Internet News

Behind the scene at social networking sites

The tone of life on social networking sites, Lee Rainie, Pew Internet (Feb 9)

Social networks are, by and large, positive experiences for their members.

"The overall social and emotional climate of social networking sites (SNS) is a very positive one where adult users get personal rewards and satisfactions at far higher levels than they encounter anti-social people or have ill consequences from their encounters"

Social Media Infographic

Need a Cheat Sheet for Social Media?, Search Engine Journal (Jan 31)

New to social media? This infographic, which was written for small business and organizations wanting to reach people, put Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Google+ and Tumbr on one page. But where's LinkedIn?

Amazing tips for using Google+

50 Great Google+ Tips for School Librarians, Melissa Venable, Online College (

This is an interesting list of ways school librarians can use Google+ to stay in touch with parents, students, teachers. We can easily adapt these for any group. Course, the first step will be to have members in the group a open Google account.

Some tips in the list are about finding new people through search, following them, and following Google+ suggestions. Another use - create your own circle for following authors.

All in all - use Google+ as a PLN - personal learning network .

SLA on its social networking project

Blog Impossible by Meryl B. Cole, Christian L. Gray, and Cindy A. Romaine, Newsbreaks (Feb 1)

SLA volunteers ran a blog during 2011 - FutureReady365 - with a post every day on sharing ideas on preparing for the future. Grand idea and grand execution.

The article by three of the organizers recaps leading ideas on values and activities for being future ready contributed by members. It also describes how volunteers were involved and ways by which they kept up the online social energy. They give a "tip sheet on how to create your own daily, collaborative social networking project".

Great - so why not continue the blog through 2012?

Want to ask your friends?

“Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Jan 20)

If you are signed into your account, Google is likely to ask you if you'd like to ask your friends in Google+ if they have an answer to your question. It's not always sensible or appropriate to ask - says Danny. In my opinion, it's more junk - and another intrusion.

Opening a Google Account

New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google+ , Google Operating System (Jan 20)

If you create a new Google account now you'll be required to set up Gmail, a Google profile, and accept Google+. This pages describes the process with screenshots. It is possible to go to the old setup - but that probably won't last long.

Google+ Gaining Steam

Google+ Hits 90 Million Users, 60 Percent Engage Daily, Matt McGee, Marketing Land (Jan 19)

Google+ is growing. Latest count is 90 million users - Facebook has 800 million.

A novel use of Google + Page

On Google+, police present a portrait of crime, Stephen Shankland, webware (Dec 2)

This use by the San Jacinto Police Department in California of its Google+ is very interesting. They are putting up police reports on suspects with mug shots. See https://plus.google.com/115702233398783832433/posts

It's a type of blog. Put that into your daily news stream.

Getting Klout

Select social media influencers with care , Mia Pearson, Globe and Mail (Nov 3)

Influencers in social media have Klout. Therefore, if you wish to augment your influence, sign up with Klout.

The article speaks to companies who would like to connect with influencers to promote their product.

A Klout score is determined by number of networks and activity.

"There is no doubt that Klout scores do show how active a person is on social media. The more platforms people use and the more frequently they use them, the higher their scores. "

Advice to company:

"One of the reasons agencies like influencers is because they have relationships with them and can count on them to Tweet about an event or do a quick review of a product in a way they can’t count on traditional media." ... "Try to establish long-term relationships with key influencers. That could involve bringing that person in-house for a special project or a series of blog posts around a certain theme, for instance. "

For just us regular folk - get an account, find the influencers with klout in your area of interest, and follow on the network.

Infographic on social media

20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic. Jeff Bullas.com (August, 2011)

Jeff picks out some salient figures from an infographic on social media that was created by Search Engine Journal. He has a cute way of describing the ways in which twitter, facebook, linked in, youtube are social - check the image in his posting.

The figures about the growth of social media are overwhelming. If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest - after China and India. It's global - on all continents, though not in Iceland and weak in Russia.

Google+, YouTube, Chrome

Google+ now connects with YouTube, Chrome, Lance Whitney, Webware (Nov 4)

Soon there are going to be two social-networking continents - Google+ tied into all Google products, and Facebook. Google+ users have new find-and-share capabilities at YouTube and through Chrome.

More Redesign at Google

Why the Gmail refresh is a pass, but Reader ‘needs improvement’, Amber MacArthur, Globe and Mail (Nov 3)

"Redesign fatigue" - I can relate to that.

Google's changes to Gmail were good, it seems - mostly display and some handling.

Google Reader not so good for people who had used it to share items. Now they are restricted to the Google Plus network.

"The most common complaint is over the push toward sharing from Reader to Google's new social network. Instead of distributing your favourite news feeds with anyone, Google wants you to share with your circles on Google+ and not to other services."

Facebook and MySpace for entertainment

Facebook: From Social Media Site to Entertainment Portal, Amanda Mulvihill econtent (Oct 19)

Facebook is an entertainment centre for some - "According to Facebook statistics, users install 20 million apps every day. Playing games and streaming videos have become social activities. "

MySpace wants back into this space too - "Myspace is going to try its hand not only at distributing multimedia and socialization around entertainment but also at content creation."

The new Google+

Your complete guide to Google+, Sharon Vaknin, CNet How To (Sept 20)

Guide includes basics, privacy, extras, photos.

Facebook Privacy Settings

Facebook Privacy: 11 Settings to Revisit Now, Kristin Burnham, PCWorld (Oct 8)

Articles about protecting personal privacy on Facebook abound. It's almost an industry in its own right. Here's a guide in 12 slides on what to do to prevent being tagged in a photo, hide information, protect photos. Possibly the most valuable will be changing the privacy settings for applications, and limiting access to the new timeline of your life.

Facebook Translate

Facebook launches new inline translation service, Darren McCarra, The Sociable.

If you roam into foreign parts in Facebook you'll be able to have the text translated. Facebook has incorporated Bing's Translate function.

"A new ‘Translate’ link now appears under a public page’s post. When clicked, the post’s content is translated inline to a language that the user has specified as their own in their personal profile settings. The translate link only appears when the post is written in a language other that the user’s specified one."

Web Search Tips for Researchers

Mine the Web Like a Journalist , Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (Oct 3)

Very useful summary of research tips by Paula from two sessions she attended on gathering information about companies and people.

+ mining social media for information about companies
+ using slideshare
+ analyzing job postings
+ Linkedin search tools especially Linkedin Signal and Linkedin Today

Changes at delicious

A Revamped Delicious Increases Imagery & Adds “Stacks”, Greg Finn, Search Engine Land (Sep 28)

Delicious, under new management, has begun to introduce changes. First up - stacks. Users can create a "stack" as a collection of bookmarks - "Thumbnails are auto-filled, and you can select a headline image from a variety of images that Delicious pulls in from your links. Then publish to the community. "

Dellicious has a fresh look and there are lots of thumbnails. People are creating stacks the make for an easy way to work through a topic, which if you really care about you can "follow".

The problem with these collections is in separating wheat from chaff - there's a lot of chaff. The demo example about mustaches won't appeal to everyone either.

Recap of changes at Facebook

Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need To Know, Chris Taylor, Mashable (Sept 22)

Lots of changes at Facebook - such as timeline of your online social life, even more sharing through the apps, do even more multimedia.

Sounds like a time sink and more chipping away at privacy. But if you care about privacy, don't do FB at all.

Identified for job seekers

Identified Launches Its People-Ranking Professional Search Engine, Tomio Geron, Forbes (Sep 19)

Here's another reason to be very careful with what you put on Facebook concerning work history, education history and social network.

"A new professional job search engine built on Facebook data called Identified, is launching in public beta Monday with technology for ranking people on a scale of 0 to 100, aiming to bring better results for job seekers and recruiters."

Try it for yourself at http://www.identified.com/ - get your score.

Google+ Added a Search

Up Close With Google+ Search by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Sep 20)

Google added search to its Google+ social network. Danny Sullivan explains and shows what to look for. It's very friend oriented - and won't pull in much else. It's not real time search.

Subscribing at Facebook

Reasons to use Google+

How Google+ will succeed and why you’ll use it whether you want to or not., Tom Anderson, Next Web (Aug 24)

Perhaps Tim Anderson is right - eventually we'll all be on Google+.

"Put another way, G+ basically is a combination of Facebook & Twitter. That’s what makes it different. It serves both purposes: private communication among friends, and public shouting to the world. "

More older people using social networks

65% of online adults use social networking sites, by Mary Madden, Kathryn Zickuhr, PEW Internet (Aug 26, 2011)

There is a graying of social networking underway.

"The frequency of social networking site usage among young adult internet users under age 30 was stable over the last year – 61% of online Americans in that age cohort now use social networking sites on a typical day, compared with 60% one year ago. However, among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50-64, social networking site usage on a typical day grew a significant 60% (from 20% to 32%)"

Recap at Pew: 65% Of Online Adults Now Use Social Networks, Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land (Aug 26)

Twitter - Facebook-esque

Twitter Rolling Out New Features To Highlight Activities & Interactions, Greg Finn, Search Engine Land (Aug 11)

Twitter is turning facebook-esque with new features to activity in network and interactions.

"In addition to seeing the activities of those that you follow Twitter will be highlighting interactions that users are having with their account. This functionality will appear as a new tab with the title @username. Information that will be included on this tab include Tweets of yours that were favorited, retweeted, Tweets directed to you and recent followers:"

Tame the information beast

Managing the Flow of Information in Social Networks: How do you do it?,
By Melissa A. Venable, Amy J. Hilbelink. ELearn Magazine / August 2011

Social Networks are the largest hose of all for information - much of it irrelevant to your needs. This article describes ways to tame the beast with a disciplined mix of aggregating and filtering.

Begin by creating a list of must-have sources for your profession and tools you can use for curating the content. The examples given in the article are for online learning professionals.

Has advice on using LinkedIn and Twitter.

Getting a lot more from Linked In Today

The Ultimate Guide To “LinkedIn Today” & How To Optimize Your Presence On It, Greg Finn, Search Engine Land (Aug 17)

LinkedIn isn't just your network and their interests - there is a LinkedIn Today of most shared news - very interesting.

Much more in personalization by which you benefit from what gets shared - "Today then matches content to like-minded people by showing top news across industries that you follow and are a part of. The specific industry of the user sharing the story is taken into account as well. If a LinkedIn member is listed as a member of the advertising industry, that information is factored in when an article is shared or liked and will help to boost the articles presence within the “marketing & advertising” industry. "

Votes figure into the ranking too.

Much more - read the guide.

Google+ Growth

Google+, Google's social network, has 25 million users after only one month. At this rate it will surpass Twitter

Google+ May Pass Twitter With One-Fifth of U.S. Adults Online, Douglas MacMillan, Business Week (Aug 5)

"Started in late June, Google+ is growing faster than Facebook and MySpace Inc. did in their early days. The service, which lets people connect with and manage groups of friends on a website, gained about 25 million users worldwide in less than a month, estimates market researcher ComScore Inc. Facebook has more than 750 million active users."

But some have dropped out already - "ome 30 percent of people who use both services said they plan to reduce the amount of time they spend on Facebook."

Google+, Day 2: Jumping Onto Google+, Tony Bradley, PCWorld (Aug 5)

If you'd like to see what it's like without creating your own account - or be briefed in case you do try, follow Tony Bradley's reports.

Google Plus: An Evolution in Social, a Revolution in Permission, Andrew Goodman, Traffick.com (Aug 5)

What's in it for Google? Advertising revenue.

"Google’s biggest advance is the creation and maintenance of richer, more granular, and more predictable audiences for advertisers, allowing for better targeting of display advertising all over the digital universe. In many cases, of course, Google will split the proceeds with publishers, networks, and exchanges. But increasingly, advertisers will enjoy the benefit of doing more through a single platform - or at least fewer platforms."

Google+ has 25 million users

Google+ speeds to 25 million users in first month, Digital Media (Aug 3)

My goodness - 25 million users already."Drilling down by region, Google+ has seen more than 6 million users in the U.S. and 3.6 million in India, said Reuters, commenting on the data. Canada and the U.K. have each lured in around 1 million users, while Germany has drawn in more than 920,000."

Facebook tips for users

10 Essential Facebook Tips and Tricks, itWorldCanada (

Slideshow of 10 tips - love the one on how to handle oversharing (#6 Clean up your facebook news feed)

Privacy at Google+

Google+ Updates Privacy Tools for All Users,
By Paul Suarez, PCWorld (Jul 13)

"Here's a step-by-step tutorial how to lock down your own Google+ profile:"

Addons for Google+ already

8 Google+ Add-Ons, Extensions, and Downloads By Jared Newman , PCWorld (Jul 12)

"Google+ is so popular that people have already taken to tweaking it themselves. Here are eight awesome Google+ tweaks."

Early days for Google+

Google+ Vs. Twitter: A Personal View, Danny SUllivan, Search Engine Land (Jul 11)

Danny Sullivan's social network tool of choice has been Twitter but he ahs found much to like about Google+ - and even shows us his page -

Google+ Minuses

Google+ has its minuses, by Jessica Dolcourt, Webware (July 11)

No kidding - "While we don't expect absolute perfection in a first-generation Google product any more than we would from other software vendors, a variety of us CNET editors using Google+ have pinpointed some flaws and missing links over the last few weeks; we've aggregated our strongest complaints here."

Google+ - another article

Google+ Social = World Domination? , Avi Rappoport, Newsbreaks (Jul 7)

Google+, says Rappoport, is a Facebook clone. Generally positive article - does note that there is no search and offers this tip - "search for public posts in any of the web search engines with the filter site:plus.google.com, or use the Google+ Search Helper."

Facebook partners with Skype

Facebook Hits 750 Million Users; Zuckerberg Yawns, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Jul 6)

Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, says that what people do on Facebook is more important than the numbers.

One of those activities can soon be video calling and group chat.

Facebook Announces Video Calling, Group Chat & Redesigned Chat, Greg Finn, Search Engine Land.

"Facebook’s biggest announcement today was the partnership with Skype which will allow for video calling from within Facebook. This partnership between Facebook and the soon-to-be-acquired-by-Microsoft Skype will allow for users to call friends for free directly inside the social networking site. "

The article shows what to look for.

Danny Sullivan on Google+

Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Jun 28)

Danny Sullivan hates the name - Google+. He has a point. He also says it isn't a Facebook killer and then identifies some shortcomings.

It's far too early to know. Who would have expected MySpace to fade out? Could happen to Facebook although less likely at this stage. Google has had two previous attempts at social and failed. Will Facebook users want to set up in another system?

Google+ compared to Facebook

Google+ vs. Facebook: See How They Compare By Jared Newman , PCWorld (Jun 30)

Preview Google+ through this slideshow that compares it to the familiar Facebook.

Google+ for social networking

Google has made its long awaited move into social networking with Google Plus. So far the reviews of the limited field trial are positive. Two features to consider - forming circles of friends online for particular purposes - more like how we live instead of communicating to one big universe as at Facebook; and being able to do video-based group chat.

Google Plus: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Greg Finn, Search Engine Land (Jun 29)

Google+ Social Network: Hands-On First Impressions , Megan Geuss and Mark Sullivan, PCWorld (Jun 29)

Google unveils latest social networking attempt , Barbara Ortutay, AP via Globe and Mail (Jun 29)

Using Facebook for Background Checks

4 Tips on How to Use Facebook Legally to Conduct Background Checks, Joan Goodchild, PCWorld (Jun 17)

Human Resource departments do check social networking service for information on potential hires.

"For a little guidance on navigating the new landscape of information out there on potential hires, we spoke with human resource and labor law experts on ways to be smart when using Facebook and other social media to check up on job candidates."

Pew Examines Social Networking Use

Social networking sites and our lives, Pew Internet (Jun 16)

What is the effect of social networking on our lives? Do we socialize differently? Does this augment face to face, or operate independently? This latest Pew Internet study found that Facebook users do have close connections, are trusting, and attentive to their networks.

"Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement."

Some findings:

+ 59% of US Internet users do some social networking

+ Average age of users is now 38

+ 56% of users are female

+ 92% of users are on Facebook

+ average Facebook user has 229 FB friends

Google's Dashboard and Me On The Web

Me, Myself, and Google’s Me on the Web, Dan Tynan, PCWorld (Jun 22)

Google has a Dashboard that shows for an account holder with a Google Profile or a Gmail account all connections and relationships that Google knows about. You could be very surprised at what it can compile from web history, picasa, youtube, Google Reader, and so much more. One of the segments is Me on the Web with links to blogs, albums, sites. You can use it to set up search alerts for when people mention you.

Dan Tynan sees this as a bid to compete with Facebook and to promote Google Profiles.

Hmm - not sure - but it is useful to see all the relationships on one page - much easier to disengage from some.

Guarding agains Facebook's Face Recognition

Facing Facts: Facebook's Facial Recognition, Dan Tynan, PCWorld (Jun 12)

Learn from what others do with Facebook's facial recognition to know what to do when it hits Canada.

LinkedIn for You

LinkedIn: An awesome information resource for building your reputation, your connections and your knowledge , Elisabeth Goodman, FUMSI (Jun)

Enthusiastic review of LinkedIn for professional and business advantage.

"LinkedIn is a truly awesome information resource on all matters relating to business and our profession. It is tremendously versatile, with content that is growing at an exponential rate, and new features appearing on at least a monthly basis, some of these as a result of LinkedIn’s monthly “Hackday”; an internal employee incentive to come up with new ideas. "

Facial recognition in Facebook

Why Facebook's Facial Recognition is Creepy, Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld (Jun 8)

She writes - "Facial recognition technology will ultimately culminate in the ability to search for people using just a picture. And that will be the end of privacy as we know it--imagine, a world in which someone can simply take a photo of you on the street, in a crowd, or with a telephoto lens, and discover everything about you on the internet."

Details in - Facebook quietly rolls out facial-recognition tool, CNet Digital Media

Take note - "If the feature, which is turned on automatically by default, makes you feel uneasy, you can disable it by going to the Privacy Settings in your Facebook account via "Suggest photos of me to friends."

BTW - this has not been rolled out to everyone yet - certainly not in Canada. You might check later for

Suggest photos of me to friends When photos look like me, suggest my name

under Choose your privacy settings > Customize settings.

Libraries and social media

The Networked Librarian (Video & Slides) , Lee Raine, Pew Internet (May 6)

"Director Lee Rainie discusses technology and libraries at San Francisco Public Library. He describes the latest research findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project about how Americans use the internet and cell phones. He explores how libraries can be actors in building and participating in social networks through their use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogging and through delivering their time-tested — and trusted — services to their patrons. "

Google's Social Work

A Hint of What Google's Social Network Might Look Like?, Bill Slawski, SEO by the SEA (Apr 28)

Google has developed many social networking / sharing applications. Not all survived (such as Knol and Google Notebook), but viewed as a whole it's clear that there is experience. But can it bring the pieces together into a hub? This patent suggests that they are thinking about it.

Blekko adds Facebook Integration

Blekko Adds Facebook Comments To Search Results (But Why?), Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Apr 21)

Blekko announced a daring integration of Facebook commentary with search results for people who login to Blekko using their Facebook account. (Blekko Search Gets More Social)
"Now when searching on blekko, the results page will combine the best quality results from the Web with the top related comments that the individual’s friends and social network have posted. Additionally, people who use blekko can choose to add the slashtag “/facebook” to any search query and see all results from their entire Facebook news stream. "

Matt McGee asks Why - and I agree.

"It makes sense to use social signals to influence search results; they can be good indicators of relevance, trust and authority. But it should probably stop there. Social networking is full of noise, and we expect search engines to eliminate noise, not collect it."

If you have a social network that talks about the things and topics you search for, then this union might work for you. But be aware that you will have to grant Blekko the following rights:

+ Access to basic information: Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone.

+ Post to my Wall: Blekko Search may post status messages, notes, photos, and videos to my Wall

+ Access posts in my News Feed

+ Access my data any time: Blekko Search may access my data when I'm not using the application

+ Check-ins: Blekko Search may read my check-ins and friends' check-ins.

+ Access my profile information: Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes and Current City

+ Access my friends' information: Current Cities and Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes

I am not a privacy paranoia person, but that looks too invasive for me.

Postscript: April 22 Just to clarify, this integration is only IF you login with your Facebook account and agree to the Facebook terms. Blekko is not using everything l that Facebook states in those terms. You can still use Blekko very productively without opting for the connection to your Facebook network.

Social Media and Social Networking

7 Social Media Concepts Average Users Don't Really Know About, Frank Eybsen, Search Engine People (APr 17)

Wonder about social media vs social networking? This article is a very neat primer.

Core definition: "Social media ... is a platform that allows users to share information through content, photos, and videos. Social networking – such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – is a platform that allows people with common interests or goals to come together to talk and to share information."

Facebook the new web

27% of Small Businesses Using Facebook, Steve King, MyVenturePad (Mar 15)

Hearing this from many quarters - "facebook is taking over the web". Companies are staking out their claims - and this might be what the web was around 1995.

Facebook is being used, according to this survey, by 27% of business users (in the US) for business purposes.

Photos, Network, and Google

Google wakes up to new photo reality, Stephen Shankland, DeepTech (March 10)

Google's Picasa is becoming much more social.

1. "First up is a more social interface to Picasa Web Albums that shows what your contacts on the site are up to."

2. "new pricing means photos smaller than 800 pixels on a side or videos shorter than 15 minutes don't count toward the 1GB freebie limit."

3. "addition of Picasa Web Albums photos to people's Google Profile."

LInkedIn Today for Sharing News Stories

LinkedIn Lauches a Social News Site, Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land (Mar 10)

LinkedIn has been adding many features - Groups, Twitter integration, and now LinkedIn Today - "LinkedIn Today has the capacity to dramatically increase usage and create a new daily (or more frequent) news habit."

Also - LinkedIn launches social news productAlexei Oreskovic, Reuters via Globe and Mail (Mar 10)

"The new service, called LinkedIn Today, displays excerpts of the most popular articles in various industries, in a move that the company hopes will spur users to interact more on its website."

"LinkedIn users will be able to create separate news pages for the various industries they follow, such as the Internet, cleantech and healthcare. Articles will appear in LinkedIn Today based upon how often they have been shared by members of LinkedIn, as well as by members of Twitter, with which LinkedIn has a pre-existing partnership"

Finding companies throug LinkedIn

Discover the new LinkedIn Company Search, Brad Mauney, Linkedin BLog (Feb 25)

Linkedin added a new company search. See posting for details and video.

"Now you can search for companies not only by attributes such as location, industry, and size but also by how you are connected. You can filter a set of results to include only those companies where you have a direct connection or broaden your search to include companies in your extended network."

Facebook - the search engine

Facebook Organizes Its Search Results, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Feb 22)

"Reflecting the growing number of content types on its platform, Facebook has changed its search results display — the drop-down that appears as soon as users begin typing in the Facebook search box. The new display is organized into different content types, replacing the old version which showed results in a straight list format with no organization."

Social networking is global

Global Publics Embrace Social Networking , PEW Internet (Dec 15)

"Although still a relatively young technology, social networking is already a global phenomenon. In regions around the world – and in countries with varying levels of economic development – people who use the internet are using it for social networking. And this is particularly true of young people."

New and Improved Google Groups

Preview the New Google Groups , Google Apps (Dec 7)

Google finally overhauled Google Groups -

"Now you can also create rich, expressive posts using the revamped composer. If you choose, you can share more about who you are by linking your Google profile with a group, too. Finally, you’ll be able to stay in the loop even when you’re on the move, with our new mobile browser experience."

Postscript: Google Groups gets a revamp, Lance Whitney, Digital Media (Dec 8)

Has a screenshot.

Google Wave Over

Lars Rasmussen shows off Google Wave in May 2009., Lancy Whitney, Digital Media, (Nov 1)

Lars Rasmussen, who was involved in Google Wave, has left Google to join Facebook.

Of Interest: "Rasmussen and his team were the brains behind the recent Google Wave project, which the company abandoned in August due to low user interest and confusion over the purpose of the tool, even within Google itself.

Securing Privacy at Facebook

The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Guide [DOWNLOAD], Make Use Of (Oct 25)

Privacy on Facebook is a moving target, as the Privacy Commissioner in Canada well knows. For now there is this new "(Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Manual" by Angela Alcorn. It's 48 pages - read it as a PDF or from Scribd - but if you use Facebook, do read it.

Here's the first piece of advice - "A basic way to guard your privacy is to behave as if every piece of information online is already public. Given this premise, try not to add anything to a picture that allows a stranger to know exactly where you will be, where you live or puts you in danger in any way."

Has lots of screenshots to help you adjust all the settings.

Facebook Users Get More Control

Facebook gives users more control of data, Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (Oct 6)

With this new option to "download your data", Facebook users can find out what they have really put up for others to see.

As well- "Facebook also introduced more tools to allow users to see exactly what the applications they've installed are doing, including what sort of personal information the applications are accessing. The move is an attempt to give users more control of their data. "

Skype on Facebook?

Facebook, Skype Poised to Enter Partnership, Sarah Jacobsson Purwell, PCWorld (Sep 29)

Facebook - SKype agreement could easily change the field for collaorative tools and certainly challenge Yahoo and MSN, not to mention Google's GTalk and Voice.

"Now it looks like Facebook might be trying to get into the phone thing from a different angle -- Skype is one of the leaders when it comes to Internet telephone calls, with more than 560 million registered users and 124 million of those people using it at least once a month. Add this to Facebook's 500 million users, and, well, you've got a decently sized audience."

Look for version 5.0 of Skype expected to be available in beta in a few weeks.

Film Review: The Social Network

Influencing People by David Denby, New Yorker (Oct 4)

"The Social Network", the new movie written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, has been released. This is essentially the story of Mark Zuckerberg and his "invention" of Facebook.

Of particular interest in this review from New Yorker David Denby - "From the first scene to the last, “The Social Network” hints at a psychological shift produced by the Information Age, a new impersonality that affects almost everyone. After all, Facebook, like Zuckerberg, is a paradox: a Web site that celebrates the aura of intimacy while providing the relief of distance, substituting bodiless sharing and the thrills of self-created celebrityhood for close encounters of the first kind. Karl Marx suggested that, in the capitalist age, we began to treat one another as commodities. “The Social Network” suggests that we now treat one another as packets of information. Mark Zuckerberg, as interpreted by this film, comes off as a binary personality."

Facebook privacy in Canada

Canadian privacy commissioner ends Facebook probe
By: Grant Gross and Robert McMillan, IDG News via itWorldCanada (Sep 23)

Old complaints are resolved, but there may be new ones in the future.

"Canada's privacy commissioner has ended an investigation into Facebook's privacy practices by saying the social-networking site has resolved issues raised in a May 2008 complaint.

Facebook has made changes to its service that resolve privacy concerns raised in a Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic complaint, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said Wednesday."

Over 15 million people in Canada have Facebook accounts.

New Yorker on Mark Zuckerberg

The Face of Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg opens up, by Jose Antonio Vargas, New Yorker (Sept)

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and head of the still privately held Facebook, has his public persona, but Vargas finds him a "wary and private person" and sometimes not so nice. But he has been a force for change in how we use the Internet - and will continue to be so for some time.

"Zuckerberg may seem like an over-sharer in the age of over-sharing. But that’s kind of the point. Zuckerberg’s business model depends on our shifting notions of privacy, revelation, and sheer self-display. The more that people are willing to put online, the more money his site can make from advertisers. Happily for him, and the prospects of his eventual fortune, his business interests align perfectly with his personal philosophy. In the bio section of his page, Zuckerberg writes simply, “I’m trying to make the world a more open place.”"

His self is the subject of a movie to be released in October - “The Social Network,” directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Zuckerberg has said it won't go to see it.

Article has a transcript of a chat with Jose Antonio Vargas. On the question of Google (bound to come up)

"QUESTION FROM TED: What is Mark’s attitude towards Google from a competitive perspective (re: myopic)?

JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS: Google is on his mind, just as, for a while, Twitter was on his mind. But, as I noted in the profile, he’s building an Internet that, in many ways, is trying to move beyond Google’s algorithms. If you’re a technologist, I think this quote from him was most telling: “Most of the information that we care about is things that are in our heads, right? And that’s not out there to be indexed, right?"

Facebook, in case you'd lost count, is nearly at 600 million users.

Facebook doing news articles

Facebook Adds Popular News Articles To Search Results, by Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Sep 3)

Does this make Facebook a Diigo?

"Facebook is now showing news articles in its search results and ranking them by how many “likes” and “shares” the articles have received from Facebook users. "

Facebook Places

Facebook has added a new feature called Places by which users can disclose their location to make it easier for friends to find them - and for them to find services where they are. More than 25% of users access Facebook from their mobile devices. This has considerable potential for marketers.

Three Ways Business Can Take Advantage of Facebook Places, Tony Bradley, PCWorld (Aug 19)

The new Facebook Places service "provides businesses with a platform for marketing and promotion, and provides an opportunity to build customer loyalty."

"Like current social location-based check-in services, Facebook Places lets people share where they are, see which friends are in the local area, and discover new places by following where others from their social network have checked in. The real value of services like Foursquare has been the integration with Facebook and the ability to share the check-in details with the broader social network, so Facebook Places seems like a natural evolution of the concept."

Related: Facebook Unveils Service That Lets Users Share Their Locations, Brian Womack, Business Week (Aug19)

Facebook Places checks in to Foursquare’s location-based service turf , AP via Globe and Mail (Aug 19)

Facebook prime destination

Facebook on track for Web’s top spot , Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (Jul 21)

Facebook has reached 500 million members and has sights set at 1 billion.

"According to recent Nielsen numbers, Facebook's half-billion users spend, on average, about six hours a month of the site. The company says about half its users log on to the site on any given day. By some measures, Facebook is the most magnetic site on the Internet."

Facebook buys NextStop

Facebook buys NextStop, will shut it down, Caroline McCarthy, the social, Cnet (Jul 8)

If I had contributed my travel recommendations to NextStop, I'd be more than a little miffed at this sell out. Facebook bought NextStop for the talent and is closing down a service where travellers had been creating guides. No indication in the announcements if the content will be available through Facebook.

"When Facebook buys companies, for the most part, it's for the engineering talent: the company seems to prefer building products in-house or letting third parties contribute to the Facebook experience by accessing its application programming interface".

Social Media Search

6 Most Powerful Search Engines for Social Networks, by Steven Campbell, Make use Of (June 1)

There may be times you only want to seach social networks - check the buzz, find a person, get blog and microblog postings. Turn to search engines that search those sources.

+ SocialMention - comprehensive metasearch with alerting capalibity. Can get sentiment analysis on topics.

+ yoName - find the name and the networks where they are listed.

+ snitch.name - search popular networks, other tools, some academic and government.

+ Folowen - covers 27 social networking sites.

+ Samepoint - follow a conversation - get snippets and source.

+ Google Social Search - yes Google has a social search that will show in the left rail if you have developed your social contacts through GMail.

Facebook more about broadcasting than friends?

Our Love-Hate Relationship With Facebook , by Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (June 1)

If you haven't been following the call to quit Facebook, Paula Hane gives a recap. More importantly, she noted - "Is it possible that social networks like Facebook will become mostly tools for organizations (public and private)-useful for public relations, marketing services, and eliciting and enabling easy customer feedback-while individuals concerned about privacy retreat to some other (maybe even not yet available) technology that allows them more control over their contacts and personal information? Will sites like Facebook really be just about social media broadcasting, personal endorsements, and influence?"

I think this is a distinct possibility, though I thought it more likely for LinkedIn - while Facebook could be the friends network - except organizations and colleagues want you with them in Facebook. Check back in 6 months.

Facebook's New Privacy Settings

Navigate Facebook's new privacy paradigm, by Seth Rosenblatt, Security, Cnet (May 26)

Following Facebook's changing treatment of privacy is like watching a ping pong game that never ends. When a writer for CNet who follows all the bounces says "improvements are still a mixed bag", you have to wonder when patience will run out.

"Once again, Facebook has changed its privacy settings. Like the last time this happened, today's improvements are still a mixed bag, but a better one: they are generally easier to use but not as simple as they could be. There are a couple of curve balls thrown in, too. "

PCWorld has a general guide to the new settings - - Facebook Privacy Fixes: Your Guide to the Newest Changes - sharing content, managing basic information, and controlling applications.

Canada's Privacy Commissioner says it is not enough - Facebook warned it's not in compliance , Jacquie McNish and Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (May 26/27)

"She [Elizabeth Denham, Assistant Commissioner.] said Facebook’s new settings continue to require users to publicly reveal their names, profile information, pictures, gender and networks to the broader Internet. Under Canadian law companies are bound to give consumers full control over how their personal data is used."

What to do with Facebook

Deleting your Facebook account (FAQ), by Elinor Mills, Insecurity Complex, CNET (May 21)

In case you're getting freaked out by all the news about privacy (or abuse of) at Facebook, here are instructions for deactivating your account or closing it entirely. Not for the faint hearted.

If you want to stay with Facebook but secure your privacy there may be help.

"There are several tools that can automatically check your Facebook settings and set them to the most private option, including browser bookmark tool SaveFace and a Facebook privacy scanner available at ReclaimPrivacy.org. "

Or you can go to another social networking site - but you'd have to take your friends with you.

Google vs Facebook

Will Facebook Be Tomorrow’s Google, and Google Tomorrow’s Microsoft?, by Bindu Reddy, TechCrunch (May 15)

Bindu Reddy, ex-Google-employee, finds some chinks in the Google business armour, manly concerning product promotion. Facebook knows a lot about people and, she says, can do a better job of directing bits of interest to you - as well as ads (which is the point).

"Want to see pics of your cousin’s wedding? Want to know what movies your co-workers are watching this weekend? What music your friends “like”? You need to go to Facebook. The bottom line is that you are now trained to go to Facebook to discover things. With the growth of the Facebook app platform and support (so far) from apps like Farmville and Mafia Wars, Facebook has also grown into the number one destination on the web for entertainment and spending time."

I am not so enamoured with Facebook, but it could be the company I keep. If your friends are there, you have to be too.

Google may not be as adept at delivering relevant ads.

"Google’s ad business models are based on intent and relevance and not on discovery. The performance based AdWords and AdSense models are easier to measure and appeals to the logical / analytical minds at Google. The power of influence, discovery and brand advertising needs more right-brain thinking than Google’s left brainers are used to."

I might have ignored this article had it not received a recommendation from the very astute Stephen Arnold - Sharper Than the Tooth of a Serpent, A Xoogler Analysis of Google

Arnold says more in an earlier posting - Social Networks, Testosterone, and Facebook (May 13)

He writes of the advantage of searching social networks over the wide web - networks such as delicious, and stumbleupon - to get fewer, but relevant and more recent results. Facebook is the biggest - a Google of the social scene - and has the power to disrupt search.

"To sum up, Facebook has some real potential to disrupt Web search with its social methods. The company can index Web sites its 400 million members say are important. Within Facebook, it might be easier to ask friends and then run a query across Web sites Facebook members “like”. Is this objective search? Not in a million years. But that’s not the point. The impact is that search traffic bleeds from some vendors and flows to Facebook. That cost advantage may be trivial right now, but going forward it may become a larger factor. That’s the point in my Information Today column. Also, the testosterone factor is important. Facebook is what Google was. I know this makes me giggle, but your reaction may be different. Instead of being Googled, now a company can be Facebooked. New verb."

Privacy Issue Rears Head at Facebook Again

Privacy issues? Google engineers leaving Facebook in droves, Mike Butcher, TechCrunch (Apr 23)

This looks like something to pay attention to. Google engineers, the very same who must have used Buzz inside Google, are leaving Facebook over privacy issues.

"The main issue is that there are concerns that Facebook, by default, now opts you in to allowing third party sites like Yelp to ‘personalise’ your experience, and there are questions about how much information is given away."

Kristin Burnham at PCWorld tells us which settings to change - Facebook: 5 Privacy Settings You Must Tweak NowKristin Burnham

Getting on Twitter

Twitter Like a Pro: Get Started, Find Deals, Manage Groups by Rick Broida, PCWorld (Apr 13)

Ease your way into Twitter. This article shows "how to get started with Twitter, use it for bargain hunting and group communication, and access it on the go".

Cyber Forensic Investigations

Smarter sleuthing can save our online privacy , by Ron Deibert, Globe and Mail (Nov 2009)

Ron Diebert is at the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research facility at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. The project is to investigate botnets - a Russian one in this case.

"In fact, botnets like this one are at the heart of just about every imaginable menacing and serious act of Internet crime, from espionage to child pornography. They are so vexing for law enforcement and intelligence, we are often told, because of the so-called “attribution” problem – the challenge of identifying the perpetrators. "

How to police this? Some say - no anonymity allowed. But maybe not - maybe there are enough online traces to track down an operator.

"Shortly after our observations, Nart uncovered a lead to the possible botnet operator: a Russian student registered at Moscow State University. There was no magical sniffing tool or lawful access provisions clearing his way. He simply pieced together bits of seemingly disparate information – a name here, a string of code there, a domain registration, a recurring handle, an e-mail address, all pieced together by searching Google results. "

But more - people gladly give of their lives through social networking - people monitor themselves - or allow themselves to be monitored.

"Social networking has brought us the Age of Auto-Surveillance. These are my friends, here is my house, this is the bus I take, here is my dog, this is my e-mail address, here is my phone number, this is my place of work, this is what I like to eat for lunch."

Social Networking at Work

Social networking unveils tacit knowledge: PwC, Jennifer Kavur, IT World Canada (Feb 16)

"Tacit knowledge is the most valuable distributed database in organizations and social networking provides new ways of unlocking it, said PricewaterhouseCoopers. A Richard Ivey prof and former Microsoft SharePoint expert weigh in on how to share knowledge that's hard to communicate"

Yoonoo - social media aggregator

Yoono brings order to the chaos of social media, by Sam Diaz, Webware (Feb 16)

I surely hope that Yoono will "simplify your online life". It's a Firefox add-on. Trust Firefox to be the first browser to have this.

"On Tuesday, Yoono is pushing out an update that really brings it closer to the holy grail of social media aggregation. That's not necessarily because it has a long list of compatible networks tied to it--it doesn't. Instead, Yoono is a winner because of its flexibility of allowing users to create a custom look and the built-in features that allow the users to pretty much take care of any social task from within Yoono."

More Buzz

On the other hand, if you are a Gmail user you might want to learn how to use Google Buzz.

Buzz features compared: Just the important stuff, by Josh Lowensohn, Web Crawler - CNet (Feb 12)

Compares Google Buzz to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed for composing a message, setting privacy, follower management, search, and content discovery.

"Buzz is, in many ways, highly derivative of existing, and quite popular services. The three biggest ones that come to mind are Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed, with the latter two being the same company. Though to Google's credit, it has done something none of these companies has managed to do in integrating it deeply into a popular e-mail service. "

How to Use Google Buzz, by Patrick Miller, PCWorld (Feb 12)

Basics on what to do with Buzz - "... we have the tips you need to make it work for you. And if you're wishing it would buzz off, we'll show you how to remove it from your Gmail account."

Of interest: "As of this writing, you can officially link only Blogger, Flickr, Picasa, your Google Reader Shared Items, GChat status, and Twitter accounts to your Buzz feed, though WordPress blogs can connect to Google Buzz with a little more work."

Google Buzz

Google Buzz Won't Weaken Facebook, by Douglas MacMillan, Business Week (Feb 10)

Google Buzz - Google's new social network is to be called Buzz , and it will have features of Facebook and Twitter - as well as the GMail base. See the video [1:56]

Course it is all about a place to put advertising, something which Google excels at.

Of interest:

"Indeed, Gmail has gained ground on rivals in Web e-mail. It had 176 million users in December, according to ComScore (SCOR). That left it behind Microsoft's Hotmail, which had 369 million, and Yahoo! Mail, with 304 million. Still, Google grew 44% over the same month in 2008—more than triple the average rate of growth for the category, according to ComScore."

Microsoft and Yahoo have social sharing. Hotmail users can bring in updates from Facebook - and there is the whole community thing at Windows Live. Yahoo has Yahoo Updates tool.

Google might have an edge through a recommender system.

"Google pledges to add something unique to social. One original feature of Google Buzz is what it calls the "Recommended Buzz," which uses a computer algorithm to surface posts and multimedia that friends-of-friends found interesting. With the constant barrage of musings offered up by social media users, there "has become a relevancy and ranking problem," said Google Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra during a briefing for journalists. With its background in search, that's the kind of problem Google is good at solving."

Full description and of Google Buzz and what it will mean to Google and users in Rafe and Josh debate Google's Buzz, Webware. Has a first look video showing the features and integration with other Google pieces.

Yahoo response shows in Google Buzz? MSFT, Yahoo Say ‘Been There, Done That’, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land

Yahoo blew its own horn about its social network endeavour, Yahoo Updates.

"It’s been almost a year and a half since we first launched Yahoo! Updates – a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities and stay connected to what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web – and we wanted to share the latest on what’s happening with Updates:"

Facebook's new homepage

Facebook is welcoming users with the message about - "your new, simplified home page".

Facebook revamps home page, Lance Whitney, Digital Media (Feb 5) - quick guide to the changes.

"The top menu of the Facebook home page now displays icons for requests, messages, and other notifications. The icons turn into red bubbles when you've got new requests waiting for your attention. Just click on one of the icons, and a drop-down menu appears showing you all the items in that list."

For background and some user response to the changes, see Facebook Launches New Look for its 6th Year, Sharon Gaudin, Computerworld via PCWorld (Feb 5)

Social Media Metrics

Social Media Metrics By David Stuart, Online (Jan 2010)

This article provides clear descriptions of the components of social media with a few words on how they can be used and measured.

"Social media—the most popular are blogs, wikis, social network sites, and microblogging—offer both opportunities and difficulties in the establishment of metrics: Social media adds a level of qualitative information to the quantitative data traditionally made available through web analytics. However, the quantitative information is often restricted and not easily comparable among sites."

Recommended for anyone developing and social media strategy.

Finding Your Double

Want to find yourself? Facebook will do it for you - Tool matches look-alikes and bruises some egos, by Katie Daubs, The Star (Dec 28)

A new application on Facebook will look for your doppleganger - someone who looks like you. Coke Zero - "The Facebook application uses the same facial-recognition software that "governments and international security agencies use" – but instead of finding criminals, it says, "you'll be able to find a person that looks just like you.""

But before you play with it, be aware that you have to allow Coke Zero use of your profile information, photos, friends' information and "other content".

Social Tools

Social tools and science, Lorcan Demsey, OCLC (Nov 15)

The way we work and relate online really is changing - and if we haven't adopted these new tools, we should soon. This post picks up on a list of social tools being used in the scientific community - part of "open science". They include social bookmarking for reference (connotea), share and discover (Mendeley), threaded discussion (Friend Feed), social networks, wikis, YouTube.

Mendeley Research Management

Search for research trends with Mendeley, Altsearchengines (Dec 5)

Mendeley is research management tool intended for academic researchers. This is software for managing documents and a networking tool for sharing with colleagues.

+ Connect with other researchers in your field - navigate their "web of knowledge"

+ "Collaborate with fellow researchers and share information, resources and experiences with shared and public collections."

+ "Mendeley Desktop is academic software that indexes and organizes all of your PDF documents and research papers into your own personal digital bibliography."

Groundswell for Social Media

Canadians tops in social networking by Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun (Dec 3)

A Forrester Research report "shows four out of five online Canadians use social media and almost 57 per cent participate in social networks at least once a month, making them the most active social networkers of any market regularly surveyed by Forrester".

Canadians of all ages participate with the generations x and y being the most active. Boomers and seniors will join in.

Also of interest - Forrester has a Consumer Profile Tool loaded with 2009 data on online social activity. Plug in the demographic: age, country, and gender; to see the distribution of creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives.

Forrester has more information at its Groundswell site for the book of the same name.

Primer on Social Media

Social Media Metrics By David Stuart, Online (Dec 2009)

This article is a guide to the main forms of social media on the Web and how they might be used by a group. It's addressed to librarians but any group will get value.

"Social media—the most popular are blogs, wikis, social network sites, and microblogging—offer both opportunities and difficulties in the establishment of metrics: Social media adds a level of qualitative information to the quantitative data traditionally made available through web analytics. However, the quantitative information is often restricted and not easily comparable among sites."

Article concludes with "useful social metrics".

Building the Pragmatic Web

The Future Is All About Context: The Pragmatic Web, Alisa Leonard-Hansen, Read Write Web (Nov 20)

Will it be social web or semantic web? These are two different views. Semantic, described here, depends on development of intelligent agents to process data. Social - called the pragmatic web - is based on you and your relationship - your context.

"My Web experience becomes more meaningful and relevant to me when it is layered with contextual social data based on my identity. This is the pragmatic Web."

"Facebook is nothing more than perhaps the largest single database of this kind of online identity data: explicit, activity and relationship data. With the development of Facebook Connect, which allows for the "open" exchange of Facebook user data between Facebook and third parties,"

In Memoriam

How to die on Facebook by Susan Krashinsky, Globe and Mail (Nov 21)

I lost a friend during 2009 and see her every time I go to Facebook and other social places we shared.

"Facebook members who lose friends and family members increasingly find themselves spooked by ghosts in the machine"

Spooked is one feeling, sadness another. Facebook does have policies that allow for memorialization. And I think my online friend would have liked that and participated.

"The company's privacy policy has been revamped, in part to make it clearer to users what happens on Facebook when you die: Friends or family can fill out an online form to notify the company of a user's death. Administrators then "memorialize" the account by removing sensitive information while leaving photos and friends' public messages on display. The profile becomes hidden from the view of anyone but confirmed friends. The company will also take pages down altogether at family members' request."

Expanding on Communities

Directory of Social Networks, Research Buzz (Oct 1)

Tara Calishain discovered a Directory of Social Networks which she used in combination with Google Sets to get more of the same.

"Some of the sites listed here are not what I would consider full social networks in a Facebook or MySpace sense; instead they’re gathering places or tools that focus on a particular communication aspect or type of multimedia. While I found these listings useful I found them even better as a jumping off point for another place, Google Sets."

Tara used cats - we can use Health - find Nurse Linkup and Organized Wisdom - and enter these at Google Sets - use words, not domains - and get other online community web sites.

Clever way to use a directory as a base for finding more.

Social.com itself is of uneven quality. Furl.net is listed under bookmarking but is long gone, and several categories are very thing.

Google's Social Gadgets

First Look: iGoogle's New Social Gadgets, by J.R. Raphael, PCWorld.ca (Aug 24)

Do you have time for this? You've set up Facebook or Linked In or both or those plus something else, and now Google offers a social network and a bunch of tools.

"Google has just launched a new series of social gadgets for your personalized iGoogle home page.

The gadgets allow you to interact with both friends and strangers through a series of games and productivity tools.

The initial iGoogle social gadgets include 19 different options. Here's a look at what they offer and how they work."

Researching Facebook Profiles

Facebook: The Next Great Vetting Tool? by Bill Greenwood, Information Today (Sept)

Your profile on Facebook and other social networking sites matters. There are many stories of how information posted carelessly on Facebook caused harm.

"Now, a significant number of educational institutions and businesses are using social networking sites to make professional decisions."

“Businesses have accepted that people now use social media to express themselves regularly and that people are more likely than ever to blend personal and professional outlooks through social media,” Blossom says. “This makes it an absolute necessity for businesses to understand both who their potential or existing employees are as publishers through social media and to educate both potential and existing employees as to the impact that their publishing has on their professional lives.”

Message: keep information as restricted as possible, and be careful what you write.

Details on Privacy Measures at Facebook

Facebook agreement with Canada will impact everyone by Jennifer Kavur, itWorldCanada (Aug 28)

Thank Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart for changes that Facebook will be making to provide users better options for information privacy.

"Upcoming changes to Facebook’s privacy policies and practices will impact more than just the Facebook community. What the agreement means for other social networks, business marketing practices and people who don’t have a Facebook account."

New Facebook Search

Facebook Cranks Out New Search Offerings, ResearchBuzz (Aug 12)

There have been several notices about the new Facebook search (with hype, as always) which I have been doing my best to ignore.

Tara Calishain looked at it and said "the search is too limited in time and content. I do see however that it could be useful. "

That's fairly generous.

According to the Facebook blog entry - Facebook Search Improved for Everyone - (which I could only find using a site search in Google) -

"You now will be able to search the last 30 days of your News Feed for status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you're a fan. If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people's profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications"

Of course the content of those news feeds will depend on the crowd you hang out with on Facebook. Hang with political activitists and you'll get political issues; hang with pub crowd and you'll get ???

Now because Facebook will pick up public content you might find businesses, or causes (of whatever stripe) who are advertising and promoting.

There is a search box in the upper right corner of the Facebook page. Put in 1 or 2 keywords (forget anything advanced).

Also decide on what you want to search and select from the left: People, Pages, Groups, Applications, Events, Web, Posts.

Then on that page of results you can Filter using one of the terms in the drop-down box. This image shows group results for facebook search

I used the web search too - no results; and posting results were hopeless.

But, much to my surprise, the language you are queued up to search in makes a difference. Facebook assumes that I am English (UK) - Bing has the same problem in interpreting Bell IP numbers in Toronto, Ont. When I change language to English (US), the results change. There is also English (Pirate) - which would be what?, and Francais Canada - with some English results. What would be wrong with having a real language filter: English, French, German ...?

Facebook Search, although better, doesn't make Facebook a research resource. There are limits - 30 days, the types of postings that people make (often trivial), and the self-promotion. Use it find a group, check what an advocacy organization is up to, and watch the interests of your selected few - if you have time - but don't expect to find much more than today's buzz.

ResearchBuzz also mentions Facebook Lexicon for searching on frequency a term is being used on walls. Lots of talk about swine flu, very little on environmental issues.

Social Networking with Google Reader

Google Reader Gets Facebooked, Adds Social Networking, Brennon Slattery, PCWorld (Jul 17)

Google added some sharing and networking capability to Google Reader. PCWorld called it "an interesting baby-step for Google into the realm of social networking".

Using Twitter and Social Networks

Why your business should use Twitter by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, Webwatch (July 9)

Author advices business people to use Twitter and the social networking centres to interact with others and promote profiles. Searchers can get some tips on what to look for as well.

"LinkedIn has developed from being little more than a space for online résumés into a debate forum for business across the world.

MySpace has become the centre of the universe for unsigned bands to showcase their music.

Facebook has become the general all-purpose site where you connect with friends, and niche sites are popping up all the time to appeal to specific communities.

Then there are the specialist networks - most business area or interest group can find a network out there somewhere."

Movies and Social Networks

Social networks for the movie buff by Don Reisinger, Webware (June 25)

Why not talk to friends and others online about the movies you see or are curious about? There are several described here. All involve filling out a profile of movie tastes.

Social Net for Health Information

The Social Life of Health Information, by Susannah Fox, Sydney Jones. PEW Internet (June 11)

Americans certainly use the web for researching health matters (61%) and 60% of those have accessed some form of user-generated health information - blog, reviews, podcasts.

"This Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network’s volume."

Some key findings:

+ 61% of adults look online for health information.
+ 60% of e-patients (37% of adults) have accessed or created user-generated health information online.
+ 41% have read someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog.
+ 22% of e-patient social networking site users have followed their friends' personal health experiences or updates on the site.
+ 12% of e-patient Twitterers have posted comments, queries, or information about health or medical matters.

Therefore, while there is interest in reading accounts by others, there is reluctance to write about one's own.

Twitter Directories

21 Twitter Directories and Follower Finders to Expand Your Twittersphere, Jason Bartholme's Blog (May 20)

Add yourself to Twitter directories - alternatively - find others.

Hoover's adds LinkedIn

Hoover’s Integrates LinkedIn Contacts, Information Today (Apr 20)

LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals, just got all the recognition it will ever need -- "Hoover's, Inc. (www.hoovers.com), a D&B company, announced it has added LinkedIn contact data to its subscriber site. This new addition provides seamless integration between Hoover's information on 31 million companies and 37 million people with LinkedIn's professional network of business contacts (www.linkedin.com)."

Search Trends

Google Next Victim Of Creative Destruction? (GOOG) by John Northwick, Business Week (Feb 8)

John Northwick, who watched the AOL fall from innovator grace, offered this observation: " I now see search as fragmenting and Twitter search doing to Google what broadband did to AOL."

(Mind, as commenters to the article did point out, John is CEO of betaworks, a Twitter shareholder.)

Search has moved into two main streams: video (YouTube and more) and real-time (Twitter watching).

Video:

* "YouTube generates domestically close to 3BN searches per month — it’s a bigger search destination than Yahoo. "

* "44% of YouTube views happen in the embedded YouTube player (ie off YouTube.com) and late last year they added search into the embedded experience. YouTube is clearly a very different search experience to Google.com. "

* "Video search now represents 26% of Google’s total search volume."

Notificator (the electronic message board)

This really means getting the buzz of the moment whether it's about friends or events and developments.

"Yet at http://search.twitter.com the conversations are right there in front of you. The same holds for any topical issues — lipstick on pig? — for real time questions, real time branding analysis, tracking a new product launch — on pretty much any subject if you want to know whats happening now, search.twitter.com will come up with a superior result set."

It's the social context that is important - people you know (or know of), people you trust.

The post refers to an article by Gerry Campbell on the role of social inference in search. Search is broken – really broken. (Feb 6)

"Our daily lives are rich with social inference, and they happen in real time. Search from Google, Yahoo… you name it – they are all based on published (e.g. considered, thought-through) documents that take minutes-to-weeks to update in the search index."

Campbell wants to see "Realtime search, using social inference for discovery, ranking and prioritization."

Twitter as current awareness tool

Twitter to Expand Search Via Discovery Engine by Rob Hof, Tech Beat in Business Week (Apr 2)

"Now Twitter is looking to roll out a more integrated search feature, which cofounder Biz Stone calls a Discovery Engine. It will include not only the ability to save searches and view them on the right side of the page, but to view currently popular topics"

Stalking though Twitter

Twitterstalking by Zosia Bielski, Globe and Mail (Apr 2)

Observations about a new book on the use of social networking tools such as Twitter for spying on others:

Hal Niedzviecki, "the Toronto-based social commentator is examining how social networking tools such as Twitter are changing values in his eighth book, The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and our Neighbors, which will be published in May".

This form of spying is widespread: "A recent survey of 1,724 Britons by Yasni.co.uk, a search engine for tracking down people, found that 54 per cent of respondents had used networks such as Twitter to peer in on an ex's life. For some of the respondents, harvesting intelligence became addictive, with one-quarter saying they regularly “check up on” exes."

In case you didn't know: "Twitter allows non-users to track others' profiles by simply Googling them. The service does let users block certain followers or lock their profiles so people have to request to follow them, but few are doing this as it “is completely contrary to the point of Twitter,” Mr. Niedzviecki said."

If you don't want to be followed, don't leave "digital crumbs".

Apps for Facebook

20 Facebook desktop apps to try by Don Reisinger, Webware (Mar 17)

This should be good for an hour or two - desktop applications for using Facebook to keep in touch with what friends are doing - or telling them what you are doing.

Email tired, Social networking wired

The medium is no longer the message by Omar Al Akkad, Globe and Mail (Mar 10)

E-mail is sagging, and social networking surging.

Nielsen reports for December 2008 show percentages of global use:

+ Search - 86%
+ General interest portals and communities 85.2
+ Software manufacturers 73.4
+ Member communities (ie social networks) 66.8 - and had the greatest growth in the last year, up 5.4%
+ Email 65.1

""Increasingly, e-mail is yesterday's messaging platform," said Carmi Levy, technology analyst at AR Communications Inc., adding that the medium has become flooded with spam, forcing users to spend lots of time clearing out junk messages and making sure that spam filters haven't mistakenly directed legitimate messages to the garbage bin. "[With social networks], you don't just connect in static manner, you connect in a dynamic manner - you're taking part in a community."

E-mail appears increasingly passé as social-networking sites overtake it for fourth place in overall online activity

Facebook changes

Facebook readies new user pages, filtering tools, Josh Lowensohn, Webware (Mar 4)

Details with screenshots of changes at Facebook for profile pages.

"Now users can open up their profiles to other users to subscribe to," Cox said. "That means pages will become more like the profile. They're going to have a presence that looks and feels just like" his mother's Facebook profile."

Twitter Killer App

Twitter buzz gets a status update by Tim Leberecht, Webware (Feb 25)

Twitter could go mainstream. This microblogging service (Twitter probably invented the word) is now three years old. PEW Internet thought it important enough to study -- Twitter and status updating -- and find the average Twitter user is "overwhelmingly young". But, say many, this will change.

"The Pew study indicates that there will not only be opportunities for vertical twittering geared toward professionals (Yammer) but also for services tailored to certain age groups: think of a Twitter for seniors to stay in touch with their children and grandchildren as the next killer app. "

Social Networking for Business

Twitter Is Now a Must in the Enterprise by Jason Meserve, Network World via PC World (Feb 16)

IT, perhaps not surprisingly, has embraced twitter and social networking in general.

"According to a Network World survey of 583 IT execs, 84% said they visit social networking sites on a regular basis, up from 68% last year. In fact, half of our respondents said they visit a social networking site at least several times a week. Only 29% said they visit social networking sites solely for entertainment purposes, and 64% said they are using social networks more than they did a year ago"

PCWorld has many other recent articles about using the social networking tools to advance your business and career (as well as dangers).

One in particular - Tips on Using LinkedIn for Job-Hunting by C.G. Lynch (Feb 16)

Twitter is Popular

Twitter and status updating from Pew Internet (Feb 12)

Amazing - "As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others. "

But it's mainly young people - "Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 and 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34. Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter. The decline is even more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter. "

But it might be mainly for the news and and just part of the mobile life.

Google's new Social Web Blog

Introducing Google's new Social Web Blog by Mendel Chuang, Product Marketing Manager, Google Friend Connect (Feb 10)

Google is really going social - this is Google's Social Web Blog.

"We will write about social initiatives within Google, such as Google Friend Connect, as well as community efforts like OpenSocial. We plan to share some success stories, present tips and tricks, provide updates when there are new developments, and much more."

Building Online Reputation

Your online reputation: Leveraging LinkedIn By: Jennifer Kavur - Computer World Canada (10 Feb 2009)

One in a series of articles about presenting yourself through Web 2.0 - this time the networking potential of LinkedIn.

Here's why we should care -- "But refusing to participate isn’t the answer, as a Web presence is necessary to let potential employers and clients know that you exist. A quick Google search on your name will influence whether or not they even want to meet with you in the first place."

Others in the series:

+ Thirteen ways to boost your online reputation

+ What Google says can make or break your career

Another Q&A

Meet Plinky, an eclectic Q&A service by Josh Lowensohn, Webware (Jan 22)

Another question answering service, and likely another place to seek out trivia (or should that be the trivial ?).

"At the intersection of questions-and-answers services and social networking, Plinky is opening up to everyone Thursday. It offers up daily assignments called "prompts" for users to fill out, then share with others, be it on Plinky or on their existing social networks and blogs. Plinky isn't limiting the media type or format for responses, so users can submit photos, videos, and written responses, all of which goes into one big feed."

It's not alone - "While Plinky is being innovative by trying to be both a social network and publishing tool at once, I think it's going to have some stiff competition from sites like Polls Boutique, I Beat You, ThisMoment, and Fluther , which are already getting people to jump in and fill out content that can be ported elsewhere."

Who, over the age of 30, has time for this?

Facebook as a Gateway

Social Networks Are The New Web Portals, Indy News (Jan 23)

"Social Networks Like Facebook And MySpace Are Becoming The New Gateways To The Web, Threatening The Dominance Of Google, Yahoo, MSN, And AOL"

Facebook especially --

"For example, through a combination of its own creation and that of third-party developers, Facebook has become a world unto itself. Now the Web's largest social network as measured by active users [140 million at yearend 2008], Facebook offers bread-and-butter portal services like e-mail and instant messaging as well as photo posting and video sharing. But Facebook's reality extends much further. A partnership with Amazon.com (AMZN) has produced a shopping application that lets users buy items at Amazon without leaving Facebook's site, while tapping opt-in "news feeds" that broadcast activities on Amazon, such as product reviews and wish list updates, to Facebook friends. At the same time, a chat feature introduced last spring, which automatically populates itself with a user's Facebook "friends," may render older services like AOL's AIM [where new users must build their own "buddy lists"] socially impoverished."

Adults use Online Social Networks

Adults and Social Network Websites, PEW Internet (Jan 14)

Thirty-five percent of adults have a profile on an online social network. This was the finding from the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey.

From the press release:

"Still, younger online adults are much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with 75% of adults 18-24 using these networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older. At its core, use of online social networks is still a phenomenon of the young.

Overall, personal use of social networks seems to be more prevalent than professional use of networks, both in the orientation of the networks that adults choose to use as well as the reasons they give for using the applications. Most adults, like teens, are using online social networks to connect with people they already know.

When users do use social networks for professional and personal reasons, they will often maintain multiple profiles, generally on different sites. "

Social Network Tools

How to downsize your social network portfolio, by Don Reisinger, Webware (Jan 5)

There are many social network tools. This article helps us pare back to just one per category.

+ Social bookmarking - Delicious
+ Micro blogging - Twitter
+ Social Network - Facebook
+ News Aggregation - Reddit
+ Video - YouTube

Facebook Growth Exponential

Facebook's growth goes faster and faster and faster by Caroline McCarthy, Webware (Dec 18)

Facebook has 140 million active users! In the United States it may be have 50 million user. This tremendous surge that may have 600,000 to 700,000 users being added a day is coming from outside the United States.

Yahoo's Open Strategy

Yahoo puts meat on Open Strategy bones by Stephen Shankland, Webware (Dec 15)

For a couple of years, analysts have talked about Yahoo's social aims and strengths. It may be that Yahoo has now truly "flipped the switch" to promote and exploit social connections and online applications.

"The company has been working mostly behind the scenes to build what it calls the Yahoo Open Strategy, but now the strategy's changes will become evident to U.S. users of some of Yahoo's main properties such as Yahoo Mail, My Yahoo, and Yahoo's music and TV sites. In addition, the company will begin previewing a new Yahoo Toolbar later this week. "

Biggest changes are to Yahoo Mail:

"Yahoo Mail, which according to ComScore has about 275 million active users each month, gets some significant changes, with more to come. First is a new welcome page that now spotlights messages from people in a person's Yahoo social network and invitations from others to join their networks. And the in-box page now includes a new "from connections" button that shows e-mail only from those social connections. "

Also,

+ Changes in customizing the home page
+ browser toolbar will show contacts
+ media properties will spotlight ratings or activities by contacts

See another short summary of the changes at Yahoo Enhances Open Strategy: Mail, My Yahoo, Toolbar & More by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (Dec

Reasons to use LinkedIn

Linking Up With LinkedIn by Paula J. Hane, Newsbreaks (Dec 1)

If you have been delaying joining or using LinkedIn, Paula Hane's description of new features might persuade you to take it up LinkedIn for professional networking.

Live.com as Social Home

Sweeping Changes At Live.com: It’s A Social Network! by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch (Nov 12)

Microsoft Live went social.

"It’s now a social network, too, pulling in activity information and content from around the web. They’re also launching Windows Live Photos and Windows Live People, and other services. Check it out at Home.Live.com"

Article links to a video by Common Craft on creating an online home in Windows Live.

Windows Live Social

Windows Live Surprise—Microsoft’s Disparate Strategies Come Together by Erik Arnold, Newsbreaks (Nov 20)

"Microsoft issued a rare surprise release regarding its Windows Live.com web services (www.windowslive.com). Many of us were never quite sure what Microsoft’s "Live" brand meant, but this announcement makes it pretty clear what the company wants it to become—a social networking platform that will leverage Microsoft’s strengths to its advantage. What are those strengths? While many see Microsoft as a dinosaur in a Web 2.0 and search-driven world, it is easy to forget that the company has 460 million customers worldwide across its desktop and online products."

Of interest -- "Microsoft now has more integrated social features than Yahoo! and Google. Whether or not this changes the trajectory of Microsoft’s web offerings remains to be seen, but should Microsoft maintain its leadership after this latest technology cycle, it may not be considered a surprise."

Glad I kept my hotmail account.

Social Side to Windows Live

Windows Live tries to show its social side by Ina Fried, Webwas (Nov 11)

Microsoft is trying to build community again - "With the update, Spaces, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Messenger will get deeper ties with one another. While stressing that it is not trying to create a new social-networking site, Microsoft is nonetheless adopting concepts like news feeds and profiles that have made such services so popular. "

Research Through Social Networking

Social Networking: A Research Tool , by Amelia Kassel, Freepint (Sept 2008)

"Dozens of social networking sites have given rise to potentially useful information that can be included in the information professional's toolkit."

Social Networking and Privacy

Globe and Mail has been running a series on social networking and what it means in loss of privacy. There is a cautionary tale here.
Faceless no more: Social networking comes with a price by Matt Hartley (Sept 12) -- "As Canadians rush to embrace websites such as Facebook and MySpace, some fail to consider how their lives will be exposed"

"During a two month-long investigation, The Globe and Mail tracked more than a dozen Canadians through their open social networking profiles, and used freely available web tools to build detailed profiles of each individual user.

Most of the information is minutiae, details that, taken alone, don't amount to much. Yet when compiled in one or two places, a casual observer can develop a rudimentary image of a subject in just a few clicks."

Related articles:

Part 2 - "Matt Hartley looks at how social networks have affected consumer privacy and reports on the federal privacy commissioner's plans to safeguard consumer information.

Part 3 — "David Hutton reports on the efforts that one Canadian-based social network is making to root out underage users, who, studies show, can be far more revealing than older social networkers."

Shelfari for books

Amazon Buys Social Network For Book Lovers By Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek (Aug 26)

"Shelfari is a nearly 2-year-old social networking Web site in which users build virtual bookshelves of the book titles they've owned or read."

Amazon invested a million dollars in 2007, and has now bought it for an undisclosed amount. "Shelfari chief executive and co-founder Josh Hug said in the company blog that the acquisition would enable the small company to create "innovative new tools.""

International Social Networking

ComScore: Social sites are going global By Caroline McCarthy, Webware (Aug 11)

"According to ComScore's numbers, social-networking sites may be nearing a peak in North America. The industry's foothold in the U.S. and Canada grew only 9 percent from June 2007, but in Asia it grew 23 percent, in Latin America 33 percent, and in Europe 35 percent. And social networks grew a whopping 66 percent in the Middle East and Africa. The 9 percent growth in North America meant that it was the only region of the world where the growth of social networks did not outpace the growth of the Internet-using populace as a whole, which ComScore pegged at 11 percent."

Online Living

Consolidating Your Web Banter By Kate Greene, Technology Review (Apr 2008)

If you are one of those people who drop in on many forums, blogs, and social news sites leaving comments and postings, this service is for you. New tools will merge these into one feed for your friends, or alternatively you can use one tool to post to many.

"Now, some companies are building technology that helps connect these disparate conversations. Last week, Seesmic--a forthcoming video-conversation service--bought Twhirl, a startup that makes downloadable software that plugs directly into Twitter, a social-networking site where people can post updates about their activities in 140 characters or less."

iGoogle going Social

Google Quietly Tests Social Network
Heather Havenstein, Computerworld via PCWorld (June 29)

Google is testing social features for its iGoogle personalized page.

"The updates include chat, activity streaming and a new interface for the gadgets offered on the start page."

Look for it in July 2008

"Now that the site has added the new features, Google has gone further down the path of transforming iGoogle into a social site, Chitu added. Once Google provides support for the open standard OpenSocial in iGoogle - later this summer, according to the company - the transformation to a social site "will be complete," the blogger noted."

Wonder how that will affect people who don't want to be social at all or would like to use the social tools they have already.

Social Media Explained

Common Craft has another wonderful video - this time Social Media in Plain English. You'll find out what it s and why it's so popular - a mix of being to create the content, be involved, and comment on what other people do. Everyone becomes a producer with blogs, wikis, and podcasts.

Twitter in a news feed

Newstex Launches NewsTwits, a Twitter-Based Newsfeed Newsbreaks (June 12)

"Newstex (www.newstex.com) announced NewsTwits, a new product that delivers Twitter content as a newsfeed to information providers and enterprise customers. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a social networking and multiplatform messaging service that allows users to broadcast short-form updates known as "Tweets" (text-based posts up to 140 characters) to their online colleagues in real time. Messages sent via Twitter are displayed on the sender’s profile page on the Twitter website and are instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them."

Facebook and Privacy

Facebook accused of violating user trust, breaking Canadian privacy laws itBusiness.ca By: Brian Jackson (6/2/2008 6:00:00 AM )

"Facebook may say it's purely a social networking site, but it is in fact a commercial enterprise that's about sharing and using members' personal information with advertisers and third-party application developers." That's the substance of a complaint against Facebook filed with Canada's Privacy Commisioner.

INCLUDES VIDEO.

Blogs, social media, social networks

Beyond Blogs by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, Business Week (May 22)

Business Week revisits its article on business blogs of three years ago, and discovers that while blogs made everyone a publisher, the real change is coming through social networks, twittering, and wikis. Blogging has changed too with more power in megablogs with paid staff.

"Three years ago, we wrote a big story—but missed a bigger one. We focused on blogs as a new form of printing press, one that turned Gutenberg's economics on its head, making everyone a potential publisher. .... But despite the importance of blogs, only a minority of us participates." ... "While only a small slice of the population wants to blog, a far larger swath of humanity is eager to make friends and contacts, to exchange pictures and music, to share activities and ideas."

Social Media Burden

Ten Reasons I Won’t Use Social Media Sites by John Mariotti, Small Business Trends (May 15)

My top reason for not using social media sites is information overload - not to mention time and one more thing to deal with.

Mariotti's reasons center on controllability, profitability, and safety.

Google to Connect Friends

New Google Service Makes Web Pages Social by Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post (May 12)

Google will help you form a community around your web site with a new product called Friend Connect.

"Using Google's new Friend Connect product, any Web page, whether it is devoted to curling or pizza or a folk singer, can allow visitors to make and connect with other "friends" who visit that site. Like any major social network today, any Web page using Friend Connect could easily present to each user the names and pictures of friends and potential friends. Those people could then post messages to one another."

Give the example of singer Ingrid Michaelson being among the first to be adopting this. It's not there today but worth a visit just to hear her sing.

"For example, one of the first Friend Connect customers will be independent musician Ingrid Michaelson, who like most entertainers has an official Web site ( http://www.ingridmichaelson.com ). Now her fans can befriend one another if they visit her MySpace page."

Washington Post has a nice display of screenshots done as a slideshow.

Initially, Friend Connect is to be available to a limited set of websites. But watch for it.

Thanks to MEM for this story.

Postscript: Longer article, well illustrated at Webware -- Friend Connect gets a warm reception at Google Campfire One By Stephen Shankland –

Keyword search at Facebook

Facebook Does Keyword Research by Jane Copeland, SEOMoz (Apr 30)

I'm losing track of what's happening in Facebook (for me the novelty has passed), but there are new tools. This one "shows spikes and trends in keyword / phrase popularity"

"At the moment, the tool isn't as useful as it may one day be. There is mention of a "threshold" which a keyword must exceed before it's included in the Lexicon data. From what I can see, the threshold is relatively high at the moment. Queries that actually bring up results are rather generic. Given a lower threshold, we could begin to use this tool for some buzz-centered keyword research."

I don't know who would use this other than advertisers.

Delver for social networking search

Social networking meets search: Sightix By Rafe Needleman, Webware (Apr 30)

Introduces Delver - a social network search tool that is still in private beta. It is software that would have to be adoped by existing networks.

Objective: "When you search for something using the Sightix technology on a social network, it searches the content of everyone you are connected with, and ranks results gleaned from each user based on the strength of their connection to you."

Have to have an extended social network to make this work - and possibly relatively homogenous.

Social Networking for Search

How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search as We Know It by Glenn Derene, Popular Mechanics (Apr 16)

Odd to find an article on search in Popular Mechanics, but Glenn Derene is taking up the view that " the next generation of Web users may find what they want by using their social network rather than a search algorithm". Behind this is the idea that search engines will know much more us through tracking search, what we shop for, what we say about ourselves, and who our friends are.

"Consider how much information you voluntarily provide on your Facebook profile. Now imagine if you could combine that with your Netflix renting and Amazon buying habits. Then throw in the suggestions of your friends and the pages you visit the most often. All those various sources of information about you are currently stored in different locations—on your computer’s browser history, on your Facebook page, on the servers for Netflix and Amazon—but just imagine how accurate a search could be if every time you had a query, the mass of data about you that exists on the Internet could inform the results. "

Firstly, the idea of that much information being available to companies who want to sell us things (and social/political causes) is frightening. Secondly, I don't think they're talking about search as in study - it's more likely search as in recipe, vacation, new electronic device, movie reviews - day to day consumption. And even so, I can think of several friends whose movie tastes are much different than mine.

I don't buy it, or maybe I mean I don't want it.

Social Networking Primer

The Social Networking Titans: Facebook and MySpace By Meg Kribble and Debbie Ginsberg, LLRX (April 4, 2008)

Introduction law firms to social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace, and how they can be used.

"To date, at least 12 law libraries and 19 law firms have Facebook pages. These pages provide basic information about the services they provide and an easy way for Facebook users to contact them. Some use add-ons like the Worldcat and JSTOR search boxes. Users can also become "fans" of the libraries and firms and the institutions can send updates directly to their fans. The pages feature even allows libraries to use some of its specialty applications. The page for the Harvard University Law School Library, for example, uses Bookshare to highlight items in its collection."

Book: Here Comes Everybody

Real World 2.0 Clay Shirky's book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, reviewed by Helen Walters and Matt Vella, Business Week (Mar 21)

"In Shirky's view, we're living in the middle of a revolution as momentous as that which followed the invention of the printing press. Society and industry, in other words, are being radically reshaped. Even a cursory look at the current corporate landscape confirms his view. Existing music and media businesses are in a state of turmoil, with no clear strategy to deal with the rise of mass amateurization and cheap and easy distribution tools. "Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be," he writes."

Business Week has a podcast with Shirky talking about his book.

Here Comes Everybody -- The steady rise of social networks (Mar 19)

BusinessWeek -- Innovation of the Week -- Author and NYU professor Clay Shirky talks about some of the ideas in his new book, "Here Comes Everybody," an exploration of the far-flung effects that Web-enabled social tools, like blogs or Twitter, are having on business and society

Facebook Privacy

New Facebook Features On the Way: Privacy Controls, Chat, Rob Hof, Business Week (Mar 18)

"... Facebook’s 67 million active members will have new ways to control their privacy on the social network. They’re welcome additions for many people on Facebook who want more control over which friends (and others) see what kind of material and information on their Facebook profiles."

Shows what to expect and what to do and has news on the onlie chat to come.

News through Facebook

Ellyn Angelotti, a journalist at Poynter Online, is examining the use of social networking, Facebook specifically, in news - either researching or disseminating.

A New Tool in the Box: Social Networks (Mar 18)

Has advice for journalists in using Facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites to tap into communities to get information or leads. Mainly - be aware that another person could be acting as agent as is the case for Ira Glass on NPR - he has a "web manager". Also tips for users about privacy.

Facebook and the Viral Marketing of News

The Chicago Tribune sends out news alerts as Facebook updates.
Poynter Online does this too -- Facebook updates.

Poynter Online is one of several with a Facebook profile . Others include New York Times, NPR, The Economist, The Onion, Channel 4 News in the UK.

[CBC has a page too and over 8,000 fans but doesn't keep it as fresh (last update was Feb 28) or as interesting. It's not a vibrant meeting place for CBC fans. ]

Ellyn Angelotti writes, "News organizations are catching on that Facebook is becoming a major part of young users' Internet habits. They are meeting young readers -- a traditionally low-readership demographic-- on our virtual stomping grounds. And it's paying off; I'm starting to find myself getting more and more of my news via Facebook."

There is a distinction between Facebook Group - only members can view, and Facebook Pages - anyone can view but "fans" get the updates.

"Many Pages are simply virtual meeting spots for users who "like" an organization. They usually don't have much content or customization. But, Page creators, usually an editor or producer from the online staff, can post videos, photos, text stories, updates and applications to the Page. "

There is a fair amount that a news organization can do through having a page. For some readers this could be a rich and convenient way to get news. Certainly, we can see potential here and a possibly a new model for engagement.

Find your Social Network

The Right Social Network for You by
Scott Spanbauer, PC World (Feb 24)

"Whether you're looking for a job, a party, or long-lost friends, your ideal online meeting place is out there. We'll help you find it."

Examines 17 alternatives to MySpace in five broad categories: general-purpose, special-purpose, taste-based, mobile, and media-sharing social networks. Gives tips "for maintaining your safety and privacy, finding friends online, and getting the most out of each service".

Esnips, under Media Sharing, sounds interesting especially for hobbies and personal interests.

"Online file storage has boomed in recent years, but eSnips goes beyond simple storage, combining it with networking and creating online communities centered on content categories such as musical styles, painting, poetry, photography, animation, and humor. After you have uploaded your text, audio, image, video, or other type of file to eSnips (using a handy browser toolbar, if you wish), you can opt to share it with the world or with a more select group by e-mail invitation"

Taste-based Sites takes you to special interest: Library Thing for books you've read - building a collection; LastFM and Pandora for music - note to Canadians - Pandora can't stream to IP numbers outside of the United States for copyright reasons; and iMeem for music and movies.

Something for everyone. Opportunities to make new friends.

Social Networking Tools for Librarians

25 Useful Social Networking Tools for Librarians Jessica Hupp, College Degree (Feb 20)

Tools are grouped into communication (social networking and IM), distribution for sharing information or for discovery), and organization (includes bookmarks).

Is Social Networking Beginning to Sag?

'Facebook fatigue' kicks in as people tire of social networks Chris Williams, The Register (Jan 31)

Numbers from Comscore suggest that people are spending less time at social networking sites.

"Bebo, MySpace and Facebook all took double-digit percentage hits in the last months of 2007. "

Social Network for Law Librarians

Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries, or How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love FriendingBy Meg Kribble and Debbie Ginsberg, LLRX, January 19, 2008

Describes several of the networks (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn etc) and how legal librarians and lawyers have used them - notes the disadvantages as well as points of usefulness. Short guide on building your own network. List of other articles.

Social Networking 2008

Facebook is so last year - welcome to the hit websites of 2008 Bobbie Johnson, Guardian (Dec 24)

Virtual pets, video diaries and travellers' logs could be the next stars of cyberspace

Facebook at University of Toronto

News feed update: Universities sign on to Facebook by Elizabeth Church, Globe and Mail (Dec 26)

Canadian universities and colleges are using Facebook to reach young adults. One example is from Rotman's School of Management at the University of Toronto.

"This fall, the business school launched a group, Rotman MBA Admissions, which had more than 100 members in its first week and attracted 73 participants to a question and answer session the Sunday before the school's first application deadline.

With more than 40 per cent of its students coming from outside Canada, the school's assistant dean, Richard Powers, said the case for using Facebook was an easy one. “We send people around the world to recruiting fairs. This is a relatively inexpensive form of communication for us. It's a very effective tool.”

Part of the appeal of Facebook for schools is its widespread use with the very group universities and colleges are hoping to reach.

There are more than 60,000 members of the U of T group on Facebook – students, alumni and staff – and there are hundreds of university events and groups listed there."

Changes at Linked In

LinkedIn Introduces New Features and the Intelligent Applications Platform by Erik Arnold, Newsbreaks (December 26, 2007)

"LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), which claims to be the world’s largest professional network, joined in the parade of announcements from the social networking space in the last few weeks with news of a redesigned homepage and the release of its Intelligent Applications Platform—the company’s attempt to attract third-party developers to its site. The changes represent the first small steps to gain social market share by distributing applications using OpenSocial."

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites: Getting friendly with our users by Cliff Landis, C&RL News (Dec 2007)

"This article introduces a few of the many examples of how libraries are using social networking sites. Additionally, it gives both librarians and researchers the initial points for staying current on this topic."

Cliff Landis is reference librarian at Valdosta State University.

Mentioned in Resourcshelf - Webliography: Social Networking Sites.

Power of Facebook

Facebook more than just a cool tool for kids Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Dec 17)

Facebook may be more than a way to connect with friends. Michael Geist describes his experiences in setting up a Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook and how it helped make a difference by getting the federal government to delay its copyright legislation.

"With the federal government expected to introduce new copyright reform within a matter of days, a Facebook group seemed like a good way to educate the public about an important issue. I sent invitations to a hundred or so Facebook friends and seeded the group with links to a few relevant websites.

"What happened next was truly remarkable – within hours, the group started to grow – first 50 members, then 100, then 1,000. One week later, there were 10,000 members. Two weeks later, there were over 25,000 members with another Canadian joining the group every 30 seconds." ... "Much to the surprise of skeptics who paint government as unable or unwilling to listen to public concerns, those voices had an immediate impact. Ten days after the Facebook group's launch, Prentice delayed introducing the new copyright reforms, seemingly struck by the rapid formation of concerned citizens who were writing letters and raising awareness."

Hopefully, the same can be true for the Friends of CHN Facebook group seeking to save the Canadian Health Network.

Even more, we need this kind of momentum on a multitude of environmental issues and the adoption of real emission reduction targets.

Canadians on Facebook

1 in 4 Canadians on Facebook Chris Sorensen, The Star (Dec 10)

Canadians love Facebook if we are to believe this survey of Internet users done in November 2007 by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group.

+ Nearly 8 million Canadians
+ 85% signed up in 2007
+ comprise 15% of Facebook total (57 milion)
+ half of Canadian Facebookers are over 30
+ 990,000 users in Toronto

Kickstart from Yahoo

Check Out My Yahoo Kickstart Profile & Get Yours Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (Nov 5)

Yahoo is back into social networking (they closed 360) with Kickstart, a site for college students - the ones who aren't already on Facebook.

Social Networking for Scientific Community

Elsevier Creates Social Spaces for Researchers by Paula J. Hane, Information Today (Nov 1)

Datamonitor predicts that active membership (not passive) in social networking sites is expected to climb to 230 million by the end of 2007. Of course there are the millions in MySpace and Facebook, but many million will be in smaller niche communities. Elsevier will be part of this.

"Elsevier said that its newest social networking initiatives are designed to support academic library communities and their researchers with advanced “Research 2.0” tools. Two new resources—still in beta release—from the STM publisher create social spaces in which researchers can work together. These new tools offer platforms for shared knowledge to be leveraged for information discovery and evaluation."

They are:

+ "2collab, an online platform for scientific collaboration, supports researchers by working as a community to filter information and enhance information literacy. "

+ "Scirus Topic Pages is a Wiki-like online resource for the scientific community that provides authoritative summaries of specialized research areas and offers a platform to facilitate scholarly debate."

Over 350 social networking sites

SOCIAL NETWORKING GOD: 350+ Social Networking Sites Mashable.com (Oct 23)

Who would ever have guessed there would be so many. Groups them by

+ books - but doesn't have Library Thing
+ people - but no Pipl
+ family - shouldn't Facebook be here?
+ friends - Facebook is here.
+ hobbies - even catspace.
+ Language
+ media
+ music
+ shopping!
+ social bookmarking 50+ sites and that's not an age bracket
+ students
+ travel and locals - Trip Advisor not here- why not?

And a huge See Also.

It's too much.

Google Widgets in MySpace

MySpace Gets Social With Google MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP via Time (Nov 2)

"Internet social networking leader MySpace is joining Google Inc.'s platform for sharing applications across the Web — a concept that threatens to undermine the rapid growth of their common rival, Facebook Inc."

The Facebook Buzz

Should Google Be Afraid Of Facebook? by ALex Iskold, Read/Write Web (Oct 25)

Article has a photo of a box of apples and oranges suggesting that the comparison is all wrong.

"Google and Facebook are fundamentally in two different types of businesses. Yes, both of them monetize mainly via advertising, but Google is a web wide technology and Facebook is a single web site."

Bottom line seems to be that Facebook is getting the buzz and Google isn't. They are entirely different services serving different needs. I hope it stays that way.

Facebook Mania

Microsoft wins the Facebook sweepstakes Mathew Ingram, Globe and Mail (Oct 24)

"... why wouldn't Microsoft take a gamble on the popular social network, which has 50 million users and is growing at triple-digit rates?" Indeed.

Microsoft takes slice of Facebook by Matt Hartley, Globe and Mail (Oct 24)

Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said, "Facebook really represents the new computing platform for this new age of computing and I think any social application that is written in the future is going to have to take into account the Facebook model .."

Fact: "With more than 50 million monthly users, and 200,000 more joining up nearly every day, Facebook presents a growing audience for advertisers and could reach 300 million users".

I sense a bubble and there will be a pin that will burst it. Perhaps that will be boredom - Facebook runs its course as things do, or a scandal over privacy erupts. The second is quite possible if the points made in this YouTube video (posted as a comment to the Globe and Mail article) are true.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G%5FgPhU

About Social Media

Top five sites with Web 2.0 social media coverage, Pandia (Oct

Pandia describes its favourite blogs that cover the social networking and social media scene: REad/Write Web, Mashable, CenterNetworks, Pronet Advertising, Somewhat Frank, and mentions a few others.

Google Virtual World

Google eyeing its own 'Second Life?' Posted by Daniel Terdiman, CNet (Sept 24)

Speculation is growing that Google will be creating a new virtual world space, likely connected with its 3D Google Earth.

BAAGZ from Exalead

Exalead Unveils First Semantic Search Service, EContent (Sept 25)

Exalead, the search company in France, has introduced BAAGZ as a social networking community with search at its core. "BAAGZ fosters a collaborative environment where users can connect with others on the web who have similar interests-- whether hobbies, travel, music, or news-- in order to share and enhance this content with new ideas, in effect contributing to the expansion of the Semantic Web. At the foundation of BAAGZ is a search engine based on Exalead's Semantic Web search technology, Search By Serendipity, which is already available."

Web 2.0 is Social Web

Scaling the Social Web by Catherine Holahan , Business Online (Sept 24)

It's really networking everywhere - is there a limit to how much of this people will do?

"Move over, MySpace. Online players from media giant Viacom to auctioneer eBay are adding networking features for their users."

"In fact, there's been such overwhelming adoption of social networking features that many people are using the term "social Web," rather than Web 2.0, to refer to a generation of sites built on user-generated content and interaction. The idea is that any site worth its salt needs to enable user interaction and content-sharing. "

Of interest: "There are more than 135 million distinct sites on the Web, and the number of active sites is growing by a rate of more than 5% each month, according to Netcraft."

Changes at Digg

Digg To Get Truly Social With Major Update Today by Chris Winfield, Search Engine Land (Sept 19)

Digg is rolling out changes that will make it even more social - add friends, enhance profile, etc, etc.

Social Networking for the Older Set

Social networking sites take notice of seniors By Matt Richtel, International Herald Tribune (September 6, 2007)

People 50 Plus can talk more easily with others their age about what really concerns them at new social networking sites such as Eons.com.

"Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites targeting their parents and grandparents. The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya's Mom, Boomj and Boomertown."

Freepint covers social networking

"Survival Guide: Online Social Networking" By Shally Steckerl, Freepint No 237 (Sept 13, 2007)

Encourages everyone to develop their social networks and comments on a few of the more business oriented online venues (not MySpace or Freepint)

"Online social networking provides you with a venue to connect with people whom you already know, grow your relationships and find new people connected to you by a common contact. Effective utilisation of your personal network is no longer a competitive advantage, it is a survival tool."

"Social Tools for Business Use: Messages from a Web 2.0 Conference"
By Alexia Miller, Freepint (Sept 13)

Draws some points on the benefits of using social networking tools from attending the conference - Social Tools for Business Use: Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0 New Development & Evolution.

Public Listings on Facebook

Facebook Opens Profiles To Tap Into Google Traffic, While Google Grabs Facebook's News Feed Idea, Danny Sullivan, Search engine land (Sept 5)

Danny Sulllivan decodes Facebook's announcement that public listings in Facebook will be open to web search - except they have been all along - the change might be in the default. He explains why you'll see a link to Danny Sullivan with site:facebook.com "danny sullivan" even tho Google hasn't crawled it yet - but it will as Facebook makes the public listings available.

Social Networks by Demographic

Social Networking Graduates and Hits the Job Market Business Week - special report (Aug 30)

"Facebook and other popular sites are turning into professional networks. How do these online Rolodexes line up?"

Six social networking services are listed here, and all except for Facebook are niche operations. Not mentioned is the one for people over 50 - Eons.com.

Using Social Networking Tools

The Impact of Social Networking Tools and Guidelines to Use Them
By LaJean Humphries, LLRX, Published on January 15, 2007

Looks at "... some of the uses of MySpace in the law firm environment, ethical and legal considerations, some guidelines for use, and some creative law firm uses of social networking sites."

Search them for information about people, and create a space for yourself or your department to reach others.

Facebook for Business

Facebook as a B2B Marketing Tool By Tessa Wegert, The ClickZ Network (Aug 23)

There are signs that Facebook is evolving into a "networking and marketing platform that attracts corporate executives and decision makers." Some business people are using it as a place to show wares and promote their company.

Mitch Joel, president of Montreal firm Twist Image, says "The key is to create an environment that's always yours -- your blog or podcast space -- then feed into it through a Facebook Group." "The Group is just another touch point.""

"To date, Facebook has been predominantly a personal social network, but that hasn't stopped businesses and their proactive marketing and sales teams from adapting its existing features to suit their networking and promotional needs. As their own networks of business contacts grow friend by friend, so too does the site's B2B community as a whole, and the opportunity for interactive marketers to target it."

Digging at News Organizations

Social Bookmarking Helps Users Organize and Share Favorite Content by Ellyn Angelotti, Poynter Online (Aug 6)

News organizations are encouraging its readers to bookmark their articles and share these with their "social networks". Angelotti looked at 40 news organizations to see whose little icons they were adding to help readers. del.icio.us and digg.com were by far the most used (around 23 and 24% each).

Online Social Networks - in depth

Online Social Networks, Virtual Communities, Enterprises, and Information Professionals — Part 1. Past and Present by Mike Reid, Vice President, Sales and Business Development, Cognition Technologies, Inc. and
Christian Gray, Senior Account Executive, Safari Books Online, LLC; Searcher (Jul / Aug 2007)

"This article is the first in a series of three that will explore the history and dramatic growth of online social networks and the implications of that growth for information professionals. In this “Past and Present” contribution, we intend to set the stage for the series, to explain the phenomenon and its historical underpinnings, and to define terms. The second article, entitled “Stories,” will include true stories about organizations and individuals who have deployed or used social networking software or virtual communities; the third, “Applications,” will survey leading companies and recommend tools and processes for information professionals."

Build-Your-Own Social Network Site

9 Ways to Build Your Own Social Network, Mark Hendrickson, TechCrunch (Jul 24)

Want to build your own social network outside of Facebook or MySpace? Several companies offer "white labelling" facilities.

"The idea of white labeling a network is to make the platform provider as invisible as possible to the social network’s users and to brand the network with the builder’s identity or intent. While definitions of “social networking” may vary, social networks are primarily defined by member profiles and some sort of user generated content."

This article and another to follow looks at nine companies - Ning, KickApps, CrowdVine, GoingOn, CollectiveX, Me.com, PeopleAggregator, Haystack, and ONEsite.

Social Networking Brief

The ABCs and 123s of Social Networking Sites, DazzlinDonna (July 16)

This is it - short and sweet explanation of social networking. Doesn't get clearer than this.

Social Networking Growing

Social Networks Becoming Ingrained in Daily Adult Life Heather Havenstein, Computerworld via PC World (Jul 9)

"One in five adults worldwide say they have visited social networking sites, according to a study released last week."

Social Networking at Congoo

Congoo Launches Social Networking for Business Verticals, Newsbreaks (Jul 16)

"Congoo (www.congoo.com), a free premium news and information network, announced the launch of several free social networking features for professionals. For the first time, Congoo members can decide the importance and order of news stories within each of Congoo’s industry channels by ranking a story’s placement on the page higher or lower. The company said that, by allowing members to rank stories, each industry channel will directly reflect the sentiments of the professionals that participate."

Life with Twitter

Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense by Clive Thompson, Wired (June 26)

Twitter is what younger people do (between 18 and 27) to stay in touch - find out why.

MySpace v Facebook

Facebook Hammers MySpace on Almost All Key Features, Ben Gold, Mashable (June 10)

Compares Facebook to MySpace for design, media, community, usefulness, and ease of use. Great way to learn the main features and benefits.

Social Networking Tools

The Tao of Law Librarianship - Keeping Up With Social Networking Tools By Connie Crosby, LLRX (June 25)

Good primer on social networking tools and spaces - Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and Twitter - with examples of how librarians are using these.

Online Social Networks

Online Social Networks, Virtual Communities, Enterprises, and Information Professionals — Part 1. Past and Present by Mike Reid, Vice President, Sales and Business Development, Cognition Technologies, Inc. and
Christian Gray, Senior Account Executive, Safari Books Online, LLC, Searcher (July / Aug)

"This article is the first in a series of three that will explore the history and dramatic growth of online social networks and the implications of that growth for information professionals. In this “Past and Present” contribution, we intend to set the stage for the series, to explain the phenomenon and its historical underpinnings, and to define terms. The second article, entitled “Stories,” will include true stories about organizations and individuals who have deployed or used social networking software or virtual communities; the third, “Applications,” will survey leading companies and recommend tools and processes for information professionals."

OCLC Goes Social

OCLC Gets Sociable: New Social Networking Initiatives by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Jun 25)

OCLC is adding some social networking features to its WorldCat.org site - specifically building and sharing lists for books, videos, articles or anything captured by OCLC.

"To make a list, a user can click on a WorldCat record to add it to a list or check off items in check boxes that appear in a set of WorldCat results and use the "Save To" button. Individuals can build as many lists as they want and then choose whether to make each list public or keep it private. Public lists are open for other WorldCat users to search and browse, similar to the advisory lists generated on Amazon.com. Private lists can only be viewed by the author. To change a list's status, use the "Settings" link. Once a user has created a public list, he or she can send a "Share" link to provide an email invitation to view the list."

OCLC will also be enhancing WebJunction, an outreach and training service for librarians.

Services inside Facebook

Facebook Aims to Socialize All Online Services, Rob Hof, BusinessWeek (May 24)

Facebook announced that more than 65 developers (Amazon.com, Microsoft, Obama for America, and Warner Bros. Records etc) will be adding Facebook applications.

" Essentially, those companies are embedding pieces of their applications--like book reviews from Amazon and photo slideshows from Slide--into Facebook itself. Facebook members, who now can include anyone with an email address, can add applications integrated with their existing Facebook services. The idea is to make Facebook even more of a utility for everything people want to do online that benefits from a social component."

Matthew Ingram at the Globe and Mail asked - Is Facebook the next Google, or is it more like Lindsay Lohan? (May 23)

Facebook also added a classified advertising network - members can list and share items.

It's growing rapidly and aiming for 14 million monthly users but it's not the fastest. "Facebook's growth rate is also not the highest in the social-networking space, according to Hitwise. Bebo, a U.S.-based network that has a large proportion of users in Britain and other parts of Europe, saw its traffic climb by more than 180 per cent from last year."

Facebook Community

Facebook Opens Its Pages As a Way to Fuel Growth by Vauhini Vara, Wall Street Journal (May 21)

"On Thursday, the Palo Alto, Calif., company [Facebook] will announce a new strategy to let other companies provide their services on special pages within its popular Web site. These companies will be able to link into Facebook users' networks of online friends, according to people familiar with the matter.

For instance, an online retailer could build a service in Facebook to let people recommend music or books to their friends, based on the relationships they've already established on the site. Or a media company could let groups of users share news articles with each other on a page inside Facebook."

The competition: "There's also stiff competition. News Corp.'s MySpace is still the leader in social networking, with 57 million U.S. visitors in April, compared with Facebook's 14.4 million, even though Facebook has grown three times as fast as MySpace in the past year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. And a handful of other companies are also riffing off the idea of using social-networking technology to build a broader platform, such as Ning Inc., co-founded by Netscape Communications Corp. founder Marc Andreessen. Ning lets groups build their own social networks."

Social Networking in Canada

MySpace targets Canadian growth "Social networking website officially launches a Canadian version" by SIMON AVERY, Globe and Mail (May 14)

There is a Canadian mySpace -- ca.myspace.com -- and 6 million Canadians use it - 25% of Internet users in Canada.

"The Canadian site has been promoting Canadian bands, such as Juno Award winners Billy Talent, and local events, such as the North by Northeast Film Festival, which runs in Toronto next month. It has deals pending with Canadian comedians as well as with a Canadian wireless company to deliver MySpace to cellphones."

Seems that Canadians like social networks -- "About 5.9 million Canadians spent an average of 83 minutes each on MySpace in March, said Bryan Segal of comScore Canada Inc., which measures Internet traffic. Remarkably, three other properties in the social networking category attracted even more Canadians. Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live Spaces drew in 39 per cent of online Canadians, followed by Google's Blogger (29 per cent) and independently owned Facebook (28 per cent)."

Connecting through Reuters

Networking site among agency's projects to find new markets by
Katie Allen, media business correspondent, Guardian (May 8, 2007)

"The news agency Reuters is trying out a Facebook-style networking and information website for businesses needing help tapping into overseas markets.

In what will be a significant initiative departure if it comes to market, the global news and information company is working on a portal that will help link clothes factories in Britain with textiles firms in India, and chipmakers in China with gadget groups in Germany."

Networking and Copyright

Social Networking and Video Web Sites: MySpace and YouTube Meet the Copyright Cops by Stephanie C. Ardito, Principal, Ardito Information & Research, Inc, Searcher (May)

What fascinates people about video sharing is revealed: "So, what prompts my nephews, niece, colleagues, and me to go to MySpace and YouTube to view grainy, unprofessional, uploaded videos and audios recorded on camera phones and camcorders versus searching the music label or movie studio Web sites for the originals? The answer lies in the ease and convenience of MySpace and YouTube. Without much fuss and no required registration, you can quickly identify videos of interest, see which ones are the most popular with others (both sites rank videos by the number of hits received, similar to Amazon’s “Top Sellers”), click on the videos you want to watch, and, within a matter of seconds, have them appear on your screen. In comparison, the traditional media companies often require users to download special software to view videos and click through several pages of terms and conditions before gaining access. Even when that access is finally granted, you may sit for several minutes waiting for the videos to download to your screen. Since consumers want instant gratification, the established players need to learn some lessons from MySpace and YouTube. So, let’s review the genesis and appeal of these two Web sites."

But there are still the copyright infringement and digital rights management issues to deal with.

Facebook Misunderstood

Let's face it, Facebook is here to stay by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (May 7)

Banning the use of Facebook because employees spend time there or students slam their teachers is a knee-jerk reaction to something that is poorly understood.

Geist describes the history of Facebook - it started at Harvard in 2004; and its popularity in Canada - one in ten Canadian Internet users have a page.

"The attempts to block Facebook or punish users for stating their opinions fails to appreciate that social network sites are simply the Internet generation's equivalent of the town hall, the school cafeteria, or the workplace water cooler – the place where people come together to exchange both ideas and idle gossip."

Facebook in Toronto

The hazards of Facebook's social experiment, by
OMAR EL AKKAD AND KEITH MCARTHUR, Globe and Mail (May 1)

The social networking site Facebook is enormously popular in Canada and especially Toronto. 11% of Facebook users are in Canada.

"According to Facebook statistics, Toronto is the single largest geographic network on the website (Facebook allows users to join one or more networks based on geographic or personal affiliations, so Queen's University students, for example, can join the Queen's University network, while citizens of Aruba can join that country's network). With more than 500,000 members, the Toronto network easily beats New York's 200,000 and London's 360,000."

And what do they do? "Numerous groups and discussion threads are dedicated to the Toronto Raptors' playoff chances. Many members use the site to look for rooms to rent in the city, while others recommend consumer goods ranging from sushi restaurants to hairdressers. Inexplicably, a large number of Toronto network members have joined a group dedicated to tight workout pants."

Using Social Networking for Research

Adults consult social networking sites before shopping, study says By: Heather Havenstein, Computerworld via itWorldCanada (Apr 11)

"The iPropsect Social Networking User Behavior Study, which was funded by search engine marketing firm iProspect and carried out by JupiterResearch, found that one in four adult Internet users regularly visited the most popular social networking sites in the past year. The survey defined a social networking site as one that contains user-generated feedback.

In addition, the study found, the purchasing decisions of one in three adult Internet users are influenced by sites that contain user-generated content like comments, reviews, feedback and ratings. The respondents ranked Amazon.com as the most influential site for making buying decisions. "

Twitter

Twitter: More Than Messaging, It Can Generate Traffic, by Neil Patter, Searchengineland (Apr 10)

The web's atwitter about Twitter . Patter tells us that "Twitter is a community where members leave short messages (twits) on what they are currently doing." Enough said.

One in Four use Social Networking

Marketing to Social Networking Sites, Targeted , Enid Burns, Clickz (Apr 10)

25% of adult Internet users in the U.S. regularly visit social networking sites. "Consumers visiting social networking sites generally do so through direct navigation and bookmarks. Secondary is navigation through Google and Yahoo, or links in e-mail. In addition to optimizing participation on a social networking site to be visible on Google or Yahoo, marketers need to ensure "that their content is of high enough interest, quality, or value that it will serve as 'link bait' or 'bookmark bait.'""

Niche Social Networks

Social Networking Goes Niche, Catherine Holan, BusinessWeek Online (Mar 14)

"MySpace and Friendster’s runaway popularity and exposure have helped spawn an array of targeted networking sites. Advertisers are noticing."

Too much partying going on at MySpace. People are splitting away to their own niche networks.

"Williamson cites Fuzzster, a social network for pet lovers; Yub.com, a site for shopaholics; Model Mayhem, a network for models and photographers; and Mog, a network for music lovers, as just some of the networks now catering to specific interests. Other sites target demographics believed to be left out of the Friendsters of the world. Gather.com, for example, targets older users, more likely to listen to National Public Radio than hip hop. Chat rooms are focused on particular topics such as wine or politics "

Fuzzster for pet lovers? Who knew? It's adorable.

Coming Ubiquity of Social Networks

Social Networking’s Next Phase by Brad Stone, New York Times (March 3)

Cisco just entered the social networking arena by buying Tribe.net and Five Across. "But along with the recent purchase of a social network design firm, Five Across, the deal will give Cisco the technology to help large corporate clients create services resembling MySpace or YouTube to bring their customers together online. And that ambition highlights a significant shift in the way companies and entrepreneurs are thinking about social networks."

Will social networks be as ubiquitous as web sites? Marc Andresson, founder of Netscape, must think so. He has just started Ning.com. "“The existing social networks are fantastic but they put users in a straitjacket,” said Mr. Andreessen, who this week reintroduced Ning, his third start-up, after a limited introduction last year. “They are restrictive about what you can and can’t do, and they were not built to be flexible. They do not let people build and design their own worlds, which is the nature of what people want to do online.”"

Cisco does think that mainstream consumers will spend time in these networks. "After the Five Across acquisition, Mr. Scheinman [of Cisco] said in an interview that Americans were quickly changing their media consumption habits. He said his new group would let Cisco help its media customers, like TV networks and cable companies, develop their sites and move more of their content onto the Web."

One big challenge is to persuade people to deal with the registration routines in these communities. "To solve the problem, several firms are pushing a standard called OpenID, which would let users sign on and easily transfer profile information among social sites."

Enterprise Social Networking

The social enterprise - Commentary: When MySpace meets your HR department by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Feb 13)

It's really happening - some companies are turning to internal social networking. This may partly be because new young hires are tuned into Web 2.0 tools; and also because it does help employess work together and for customer-relations staff to connect with customers. There is still cultural resistance in corporations but in the long run it's a natural extension of the non-computer-mediated networking done today.

What young people will expect:

"I imagine that this college student's future corporate life will be as Web 2.0 as his consumer life is now -- an egalitarian world in which everyone contributes, opines, votes, connects, shares and collaborates instantly."

What some companies are doing:

+ "IBM Enterprise Mashups essentially helps workers collaborate by using Google maps, wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0 applications that are helping them (or their children) in their social lives."

+ "Procter & Gamble has begun to incorporate social networks to engage with customers by launching a network targeting women called Vocalpoint."

Prediction:

"But it's only a matter of time before corporate America embraces social networks and other Web 2.0 applications. And, when MySpace meets your HR department, watch out."

IBM and Enterprise 2.0

IBM unveils social networking tools for businesses By: Kathleen Lau, itWorldCanada (Jan 23)

Social networking is about to become legitimate as a business tool for collaborative work. IBM made three product announcements at Lotusphere 2007 in Orlando that pick up aspects of consumer tools for blogging, social networking, conferencing, and video.

"At least one Canadian analyst believes IBM’s announcement heralds a new phase of business-appropriate social networking – one that will spawn a new set of tools and processes."

Social Networks Reveal Personal Information

The Impact of Social Networking Tools and Guidelines to Use Them By LaJean Humphries, LLRX.com (Jan 15)

Key question -- "Why should the law librarian care about these social networking sites?" Answer -- due dilligence -- " There have been dozens of articles in recent months about employers using social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook to find personal information about job candidates including drinking habits, nudity, general sleaziness, and criminal behavior ranging from shoplifting to violent assaults. " Also -- " Litigation firm investigators are using social networking sites to find information about parties to litigation, witnesses, and even opposing counsel. "

So - all you social networking people - be careful about what you say in your "personal" space and watch what others in your "social network" say about you.

Friending

Friends, Friendsters and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites by Danah Boyd, First Monday (Dec 2006)

From the abstract: "By examining what different participants groups do on social network sites, this paper investigates what Friendship means and how Friendship affects the culture of the sites. I will argue that Friendship helps people write community into being in social network sites. Through these imagined egocentric communities, participants are able to express who they are and locate themselves culturally. In turn, this provides individuals with a contextual frame through which they can properly socialize with other participants. Friending is deeply affected by both social processes and technological affordances. I will argue that the established Friending norms evolved out of a need to resolve the social tensions that emerged due to technological limitations. At the same time, I will argue that Friending supports pre-existing social norms yet because the architecture of social network sites is fundamentally different than the architecture of unmediated social spaces, these sites introduce an environment that is quite unlike that with which we are accustomed."

Teens use Social Network Spaces

The Kids are all right by Martha Irvine, AP via Globe and Mail (Jan 8)

Kids are socializing big time through social networks - especially teenage girls.

"The Pew survey, released Sunday, found that 70 per cent of teen girls, ages 15 to 17, had profiles on social networking sites, compared with 57 per cent of boys in that age bracket."

Articles summarizes findings from the latest PEW report - Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview

Connecting social networks

Taking Charge of Content by Peggy Anne Salz, E-Content (Dec 2006)

Social networks may encourage interaction but only among members. Marc Canter of Broadband Mechanics wants to connect the networks.

"Designed from the ground up to unleash users and their content, the company aims to interconnect the world's social networks and ultimately create a meshed universe of infinite social networks. Canter envisions as many networks as there are people, to match each individual's multi-faceted personal and professional personae."

Avatars in Social Networking Space

The metaphysical economies - Commentary: Express yourself by shopping on Cyworld by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Nov 28) - there's a digital life with avatars developing in social networks - shades of Snowcrash. South Korea leads in this --

" On Cyworld, South Korea's most popular social network, 20 million members represented by their avatars are buying products. An estimated $300,000 in real money is spent each day on Cyworld, which is owned by SK Communications, a subsidiary of South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom. "

Such 3D social networks exist in the United States - Wallop, There.com and Second Life - and Cyworld has opened a U.S. site. It is targeting late teens and young female adults. This is a dressup world.

"Even though the endgame is to meet new friends and stay in touch with old ones, much like all the other social networks, on Cyworld, one is immediately faced with decisions on how to decorate their avatars and spaces. I felt as though I was dressing up a doll and a dollhouse. After perusing the vast selection of choices from aqua pageboy hairstyles to cargo pants to bullet-proof vests, minime ended up looking nothing like me at all as I dressed her up with a pink cowboy hat, straight black hair, pink avatar glasses, a white-collared blouse and blue shorts. Minime was looking rather, umm, silly."

Google Groups Beta

Google Groups Gets a New Look and Some New Features, ResearchBuzz (Oct 14)

Tara Calishain describes the changes at Google Groups that have made it look more like Yahoo Groups except that Google Groups may be easier to search.

Flickr for Librarians

Flickr is the Web Photo Tool Preferred by Superheroes and Librarians by Connie Crosby, LLRX (Oct 15)

There's more to Flickr, the online photo management service, than meets the eye. Communities have formed including a Libraries and Librarians group. Connie Crosby interviewed Michael Porter, known by his Flickr handle as 'libraryman'. He mentioned several communities --

"The Librarians' Desks Group really is a fun Flickr librarian group by the way! I’ve added a couple of shots to that group too, one of the few times I’ve ever taken a photo specifically to add to a group. There are other interesting library groups as well, like Librarians in Glasses, Modified Librarians (tattoos, piercings, etc), Librarians in Hardhats, Librarian Fit Club and several others. The nice thing about the Libraries and Librarians Group is that all of these other group photos could also go there, especially once they are accurately “tagged” with descriptive keywords."

LinkedIn adds personal service providers

LinkedIn launches useful service directory, Posted by: Rafe Needleman, CNet Reviews (Oct 16)

"Like other good social network tools, LinkedIn succeeded by finding a niche. While MySpace became the network for teens and Facebook did the same for college students, LinkedIn has become a robust networking site for businesspeople, with a special focus on helping people network to find jobs."

"LinkedIn today is rolling out its new service for personal service providers ("PSPs"), the people we hire outside of our work life. LinkedIn now allows its members to recommend and endorse people--dentists, mechanics, nannies, and so on--who are not LinkedIn members."

Social Atlas Sites

Social Atlas Sites Let You Map Your Life "New sites let you share memories, info with friends, family, or the entire internet."
Dennis O'Reilly, PCWorld (Aug 25)

If you love maps and especially marking where you have been or favourite places, one of these services might help you spend many hours. Reviews -- Flagr, 43 Places, Platial, Plazes, and Wayfaring - and recommends Platial as the first place to start.

"New online services tap that information by enabling you to share your knowledge and memories of your most beloved locales--in your hometown or on the other side of the globe--with the rest of the world."

Look for your city to see what places others have picked. This one of bikeshare hubs in Toronto could be useful to some.

Social Networks Attracting Many Web Users

Social Networks gaining on Top Portals Compete (Aug 11)

Compete , a Boston-based web-consumer-marketer online-trend analyzing company, posted a blog entry on the explosive growth in traffic to social network sites. "In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site." MySpace was far in the lead, but others (in case you're wondering what a social network site looks like) were Blogger.com, YouTube, Classmates, Facebook, Tickle, LiveJournal, Typepad, Evite, and MyYearbook.

I don't think this means that portals like Google and Yahoo will be supplanted. These network places have other purposes. Blogger, Livejournal, Typepad are blogging services. Classmates is for finding people. Tickle is an entertainment site of sorts. YouTube is for sharing videos. These are various forms of social networking.

But it does raise the question - would social networking really work for search?

Compete may be involved with social networking itself. It offers a toolbar that will advise on sites that can be trusted and will suggest sites. It does this by monitoring online activity.

"Compete’s services are based upon the online activity of more than 2 million people (and growing!) who have opted in to share information like the web pages they visit and their attitudes and preferences about products they own. We analyze this information every day to create valuable member services, like the Compete Toolbar and SnapShot, and also insightful research for marketers. Our services increase in value as more people join Compete, so we always strive to find new and interesting ways for people to participate as members."

Google and MySpace

Google picked as MySpace's search partner, Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Aug 7) - that's it - Google won the race to team up with MySpace.

Social Search Tools

Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search, Part 2 Read / Write Web (Jul 25)

"We think the ideas showcased by these new social search apps are worth embracing, to ensure the future growth of the search industry. And, as we note at the end of this post, the big search companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) think so too... "

MySpace is Growing

The MySpace Ecosystem by Steve Rosenbush, Business Week ONline (July 21) "Its user audience has tripled since News Corp. acquired the site last year. Now, new third-party partners could help it maintain the pace of growth."

MySpace.com is a raging successwith 54 million unique users in a month. They blog and message and save photos and listen to music. They are soon to get more through agreements with third-party companies -- ""Now, MySpace is beginning to create its own ecosystem of third-party companies that are developing features and applications for the giant digital community, according to a new report from analyst Richard Greenfield of Pali Research."

-- "Now the site, where people communicate via home pages laden with messages, photos, blogs, music, and more, has 54 million unique monthly users, according to researcher comScore Media Metrix."

Social Search

Web firms press visions of 'social search', by JEFFREY MCMURRAY, Globe and Mail (JUly 12)

Good distinction between search engines and social search -- "Traditional search results are largely based on objective criteria such as counting the number of links other sites have placed to a given Web page. Social search gives people subjective answers — the best sushi restaurant in Chicago or the best website for information about French impressionism — not necessarily the site visited the most."

Mentions some social search centres that are getting more attention: Prefound where users contribute lists of sites on a topic; StumbleUpon for finding popular sites; Google Co-op; Yahoo Answers.

MySpace the Biggest

MySpace Rules the Web by Enid Burns, Clickz (Jul 11)

"For the week ending July 8, MySpace had 4.46 percent market share of visits, making it the top site on the Internet. The social networking site surpassed widely-used Web-based e-mail and portal sites including Yahoo Mail (4.42 percent); Yahoo (4.25 percent); Google (3.89 percent) and MySpace's own e-mail site (2.85 percent). eBay ranks eighth on the list with 1.59 percent market share."

Other social networking sites are listed in this article.

Netscape Goes Social Media

AOL Tries to Revive Netscape.com with Digg-Like Content By Pamela Parker, Clickz (June 15, 2006 )

"In a bid to win more audience to bolster its new advertising-focused strategy, AOL is re-launching Netscape.com as a collaborative news site, much like the popular Digg.com. The beta site launched late last night in advance of a July 1 official debut."

News stories and videos will be submitted by users but there will be an editorial staff. Users will vote and network with others (one presumes). The aim is to attract a more mainstream audience of users rather than tech-centric and early adopter. Hmm- is the mainstream audience ready for this?

Yahoo Answers On A Roll

Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers! by Danny Sulllivan, SearchDay (June 8)

Yahoo Answers has 10 million answers! Danny Sullivan has other figures that show that Yahoo Answers has experienced stunning growth in the last four months, so much so that it ranks as third in the Hitwise category for Education / Reference after Wikipedia and Dictionary.com and ahead of the excellent Answers.com. Sullivan thinks that being in the game is part of the attraction in answering questions at Yahoo i- it's a competition. It is also and most notably a place for discussion.

Sullivan expects that the answer sites will get new energy - "Aside from hearing more about Yahoo Answers, expect you'll likely see a revitalization of answer search in general. MSN's already got one in beta. Answerbag just popped up on my radar and will have new features later this month." My sense from reviewing several such as Wondir, and seeing the decline of Allexperts.com, was that these were waning or becoming more irrelevant. But I guess Yahoo Answers has a new energy. I still think this is a playground, not a place for serious research (unless it is of the sociological kind).

Eurekster and Swickis

Letting the community guide your search [Video] "Eurekster founder and CEO Steven Marder tells Bambi Francisco how community-based search engines differ from general search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com." Marketwatch (June 7)

Example is drawn for Popular Science's use of Eurekster community search. Search results do differ according to where you search. For example, if you are searching Popular Science you'll get an article not a web site. The community "collaborates passively" finding other content and recommending through use.

Publishers (including blog publishers) can put swickis on their site. There are over 10,000 swickis today in over 13 countries.

Social Search in China at Baidu

The Baidu way to search -- Commentary: Learning to surf the Web from China , by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (June 1)

"Baidu has its main search engine with a clean interface, but it also has Baidu Knows and Baidu Postbar, and a newly-formed Baidu-pedia (a Wikipedia in Chinese).

These three services -- accessed via tabs on the Baidu search home page -- are community-oriented. They serve to keep Chinese Internet users drawn to other people using Baidu, according to Li, who recently sat down with me at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. In many ways, Baidu is perceived as a community or social network, not just a search engine. "

Where's the Cash in Social Networking

Social networks are hot, but where's all the cash? by Matthew Ingram, Globe and Mail (May 25)

Good question. Ingram points to the collapse of earlier social network projects such as GeoCities, Tripod, Homestead - where are they now? MySpace.com may have 70 million users but they are mostly teens who will be fickle in their tastes - and don't have deep pockets. Friendster used to have 20 million users and is now a thin shadow of itself, didn't make money and users moved on.

As for the current hot property, MySpace.com -- "Even in terms of revenue, MySpace is well behind other sites that are about the same size. Its page-view number was just a shade less than Yahoo's 32 billion (for March), and yet the site's estimated revenue of $200-million for this year pales in comparison with Yahoo's almost $6-billion."

Yahoo Social Search

Yahoo embraces man over machine - Commentary: But can that approach dominate in Silicon Valley? by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 18)

Yahoo and social search was the message of Yahoo's analyst day.

"Weiner [Yahoo head of search, Jeff Weiner] -- whose presentation focused entirely on social search -- said that searches at Yahoo's social properties account for 30% of incremental queries. This means that for 100 searches done on Yahoo, an additional 30 come from Yahoo's social services, like Answers, del.icio.us, Flickr, MyWeb. What this reveals is that people are finding answers within communities."

Article looks at Yahoo Answers , saying that it is "a fun service". Yes - but is it at all useful? Francisco likened it to Google Notebook and Co-op - why not to Google Answers?

" Google just introduced Co-op and Notebook, which relies on users to offer up their knowledge to help Google's search results. Weiner said that Yahoo has the first-mover advantage and it's building critical mass fast. Yahoo Answers was launched in December 2005. I asked Weiner whether being first to market was enough advantage to drive usage of Answers since Google and soon Microsoft's MSN will be tapping into user knowledge.

Weiner just said that the way Yahoo is going to maintain its lead is to have enabling technologies, incentives and critical mass. I guess he means a network effect that just builds. "

Social Search Possibilities

MySpace-engine -- Commentary: Can Google, Yahoo, and MSN keep search dollars to themselves?, by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 9)

Should MySpace, the youth online community centre and leading social networking site, set up its own search engine and keep the ad dollars? Should Yahoo and Google be worried?

Of interest:

+ MySpace has 70 million members
+ "In March, MySpace recorded 19.4 billion page views vs. 13.7 billion at Google, according to Nielsen/NetRatings"
+ 8.2 % of searches at Google came through MySpace

+ Yahoo is changing its ad program - "Essentially, the new platform will allow advertisements to be ranked based on how relevant or popular they are (how often they're clicked) as well as how much marketers pay to be ranked. Advertisers can also get geo-targeting. Ranking based on relevance and geo-targeting are two criteria already offered by Google."
+ MSN will be adding the use of demographic data to its AdCenter. "Essentially, advertisers can buy a particular demographic clicking onto a keyword."

Put this all in a pot, and social search might be the result. Francisco asks, "What if you layered the social network of MySpace's 70 million-strong members over search results to get even more relevant results?"

Article mentions prefound and some other social community / search services.

Prefound has as its tag line, "never search alone". Prefound taps into research or compilations that other people have done.

From the About page: "PreFound.com allows human users to (a) see what other humans have gathered by-hand from all places on the web, and have shared with the PreFound.com community and (b) gives these human users a technology which allows them to easily and efficiently gather and tag this information, then share it with the PreFound.com community if desired."

MSN Social Search

Microsoft Gets Social -- "Redmond has big plans for tools and partnerships that will let users consult a circle of friends when conducting Web searches", Olga Kharif, Business Week (April 19)

"Microsoft (MSFT) plans to unveil a question-and-answer social-search tool in the coming months, says Justin Osmer, senior product manager for MSN. The feature will let users direct questions to a specific universe, such as a group of friends, rather than to get automated lists of results from a generic search engine."

Teens and Social Networking

Social Networking: A New Tech Tool and a New Security Concern for Teens and Schools , Joanne Bartlett, Multimedia and Internet Schools (May 1)

"Social networking sites are having a huge impact on schools because of the ways in which some of our students have been using them."

Yahoo and Social Search

Social search getting hot at Yahoo -- MarketWatch (Apr 25) [Video] "Yahoo's efforts to build out social search is gaining "critical mass," says Product Strategy VP Bradley Horowitz. He talks with Bambi Francisco about monetizing these efforts and how the company is well-positioned to get into the video-uploading service game."

More Social Networking

Social Networking's Gold Rush -- "The movement continues to defy doubters and draw big investments. The latest includes $25 million for a piece of Facebook" -- By Steve Rosenbush and Timothy J. Mullaney, Business Week Online (Apr 19)

Is social networking hype or a real change in how Internet users will behave online? The money seems to be betting on new social-networking sites. Take SimplyHired.com as an example - a vertical search with forums and blogs and networks.

"SimplyHired searches the Internet for job listings at every place from competing job boards like Monster to the help-wanted section of hiring firms' own Web sites and aggregates them on its site. It gets its revenue from selling paid-search ads, both through Google and other ad networks and through its own sales force. Plus, SimplyHired gets referral fees for finding qualified candidates, including payments from larger job boards that need to deliver value to employers who pay them directly."

MSN Plans Social Search

Microsoft Gets Social - "Redmond has big plans for tools and partnerships that will let users consult a circle of friends when conducting Web searches", Olga Kharif, BusinessWeek Online (April 14)

Microsoft has concluded that it has to get on the social-search bandwagon to compete with Yahoo and Google. It intends to release a new search tool that will have people asking their friends and other networks. Seems that "generic search engines can't answer 50% of queries" and all these companies thing social search will fill the gap.

Personal-Social-Vertical Search

Socially Searching For The Watercooler by David Berkowitz, Media Post (Apr 11) Will personalized search (you set your interests), social search (your searches and bookmarks are part of a larger community of contacts) and vertical search (subject or interest specific) meld together? Author mentions several tools for personal search and social search. He thinks there is a cultural shift to the "watercooler" in Web use and search.

Newsweek Covers Social Places

The New Wisdom of the Web by Steven Levy and Brad Stone, Newsweek ( Apr 3) - about tagging and social bookmarking and social places online especially MyPlace.com. It's all very Web2.0ish. Gary Price had many comments about the Newsweek article in his posting in ResourceShelf (March 26)

Plum: a Web and Desktop Mashup

Making my media portals -- Commentary: To collect, espouse, share ... to 'Plum' , by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Mar 21)

"In stealth mode for now, San Francisco-based Plum is essentially an easy-to-use service that lets you mash up -- to use the au courant term -- what's on your desktop and what's on the Web, putting all of it on one Web page that's not only for your own use but for the perusal of family members, friends and acquaintances, and other potentially interested parties. That is to say: the entire world."

Social Networks for Sports Fans

Nike, Google Kick Off Social-Networking Site -- "The sporting goods giant and the Internet search king have teamed up to create Joga.com and connect soccer fans around the world" -- Business Week Online (Mar 21)

Joga.com is being styled after the popular MySpace.com where young people congregate online, except Joga.com will be for soccer fans. Membership will be by invitation, the same format that Google used for Orkut. Nike will control the content. If this works, Nike and Google will go on to other sports.

Yahoo Canada 360 Degrees

Yahoo unveils Canada 360. Globe and Mail (Mar 13)

Yahoo Canada has opened Canada 360 degrees, a place where people can congregate to publish and share.

"Canada 360 degrees brings together communications, content and community services such as Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Canada Photos, LaunchCcast radio and Yahoo Canada Groups with new services like web logs."

Social Software

Web Tools Employ The Human Factor -- "Start-Ups Offer New Ways to Collect and Share Data", by Leslie Walker, Washington Post (Mar 9) -- O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference was about developments in Web software to become more 'social'.

"... the unofficial theme was social computing; more specifically, how another wave of start-ups is allowing people to mix and match data from different Web sites and forge new social connections online."

Memeorandum, Netvibes and Digg were three mentioned as Web sites that helped in filtering information and doing group editing.

Article describes at length the Root Markets. This "lets you grab your personal Web history from a variety of sites, including Amazon (your entire purchasing history), Google and Yahoo (your search history,) and Del.icio.us (any bookmarks you save there)."

Mechanical Turk software developed by Amazon to help in creating worker networks to do categorization for Amazon.

Social Search

Beyond single searches -- Commentary: Seeking and sharing answers, Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (Feb 28)

Poses two big questions that relate to the future of search and the role of social groups - "How does Google, or any other search engine, make results more relevant by allowing people to share them? And, can Google Page Creator -- which was just launched -- or startups, like Jeteye or Plum.com, replace email correspondence by fusing search and email functions in a one-step fashion?"

Francisco is quite convinced that a social or sharing component to search will lead to better information gathering. Her example is research she did for a trip to Maui. She compared the effort and back and forth of email exchanges with friends to the use of a JetEye Pack, essentially a web page that others can view more easily and can be updated from anywhere. The argument is good. Unfortunately the JetEye Pack she gave as an example doesn't have the promised images.

Other tools mentioned include Yahoo IM for sharing searches (though not saving them), Plum.com (similar to Jeteye), and Pandora (popular music), MeeVee (TV in the US) and Glam (as in glamour and shopping).

However, there are many instances where group searching may not apply. Librarians deal with a huge range of requests where there might not even be a subject specialty. Individuals have a wide range of interests and needs and can't be glomming onto a group for every question.

Special Report on Social Networks

Big Brother Is Reading Your Blog, by Olga Kharif, Business Week Online (Feb 28)

"These days, social networkers are concerned about protecting their privacy, not only from predators and scam artists, but from nosy employers and campus authorities."

Niche Networking by the Numbers -- "Cyberspace is full of community sites to help you plan a trip, get a job, or make a friend. Here's a rundown", By Alex Halperin

Social Networks: More Bubble Than Profit? -- "Sites like MySpace and Tagged generate millions of visits by users, some fanatical. But that does not a business model make".

Social Search

Yahoo's Social Circle "In a bid to challenge search giant Google, the Web's most-used portal is betting on the wisdom of crowds", by Ben Elgin, BusinessWeek (Jan 23)

Will search move from ranking algorithms to social networks?

"It could represent a monumental shift in search technology. All major engines analyze the link structure of the Web as a key ingredient in determining what pages are most relevant -- a breakthrough that Google championed when it launched in 1998. A Web page that has a lot of other sites linking to it will rank higher, figuring more prominently in a given search, than one with only a few incoming links. Social search aims to shift power from Web publishers, who create these links, to everyday Internet users by examining their bookmarks or giving them tools to express their opinions. "

Does Yahoo Have Answers?

Yahoo! launches answer service, Pandia (Dec 8) -- Yahoo announced that, “Yahoo! Answers is a place where people ask each other questions on any topic, and get answers by sharing facts, opinions, and personal experiences.”

Part 1: The Birth of Yahoo Answers, Gary Price, SEW Blog. He's calling Yahoo Answers a "new social networking/online community/search/question answering service ". Gary has written a long article. In the end, what's going to protect Yahoo Answers from spam and scam?

Part 2: Other Q&A Services, Most Available For Free! (Dec 7) - notes other Q&A services including Wondir.com, virtual reference at libraries, and Google Answers.

Jetpaks and community

Start-Up Unveils Searchable, Wiki-Ready, Do-It-Yourself Web Kits by Gavin O'Malley, Online Media (Aug 23)

"FUSING TWO WEB TRENDS, SEARCH personalization and consumer-generated content, a fresh Internet entrant named Jeteye Inc. will announce the beta launch of its shared search platform. The company, started by Internet pioneer David Hayden, is based on wiki-ready Web kits dubbed "Jetpaks." "

Take the tour at www.jeteye.com -- "Jetpaks are digital packages of collected links, comments and images that are searchable and sharable."

Yahoo MyWeb2.0

Yahoo introduces social search by Bambi Francisco, MarketWatch (Jun 29)

Goes some way to explain social search and Yahoo's new play in that field with MyWeb 2.0. Mainly it's tapping into social networks to get recommendations.

"For example, if someone is looking for a new computer, or plasma TV, or sporting gear, they'd typically ask a friend for a recommendation. But by aggregating those recommendations into a database, a person could search for recommendations without even speaking to a friend."

Others include Friendster (which coincidentally uses the Yahoo Search), Insider Pages (yellow pages written by friends).

Quotes David Ku, a scientist at Yahoo's search unit, as blogging, "Over time, we envision communities using My Web to build their own search engines to capture and make accessible the knowledge of their community - search engines populated with the collective experience of a group of medical researchers, a community of PHP experts, a bird watching club, or members of a structural engineering consulting firm."

For full blog entry see Search, with a little help from your friends Yahoo Search Blog (Jun 28)

I'm not so sure. Friendster didn't take off, why should Yahoo? People belong to many social networks for different purposes and interests. How are these reconciled? And what to do when you don't want your search results influenced by others?

Social Networking on Decline

Five reasons social networking doesn't work by Molly Wood, CNet (JUne 2) - Seems social networking is in trouble - Friendster, as an example, is losing users. The problem might be the difficulty in raising the money, but it might also be user boredom. Molly Wood lists five problems with social networking.

Odds and Ends

RSS, Social Bookmarks And Free Foto Search: The Sunday Sharewood Picnic - Robin Good (May 22) - page of discoveries related to using RSS; social bookmarking with an article and new services; and yotophoto for finding free photos.

Especially recommends 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking from Educause (May 2005)

Google does text messaging

Google Acquires Mobile Social-Networking Company Dodgeball.com - in InternetWeek.com (May 12) - "Google Inc. has bought Dodgeball.com , a social-networking startup that helps people find and talk to each other through mobile text messaging."

"Allen Weiner, analyst for market researcher Gartner Inc., said the acquisition reflects the trend among all the major Internet portals, Google, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and America Online Inc., toward technology platforms that may one day integrate several forms of communication, including instant messaging, e-mail and Internet telephony."

Also Google Buys Into Ad-Supported Mobile Networking in ClickZ News (May 12) - of course, it's to deliver more advertising - "Google has acquired mobile social networking firm dodgeball.com in a move that could help the search player deliver location-based advertising on cell phones. "

Friends and Networks

Are Socialites Still Networking? by Joanna Glasner, Wired (March 2005)

"More than a year after "social networking" became the leading buzzword in internet startup circles, companies in the sector haven't gained the traction early enthusiasts predicted. Still, many of the bigger networking services say the number of users is growing steadily, and if they're not profitable already, they soon will be."

Hype has died down. But this article found activity at social networks aimed at consumers and at professionals.

Yahoo bought Flickr

Yahoo buys photo-sharing site Flickr By Jim Hu, CNET News.com (Mar 20) -- Yahoo bought Flickr, the digital photo centre based in Vancouver BC. Yahoo is assembling quite the suite of products for blogging, photos, community.

"Earlier this week, Yahoo announced Yahoo 360. The service combines a new blogging tool, along with several longtime Yahoo products, including instant messaging, photo storage and sharing, and Internet radio. It also offers tools for sharing recommendations about places to eat, favorite movies, music and so on."

Amazon into 43 Things

Amazon invests in blogging site by Alorie Gilbert, CNet (Feb 9) Must be something in the water - all the search engines want into the blogging action.

"Amazon is dipping its toe in the Web log phenomenon with an investment in 43 Things, a new Web site where people write about their goals and accomplishments and are linked to others with similar interests."

Social Networking Search

Friendster, Eurekster Team Up for Personalized Search by Chris Sherman, SearchEngineWatch (Dec 9) Friendster, the social networking site for connecting with friends, is using Eurekster, the social networking search engine. "The new service takes advantages of the preferences and interests of Friendster members and their friends to filter search results to more closely match personal interests than general web search engines. "

Keypoint >> "One problem is that unless you take the time to build up a personal network, you're not likely to see much benefit from this type of personalized search. With small networks of two or three people, it's also fairly easy to guess who searched for what, which raises another potential privacy concern."