Social Apps

Google, following plans announced by two biggest social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook, has launched their own open social engine called Friends Connect.  Friends Connect allows website owners to add social networking functionalities without any complicated programming. Visitors bring along friends from social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and others to interact on their site. Then main feature of Friends Connect is Open Social which will allow third parties to build and develop applications.

The Friends Connect is available to selected partners now

 Link

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Friends Connect, Google, MySpace, OpenSocial

Representatives from Google, Yahoo, and MySpace outlined the initial plans for the OpenSocial Foundation, a new nonprofit organization whose purpose is to organize the various aspects of the platform. With an early framework already in place at OpenSocial.org, the foundation will primarily serve as a resource hub and communication portal for the developer community.

Link

Technorati Tags: Google, OpenSocial, OpenSocial.org, Yahoo. MySpace

I came across a great article how AOL has failed to exploit a wealth of formidable assets, including “a ubiquitous brand, millions of regular users, the Web’s dominant instant-messaging service, the iconic MapQuest and Moviefone, the most popular finance site, a top celebrity-gossip site in TMZ, an innovative video search engine in Truveo, and deep television and music offerings.”

And why? The story pieces together “a tale of failure on multiple fronts: short-term thinking, bad technology, bungled product development, a dramatic miscalculation of what drives page views on its own site, and a risk-averse culture more prone to imitation than innovation.”

Link

Technorati Tags: AOL. MapQuest, Bebo, Moviefone, TMZ, Truvio

Scribe Media have posted a stage-setting interview with Mark Bard, president of NYC-based Manhattan Research, focusing on trends in patient and doctor use of the Internet and emerging health media business models.

Link

Technorati Tags: health care, social media

Here are the 30 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links in February, 2008.

1. digg.com
2. Technorati.com
3. del.icio.us
4. Propeller.com
5. StumbleUpon.com
6. reddit.com
7. Fark.com
8. MyBlogLog.com
9. Slashdot.org
10. kaboodle.com

Technorati Tags: links, social bokkmarking

AOL acquired global social networking site Bebo.com for $850 million in an all-cash deal. Bebo has over 40 million members, and ranked third after Facebook and MySpace. Bebo is very popular in the United Kingdom and has a fast-growing global audience.

AOL hopes to leverage its advertising sales business across Bebo’s network. When integrated with instant messaging services ICQ and AIM, it is expected to reach 80 million members.

Link

Technorati Tags: advertising, AIM, AOL, Bebo, ICQ, social networking

Google announced a new tool for publishers with the beta launch of Google Ad Manager. Directed at addressing the ad management and serving needs of publishers with smaller sales teams, Google Ad Manager is a free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their directly-sold and network-based ad inventory.

It offers an intuitive and simple user experience so publishers can spend more time working with their advertisers and less time on their ad management solution. And by providing detailed inventory forecasts and tracking at a very granular level, Ad Manager helps publishers maximize their inventory sell-through rates.

Google Ad Manager effectively complements the DoubleClick Revenue Center, which is focused on publishers with larger sales teams.

Link

Technorati Tags: ad manager, DoubleClick, Google, Google Ad Manager

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be $500.00 for a first offense and $1000.00 for each offense after that.

Link 

Technorati Tags: comments, fine, internet, Kentucky, law

A new site, NotchUp , allows job seekers to sign up and set their interview price. According to the company more that 15,000 people a day are signing up for their new eBay-like employment service - based solely on word of mouth. The founders are convinced employers will pay hundreds of dollars directly to people they would like to interview because it will bring them better candidates faster.

Link

Technorati Tags: employee, employer, NotchUp. job

User-generated news site Digg has been working with investment bank Allen & Co. for a few months now, and pitching big tech and media companies on a sale.

Four companies are in heavy due diligence with Digg - two media/news companies, and two big Internet companies - Google and Microsoft. And Google and Microsoft are on the verge of making their bids.

Digg is prepared to take less than the $300 million.

Link 

Technorati Tags: Digg, Google, Microsoft