With MySpace and Yahoo now essentially outsourcing their social networking service, Facebook is in a position that neither MySpace nor Yahoo were in when they bore the ring of power. 

The difference is that not only is Facebook close to being the most popular destination on the Internet (it currently sits at #2 according to Alexa), but it has bored its way deeply (Orc-like?) into the communications and content sharing activities on several other of the largest destinations as well, along of course with many others.

Will Google Friend Connect make a last stand?

(this post originally appeared on Technorati)

Several years ago, Yahoo looked poised to take the social media world on (Teddy Roosevelt-like?), what with purchases of red hot web 2.0 start-ups such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and MyBlogLog. But now…

Confused? Let our bloggy friends explain:

* BoomTown: A few weeks ago, several sources at Yahoo begin telling BoomTown about a mysterious “Project Rushmore,” which was described as a massive integration of major social networking sites across the giant Internet portal.

Now, the first unveiling of Project Rushmore comes with this morning’s announcement that Yahoo (YHOO) will be integrating Facebook Connect with its many properties–from its powerful media sites to its Flickr photo service to its email.

* paidContent: Yahoo says it will begin to roll out Facebook Connect across all of its properties in the first half of the year—and says that will “create a loop that drives visitors back to Yahoo” when users share Yahoo content on the social network. The deal comes as Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has talked about making her company’s properties more “social."

* Search Engine Land: Facebook will be integrated on properties including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo Sports and others. In addition, you will be able to see your Facebook friends’ activities on Yahoo and share Yahoo content – ratings, photos, article comments, and more – directly on your Facebook stream.

* GigaOM: If more and more sites use Facebook Connect, that is use Facebook ID, the closer company gets to becoming the ultimate identity broker of the web, which in terms helps them achieve their ultimate goal — organize world’s relationships. In comparison, Google which wants to organize world’s information.

* Marketing Pilgrim: OK, so you can’t blame Yahoo for making this move. After all, social networking is Facebook’s strength, and not Yahoo’s. But, I’m starting to worry what Yahoo has left to call it’s “strength.”

(this post originally appeared on Technorati)

Well, it would seem that 11 days in that this is a big deal already.

Says CNET:

Microsoft on Monday said that millions of Xbox Live members have used the new social-media features that the company pushed live a week ago.

In June, Microsoft announced it would begin offering Xbox Live users access to Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm. And while the manifestation of each of those services is scaled down on Xbox Live, the rollout has been one of the company's big pushes this fall for its hugely popular online system.

And of course it’s causing the bloggers to get their blog on:

• Kotaku: Earlier this month, Facebook went live on Xbox LIVE. Loads of people have logged onto Facebook via LIVE. "Loads" is not very descriptive. "Two million" is.

• Destructoid: [David] Dennis didn’t have numbers for the amount of people who got bored with both apps and went to play Modern Warfare 2. He also didn't have a number for the amount of people using the Twitter app, but we’re guessing a lot of people signed into that as well. Not many can resist sending that, "Hey, I'm doing this over LIVE" tweet. Not many at all.

• CrunchGear: In related “social” news, Microsoft says that around half a million Last.fm account were created with the launch of Xbox Live-Last.fm compatibility.

• TechSpot: Meanwhile, the Zune marketplace — formerly called Xbox Live marketplace — served videos to 1.7 million users in the first week available. No figures for Twitter's usage were offered, but Dennis did say that there have been "tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live."

• Edge Online: With around ten per cent of Xbox Live’s 20 million user base accessing Facebook, the service may be the most heavily adopted of the new features introduced with the most recent Xbox 360 system update.

On a personal note, I have yet to play with the Xbox’s new social features as I’m suffering through a bout of the dreaded Red Ring of Death. If the stars align brightly and correct-like I will receive my receive my repaired and newly undead Xbox this very night, a Thanksgiving Miracle if there ever was one I’d say. Well, in geeky terms, anyway.

(this post originally appeared on Technorati)

Now, here comes the dilemma: you already have your hands on your Xbox controller, so it’s a huge inconvenience to move over to your laptop, Blackberry, or iPhone so that you can tweet and Facebook Connect and social network at the same time, right?

Well, now you’re all set! Marc Whitten, Xbox Live’s General Manager, has announced that Xbox Live will support Twitter and Facebook beginning on Tuesday.

In all seriousness, this is a significant development that further brings the big time gaming, broadcast media, and social media worlds together… and you don’t even need to leave your couch to absorb its impact.

And here’s what the bloggers have to say:

* Mashable: According to Major Nelson, the new Dashboard Update will be going live to everyone next Tuesday, November 17. The update also includes a new Zune video area that picks up where the Xbox Video Marketplace left off, adding the ability to stream a number of purchases instantly instead of having to wait for them to download.

* NewTeeVee: But the key will be the ability to share Facebook photos through the television, Whitten said. Facebook integration will enable users to easily flip through those pictures, without having to worry about how to connect their PCs to their TVs.

* CrunchGear: The idea, I guess, is that you’ll be able let your friends know just how much fun you’re having while playing the latest game, or streaming the latest Netflix release, without having to go through the trouble of whipping out your phone or walking over to your computer. I see it as a convenience and nothing more. It may also mean that there’s nothing you can to do stop Twitter’s worldwide dominance.

* VG247: The date is pretty fitting since it’s a MASSIVE day in game releases: Assassin’s Creed II, Left 4 Dead 2, God War War Collection, AssCreed DS & PSP Bundle, LBP PSP, The Sims 3 expansion World Adventures, RE: Darkside Chronicles, Toy Hawk: RIDE, Lego Indy 2, etc.

* Destructoid: As you’ve seen in our video preview of the update (or yourself if you’re one of the lucky ones in the beta) the update doesn’t allow Tweets or FB messages on the fly; rather, users have to jump into an application which makes this the second most pointless thing ever. The first most pointless thing, by the way, is my autographed portrait of Dennis Rodman.

(this piece originally appeared on Technorati)

We recently covered status update services Ping.fm and HelloTxt, competitors in the growing market for tools and services that help social media fans and online marketers manage communication using multiple social media profiles. Now Facebook has made Facebook Pages, the publicly available profiles for businesses, accessible for updating via both Ping.fm and HelloTxt.

HelloTxt, for example, allows you to post text messages, images and videos directly to Facebook Page walls. And while both Ping.fm and HelloTxt support the common hashtag (#) convention used on many microblogging and social media sites these days, HelloTxt has gone further in allowing hashtags to be used as a way to quickly and easily manage outbound status updates. By using the Settings page, HelloTxt members can set hashtags to apply to individual or groups of social media sites, so that when a hashtag is invoked (such as “#dealoftheday,” for example) only those profiles tied to that hashtag will receive the status update. As ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez points out, this should appeal to online marketers and social media workers who are managing multiple Facebook Pages at once.

(read the rest of this piece at Web Worker Daily) ]]> http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/05/08/facebook-pages-now-supported-by-status-update-services-pingfm-hellotxt/feed/ 0 http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/04/08/social-networks-for-2009-that-web-workers-need-to-pay-attention-to/ http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/04/08/social-networks-for-2009-that-web-workers-need-to-pay-attention-to/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:12:13 +0000 Eric Berlin http://onlinemediacultist.com/?p=570

For web workers, some social networks matter more than others. What I mean by that is while MySpace is still one of the most popular web sites on the planet (Alexa has it ranked No. 9 currently), it’s simply not that important — in relative terms — for connecting with colleagues, potential customers and contacts; obtaining breaking news, links and social media chatter; or getting a sense of what’s happening in social media circles in real time.

As 2009 is shaping up, the most popular and relevant social networks and social media platforms for web workers are Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and LinkedIn. Granted, there’s a vast galaxy of other valuable and interesting social web sites to select from, but it’s important to get a sense of how to get the most out of this particular foursome.

Twitter
Twitter was a phenomenon in 2007, a rising social media star in 2008, and has largely attained mainstream status in 2009 (cable news stations are falling all over themselves these days in attempt to send you to their Twitter profile, for example). It’s simply one of the most important places to be online. It’s also an amazingly simple and flexible product, which befuddles some and delights many.

(read the rest of this piece at Web Worker Daily) ]]> http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/04/08/social-networks-for-2009-that-web-workers-need-to-pay-attention-to/feed/ 0 http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/02/24/why-i-still-prefer-twitter-and-friendfeed-to-facebook/ http://onlinemediacultist.com/2009/02/24/why-i-still-prefer-twitter-and-friendfeed-to-facebook/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:29:29 +0000 Eric Berlin http://onlinemediacultist.com/?p=538 I spent the last three years managing the production of a number of social networking websites. During 2006-2007, I produced ZonaZoom, an ambitious (and now defunct) attempt to grab market share of social networking Latino teens in the United States. And I spent a grueling, rewarding year producing quarterlife.com in 2007 and early 2008, the home of short-lived NBC show quarterlife (I’m not including the direct link as the site looks far different now than the version I helped to bring to life.)

So that’s all to say that I dwelled in social networking land quite a bit over the last few years. But in my personal time I’ve never really been much of what might be called a “traditional” social networking person; I’m more of a microblogging/social media/information junkie kind of person, which has led to Twitter and FriendFeed and Google Reader becoming the hubs of my online media (so-called?) “social life.” So when I think about how I like to use the web, I’ve long thought of myself as more of a Twitter/FriendFeed/RSS person, and less of a MySpace/Facebook person.

This made all the sense in the world to me until recently… when methodically, relentlessly every single person that I know, have known, or knew in some former life friend-requested me on Facebook. I exaggerate of course, but it seemed like everyone from the dude I hung out with at woodworking class during a Boy Scout retreat in 1985 to my mother’s co-workers added me at some point recently.

(read the rest of this piece at louisgray.com)

Weird news item #2: Fox News SVP claims Facebook is bigger than MySpace
It’s one thing to branch out to a social network that might be more geared to your demographic. Joel Cheatwood, senior vice president for development at Fox News, rightly points out that Facebook’s audience tends to be “a little older and a little more sophisticated” as compared to MySpace.

And it’s another for the “real reason” to potentially be MySpace’s deal with MSNBC. But why would Cheatwood go on to say that “Facebook is ‘currently the leading social network’ worldwide”?

Even if it were true, wouldn’t that be the kind of claim that you wouldn’t want to make about a major competitor to one of News Corp’s highest profile properties?

As always, take it with barrels of salt, but Alexa pegs Facebook as the #5 ranked website on the Internet, with MySpace trailing at #7.