Social Networking

uSocial Lets You Buy Twitter-Followers

Authored by Jay Baage on July 2, 2009 - 7:57am.

Australia - How is this for an innovative social media marketing idea? An Australian marketing company called  uSocial is offering a paid service that finds followers for users of the micro-blogging service Twitter. Is it cheating? You decide.

Facebook Rolls Out New Privacy Features

Authored by Jay Baage on July 2, 2009 - 8:32am.

Palo Alto - Facebook has begun testing new privacy options. Once the changes - now in beta and not yet final - are complete, users will be able to decide who can see their Facebook posts on a post-by-post basis, according to PC World.

Gizmodo, Engadget Founders Launch GDGT Social Network

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 1, 2009 - 9:19am.
San Francisco - The founders of gadget news blogs Gizmodo and Engadget have teamed to launch GDGT, a gadget-focused online social network.

Facebook Names David Ebersman as New CFO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 10:24am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - Online social network Facebook on Monday named David Ebersman, former chief financial officer at biotech firm Genentech, as its new CFO.

Goojet Secures $8.4 Million for Mobile Social Networking Tools

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 26, 2009 - 7:18am.
Paris - Goojet, a provider of mobile social networking services, has raised $8.4 million in its second round of venture capital financing, led by new investor Orkos Capital.

Grou.ps Raises $1 Million for Social Network Creation Platform

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 26, 2009 - 7:11am.
San Francisco - Grou.ps, the provider of a service that lets users create their own online social networks, has raised $1 million in the second tranche of its first round of funding from Golden Horn Ventures, VentureBeat reported.

FriendFeed Adds Ability to Share MP3s, Other Files

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 25, 2009 - 12:35pm.
Mountain View, Calif. - FriendFeed, a social content-sharing platform, has added the ability for users to share files with one another, including MP3 and PDF formats. The service previously allowed only photo file formats to be directly shared into a user's feed. Uploads for audio files are limited to three per day, and may either be downloaded or streamed from FriendFeed servers. The company told TechCrunch it would deal with copyright issues by removing files per the request of the copyright holder.

Glubble Gets $1 Million for Social Network for Families

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 25, 2009 - 7:00am.
Los Angeles - Glubble, an online social network targeted at families, has raised $1 million in its second round of financing from European investors, TechCrunch reported.

RealPlayer SP Ports Web Video to Social Nets, Media Players

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 12:07pm.
Seattle - RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) on Wednesday released RealPlayer SP, an application that lets users transfer video from many websites onto their social network profiles or various portable media players. After installation, RealPlayer will identify video on sites like YouTube and CNN.com that users can port to Facebook, Twitter, or email. For portable device transfers, a selects the cell phone model or type of device -- including iPhone and iPod, BlackBerry, Android, Palm Pre, Zune, PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox and Apple TV -- and RealPlayer SP then transcodes to the appropriate format.

LinkedIn Names Jeff Weiner as New CEO

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2009 - 11:14am.
Mountain View, Calif. - LinkedIn, the operator of an online professional network with more than 42 million members, on Wednesday named Jeff Weiner as its new CEO, replacing company founder Reid Hoffman, who will remain executive chairman.

Report: Twitter Users Like Online Music, Buy More of It

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 9:05am.
Port Washington, N.Y. - Twitter users are more engaged with online music, and are more likely to purchase it in greater quantities than Web users not on the microblogging service, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group.

"Mafia Wars" Game Maker Zynga Sues "Mobsters" Maker Playdom

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 8:08am.
San Francisco - Zynga, a developer of online games for social media, has filed suit against rival Playdom over ads the company placed for its "Mobsters" game on Facebook, arguing that they are misleading consumers interested in its own "Mafia Wars" title, PaidContent reported.

MySpace Cuts Two-Thirds of Intl Staff, Will Shut Some Offices

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 5:41am.
Los Angeles - Following the trimming of 30% of its U.S. staff last week, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace social network announced on Tuesday that it will additionally lay off two-thirds of its international workforce, and close at least four of its offices abroad. The company, which recently saw its monthly traffic fall below that of rival Facebook for the first time, will now count around 150 employees outside of the U.S.

Media-Sharing Service thisMoment Lands $3 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2009 - 5:15am.
San Francisco - ThisMoment, an online media-sharing service that lets users blend their own photos and video with publisher-licensed content, has raised $3 million in angel funding and launched its service, VentureWire reported.

Social Media Payment Platform oneTXT Gets $2 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 22, 2009 - 8:14am.
New York - Social media payment platform oneTXT said on Monday that it has closed a $2 million first round of financing, led by Metamorphic Ventures.

Report: MySpace Music to Launch in U.K. in September

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 19, 2009 - 12:00pm.
London - News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) will launch its MySpace Music service in the U.K. in September, the Telegraph reported, citing a source at a digital media agency. "Everyone had expected MySpace Music to launch in April this year as the company had been touring the media agencies organizing advertising deals to support the service. However, it was delayed once again when a new CEO joined the company," the source told the Telegraph. "[New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta] is expected to approve the business plan next week for an early September launch."

Google, Facebook Post Iran-Centric Language Updates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 19, 2009 - 8:44am.
Los Angeles - Google (NASD: GOOG) and Facebook this week both posted Persian (Farsi) language updates to their Web services, a nod to making them more readily available as the post-election events unfold in Iran.

Adgregate Markets Acquires Widget Ad Network Gydget

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 18, 2009 - 7:12am.
Sausalito, Calif. - Adgregate Markets, a provider of transactional advertising technology, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Gydget, a provider of brand-oriented widget advertising services.

Jelli Introduces "Crowdsourced" Internet, Terrestrial Radio

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 17, 2009 - 12:16pm.
San Francisco - Jelli on Wednesday introduced a "crowdsourced" radio programming model, where Web users will help determine what songs are played both online, and over the air on a traditional radio station. Users can rate what songs are playing, determine what the next song will be "seconds before its plays," and "even vote to pull a song off-the-air, instantly." The company partnered with CBS Radio-owned (NYSE: CBS) Live 105 in San Francisco to launch the "Jelli" show, which debuts on Sunday, June 28 during the stations 10:00 P.M. - 12:00 Midnight programming block.

Guest Column: Why Facebook Will Fail

Authored by dmw on June 17, 2009 - 10:44am.

Last reports I saw had Facebook at over 200 million active worldwide unique users (and growing) and an estimated $200m-plus in annual revenue in 2008. Pretty kooky to claim it'll be a failure, eh? Let me start by saying that social networking itself is a utility that is not routinely differentiated by any particular protectable intellectual property. It's a utility that demonstrates a better way for the online and mobile web audience at-large to connect with each other. But it's also a utility that ultimately threatens to be its own worst enemy.