
According to
Information Week, Universal Music Group is accusing YouTube and MySpace of copyright infringement by posting its artists' music videos. Universal chief executive, Doug Morris, describe both sites as "copyright infringers" during a Merrill Lynch investors' conference speech on Tuesday that was closed to the press.
Quotes from his speech include the following:
"The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube," said Morris, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters. "We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars."
He added, "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."
Well, I knew this was going to happen. Although YouTube's original purpose was to allow users to share and distribute their own vidoes, the site was quickly filled with copyrighted content ranging from the Daily Show to motion pictures. I have to admit that I watch many of my TV shows via YouTube because I hated watching commercials or couldn't see those shows at the specified time.
Last month, YouTube was discussing with record companies the possibility of hosting music videos on its site and proving them free for the site's users. YouTube is still operating without any profits despite its rapid ascent as one of the most viewed sites in the world. Business models for web 2.0 still have yet to take shape as advertising revenue will not be nearly enough.
Welcome to the twenty-first century, I say. Since the internet is breaking down barriers and lowering distribution costs, the current business models of large record companies are not working anymore. It's not surprising that these companies are trying to milk whatever they can due to declining sales. This is prime example of how large record companies need to face the facts. Old business models won't make profit anymore. These record companies need to be more innovative and cater to their consumers. That's why YouTube and MySpace enjoy immense popularity because it caters to the user.
It'll be interesting to see if Universal takes any legal action. I'm still waiting on Friendster to take some legal action on its social networking patent it won earlier in the year.
Zune is here!!!
Just as Jobs announced the new Apple toys, Microsoft finally launched Zune, its portable media player device. All the big companies are going for connected entertainment or technology from your palm to your home. It's not about isolated gadgets anymore but a seamless integration between all technology devices.
Sounds a little sci-fi? Not really. Microsoft's new product, Zune, may be pointing in the right direction for the deep-connected music experience. With Zune, you can share your music between Zune devices with your friends (3 plays for 3 days) and get playlists and recommendations instantly.
Specs? 30 gigs of HD storage, 3 colors, 3.75" inch QVGA, FM radio, digital radio, tons of loaded codecs (audio and video)... and Wi-Fi!!!!!
Now Wi-Fi is how your Zune device will communicate with other Zune devices in the vicinity. Apple has yet to put Wi-Fi connectivity in its IPOD devices, so this may be the huge advantage for Microsoft. With Microsoft's partnership with MTV, there will be enough content to satisfy any trendy and pop culture-oriented teen. Also, the Wi-Fi connectivity will enable Microsoft to update the platform to bring location-based services, X-box Live, and other data services.
However, the big stickler is that Microsoft will retail this device for $399. That's the same price for a 60 gig video IPOD. Personally, I'd rather have more storage (about two times Zune's storage capabilities), so I expect many consumers to turn away just because of price. Since it is a first generation device, there will probably be minimum features besides sharing playlists, recommendations, songs, music player, and access to music store. If Microsoft could get VOIP and the plethora of other services (gaming, location-based, email, etc) onto these devices and maybe improve the design, Zune could be a winner in the future.
Regardless (I understood that my stolen IPOD as a sign that I was not meant to own an Apple device), Zune is on my top 10 wishlist for Christmas. Everyone take note. ;)
Facebook to go public?
So remember when Facebook used to be an exclusive network for elitist schools? According to the
Website Services Magazine, Facebook soon have plans to go public and brawl it out with MySpace. I always wondered why we had the option of joining networks by location (country, state, city). Well it looks like Facebook will use this option to let other people join the network. Accessibility will remain the same in Facebook as viewers will only be allowed to view public profiles of people in their specific network.
What does this mean for advertisers? Well, it means a lot as now advertisers can reach a new segment (albeit a pretty large one). Also, Facebook offers local advertising.
What about the users? Well, I can sense some grumbling from the majority of the users as facebook users are much more concerned about privacy than MySpace users. If Facebook keeps the same accessibility options, I don't see why users can be so angry. On the other hand, seeing the Facebook users' reaction toward mini-feeds and news feeds, the result is unknown.
Another Social Shopping site
With some wandering and guidance from Download Squad, I came upon another social shopping site called ThisNext.com. It is a free shopcasting network where you can discover, recommend, and share things you love. The concept is that everything on ThisNext is recommended by real people. In other words, I would trust my techie genius best friend than a random reviewer on Newegg.
What is shopcasting? Shopcasting is a way for someone to tell a bunch of people about a thing he or she loves. It basically combines "shopping" with "broadcasting," so it's trying to catch onto the podcasting craze in America.
There are three tabs to choose from: Discover, Recommend, and Shopcast. All three categories are self-explanatory. One can click on "Discover" to find out about products one normally does not find easily or at a local store. It can be anything from thermometer cufflinks to a dot matrix watch. There is a number of familiar items that include the iconic IPOD, UGG boots, and MacBook Pro.
You can also make recommendations by entering the item's name or URL or use the Bookmarklet! function. Dragging ThisNext's bookmarklet up to your browser's bookmark toolbar is supposedly the easiest and fastest way to shopcast while you're surfing the web. This is similar to Digg This! function found on the popular social networking app, Digg. When clicked, the Bookmarklet! feature will capture the item and save it to you ThisNext account.
You can also create wishlists from the items you found on the sites and upload your own pictures of these items. Then you can tag these items so that other people can search for them. Additional social networking aspects include users' profiles so that you can further investigate whether this person actually knows what he or she is doing.
What do I think? There are just too many sites that serve the same function. Although it's kind of nice that real people are the ones who are making the recommendations, that's the only thing that differentiates ThisNext from other sites. I don't feel like there is a need to have another third party help me decide what to buy online. Amazon and Newegg offer similar functions while I am able to see the prices of these products and order them directly from these sites. Although I may trust my techie friend's advice more than a random stranger techie, if there are 200+ people highly recommending the product in question, then I have no reserve against buying something using strangers' advice.
Overall, nice idea... but it's a hard sell for me to use it frequently.
MyStrands... interesting combination of social networking and music sharing
Businessweek ran an
article on MyStrands, a site that combines a high-tech music recommendation system with social networking. I got curious, so I decided to check out the site and see how it works.
After downloading the plug-in (Itunes and Windows Media Player compatible), I installed the software for I-Tunes and gave it a test-spin.
The MyStands plug-in automatically builds your personal music profile based on the music you play in I-Tunes. Your profiles lets you find music tailored to your tastes and lets you see and share playlists of your favorite and most played songs. You can organize your music with playlists and tags, see what your friends are listening to, autofill your mobile device with the music you love, and keep discovering new music based on instant recommendations.
The MyStrands plug-in was pretty simple to use. After syncing my music with the MyStrands World catalog, every song I play, there will be a list of recommended songs that links you to the relevant information such as band, songs, number of times played, highly rated, etc. If a recommended song is available, you can listen to a sample of that song online (if available).
They have an app out for mobile phones as they want to bring the MyStrands technology to the mobile phone. This may be worth checking out. (Unfortunately, I don't have data services on my plan.)
Social Networking Craze in Asia
Businessweek has released a special CEO
guide to technology specifically on social networking. There are some pretty interesting articles regarding the MySpace craze and similar phenomena across the globe.
One article entitled, "MySpace Clones Stalk Cyberspace," offers an interesting look into the social networking world in Asia. The article title's is misleading as it implies that many Asian social networking sites are copies of the U.S. MySpace site. This is partly false because Korea's Cyworld existed for at least 5 years which is much longer than MySpace's three-year existence.
Now Japan's mixi will launch its public initial offering on September 14th. Although mixi's 5 million members is miniscule compared to the MySpace giant, mixi's membership quintupled in the past year. According to Alexa.com, mixi only trails Yahoo! and Google in Japan with 7 million page views a month and is ranked 37th in global online traffic. The expected share price for mixi is $13,300 per share which puts mixi's market capitalization at $940 million. It seems like good news for the company and marketing execs as there is an estimated 70% of mixi users who log in frequently.
Mixi will not be alone as there are many other social networking providers that hope to reap the benefits and rewards. Foreign competitors such as MySpace and Cyworld are planning to enter the Japanese market . Meanwhile, Japan's Gree and Any are growing in popularity too. Netportal Yahoo! Japan and online retailer Rakuten are planning to enter the market as well.
Korea's Cyworld is another interesting case in which SK Telecom (a major Korean telecommunications corporation and cell phone carrier) owns this site. The company expanded to the United States and Taiwan last month. It has also expanded to China last year, and hopes to move into Germany and Vietnam in the next few months.
Although Cyworld has only 19 million members (40% of Korean population), Cyworld gets an average of $270,000 per day from users purchasing digital currency called dotori (acorns) for decorating their digital rooms. There are 3 million Cyworld users who access Cyworld via mobile phone. In order to encourage loyalty, SK Telecom allows users to post as many photos as they like.
Of course, this poses an interesting problem in regulated markets such as China. Due to the government's stringent standards on what goes on the Internet, every photo and video uploaded to Chinese social networking sites must be monitored and filtered. This is definitely a pain point for any Chinese company hoping to reap the success of social networking in China where many Chinese people spend hours in internet cafes. In addition, there are many more mobile phone users in China than internet users.
There is also the question of relevance to the market. Cyworld works in Korea, because young Koreans are very susceptible to pop culture and fashion. These Koreans would pay the money to decorate their mini-hompies and digital rooms to differentiate themselves from others and show off their personal styles. It also helps that Cyworld is owned by SK Telecom, a major cell phone carrier, so it's natural for SK Telecom to allow unlimited access to Cyworld through mobile phones because it could generate more revenue. In addition, Cyworld is the predominant social networking site used in Korea. In the United States, there are several social networking websites (MySpace, Facebook, Digg, YouTube) that are popular and widely used. It would hard for a U.S. carrier to allow unlimited access to all of these because the increased traffic could affect the network.
Nevertheless, Cyworld works on a business model where users are willing to pay real money for digital currency and items. MySpace and Facebook offer their features for free and makes money based on marketing research fees and ad revenues. It could be hard to persuade the average Facebook or MySpace user to begin paying for features found on these sites.
I would be more interested to see how niche social networking sites work and thrive such as 1Up.com (for gamers).
Digg launches mobile app
According to the
download squad, Digg has launched a Digg River, designed for mobile devices. The page and site for mobile users are much simpler and only provide top level feeds. It does not allow users to "digg" stories, and the categories are only viewable on the about page. It seems like the purpose of "mobile digg" is just to allow access to users' digg sites on the go for browsing pleasure.
It would be nice to see some screens of this application, but from the looks of it, it just seems like a simplified website for the mobile device (i.e. WAP or extremely simple HTML).
Facebook CEO delivers apology
So Mark realized that he was in trouble and decided to write an open letter to the Facebook community apologizing for not "thinking through" the new feature. It was probably a good idea given the fact that nearly 90% of the Facebook community were lashing back on the new "mini-feed" and "news feed" claiming that it went too far and invaded their privacy.
Mark notes here, "Somehow we missed this point with News Feed and Mini-Feed and we didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away." As mentioned from the intern IDIs and FGs, there seems to be a necessity for user control in any social networking site. Although young people these days are actually making more personal information available than any other generation, these young people felt that the news feeds were going too far and took away their control over their profiles and activities. A girl interviewed by the CBS evening news stated that the immediate broadcast of her broken relationship made her feel really uncomfortable around the people she knew.
Mark also says: " So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you
better privacy controls. This new privacy page will allow you to choose which types of stories go into your Mini-Feed and your friends' News Feeds, and it also lists the type of actions Facebook will never let any other person know about. If you have more comments, please send them over." As social networking sites proliferate due to user content and word-0f-mouth, it is crucial that any successful social networking site caters to the users it serves. Honestly, these privacy controls should've been in place when "news feeds" were introduced. And who knows? This feature may have been welcomed rather than hated.
News feeds and mini feeds were great ideas that were executed poorly. At least the CEO heard the voices of the users.
Facebook makes a mistake?
The ever popular Facebook has recently introduced two new features called "mini-feed" and "news feed" where you can track what all your friends are doing or whether they have modified their profiles. Before this change, one had to go to their friends page and check each of their friend's profiles individually to see what has changed. This feature will allow one to bypass that process and see what his or her friend has changed all in one page.
At first, this sounds like a pretty good idea; however, there has been a lot of backlash from Facebook members on this feature. Many find it really annoying that it keeps track of everyone's movement (hey, not everyone is supposed to know you're online writing on your friend's profiles.. what happens if my future employer catches me on facebook just by looking at my feed.... etc.) Many groups have popped up protesting the feed and even comparing it to the clutter of Myspace.
What do I think of it? I have some mixed feelings on it. It is making Facebook lose its appeal for simplicity and functionality. I have an account on Myspace and browsing on Myspace is a nightmare. Facebook is approaching that limit as it tries to differentiate itself from other social networking websites by providing innovative features and content offered nowhere else. On the other hand, I can see the usefulness of this feature on a mobile phone instead of on the PC. On the PC, I like the idea of browsing to discover what's new on my friend's agenda without worry that my movement is being tracked. Now with the news feed, the novelty of browsing has disappeared.
I would like to note that Facebook is pretty good at coming up with features that are not offered on other social networking websites. Then again, Facebook started out as a closed network of elite Ivy League colleges and morphed to an ambitious online directory of students and coworkers. What's next? By retirement homes for the elderly?
*UPDATE*
Here are some interesting quotes from the groups protesting the Facebook Feeds:
"
You went a bit too far this time, facebook. Very few of us want everyone automatically knowing what we update. We want to feel just a LITTLE bit of privacy, even if it is facebook. News Feed is just too creepy, too stalker-esque, and a feature that has to go.
We demand that either the feature goes, or that we have an option to remove ourselves from the feature. Nothing people write on our walls, or what we write, or what we update goes up on the "News Feed." These are small demands of your users, but we are here to complain and protect our privacy.
I know it's odd to protest facebook through facebook, but this perhaps is the best way for them to get the message.
Until this feature is removed or changed to protect my privacy, I WILL NOT update my profile, and I hope you will too.
So join here, and you're part of the petition to remove the most undelightful feature to have ever hit facebook." -Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)
"Dear Mark,
We're all real glad that you've come up with some innovative "products" here on Facebook; however the majority of us couldn't care less. We all joined Facebook because it provided a communal space on the internet in a world of increasing privatization and stratification. We, the community, the ones who keep Facebook alive and bring you all that big advertising revenue, hate this news feed bullshit. Listen to the people Mark, and restore Facebook to what it once was!" -An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg
Other interesting quotes:
It's ironic that most of the people who enjoy the new changes, including the developers of them, are from more prominent universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford, whilst most nay-sayers are from state colleges and other underdog universities. What everyone fails to realize is that your privacy online is already hampered. You sign it away when you join sites like Facebook, MySpace, DeviantART, and Friendster. Why do you complain about changes that compromise your privacy, especially when the system is opt-out? If you don't want your friends (whom you can *gasp* designate at your convenience) know that you wrote on someone's wall, added a buddy from high school, or discussed the new changes in a Developers group, perhaps you shouldn't be their friend. Or maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook.
Enough bitching already. You joined Facebook to learn about your friends, not add 1000's of random friends. No one is stalking you and if they are, maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook." -Facebook user
My thoughts:
It seems like a majority of the users that are complaining about the "feeds" feature is the fact that it seems to impede upon privacy. Mark Zuckerberg defended that one could adjust his or her privacy settings such that only certain people can view these feeds. He also did not say whether they will remove the feature or not in the near future despite the complaints. It seems like it is here to stay.
What's ironic is that once you join Facebook, not everything is going to be private. I really hope that people realize that whatever you put on your Facebook profile will be used by many marketing research firms that want to buy this information. Some friends noted that the new Facebook just looks "shitty" and that they are uncomfortable with the amount of information available on facebook. On the other hand, I do have friends who feel the new feature adds more convenience and that everyone will eventually use it anyway.
Introduction
Welcome to my series of blogs that attempts to use simple economic analysis on issues that matter now. Although I already have a blog that links technology and economics, I have decided to make another blog which will specifically focus on social networking. Why do you ask? Well that's simple, because online social networking phenoms such as MySpace and Facebook are recently creating a maelstrom as tech and consumer electronic giants such as Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple are trying to get a slice of the action.
Each post will compile interesting news articles that I find on the web on social networking and reviews of alternative social networking websites that you may not be aware of.
First things first:
MySpace enables users to sell music!!!According to Yahoo! News, MySpace announced that it made a deal with SNOCAP, a digital music technology firm based in San Francisco. This technology will enable users the tools to sell their music in a digital storefront on the website's main page. Tom Anderson, MySpace president, believes that this will lower distribution costs and barriers of entry for many musicans struggling to get their names and music known.
What do I think of this? Well, it was eventually going to happen. YouTube is signing deals to enable people to view all sorts of music videos for free through its website, and there are no restrictions for musicians to broadcast their works through this site. Facebook is in the midst of a music promotion deal with Facebook giving free samplers for students that are members of the Apple Group. It may be likely that Facebook expands this to include college students' bands and enable a distribution network.
Before we know it, MySpace may even create its own record label. MySpace was initially created as a forum for musicians to share and publicize their music, so it was about time that MySpace enabled their founding members to sell their music online. With the 100-plus million users on MySpace, these musicians can now make some revenue off their creative efforts.
