Online Personals Watch

MySpace Age Checks May Become State Law

AP -- Mar 7 -- Connecticut officials unveiled legislation Wednesday that would require MySpace.com and other social networking sites to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent before minors can post profiles. 10 to 20 other states are considering similar legislation. The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable. Sites that fail to verify ages and obtain parental permission from parents of users under 18 would face fines up to $5,000 per violation. Sites would have to check information about parents to make sure it is legitimate. The bill is scheduled for an informational hearing Thursday and would apply to any organized online networking organization, including chat rooms. FULL ARTICLE @ WPXI

Andreessen Gets into Social Networking - Ning.com

AP -- Feb 28 -- The Netscape Communications co-founder is trying to help Web surfers build online communities outside the walls of social networking leaders MySpace.com and Facebook.com. Ning.com is finally ready to make its big push with a free toolkit designed to make it easy to launch a social network with videos, photos, music, forums, personal profiles and blogs. Andreessen is convinced people dislike the big social networks' one-size-fits-all approach. "This is the next logical step (for social networks)," said Andreessen, 35, who is Ning's CTO and primary financier. Ning hopes to make money through advertising and fees for premium services. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: Joe Suh's MyChurch.org helps churches set up their own social networks and Clarence Wootton's Collectivex.com also allows people to set up their own social networks for free or a small fee. The growth of social networks was fueled by 'connectors' with their extensive networks of friends. Some of those connectors will be growing a little bored with MySpace by now. It's last years night club. They want their own nightclub. So, Ning.com, MyChurch.org and CollectiveX should have a healthy future. They won't put MySpace out of business, however.

Online Personals Aussie Rankings

OPW -- Feb 27 -- Meir from Date.com had asked me about SNS rankings worldwide so here they are...  Here's the Alexa online personals rankings for Australia extracted from the Australian top 100. - Mark Brooks

Australian Alexa Rankings for Online Dating and Social Networking as at 2/26/07.

1. MySpace (5)
2. YouTube (7)
3. Bebo (17)
4. Flickr (22)
5. LiveJournal (41)
6. Friendster (44)
7. Photobucket (47)
8. Orkut (59)
9. Xanga (73)
10. Hi5 (88)

1. RSVP (34)
2. AdultFriendFinder (66)
3. AdultMatchMaker (69)
4. Red Hot Pie (94) 

Community Next Notes

OPW -- Feb 21 --  On Saturday 10th February I attended Community Next in Silicon Valley, CA. Here are a few keypoints I picked up from the day of speakers which included the founders of Dogster, Hi5, Mychurch, PlentyofFish, HotorNot, and Userplane. - Mark Brooks

People will gather online around 'social objects' i.e. pictures (Flickr), bookmarks (Delicious), friends (Friendster).

Loopt offers location based services on phones. Mark suggested that the mobile platform is more appealing than the PC because it's 'Always Available.'

Threadless makes $15 million a year from community designed tshirt sales. One of the secrets of their success is they listen to members and make changes quickly. Side projects include ExtraTasty, NakedandAngry and IParkLikeAnIdiot. Start your site with minimal rules and then add rules to the community later on. Be evolutionary. Make frequent small incremental changes. 

The Dogster Founders recommended choosing appropriate advertisers and building campaigns around them that truly engage users. Don't be deceptive, ever! Write your advertisers copy. Offer something special to users. 

Currently MyChurch has 2700 church groups signed up. There are more churches than schools in the U.S.A. (300k) and Americans donate $88 billion a year in tithings. There are 88k Christian groups on Y! groups, and 82k on MySpace. 

Danah Boyd was not a speaker but was quoted as follows... "Community is a garden, tend it well."

From the final panel:
The Suicide Girls name was inspired by a book written by the author of Fight Club. Presently, their fastest growing revenue generator is from merchandising. 

PlentyofFish contrasted executive opinion on the final panel on two points.  Markus believes that advertising is actually very important in building an online community.  Other speakers (HororNot, Fark, Hi5, Slide, Suicide Girls) did not.  Markus stated that 'passion' is not as important as 'cold hard analytics skills.' Other speakers believed that passion for the site was their primary success factor.

James Hong of HotorNot suggested that being an entrepreneur was like volunteering to be bipolar. 

Fark was started when Drew Curtis put up a photo for 18 months of a squirrel with big nuts. Fark nearly ended up as a curry recipe site, but Drew decided to focus it on to focus on listing 'things you're ashamed you laughed at.' He's still the sole employee and maxim sells advertising for the site now. 

Slide has 50 employees and is not profitable yet. It's founded by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin.

Digital Matchmakers Get Down to Business

MIAMI HERALD -- Jan 16 -- The online dating industry needs to start stealing tricks from younger and nimbler websites. That seemed to be the message floating through the hallways at iDate, the annual conference of the Internet dating industry. 350 participants were at the iDate (and Social Networking Conference). Dating sites (think Yahoo Personals and Match.com) are seeing users poached by social networking sites. While those sites are not specifically designed to find a date, that is how they are being used, said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane. ''Traditional online dating sites are feeling the pinch,'' he said. Of the Top 10 dating sites in the United States, seven saw a declining number of unique visitors throughout 2006, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. At the same time MySpace overtook Yahoo as the world's busiest website. But the poison is the antidote, said Jones. By stealing pickup lines from social networking competitors -- such as allowing users to link to their MySpace profile or upload slide-shows from sites such as Flicker and Rockyou -- the industry can woo back admirers. Just a few years ago, anyone with a server, a black book and the verve could launch an online dating site, said Mark Brooks, the publisher of Online Personals Watch. Now the market is crowded and competitive, and the only hope for newcomers is to generate heaps of buzz and tap unexplored niches. Or, as Brooks sums it up: "Word of mouth marketing and differentiate -- or die.'' Date.com CEO Meir Strahlberg said he didn't see any need for a radical reinvention to keep up with the MySpaces of the world. FULL ARTICLE @ MIAMI HERALD

Mark Brooks: iDate2007 was hands down the best internet dating conference yet. I felt there was more energy at this conference than last year. The halls were full of top level business schmoozing. The Royal Palm Hotel was more expensive but far more comfortable than last year. Worth the extra, and the location was perfect. It was walking distance to the convention center, and right on the beach. The convention center was a higher standard venue in many ways but we need to change the room orientation next year. Wide rooms work better than long rooms. The keynote presentations were packed out and the multi track system worked well. However, next year it would be great to have a distinct social networking track and a distinct internet dating track. That would encourage greater SNS participation and 500+ attendees. I think 75% of the attendees were dating focused this year. We'll see more social networking interest at the July conference in California. Your comments please...

MySpace Launches French Site

REUTERS -- Jan 10 -- MySpace launches its French site this week as part of it's move into Europe. A beta site has been running in France for several months and officially goes live on Thursday. MySpace competes against Skyblog -- part of a larger company called Orbus. Skyblog grew out of a French rap radio station and has been working on English, Spanish and German blogging services. According to latest data from comScore Media Metrix, Skyblog had 7 million uniques in France in November, compared with 1.3 million for MySpace. MySpace UK had 6.9 million uniques.  In Germany, MySpace's beta site has more than 2.4 million monthly uniques and is expected to launch in a few weeks. An Italian site should be live within a couple of months. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch.

MySpace.com The Biggest?

SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL -- Dec 13 -- Several sources are reporting (this is the TechCrunch post) that MySpace has become "the biggest site on the Internet" in terms of total page views (vs reach). FULL ARTICLE @ SEJ

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch

SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL -- Dec 13 -- Several sources are reporting (this is the TechCrunch post) that MySpace has become "the biggest site on the Internet" in terms of total page views (vs reach). FULL ARTICLE @ SEJ

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch

MySpace to Offer Technology to Block Sex Offenders

REUTERS -- Dec 5 -- News Corp.'s MySpace said on Tuesday it will offer in the next 30 days a technology to identify and block convicted sex offenders from the popular online social network. MySpace struck a deal with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., an expert in background verification, to build the new feature.  'Sentinel Safe,' will let MySpace search state and federal databases to seek out and delete MySpace profiles of registered sex offenders and will be available within 30 days. According to MySpace, there are 550,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., and the new service will be the first national database that brings together about 46 state sex offender registers. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch

A MySpace For Grown-ups

CNN MONEY -- Dec 1 -- Reid Hoffman's MySpace-for-grown-ups is at a tipping point. These days you're either LinkedIn or left out. LinkedIn (8 million members) is all about business: recruiting, sales, investment. After a slow start, the service has nearly doubled its membership during the past year. Seeded with Hoffman's own high-powered network, LinkedIn has raced past its rivals. Sequoia Capital and Greylock pumped ~$15 million into LinkedIn. The private company says it's profitable and on track to hit $100 million in revenue by 2008. LinkedIn makes money from advertising, and services. People - mainly the site's 60,000 recruiters - pay an average of $3,600 a year for premium features. Corporate members pony up six-figure fees for access to the network. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

Mark Brooks: fyi, Reid Hoffman also invested in Friendster early on. LinkedIn is a 'high integrity' network. By that I mean, the associations that people make on the site are likely to be real associations. High integrity networks take a little longer to build. LinkedIn will eventually be worth as much, and more, than the likes of Facebook. Facebook recently expanded it's focus by opening up to the whole world. It's no longer a school Facebook. It;s no longer special or exclusive. It will grow in the short term but lose it's core market (students) in the long term to more focused competitors. WAYN.com also took a while to build but is growing very fast now. OurStory.com will take a long time to build but will do very well also.   

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch

Universal Music Sues MySpace

MEDIA POST -- Nov 20 -- Continuing its aggressive campaign to remove unlicensed clips from video-sharing sites, Universal Music Group Friday sued social networking site MySpace for copyright infringement. The suit charges that MySpace doesn't adequately police users from posting Universal-owned clips. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

MySpace Worth $6 Billion

PAID CONTENT -- Nov 14 -- MySpace (130 million users, growing 8 million users per month) would likely sell for $6 billion now, News Corp's Rupert Murdoch told Australian investors today. FULL ARTICLE @ PAID CONTENT

MySpace Thinking of Opening APIs

CNET NEWS -- Nov 8 -- MySpace is considering letting its millions of members transport their profile data to other sites or social networks by introducing APIs. Such a move would come on the heels of Facebook opening a developers' site so that people could transport Facebook data or build new applications around profiles, photos or events. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

MySpace Founder Sues Over Censorship

MASHABLE BLOG -- Nov 2 -- Brad Greenspan, the guy who started the company that created MySpace before it was sold to News Corp in July 2005 is suing News Corp over alleged censorship and launched CensorSpace, a blog that aims to shed light on MySpace's tendency to block certain services. Brad is opposed to MySpace blocking certain widgets. In the past they've blocked (and later reinstated) players from YouTube and Revver. Now they've blocked players from Brad's video-sharing site, Vidilife. He's also standing up for Photobucket, Imageshack, and Slide.com, all of which he thinks could be at risk of being blocked in future. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE BLOG

Mark Brooks: Can you imagine the board room wrangling? Should MySpace block competitive services, or not?  Your comments please... 

MySpace to Launch in Japan with Softbank

REUTERS -- Nov 5 -- MySpace.com online service will be launched in Japan in a joint venture with Japanese Internet and telecoms group Softbank Corp. The 50-50 venture will be called MySpace Japan. Shares of Mixi Inc., Japan's most popular online social network site, tumbled 10%. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: The Asian internet dating convention in May of 2007 will either be in Shanghai or Tokyo. 

Bye Bye MySpace

WSJ -- Oct 27 -- After 20 year old Jenny Thompson amassed 4,000 "friends," mostly being strangers, on MySpace, she posted a farewell ode before deleting her page. There's a fringe of users now renouncing MySpace and other social networking sites, not despite their popularity, but because of it.  Juit Nagy, CP at Fox Interactive (MySpace), acknowledges  that MySpace is moving into a phase of maturity.  FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ

Mark Brooks: The honeymoon is over. Users will become more sophisticated and will seek higher integrity social networking sites that help them organize their networks of friends in a more meaningful manner, for more meaningful relationships. They'll still stay on MySpace, but will use 2nd and 3rd social networking sites in tandem. 

Teen Using MySpace to Lure Bands to L.A.

BBSPOT -- Oct 18 -- A thirteen-year-old girl posing as a record executive on MySpace has lured several bands to Los Angeles with promises of a record contract.  One record executive said, "I'm not surprised. Most of these bands are as dumb as dirt." FULL ARTICLE @ BBSPOT

The Future of Social Networks - Communication

GIGA OM BLOG -- Oct 10 -- One of MySpace's greatest innovations was something ridiculously simple… the "wall": the messaging area of a user's profile page, where any "friend" of the user can post comments. It is the wall that keeps members coming back over and over again, often several times a day (to check for new messages). It's the most extensible component of MySpace. When dealing with an online community, that one lasting activity is almost always communications. But  it is equally important to realize that communications in and of itself does not necessarily act as the primary draw for new users. MySpace should offer its members the ability to communicate on the wall via video. FULL ARTICLE @ GIGA OM BLOG

Mark Brooks: Hardware will converge into single mobile palmtop, iPod, GPS, cell phone devices. Social networks need to converge with email, videomail, plaxo and PIM's. I've not seen a single social network elude to this convergence as yet, but I'm convinced it's the future. LinkedIn is probably the best aligned at this stage, functionally. Plaxo would be an important component. Gmail would make the perfect email partner. I doubt these companies will actually align, but you get my drift. A new company will emerge that will bring the pieces of the puzzle together. Over the next five years we'll see a convergence of devices and communications services that will completely change the way we communicate and stay in contact with each other. Online personals services will be core to the paradigm shift. The market for internet dating services (introductions) will grow as a consequence.

50% of MySpace Users are Over 35

SEW BLOG -- Oct 6 -- comScore reported and MySpace apparently confirmed that the average age of its users is going up. More than 50% of its users in August were over 35. FULL ARTICLE @ SEARCH ENGINE WATCH BLOG

Mark Brooks: Teens and Twenty-somethings are on MySpace en masse. But, this TV eluding generation will search out new (niche and emerging) social networking 'hang-outs' that fit their needs better, as their needs become more specific and sophisticated

Myspace Acquisition Defrauded Shareholders of $20 Billion

THE BLOGGING TIMES -- Oct 5 – Brad Greenspan, founder of Myspace.com, today issued an online report at Freemyspace.com that details how Intermix Media's sale of Myspace intentionally defrauded shareholders. Saying it is “one of the largest M & A scandals in U.S. history,” “Deliberate steps were taken to withhold and manipulate information; money was improperly gained and laws were broken.”  The report shows Intermix CEO Richard Rosenblatt knew Myspace was well on its way to becoming worth $20 billion.  “The CFO Lisa Terrill and COO Sherm Atkinson, have come forward indicating significant breaches of fiduciary duty as part of the News Corp. transaction,” continued Greenspan. Shareholders were not aware that Myspace's revenue was growing at a 1200% annualized rate and increasing.  Shareholder's were forced to trust the recommendation of Intermix's Board and were under the impression Myspace was unable to turn its massive traffic into revenues. FULL ARTICLE @ BLOGGING TMES

Mark Brooks: Back up a second. For one "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The $580 million wasn't that shabby a valuation at the time, and News Corp is a great partner for MySpace. Secondly, "experience is the toughest teacher, it gives you the test first, and the lesson afterwards." Who knew YouTube and Facebook would be bartering for (bubble 2.0) $1 billion sellout deals. Should Brad stop "crying over spilled milk." Something tells me he didn't get his share of milk. Your comments please.

What Parents Need to Know About MySpace

US NEWS - Sep 18 - COVER STORY -- MySpace seems like Lake Wobegon gone horribly wrong: a place where all the women are fast, the men are hard-drinking, and the children take an above-average interest in imitating them. In August MySpace accounted for 81% of visitors to leading social-networking sites (Hitwise).  Facebook came in second with 7%. Parents should ask to see their kids profiles and make sure photos aren't overtly suggestive. Text should not signal that your child is emotionally vulnerable; i.e. "I'm feeling lonely." Purdue University found that a third of employers screen job candidates on search engines, while 11% look at social networking sites. MySpace Unraveled is a new book on safety.  BlogSafety - forums.  GetNetWise.org - snooping software. NetSmartz.org - safety videos. WiredSafety.org - advice.

Mark Brooks: MySpace allows users to keep their profiles private these days. However, photos of your 19 year old partying a little too hard could still make their way permanently onto the web to embarrass them later in life with a potential employer.

MySpace Worth $15 Billion?

CNN MONEY -- Sep 28 -- A Wall Street analyst assesses MySpace could be worth $15 billion in the next three years. MySpace video ads currently run $35 CPM, which would bring in plenty if the vast majority of MySpace pages viewed had video ads and not 50c CPM "swat the mosquito" banner ads. FULL ARTICLE @ VALLEYWAG

Mark Brooks: YouTube and FaceBook are looking at $1 billion+ valuations right now so it's not too hard to extrapolate MySpace valuation out a few years at the $10 billion+ range assuming consistent growth rates. Crazy days. No wonder everyone and their uncle are starting social networks. (btw, flash based, next generation social network Mooble is for sale for a song. Email me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com if interested).

Safety Education: MySpace Teams with Seventeen Magazine

THE BLOGGING TIMES -- Sep 25 -- MySpace will unveil a campaign to educate parents, schools and teenagers about Internet safety. The campaign is being undertaken with Seventeen magazine, the National School Board Association and the National Association of Independent Schools to offer parents tips on how to protect minors online. "While technology plays a critical role in tackling the challenges of Internet safety, any measures must be part of a comprehensive solution and education is an essential component," Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer of MySpace, said. FULL ARTICLE @ TBT

Mark Brooks: A tad late, but, smart move. MySpace has more than 100 million registrants now. 

MySpace Headed To China?

BIZ REPORT -- Sep 22 -- NewsCorp Chief Rupert Murdoch has sent his wife, Wendy Deng, to China to facilitate opening the Chinese version of the social networking megasite MySpace.com. Internet groups Google and Yahoo have tried to enter the Chinese market, but met up with political obstacles. If MySpace is cleared to open in China there will be local partners. The local influence would ensure the content from the social sites was appropriate for Chinese users and deal with any complaints about the
sites.  FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ REPORT

MySpace Online Morgue

OPW -- Sep 19 -- MyDeathSpace  makes you feel lucky to be alive. The site reveals the profiles of MySpace users who have been mentioned in the press as recently deceased.  - Mark Brooks 

The Story Behind MySpace

NY TIMES -- Sep 15 -- Lapinski, a 20-year-old blogger and journalism student, has been investigating MySpace since July 2005. He said MySpace's initial popularity came not from word-of-mouth, as is often assumed, but from an intense e-mail campaign. He describes the current MySpace as more of a marketing tool than a social-networking site. FULL ARTICLE @  NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Bebo is the U.K.'s top social network and was similarly seeded from the Founder's prior company BirthdayAlarm.com. Friendster was grown from the Founders golden database of Bay Area contacts who were initially given exclusive entry to the site to help Jonathan build and refine the site. 

MySpace to Sell Music and Challenge iTunes

MARKETING VOX -- Sep 5 -- MySpace will be selling music starting this fall, allowing bands and labels, no matter their size, to sell songs online at whatever price they wish. MySpace is partnering with Snocap, a tech firm founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Mark Brooks: This will add fuel to the fire for MySpace's ferocious growth rates. MySpace is massively successful because they hit the 'connectors' (see Tipping Point) at their point of most passion, their love for music.

Social Networks vs. Dating Sites

MARKET WATCH -- Aug 31 -- The popularity of free social networks, with MySpace having some 103 million members, does make you wonder why online dating sites are still charging. Back in 2000 a mere quarter of a million people logged on to dating site Match.com from home. Today, there are 3.2 million visiting Match from home each month, and 4.9 million, if you include those checking out their prospects at work.  Match generated $248 million last year and the run-rate is $312 million for this year. David Siminoff says Spark Networks will do ~$70 million in sales and estimates eHarmony generates $165 million and Yahoo Personals, $100 million. Just adding the big four makes $600 million. Chump change compared to the roughly $12 billion in advertising online. Love is in the niches. That's the view of Siminoff, who's restructured the operations at Spark Networks. Watch interview with David Siminoff.  Spark Networks has 26 different verticals.  Siminoff says the median time a marriage lasts is 6 years. "Liquidity in relationships has gone up a lot."  Maybe social networks draw from online dating sites, but in the end, the entire market of people dating has just gone up. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETWATCH

Why News Corp Bought MySpace

ALWAYS ON -- Aug 28 -- Fox Interactive president Ross Levinsohn: Back in January of '05, Murdoch felt that media consumption was changing—especially among the under-30 set. Two opportunities were not being seized upon by the established players: broadband and video. Video content is poised to play an increasingly important role in the web experience. We also knew that consumers—especially younger ones—wanted to be part of the experience rather than just passive viewers. We wanted to move in a way that was unique and would complement our existing assets—and we also wanted to make a statement to get us into the market.  With people reading more content over the Internet than they did 10 years ago, that must mean that other forms of content are falling off their radar screens.  FULL ARTICLE @ ALWAYS ON

Mark Brooks: Englands LoopyLove was bought by Associated Newspapers (Daily Mail) in May.  The UK's biggest commercial TV network ITV bought Friends Reunited back in December. Murdoch bought MySpace. Brits and Aussies. How about a USA media baron showing some love? Calling all media barons. The time is nigh. My top 'sleeping beauty' picks for acquisition targets are...

1. Cupid.com; for their unique radio affiliate marketing channel, top level domain and nicely differentiated service offering of speed-dating events network
2. OurStory.com; it's still early days for this lovable social network, but next year this one is going to be a winner
3. Date.com; Meir has done a great job of building a profitable dating site, and recently acquired Matchmaker.com
4. Mooble.com; this social network needs a focus and a makeover but is currently available and is going for a song
5. World Dating Partners; take note of this new, UK based fast growing niche dating network
6. WAYN; a great acquisition for a travel publication

Interested?  Call me at 212-444-1636 for more insight and introductions.

MySpace Founder Invests in China

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER -- Aug 24 -- Brad Greenspan founded eUniverse in 1999, which housed dozens of Internet sites including MySpace. He objected to the $580 million sale of MySpace to News Corp. (revenue was skyrocketing, the price tag was too low) and has now trained his sights on China.  He's founded BroadWebAsia, which has in turn taken stakes in 20 Chinese Internet companies that focus on entertainment and -- like MySpace -- social networking. Brad credits the promotional power of the eUniverse sites, in particular its dating sites, for allowing MySpace to overrun Friendster. His China investments so far have ranged from $200,000-$3 million and all have been financed through BroadWebAsia, which employs 15 people in offices in L.A. and Shanghai. He intends to raise $50 million through private equity or the public markets in the U.K. or China and invest in Asian companies outside of China. About 120 million people in China have Internet access, ~10% of the population, so the growth potential is phenomenal. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

A Wallop of a Deal

EAST BAY BUSINESS TIME -- Aug 18 -- Microsoft spinoff Wallop Technologies has taken 8,300 square feet in San Francisco, which will give the social networking startup room to grow once the top-secret site is launched. Wallop is developing a Web site to compete with MySpace. Wallop is using technology developed at Microsoft's research laboratory in Redmond, Wash. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS TIME

Mark Brooks: It was very wise to spin Wallop off from Microsoft. Wallop still has a chance to be a small, secretive, cool, home-spun new social network...which is critical for the seeding stage of growth. A social network started by Microsoft would be too big to be cool. Too loud in the media to be worthy of talking about. Wallop will get a nice balance of plentiful media attention but will still be able to be hip and cool and renegade enough for people to want to talk about it.

Level 3 to Provide Video Hosting for MySpace

USA TODAY -- Aug 20 -- Fiber network operator Level 3 will transmit Internet content, including video to MySpace. "We selected Level 3 because of the proven performance of its network and ability to support increasing high bandwidth demand," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace.  MySpace's video site had 20 million visitors last month, trailing Yahoo's site, which had 21 million (comScore). FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Google To Pay $900M To Provide Search For MySpace.com

TECH WEB -- Aug 7 -- Google will be the exclusive provider of text-based advertising and keyword-targeted ads on the Fox Interactive Media network, including MySpace. In return, Google will make guaranteed minimum revenue share payments to News Corp. of $900 million through Q2 2010, based on Fox achieving traffic targets. The deal was expected to be the first of many between the two companies. Last December Google agreed to pay $1 billion for a stake in AOL and form an ad partnership. FULL ARTICLE @ INFORMATION WEEK

Mark Brooks: Google is focusing on it's future. Advertising. One day it will turn a sliver of it's considerable brain power and attention towards online dating, perhaps. What will Google Dating look like? I'd expect it to be a far cry from traditional dating sites. The more we keep ahead of the game, and innovate, the less likely Google will enter the online dating fray, in earnest. Margins are slim these days, so that will also keep Google's attention away. The online dating industry is still a relatively baby sized industry at ~$600 million a year.

Social Networking Gone Bad

DARK READING -- Aug 2 -- MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Friendster, are susceptible to SQL injection attacks. SQL injection-type attacks can do a lot more damage than a worm or adware: They could provide an attacker with access to a social networking site's entire database, for instance, says David Aitel, CTO of Immunity. "Every site is based on PHP in the front and MySQL in the back," he says. "As you sign up and fill in a form or login, if the site isn't doing the proper check of characters, an attacker could insert a SQL command and get access to all usernames" or other data about MySpace, he says. Social networking sites don't collect the type of personal data big-time hackers crave -- social security numbers, credit-card numbers, and bank account data. But they could be used to stage an attack on that data. "MySpace could be used to get a dropper Trojan on a machine and set up a stakeout post," Cole says. "When the user goes to his or her corporate site, it would go ahead and steal his login credentials."  Or if a user gets infected on LinkedIn, for example, his banking information could be stolen when he does online banking.  FULL ARTICLE @ DARK READING

Mark Brooks: Really? Your comments please.

Boomer's Social Web Site Comes With Death Alerts

REUTERS -- July 31 -- A social networking Web site for Americans aged 50-plus went live on Monday complete with an online obituary database that sends out alerts when someone you may know dies. The founder of Internet job site Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, launched Eons.com, a similar site to the popular online teen hang-outs MySpace or Facebook for the 50-plus crowd complete with interactive games to build brain strength, news on entertainment and hobbies for older people, a personalized longevity calculator and tips to live longer. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

Mark Brooks: Social networking is splintering into a myriad of niche sites. The big sites will continue to control 95% of the market, but in just the same way singles join 2 or 3 dating sites, social networking users will also join 2 or 3 social networks.

Social Network Sites Face US Ban

BBC NEWS -- July 31 -- Many schools have already banned social network sites. The Deleting Online Predators Act tries to limit the access paedophiles have to social networking sites primarily at schools and libraries. The act has already been approved by a large majority in the House of Representatives on 26 July. Critics say the act is too broad and could mean a huge number of websites are cut off from users.  MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster and many others count large numbers of children among their users. The DOPA Act leaves the final definition of what counts as a social networking site to the FCC.  Some MySpace users have created an online 'Save your Space' petition and aims to gather more than one million signatures in a month. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

Mark Brooks: Too little, too late. MySpace has been laying low on this subject. Looks like the 'head in the sand' approach didn't work. Constant press attention has morphed into political attention and now into legislation that looks like it will pass. I was surprised the new MySpace Chief Safety Officer didn't show up at the recent San Francisco Internet Dating Convention that was focused on background checks and safety. This bill is getting ramrodded through to the Senate and is a political hot potato.  Child safety...who's going to vote against that? What repercussions will the rest of the online personals industry need to deal with in the coming years? Online personals safety is now front forward and on the minds of a lot of politicians. I can see this political attention manifesting. The State Attorney Generals will be on the prowl next. DOPA will be useful only in the short term (3-5 years). Kids use cell phones. Cell phones have internet access. Will cell phones be blocked next? Hey, check out helio.com for MySpace enabled sexy cell phones. MySpace has already circumnavigated school and library computers. FULL TEXT OF BILL

'Phishers' find MySpace an Easy Scam Target

WASHINGTON POST -- July 31 -- The combination of young users and a culture that encourages sharing personal details presents opportunities for increasingly sophisticated methods to lure information.  Last month, the FBI warned MySpace users of a phony bulletin post urging people to click on a link to "check out old school pictures." A virus seeking financial information recently invaded Orkut. A dozen sites that spoof the MySpace log-in page have been discovered. Scammers can look at profiles and better hone their attack. FULL ARTICLE @ CHRON.COM

Mark Brooks: It's best not to enter personally identifying information on any personals sites.  No address, telephone numbers, license plate numbers...  Social networks are designed not to be anonymous, so first names are ok. I recommend not entering your last name and age. 

MySpace Captures 17% Of June Ads

MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS -- July 18 -- MySpace last month garnered 17% of online display impressions--up more than two points from May's 14.6%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance. Yahoo Mail drew 35.7%, MSN Hotmail 7.2%. Financial services companies accounted for 24%, telecoms and web media 18%. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS

Phish-Hooked on Social Sites

WASHINGTON POST -- July 16 -- The combination of young users and a culture that encourages sharing personal details presents opportunities for increasingly sophisticated methods to lure information. The FBI last month warned MySpace users of a phony bulletin post urging people to click on a link to "check out old school pictures." A virus seeking financial information recently invaded Orkut, Google's social networking site. Sites spoof the MySpace log-in page. Scammers can look at profiles and use information to better hone their attack, then craft phony messages that appear to come from friends to trick people into revealing credit card or cellphone numbers. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

MySpace - a Friendly Space for Advertisers

SUN SENTINEL -- July 18 -- MySpace has a marketing deal with the Improv chain of comedy clubs to bring performances, behind-the-scenes footage and other content to the new humor section of MySpace. Other MySpace sections include music and movies. The sports and games sections will be revamped. Pepsi-Cola's Sierra Mist beverage is the main sponsor of MySpace Comedy and it's Aquafina bottled water brand sponsored the Filmmakers section.  FULL ARTICLE @ SUN SENTINEL

Mark Brooks: By and large, you don't see much advertising on dating sites. The ROI on time for the amount of money to be earned hasn't be there. Click thru rates are relatively low. But, the targeting capability is A1. MySpace is doing a great job of warming up advertisers for dating sites.

Investors Flock to MySpace Clones

LA TIMES -- July 16 -- Money is pouring into businesses preening to become the next MySpace. Facebook has raised $38.2 million. Affinity Engines is helping about 50 colleges create their own Facebook clones.  Bebo ($15 million), Doppelganger ($11 million), Gaia Interactive ($8.9 million), TagWorld ($7.5 million) and Tagged.com ($7 million).  FULL ARTICLE @ THE OLYMPIAN
 
 

Online Social Networks Changing Behavior

NEWS RECORD -- July 16 -- MySpace is the fifth most popular site in the world. Online social networks often ask users to categorize their romantic status via a drop-down menu. In addition to standards such as "single" or "in a relationship," Facebook added an "it's complicated" option a few months ago, and MySpace users can choose "swinger."  Think you're in a committed relationship? Check Facebook to be sure. Changing your status from "single" to "in a relationship" is such a big deal that the process has spawned its own term — Facebook Official.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS RECORD

Parents Learn Basics of MySpace

NEWS 14 CAROLINA -- July 13 -- Parents are advised to let their children use MySpace, but to keep an eye on what they are doing. Matt Gullett, a MySpace instructor, says the class teaches parents the dos and don'ts of dealing with their teenagers and MySpace. "'We're going to go into how a MySpace account is actually set up, and then some of the clues as to as a parent what you should be looking for," he said. It's recommended that teens keep detailed information private, use an alias, avoid online flirting and to trust their gut feelings. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS 14

Mark Brooks: Teens are not going to use an alias. The whole point of social networking is that it's not anonymous, and gives visibility into the networks of friends, and friends of friends. Anonymity anon.

The MySpace Bubble

BURLINGAME -- July 14 -- Click here to see how MySpace stacks up to other social networking sites. In order to make their community sites pay off big, a balance needs to be struck between subscriptions and advertising. FULL ARTICLE @ FORBES

Mark Brooks: WAYN.com is doing well with it's membership based social network. Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams had originally intended to charge a $9.95 a month membership for allowing users to be able to communicate with other users who were more than one degree of separation away from them.  He'd intended to go live with the membership for the end of 2003, but was dissuaded.

Irish Firm Cleans up Social Networking

SILICON REPUBLIC -- July 12 -- Profileapproval, a company developed by the owners of dating site AnotherFriend.com, has come up with a technology called Profile Approval to keep inappropriate material from appearing on websites such as Bebo and MySpace. The service will help to eradicate inappropriate or misleading photographs or profiles. The service is capable of processing 1,500 photographs an hour. FULL ARTICLE @ SILICON REPUBLIC

Mark Brooks: I've asked Barry or Kevin to add a comment to explain a little more about the service and leave contact info.

ISP Blocks Myspace and Personals Sites

OPW -- June 26 -- A Best Western in Utah was reported as using a wireless ISP that blocks Myspace. InfoWest explains on their blog and site that they are blocking Myspace because it is a context for dating and personal ads.

Mark Brooks - I hope this trend stops here. Your comments please.

New MySpace Rules

COURIER TIMES -- June 22 -- MySpace users age 18 or over can no longer request to be on a 14-or 15-year-old's list of friends unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. MySpace already bars children 13 and under from creating accounts and only displays partial profiles of users' 14- or 15 years old, but the Web site has no way of confirming a user's true age. FULL ARTILE @ PHILLY BURBS

MySpace Halts Tracking Sites

PC WORLD -- June 21 -- SingleStat.us was active for only 10 days before a cease-and-desist letter from MySpace caused its creator to shut down the site. SingleStat charged a small fee to be notified by email when the status of a MySpace user changed, from "in a relationship" to "single." On Tuesday, DatingAnyone.com, a Web site with similar functions was also shuttered after a warning from MySpace. MySpace bared its teeth citing California laws against hacking and federal trademark laws. Stalkerati enables searches at Friendster, Facebook, Technorati. MySpace appears to have added a script to prevent searches. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD

Mark Brooks: Myspace needs to be seen to be very aggressively going after sites that may undermine their user privacy. (What user privacy).

Teen, Mom Sue MySpace for $30 million

STATESMAN -- June 20 -- A 14-year-old who said she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on MySpace sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators. FULL ARTICLE @ STATESMAN

MySpace.com Surpasses 50 Million U.S. Visitors in May

PR NEWSWIRE -- June 15 -- The social networking phenomenon continued its stratospheric ascent.  MySpace.com reached 50 million visitors in May and YouTube.com nearly doubled its traffic from April, reaching 12.6 million visitors. "The popularity of social networking is not expected to wane in the near future," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is a phenomenon we're seeing not only in the U.S., but also around the world. The challenge for social networking sites will now be monetization and how advertisers will respond to the global marketing potential of these sites." FULL ARTICLE @ SYS-CON

MySpace Exploration is Marketer's Dream

YAHOO NEWS -- June 8 -- 85 million users and counting -- Myspace grew 14% in April, 1 million new users every four days. Fox was among the first studios to take full advantage of what MySpace could do. Now many studios and indie distributors are exploiting the site's extraordinary reach, especially for teens. From simply setting up your own MySpace page, to Fox Searchlight's one-day ad buy on every single MySpace page for its March horror remake "The Hills Have Eyes," which cost about $500,000. According to Paramount Pictures SVP interactive marketing Amy Powell, MySpace helped the opening of "Failure to Launch" by "getting people engaged in the themes of the film." The MySpace profile offered a contest that would reward the winner with $6,000 to leave their parents and move into their own place.  "I believe the future of interactive marketing is integrated content."  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: Seems Myspace is spawning a new marketing paradigm. Integrated content.

Social Networking Websites Target NZ Teens in Turf Battle

STUFF -- June 4 -- Bebo.com is beating MySpace hands-down in New Zealand and giving it a run for its money in Britain. Other popular teen sites include WeeWorld.com, Friendster.com, Tagged.com, Xanga.com and Orkut.com. Oldfriends.co.nz ranked at 8th position. Benchmark Capital just put $US15 million ($NZ24 million) into Bebo. Product placements on social networking sites which was too brash or uncool could risk destroying a community. The problem of getting younger teenagers to pay for online content – where they did not have access to parents' credit cards – can be solved by rolling out pre-paid credit cards. FULL ARTICLE @ STUFF

MySpace Future Integration into Newspapers

MARKETING VOX -- May 26 -- News Corp. is expected to integrate MySpace with its newspaper properties. Murdoch, who was initially skeptical of the internet, now thinks online media operations are fundamental to the survival of publishing. News International publishes The Times, Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World. FULL ARTICLE @MARKETING VOX

Mark Brooks: OLD WAY: Pick up the newspaper in the morning. NEW (MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY) WAY: Check Yahoo/Google News, NY Times and CNET news and keyword based news alerts. Get daily news via email from favorite industry specific news services/blogs (e.g. OnlinePersonalsWatch.com). CONSEQUENCES: Newspapers acquire online media to quickly learn and retool for the new news way.

MySpace, Bebo Battle it Out

NETMIPERATIVE -- May 26 -- According to Nielsen//NetRatings, MySpace and Bebo, are the fifth- and sixth-biggest brands online in terms of total web page views for April. 33% of Bebo users visit MySpace. 25% of MySpace users visit Bebo. 69% of MySpace's audience is 18+ while the majority of Bebo users, 54%, are under 18. Both Bebo and MySpace have more than 1.2 million female users, but Bebo's smaller size means a greater percentage of its users are women. Bebo reports the higher number of page views and amount of time spent online, 1 hr 52 mins, per user each month. FULL ARTICLE @ NI

AOL, Start-ups Emerge to Challenge MySpace

USA TODAY -- May 22 -- MySpace's user base quadrupled to nearly 80 million over the past year, with as many as 270,000 joining every day. CollectiveX launched this month as a network for professionals and other pre-organized groups. Famoodle started in April as a MySpace for families. Tagged and Varsity World are billing themselves as safe havens for teens. AOL's AIM Pages is building upon its IM user-base of 49 million. A Microsoft spinoff company plans to launch Wallop later this year. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: The social networking snowball keeps on rolling. 

MySpace Will Sell Videos

Myspace will start selling episodes of its Fox TV series 24 on MySpace.com starting next week for $1.99 per download. The online video market is expected to reach $1.7 billion in revenue by 2010, according to research firm IDC. FULL ARTICLE @ RED HERRING

Mark Brooks: Youtube is stealing some of Myspace's thunder. Nice move Myspace. 24 is a GREAT show btw! I always watch it on DVD to avoid the pesky ads every 5 mins at the end of each episode.

MySpace's Meteoric Growth Might be its Own Undoing

STAR TELEGRAM -- May 14 -- "It got too fake," 18 year old Summer Stoker said. "You have all these people saying they want to be your friend. It's just a waste of time." MySpace is the third most-visited Web site in the country after Yahoo and Google, according to Alexa. Some say MySpace's fast growth is destroying the site's sense of community, and a host of competitors hope to take advantage of the possible fallout. Why did Friendster fizzle? Friendster was slow to respond to what users wanted, such as the ability to incorporate media into their profile. Friendzy.com was an all-purpose social-networking site that attracted more than 50,000 members in six months. "We poured $600,000 into Friendzy without having a completed business plan," Chang said. "I was a little naive." Of the many networks still striving for a future, three appear to have arisen as potentially sustainable businesses. MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. FULL ARTICLE @ STAR TELEGRAM

Mark Brooks: ...and Bebo, and hi5, and Piczo.  Ryze is doing ok.

Myspace Enters Public IM Fray

IM PLANET.COM -- May 11 -- Myspace announced it's MyspaceIM for Myspace members. The network is closed to users on other public IM networks. FULL ARTICLE @ IMP.COM

MySpace.com is Just so Last Year

WICHITA EAGLE -- May 11 -- FriendsOrEnemies is for pop-punk music lovers. FoE focuses on content generated by a few VIP members who keep journals on the site and has ~40,000 users. TagWorld gives users one gigabyte of storage and allows user-generated tags. A one-stop shop for all the online services people use; blogs, photos, video hosting...nearly 1.5 million users.  Buzznet has ~200,000 users. FULL ARTICLE @ WICHITA EAGLE

Mark Brooks: Social networks are sticky by design, but social networking users are fickle like nightclub revellers.

Social Networking Growth

PR NEWSWIRE -- May 11 -- Nielsen//NetRatings, announced that April's top 10 social networking sites collectively grew 47% year over year, increasing to 68.8 million uniques in April 2006, reaching 45% of active Web users. MySpace had 38.4 million uniques and 367% growth. Blogger, #2, had 18.5 million uniques, growing 80%, followed by Classmates with 12.9 million and 10% growth. Newcomer YouTube and the more established MSN Groups rounded out the top five, with 12.5 million and 10.6 million uniques. Top 10 advertisersfor April 2006 were; Vonage, GUS, United Online, Netflix, LowerMyBills, Verizon, Apollo Group, NexTag, E*Trade and Scottrade. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Congress Targets Social Network Sites

NEWS.COM -- May 11 -- A proposed federal law (Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA) would effectively require most schools and libraries to render Myspace and Facebook inaccessible to minors. "When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Reublican. Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is co-sponsoring the measure. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS.COM

Mark Brooks: The mind will always drift to what is most interesting. Kids minds will always drift to Myspace/Facebook. However, this is meddlesome legislation...isn't it? Your comments please...

Ultimate List of Dating Industry Jobs

May 4 -- I'm rolling the list of internet dating, social networking and business networking industry jobs links into a handy little list.  Please let me know if you have any new links for the list by emailing me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.  Thanks.  - Mark

CommunityConnect
Cupid
Facebook
Friendfinder
Friendster
Hi5
Lavalife
Match
Mate1
Meetup
MySpace
PerfectMatch
PlanetOut/Gay
Shaadi
Spark Networks
Webdate
Yahoo Personals

Helio Launches New Cell Service

MEDIA POST -- May 3 -- Helio, a joint venture of EarthLink and South Korean carrier SK Telecom, launched a new cell phone service.  It runs on rented space on the Sprint Nextel network and offers a mobile version of MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: Two phones are offered, Hero and Kickflip with photo blogging linked to Myspace.  Very cool.  The Myspace audience will eat this up. 

Committing MySpacecide

WIRED NEWS -- Apr 25 -- I heard about someone who'd committed "Friendstercide." He'd killed his Friendster page, announcing that from then on he'd only be contactable by phone and e-mail. So you'd call what I did last November (killing my profile) "committing MySpacecide."  FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED

For MySpace, Making Friends Was Easy. Big Profit Is Tougher.

NY TIMES -- Apr 23 -- Chris DeWolfe bought the MySpace.com address in 2002 and first used the site to sell E-scooters.  He became a master of aggressive forms of online marketing; e-mail, pop-ups. eUniverse/Intermix backed him with Myspace which tapped into three passions of young people: expressing themselves, interacting with friends and consuming popular culture.  Fox Interactive Media (News Corp.) is stitching together several Web properties into a big Internet company focused on youth. MySpace may rival eBay and Craigslist as a place where nearly anything is bought and sold.  On advertising...the best way to get, say, a television show in front of the MySpace audience is to win the hearts, one by one, of thousands of members who will display the show to all of their friends.  Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers created a profile for the animated square hamburger character from its television campaign and ~100,000 people signed up to be "friends" with the square. DeWolfe is opening an office in London to coordinate MySpace's expansion in Europe and cutting deals to let members connect to MySpace over cellphones. MySpace has spent $20 million, in part to nearly double its staff of 250 (1/3 customer service). FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Myspace was a internet design company in 1996, sold virtual hard drive space in 2000, scooters in 2002 and kicked off as a socail network in 2003.  I remember calling them to see if they wanted to sell the company in 2003, while they were still smaller than Friendster.  The underground site went mainstream. They've done a great job being big AND 'underground.' However, there are still opportunities for other flavors of social network.  Enter Bebo and Tagworld.

Myspace Online Scene

LA TIMES CALENDAR LIVE -- Apr 9 -- It's become a thriving meat market, just without the jello shots and beer-soaked floors.  "Everyone's hooking up with each other [on MySpace] and they really don't know each other," says Mark Brooks, online dating industry analyst and editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Brooks cautions newbie daters to be on guard for fakers and to never give out too much personal information online.  FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES CALENDAR LIVE

Matchguam.com Launched

GUAM PACIFIC DAILY NEWS -- Apr 21 -- Matchguam.com is live. Guamanians are already using Web sites like peoplefromguam.com and Myspace.com.  FULL ARTICLE @ GUAM PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Will Cyworld Stop MySpace Juggernaut?

GIGA OM -- Apr 16 -- Korean social-network juggernaut Cyworld (division of mobile wireless provider SK Communications) has opened an office in San Francisco. The service has reached saturation among young South Koreans. Cyworld's look and feel is very attractive, whereas MySpace pages are often eye-numbingly awful. Cyworld reportedly earning $12 million on revenue of $110 million. Users are given a 'room' which they can then decorate with grahics of furniture, art, music and other personal touches, bought in in virtual shekels (purchased via debit, credit, a users mobile account or prepaid gift
cards.  FULL ARTICLE @ GIGA OM

MySpace Aims To Extend Into TV

MEDIA POST -- Apr 18 -- Myspace.com is looking to place its user-generated content into TV shows. It will extend the life of a TV sponsorship for a marketer integrating social networking into the TV show and their traditional TV buy expanding the life of a TV deal from "30 seconds to 3 months," he added. MySpace has 77 million mostly younger users.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: This is a great vision that will help pave the way for the success of more social networks.  Bebo is doing very nicely in UK.  Hey, Friendster still has a ton of traffic.  It's just been morphed by it's (young) big brother, Myspace.

MySpace Sponsors 'Secret' Franz Ferdinand Show

MEDIA POST -- Apr 14 -- MySpace this year quietly began hosting live music concerts, the latest of which features Franz Ferdinand playing the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City today. News Corp's MySpace has relied solely on word-of-mouth to promote the live concert initiative, dubbed "secret shows." To receive tickets and notifications of upcoming secret concerts, MySpace.com users must add the profile "SecretShow" to their list of friends, and place the profile "SecretShow" in a "top 8" -- a coveted position that appears on the front page of each MySpace profile, and then print out a page, bringing it to an announced location. The idea is that if everyone knows about it, there's no reason to tell anybody about it-- It's only appealing if only a few people know about it.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: Myspace know w-o-m.  The internet dating industry can learn a lot from these Myspace antics. 

MySpace Hires Head Security Officer

NEWS CORP.'S INTERNET COMMUNITY SITE --  Apr 13 -- MySpace hired Hemanshu Nigam who was previously the director of consumer security outreach and child-safe computing at Microsoft.  Myspace is consolidating a number of duties; outreach to law enforcement, overseeing site security and user safety.  Myspace is deleting profiles that include "questionable material" (200,000 profiles), and is reviewing 2 million images a day.  It has also launched a series of online public service announcements on its own site as well as other News Corp. properties, warning users about online sexual predators. "1 in 5 kids online is sexually solicited. Online predators know what they're doing. Do you?" FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: Smart move.  LA Times called into me last week to enquire about them and ask for user tips.  Myspace is going through a PR nightmare. 

Social Networks a Promising Ad Vehicle, Still Unpredictable

MEDIA BUYER PLANNER -- Apr 12 -- The trick of advertising on social networks seems to be creating less formal and invasive advertising techniques that attract young users. "What they struggle with is the content, the environment and the right approach - pretty much everything," said Jeff Lanctot, VP for Avenue A-Razorfish, the largest buyer of internet ads.  MySpace racked up $13 million in ads last month.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA BUYER PLANNER

MySpace Censors Content To Lure Marketers

Mar 31 -- Perhaps most importantly to advertisers, the company has added resources to monitor the site's user-generated content for risqué/offensive material. News Corp. now reviews 2 million images a day and has removed 200,000 profiles it felt included "questionable material."  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

MySpace Exec: Teen Users Promote Brands

MEDIA POST -- Mar 29 -- "We take a sociological approach to building MySpace, and advertisers need to be cultural anthropologists when they're thinking about their communications strategy on social networks," said Shawn Gold, SVP marketing for MySpace, during a keynote at the OMMA Hollywood Conference in LA.  Kids on MySpace.com are looking to belong, and for discovery, access, self-expression, recognition, confidence-building, appreciation, and building knowledge. "We think that every feature on the site needs to tie in with these core needs."  Gold mentioned ad programs with downloads, wallpapers, screensavers, AIM icons, slides, audio, and video. "Word-of-mouth has turned into citizen journalism as a trusted form of media....people don't come to social networks to click on the advertising." As of Tuesday, there were 66 million (98 million by year end) people on MySpace, with 230,000 people joining each day on average. 90% U.S.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: I tried running off the shelf banners on Myspace in the past...what a dog!  Myspace is all about empowerment.  The advertising methods need to follow suit.  Inspiring, empowering, interactive ads rule. Off the shelf doesn't work on that property, or any social network for that matter.  Advertising as content is ultimately the best approach.  The younger generation have had enough of push marketing.

Facebook's on the Block

BUSINESS WEEK -- Mar 28 -- Owners of the privately held social-networking site hope to fetch as much as $2 billion. And media giants like Viacom may make a good match. They have turned down a $750 million offer.  www.facebook.com has become the seventh-most heavily trafficked site on the Internet, according to comScore Media Metrix. It racked up 5.5 billion page views in February.  MySpace had 37.3 million unique and logged 23.5 billion page views, making it the second-most trafficked site after Yahoo, which had 30 billion.  MSN had 18 billion.  Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and the video-oriented YouTube, are a primary form of communication for younger people who can spend an hour or more a day at such sites.  FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Christian Alternative to 'MySpace'

PR WEB -- Mar 28 -- XIANZ.COM is a Christian based social networking site (by invitation only) that offers the same functionality as sites like MySpace.com, Facebook.com, and Friendster.com. Settings can be specified that allow only people of the same age range to communicate.  Features include: Customized profiles with photos, video and music, private and instant messaging, online Blogs, personal message boards, birthday reminders & invites, shared interests, friends lists & shout outs, groups, events and listings. A large music module will be integrated in the next few weeks.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: I've not seen a Christian social network yet.  Makes sense. But what a funky name.  Doesn't lend itself well to word of mouth.  I added it to the social networks list.  A friend tried creating Craigslist for Christians, JoinGod.com, last year but didn't get it to critical mass (Alexa rank) and got busy with other projects.

U.K. Paper to Hook up with MySpace

MARKETING VOX -- Mar  17 -- The Sun will connect its website to MySpace.com to create a "MySun" online readers' network.  News Corp. owns both properties. MySpace.com has 60 million registered users in the 16-34-year-old demographic.  FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Perils of Online Dating Prompt Safety Efforts

REUTERS -- Mar 21 -- Josie Brown never had a chance against her 6-foot-6-inch killer.  John Gaumer, confessed and led Baltimore County police to Brown's body on February 7, listed his height and other attributes in his quest for dates on MySpace.com.  "There are millions of people we're dealing with here and somehow people think they are all preachers," said Paul Falzone, CEO of Together Dating, a brick-and-mortar company that performs background checks on all members. Falzone says background checks result in 10% of applicants being rejected.  For most of the 40 million people using Internet sites for dating and socializing each month, a disastrous 15 minutes over coffee at Starbucks is the worst they will suffer.  Only a small percentage of "intimate partner violence" -- nearly 700,000 such incidents were reported to the U.S. Dept of Justice in 2001 -- originate from Internet dating, according to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch, which monitors the dating industry.  "To think a felon could find a victim, especially for a heinous crime, gives me the heebie-jeebies. I do all I can do to prevent that," said Herb Vest, TRUE.com CEO.  So far, California, Florida, Texas and Michigan have considered (background checks) legislation.  Yahoo! and Match.com, the industry leaders with 6 million and 15 million monthly visitors respectively, continually stress dating safety.  "The Internet has its dark side and they are not doing everything they can to keep sexual predators and gold diggers off these sites. If you don't police yourselves, the government will come in and police you," said Michigan state Sen. Alan Cropsey.  "There are other ways to get to who that person is, rather than have the government ram a business model down your throat," said Abe Smilowitz, CEO of Webdate.  Webdate uses real-time video as a safety measure, allowing prospective dates to chat and get a look at each other via Webcams.  Companies like Safedate and Honestyonline are springing up to run background checks for individuals. According to Dr. John Gray, education is the solution.  "The warning signs often come out right away. Beware of someone who can solve all your problems or who comes on really strong," said Gray.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

MySpace + NPR + BT = Gather.com

BEHAVIORAL INSIDER -- Mar 17 -- The new Gather.com (launched Nov. 15) is MySpace for a literate audience. While there are user profiles here, the emphasis is on content, articles that users link to or write themselves, tag, recommend, and comment upon across the full range of editorial topics. Partially funded by NPR, Gather.com's 20,000 members (150,000 daily views) skews older and wiser than MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ BEHAVIORAL INSIDER

Best Way to Date: Collaborate?

collaboradate  WIRED NEWS -- Mar 17 -- Collaboradate does for online dating what Trillian does for instant messaging: It combines multiple services so you can manage everything from one place.  When you create your Collaboradate profile, you enter the user names you registered at other dating and social networking sites. Then when someone searches Collaboradate and finds you, she can click through each site on your list to view your dating profiles.  If the external dating site requires membership to view profiles, she'll have to sign in. But if it doesn't -- like Yahoo Personals, Friendster and MySpace -- she can see your page immediately.  Andy believes the subscription model for dating is doomed, and suggests that Collaboradate will be a positive force for online dating as a whole.  FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED NEWS

Mark Brooks: Paid subscriptions help sort out the more committed online daters.  When you're paying $20-$50 a month, your attention is pretty much ensured.  I'd like to see more sites where ONLY paid members are visible and can play. 

USA Creates MySpace-Like Site For Viewers

AD RANTS -- Mar 14 -- USA Network launched ShowUsYourCharacter.com, a site that features characters from USA shows but also mimics the social community aspects of MySpace. Visitors can dig deep into the profiles of their favorite characters and then set up a profile of their own to highlight their uniqueness.  RELEASE @ AD RANTS

Mark Brooks: Myspace has pushed bands, Friendster has pushed TV stars.  This makes sense for a network to try and create buzz.

tBlog's "Suggestive" Network Poses Threat To Myspace

PR WEB -- Mar 14 -- tBlog has launched tMatch "Thought Matching" system brings users together basedupon the whole of their profile and blogs, matching similar personalities based upon likes, dislikes, hobbies and life outlooks. RELEASE @ PR WEB

The Role of Anti-Marketing Design

SCOBLEIZER -- Mar 4 -- At the Northern Voice conference I met Markus Frind, founder of Plentyoffish.com. He's Google's #1 Adsense user in Canada. His site is pulling in more than $10,000 per day from Google, he told me, and has millions of passionate users. Tens of millions of page views EVERY DAY. What's the secret to his success? Ugly design. I call it "anti-marketing design."  He says that sites that have ugly designs are well known to pull more revenue.  Google. Is it pretty? No. Craig's List? Pretty? No. MySpace? Pretty? No.  ARTICLE @ SCOBLEIZER

Mark Brooks: It's not the fact that these sites are ugly.  Consider further. The winning formula is that the sites appear anti-commercial, humble, and non-pushy.  These sites appear to users like a person or group of smart people doing them a favor without hawking too hard to them.  Most users don't realise that Craigslist makes $10 million+ a year from charging for job postings in a handful of cities...the average user never posts a job. Craigslist just looks like a cool nerd doing everyone a favor.  How refreshing.  Same deal with Plentyoffish.  And Google?  A lot of very smart, passionate, 'do no evil' nerds. 

Ultimate List of Social Networks

Mar 13 -- I'm starting a list of social networking sites.  Notable social networks with good traffic.  Here's the starter list.  What am I missing?

U.S.A. - Bebo, Facebook, Flickr (pics), Friendster, Hi5, MOG, MSN Spaces, MySpace, MyYearBook, Orkut, Piczo, Sconex, Tagworld, Tribe, WAYN, Xuqa, Yahoo 360, Zorpia

Business Networks - CollectiveX (for groups), Guanxi (China), Ryze (USA), Tianji (China)

Beyond USA - Arto.dk (Denmark), ASmallWorld (Euro), Cyworld (South Korea), Epuls.pl (Poland), EveryonesConnected (UK), Faceparty (UK), Fropper (India), Grono (Poland), Hyves (Netherlands), IRC Galleria (Finland), Mixi (Japan), Nexopia (Canada), Passado (Euro), Playahead (Sweden), ProfileHeaven (UK), Rate.ee (Estonia), Yeeyoo (China), Yeskee (China), Yonja (Turkey)

Niche - Dogster (uh, dogs!?!), Golfspinner (Golfers), Joga (Soccer), Xianz (Christians), Zaadz (Change the World)

Anti-Social Networks - Isolatr, Snubster

Myspace Add-ons - Blingboo, Coshed, Gotomyproile, Modmyprofile, Myspacehive, Zobbler

New Sites - Dogears.net (US Universities), Palopia (students), Panjea (music, media player)

Social Networks as a Marketing Channel?

EMARKETER -- Mar 8 -- comScore Networks recently highlighted the growth of social networking sites. MySpace.com and Facebook.com remain the leaders among those in the 18-24 age group and attract five million unique visitors a month. Facebook.com uniques increased 14% in December 2005. MySpace.com saw a 34% increase. Social networking sites are characterized by the ad hoc nature of consumers posting text, photos and videos that advertisers and marketers have no control over. Flickr readers can create their own pages with their own stories, for which they collect 90% of associated ad revenues. Eurekster also.  For more on social networking, read eMarketer's recent reports: College Students Online: Social Networks and the Net Generation and Online Dating.  FULL ARTICLE @ EMARKETER

Start-up to Offer CD-Swap Network

MERCURY NEWS -- Mar 7 -- A Palo Alto start-up is launching a service that is a mix of social networking, Internet swap meet and music store.  It's MySpace.com meets eBay meets iTunes.  Lala.com opens this summer. (The company is offering 1,000 early memberships at www.lala.com/invite/sj beginning at 6 a.m Tuesday.) Lala.com has $9 million from Bain Capital Ventures and Ignition Partners, presents itself as an online music co-op that allows members to trade CD.  FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

NBC Universal to Acquire iVillage in $600 Million Cash Deal

USA TODAY -- Mar 6 -- In a bid to bolster its digital offerings and increase online ad revenue, NBC will buy the female-oriented Web network iVillage in a $600 million cash deal paying a 6.5% premium over iVillage's $7.98 closing price on Friday.  NBC Universal plans to promote iVillage through its vast array of TV, film and home entertainment offerings. Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the iVillage acquisition is scheduled to close in the second quarter. IVillage shares closed Monday at $8.36, up almost 5%.  FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: News Corp and Myspace, now NBC and iVillage. 

Online Dating Subscription Fees

I-NEWSWIRE -- Mar 2 -- Some people argue that charging people $50 a month is too much. I say it's not enough. People use price as a filter. That's why matchmakers charge $5,000.  At Chemistry and Eharmony, the value is not only the enhanced matching algorithm, you're paying more so you don't have to spend hours each week looking at profiles. Paying more to do less.  Myspace is the exact opposite. Match had a $500 service at one point, I think it lasted about 3 months.  RELEASE @ I-NEWSWIRE

Mark Brooks: The online dating world can learn from the real world matchmakers.  We're leaving money on the table.  Many people just don't have the time to invest in online dating (or real world dating).  They will gladly pay $2000+ a year for the end result of being set up on dates with compatible singles every week or two.

Fox To Promote 'Idol' On MySpace

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Mar 2 -- Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn told investors of a plan to deepen the connection between MySpace, which News Corp. acquired in July, and Fox TV. The top 12 "American Idol" contestants will get MySpace profiles. MySpace and "American Idol" will direct traffic to each other's Web sites. The goal is to increase traffic to MySpace--which currently boasts 55 million registered users, and is growing to the tune of more than 200,000 a day. MySpace accounts for 25-30% of Fox Interactive Media revenue. Gaming property IGN, acquired in September for $650 million, represents 25-30%. Sports network Scout.com, purchased last September for $60 million, accounts for ~20%. Foxnews.com, Foxsports.com, and other Fox properties are responsible for 20-25%.  FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Social Networking Goes E-Commerce

E-COMMERCE TIMES -- Feb 22 -- Somewhere between no-frills Craigslist and intricate eBay lies the new e-commerce offering introduced by TagWorld last week combining the new service of free online classifieds, which includes images and personalized storefronts, with auction features.  TagWorld members can post items for sale in the new classifieds section and sellers can choose a fixed price or mark the item negotiable -- which allows buyers and sellers to haggle over a price.  MySpace has some 56 million members; TagWorld, 787,000.  FULL ARTICLE @ TECH NEWS WORLD

Bebo the Top Social Networking Site in the U.K.

PR WEB -- Feb 22 -- A record 1.5 million U.K. students visit Bebo in December, surpassing MySpace for the first time, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  "In just seven months, Bebo has grown to become the most popular social networking site for students in the U.K., and we are rapidly gaining ground in Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand," said Michael Birch, Bebo CEO.  There are 22 million registered Beboers worldwide.  RELEASE @ PR WEB

You Can't buy Friends Like These, Well, Actually, Now You Can

BOSTON GLOBE -- Feb 21 -- Catch27 was created last year by E. Jean Carroll, an Elle advice columnist and former 'Saturday Night Live' writer. Carroll specializes in riffing off established social norms.  Her last site was GreatBoyfriends.com, where women can recommend ex-lovers.  "I was watching all these kids on MySpace, spending all their time saying, 'Add me. Add me,' and I thought: Why not buy people? So you understand? The whole thing started as a joke."  Members join, upload a profile, and site staff would assign the newbie a monetary quantity based on their overall attractiveness. Members who wanted to be friends with other members would either have to beg or trade their way to the top.  FULL ARTICLE @ THE BOSTON GLOBE

Mark Brooks: The site peaked last year at around 40k Alexa rank.  Alexa rank is 78k average now. 

Yahoo! Launches Social Network Site for UK

JOURNALISM.CO.UK -- Feb 21 -- Yahoo! has launched a social network and community publishing platform for the UK.  Yahoo! 360° invites users to build their own profile page incorporating their blog postings, Flickr photographs, reviews of local events and restaurants, links to friends' blogs and discussion groups as well as lists of favourite TV, books and music releases.   The UK version is being launched in beta and has been developed using research and feedback from the US version.  Around one million of MySpace's 50 million registered users are in the UK. MySpace UK will be promoted on other News Corporation platforms such as Sun Online and Times Online and will initially aim to build its audience through the UK music scene.  FULL ARTICLE @ JOURNALISM.CO.UK

Cellular Service to Offer MySpace Phones

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Feb 16 -- MySpace is about to become more ubiquitous with the launch of a cellular service that will let users read and post to the site for free.  The service and two accompanying phones will be launched in a few months by Helio LLC, a joint venture of Internet service provider Earthlink Inc. and South Korean carrier SK Telecom Co.  SK Telecom owns the Korean equivalent of MySpace. Called Cyworld, it is hugely popular among young South Koreans and can be accessed from cell phones.  Helio's two phones, dubbed "Hero" and "Kickflip" will be based on Korean designs featuring large color screens and cameras.  Apart from a monthly fee, access to MySpace will be free.  Helio will be a so-called "mobile virtual network operator," meaning it won't have its own cellular network. Instead, it will buy access to Sprint Nextel Corp.'s and Verizon Wireless' high-speed networks.  Other MVNOs include Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

theglobe.com Subsidiary "TGLO" Announces Overlay of Social Networks with VoIP

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 10 -- Users of MySpace® and Friendster® can now visit tglophone and instantly be enabled for free peer to peer calling to all their social network friends.  Community users can now "click to call" any friend. The service allows members of the MySpace® and Friendster® communities to download a browser helper application which adds "click to call" capabilities to any of the friends in their social networks.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Downloading it now.  I'll post my findings shortly...

Social Networking Site MySpace is Latest Online Darling

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Feb 13 -- "It's like being at a giant music conference 24 hours a day every day," said Greg McIntosh, 27, guitarist for Ann Arbor-based 'Myth Society.' College students can rate their professors and find classmates or alumni. Others play games, view classified ads, send online party invitations or rate the brave on how "hot" they are.  Instead of using e-mail and instant messaging, Olszanowski keeps in touch with many friends simply by posting bulletins on her personal MySpace page/profile. Friends can send her a private message or post a public comment, see her photo album or read her blog.  CEO, DeWolfe said Myspace.com has worked with WiredSafety to create guidelines and improve practices - dozens of employees now monitor profiles and images 24 hours a day - and encourages parents to talk with their kids about online safety.  The site gets as many as 180,000 new members a day and has 54 million users, compared with 24 million for Friendster.  FULL ARTICLE @ FOX NEWS

TrueDater Adds MySpace and eHarmony

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb. 8, 2006--TrueDater added MySpace, eHarmony, HotorNot, PlanetOut, and BlackSingles.  Last year Truedater was featured on Wired.com, Time Magazine, Newsweek and NBC's The Today Show. It's free, anonymous and is supported by ads and sign-ups for dating sites. A majority of TrueDater members are women. The site encourages members to review those who are "TrueDaters" as well as those who exaggerate or mislead. Nearly half the reviews on the site are positive endorsements.  RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Greatboyfriends and Greatgirlfriends are alternative spins on this idea. 

DFJ Funds TagWorld Site

RED HERRING - Feb 7 -- Social networking site TagWorld, which debuted just three months ago, announced its first round of outside funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. TagWorld has been called a MySpace killer for its clean design and functionality.  The under-21 category is the largest segment of 700,000 users.  Other recent social networking investments from other firms included deals for Tagged and WisdomArk, both said to be about $7 million.  FULL ARTICLE @ RED HERRING

MySpace In Sex Assault Probe

CBS NEWS -- Feb 3 -- Police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through MySpace.com. "It is a predator's dream come true" said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna. "Not only can you see them, but you can see their friends. You can find out where they go to middle school and high school."  MySpace monitors reviews every image hosted by the site and is working with law enforcement agencies.  FULL ARTICLE @ CBS NEWS

The Internet's New Social Order

THE NEWS FACTOR -- JAN 26 -- Web sites specifically built to put people in touch with one another -- are booming in terms of participation and new services. Whether you are looking for social chatter, dating, gaming, or networking with other professionals, the Internet has the forum for it, and it has become both easy and fast to acquaint yourself with like-minded people. The communities are becoming so popular that some wonder whether they could fundamentally alter the way humans interact with each other. In addition to the networking behemoth MySpace, which currently has 47.3 million members, there's Friendster, The Well, Tribe Networks, and Bebo. Smaller sites that specialize in just a few topics are springing up, too, like Yelp, an online community devoted to chat about local watering holes and entertainment.  Dating online seems even easier thanks to aggressive recruitment efforts by sites like eHarmony and Match.com; both claim eight million and credit for thousands of marriages.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS FACTOR

Unicast Veteran To Launch Social Site For Women

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Jan 25 -- Sisterwoman, slated to launch by March, is targeting women ages 28 to 50--closer to iVillage's demographic than to MySpace's younger crowd. Visitors will be encouraged to create closed circles of friends as well as open hobby- and location-based circles. Savarino, who helped launch the streaming media company Unicast, believes that advertisers and publishers are just now catching on to women's unique Internet usage habits.  FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Mark Brooks: iVillage advertising is among the most premium priced on the net today. 

MySpace Intent on Staying User-Friendly

MSNBC -- Jan 18 -- If MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe has his way, the quirky social networking site he co-founded two years ago will hold tight to its homegrown roots, even though it now boasts more unique users than Google or AOL and has a new owner at its helm.  The company's recent acquisition by News Corp., one of the most powerful news conglomerates on the planet, has some of the site's 43 million members nervous that their online home might become subject to the rules of an overbearing parent.  "The secret to our success is our one-to-one relationship with our users," the 39-year-old DeWolfe says about the portal he created with co-founder Tom Anderson. DeWolfe is a Portland, Oregon native with an MBA from the University of Southern California.  "My passion is the consumer marketing side of things," he says, crediting longtime friend Anderson with giving the site its creative voice. MySpace's Santa Monica-based office has grown from fewer than 10 employees to 200.  FULL ARTICLE @ MSNBC

Mark Brooks: Facebook is also enjoying similar success.  What of Friendster? Too little too late, or is the social networking pioneer going to rise from the ashes somehow.  Myspace has stolen it's thunder.  I live in hope that Friendster can find it's way again.  Alexa Chart

Murdoch Magnifies MySpace

YAHOO NEWS -- Jan 11 -- Murdoch's been talking about turning MySpace into a newfangled kind of Internet portal, an online communications hub, incorporating instant messaging, voice communication, and free video downloads. MySpace has amassed 47 million users since its inception in January 2004, and is adding 1 million users each week.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Social Networking for Man's Best Friend

CNET NEWS -- Jan 11 -- Social networking Web sites are all the rage these days. Sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and others allow users to create little corners of the Internet that are all their own.  On Dogster, which won the 2005 Webby Award in the community category, Web savvy humans take a back seat to their lovable companions.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

Mark Brooks: So what's Dogster worth?

Lesson for Murdoch: Keep the Bloggers Happy

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Jan 2 -- MySpace noticed that any references to YouTube, a video-sharing site and competitor, were erased or blocked from appearing on MySpace. Ever-sensitive to corporate meddling, many MySpace users got angry. "My friends and I are trying to make the blogging community aware of a stealth censorship campaign that is being conducted by MySpace," one MySpace user, Ellis Yu, wrote to the Blog Herald, a Web site about blogs. "They are not admitting to it, and are trying to do this in secret." The incident underlines the peril corporations face as they buy blogs and networking sites like MySpace, which depend on the good will of their users. FULL ARTICLE @ CD NET

Want a New Friend? Try an Online Social Network

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS -- Dec 22 -- As of Wednesday, Dec. 21, Myspace.com had 44,448,308 members and accounted for 10% of all online advertisement viewed in November.  Why do 44 million people want to be Tom's friend?  "You can use it in a very local way, to keep up with your friends; it's kinda like a telephone with pictures.  Plus, it's music-oriented, so you can find a lot of new bands."  This user said, the ability to "get rid of" friends and allow only people you want to communicate with to send you messages makes the site more personal - more like a virtual clubhouse than the 44 million-member network that it is. Another online social network is Xanga.com, which has less emphasis on music than Myspace.com.  Half of the users of Xanga.com are between the ages of 12 and 24. Facebook.com is marketed more toward college students, but a high school version was recently launched as well.  FULL ARTICLE @ TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS

Mark Brooks: Are social networks good or bad for the online personals business?  Your comments please.

Move Over MySpace

BUSINESS WEEK -- Dec 16 -- Brad Greenspan started his first business from his dorm room at UCLA and helped launch MySpace in 2003. Today he's backing video based social network site Vidilife, MySpace for the video crowd. Traffic has been promising so far: 220,000 unique users in October, six weeks after launch in September. A far cry from MySpace's 24.3 million unique users but not bad for a site with no marketing. Greenspan was forced from the company he founded, eUniverse, only months after he spent $1 million to finance MySpace's launch. Greenspan battled with board members, who changed the company's name to Intermix Media shortly after his departure. Among the disputes: restated earnings during his watch that prompted an informal Securities & Exchange Commission accounting investigation (now closed) and a temporary delisting of its stock by NASDAQ. Separately, both the company and Greenspan settled charges with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in September that they inserted spyware on unknowing consumers' Web pages. Neither admitted guilt.  Greenspan twice tried to retake his company in proxy battles, including a futile gambit in September to trump a $580 million bid by News Corp. He made $47 million from the News Corp. acquisition.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Online Video-Sharing Service

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Dec 7 -- Grouper Networks will let users share their homemade videos over the Internet and play them on portable devices such as the iPod. The free service will give users the platform and software tools to present photos and video taken from their cameras to an online audience of their choice.  They will offer unlimited uploads of video clips and a downloadable video application allowing users to edit their movies, add music and effects, and compress the files. The service lets users publish their filmstrips or videos to other Web destinations such as Friendster and MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNEWS

Internet Advertising Growth

MEDIA POST -- Dec 1 -- Revenue from Web ads next year, excluding online newspaper classifieds, will increase by a predicted 25.2%, while overall U.S. ad revenues will grow by 4.5%. The Internet will account for more ad dollars than radio by 2007, and will surpass magazines by 2008, to become the third largest ad category, with newspapers and broadcast television remaining in the top two slots.  MEDIA POST NEWSLETTER

Mark Brooks: Webdate, OKCupid, Plentyoffish, Friendster and Myspace offer advertising.  Who else?

Dating Scams Prey on the Lonely - and the Stupid

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE -- Nov 23 -- Morgan wrote me an e-mail saying she was "looking to definitely become intimate" with me.  She really wanted me to call her, but in order to get her phone number, I had to go to her Web site.  I found a slightly naked Morgan; I had to plug in my e-mail address and credit card number to see more pictures of her. But she was only asking me to do this "so not just anyone can see all of me!"  "Don't worry," she said. "It's free!"  On MySpace, a cheerleader law student identified only as "C"..."I like what I've seen from you so far," she said, even though she had seen nothing of me so far.  She wanted to make sure I liked her also, so she sent me to her Web site, where for $19.95 I could see pictures of married women who wanted "discreet affairs."  FULL ARTICLE @ THE HUB

Mark Brooks: The internet dating industry is putting up a fight against these kinds of scams.  'Abuse teams' monitor profiles and reported scams. Most services have a button on profiles inviting users to report people for abuse.

Web Dating Game Heats Up

THE STREET -- Nov 14 -- Troublemakers on the online dating scene may have met their match in a group of increasingly brand-conscious Internet giants.  Yahoo! Personals and Match.com, two of the largest Internet dating sites, are stepping up their efforts to weed their services of abusive, obnoxious or married people. Earlier this year, Yahoo! instituted a code of conduct for online daters in which they must swear that they are single and won't be abusive toward other members. The company also has made it easier for members to report misbehavior. Match.Com has added additional people to its fraud and abuse unit.  The effort comes as the online dating market consolidates and surviving services fight off competition for loyal users from social network sites like Friendster.com and Myspace.com, which also offer free dating, and smaller upstarts such as True.com.  "They have got very significant brands that they have to protect," says Mark Brooks, who runs the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com. "They can't have people who are scamming, spamming, being obscene or being obnoxious. It's very bad for their brand." About 11% of all online users have a profile on an online dating site, according to Jupiter Media. "The market is reaching maturity," Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliot told the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com in a recent interview. "...there are fewer consumers 'just curious' to have a look. It's no longer the 'new thing.'"  FULL ARTICLE @ THE STREET

MySpace Launches Record Label

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Nov 3 -- The social networking Web site MySpace.com has launched its own record label in a joint venture with Interscope Records hoping to capitalize on its broad reach among music-savvy consumers. MySpace Records will feature independent and unsigned artists as well as compilations that include top groups from other labels.  The first release will be a compilation of tracks which will feature songs from groups such as Weezer. "MySpace Records: Volume I" goes on sale Nov. 15 at major retail locations. MySpace is expanding its brand in other areas as well, including a satellite radio channel that will launch in the next six months. The company is also considering starting its own film imprint,
DeWolfe said.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: There's  a lot you can do with 36 million eyeballs.  How far can they stretch/extend the MySpace brand?

Internet Offers New Ways to Connect

CLOVIS NEWS JOURNAL -- Nov 1 -- MySpace is celebrating its second birthday tonight with a concert at Dodger Stadium. "It's a novelty, but it's grown in such a capacity," said Tod Work, who moderates a group called the Portales and Clovis Crew on MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ CLOVIS NEWS JOURNAL

Mark Brooks: Myspace is enjoying the same media frenzy that Friendster enjoyed in 2003/2004. 

Friendster Turns up Multimedia Features

CNET -- Oct 28 -- Friendster's new capabilities, come through a distribution partnership with Grouper Networks, a start-up that specializes in technology for sharing photos and home videos over the Web. After downloading Grouper's free file-sharing software, Friendster members can invite people to view an unlimited number of photos and videos as well as stream music. Facebook began allowing members to create online photo albums with no limit on the number of photos they can upload. MySpace lets members upload and share songs. And Slide, which launched in August, makes photo-sharing a key aspect of its social networking site. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: New CEO Taek Kwon is shaking Friendster up and adding lots of fun new features at a frenetic pace.  If only he was on board a year earlier.  Still, I really hope Friendster sees a resurgence.  Myspace has stolen Friendster's thunder, but Friendster is no small fry.

Online, but Not Looking for Love

UNION LEADER -- Oct 25 -- Social networking may be a close cousin of online dating, but it is much more low-key - attracting a totally different demographic. More online dating sites may be moving toward social networking as a way to keep members on the site. One of the first social networking sites that took off was Friendster, which relied on the "perception of exclusivity" to drive its membership numbers sky high, according to Mark Brooks, editor of industry blog Online Personals Watch. Brooks worked with friend and Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams in 2003, and said much of his friend's success is owed to timing and a few simple observations. "He looked at the real world and he modeled it, and one of the things he noticed is there are certain people that are the connecters," Brooks said. Friendster did not try too hard, Brooks said. But it allowed people to join only when they were invited - thus feeding on the desire for exclusivity - and let people meet others through friends, thus ensuring, for the most part, that these friends of friends were legitimate. Facebook has virtually locked up the college market. MySpace.com started as a network for musicians to advertise and expand their fan base, but is fast becoming the largest social networking site in operation. "They're out-Friendstering Friendster, which is absolutely amazing" Brooks said. But business networking sites, such as Linkedin.com, will likely surpass them all in terms of lifespan, revenue and popularity, according to Marc Lesnick who runs the Internet Dating Conference, the largest industry event for online dating and social networking Web sites. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION LEADER

Facebook Now 10th Most Popular Site on Net

THE CRIMSON -- Oct 25 -- Facebook.com unveiled its long-awaited expanded photo feature last week. Facebook.com is the 10th most trafficked site on the internet, with over 8.5 million unique visitors in September.  Although other networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace have long allowed users to upload multiple photos, Hughes promised in September that the site would offer "more photos than any other comparable site." Facebook.com is now the first of its kind to offer unlimited capacity. Murtaza M. Hussain, a spokesman for online social networking newcomer XuQa.com, said that unlimited photo uploading is more a catchphrase than a reality since most people would upload few photos. FULL ARTICLE @ THE CRIMSON

Online Networking Clicks Among Friends

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Oct 23 -- There's now a social network site for practically every subgroup. aSmallWorld.net is an invitation-only site for jetsetters. Dogster.com caters to dog owners. LinkedIn.com serves professionals. Friendster has about 19 million users. MySpace.com now boasts 33 million users. Facebook.com has grown to 8.3 million users and is the 11th most visited site on the Internet.  Among other things, each site is a treasure trove of consumer data. In May 2005, the Accel group, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm, bought a $12.2 million chunk of Facebook, which is currently valued at around $100 million. This month, Yahoo purchased Upcoming, a site that lets people publicly list and share their schedules of events with friends. In May 2005 Google bought Dodgeball; a site that brings social networking to mobile phones.  'Online social networking is in its infancy. There's a huge opportunity for players like Microsoft or Yahoo or Google to layer social networking applications on top of existing features, like utilizing existing buddy lists or saving e-mail addresses and connecting them to profiles. 'Social scientists ascribe the appeal of social networking sites to what they call "low cost." Rather than engage in long conversations to determine someone's favorite movie, for example, Facebook users can just glance at a profile and get a sense of the interests of the person living next door. But lots of low-cost friendships might mean lots of lower quality friendships. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE

Mark Brooks: Some social networks will morph into or be created as Personal Information Management systems to complement the likes of Outlook (or CRM, in the case of LinkedIn) to allow people to orgnise their networks of friends more easily.  Many social networks spur on the 'connectors' to connect with as many people as possible, turning their networks into popularity contests.  This creates a low focus, low integrity network.  Facebook is the best example of a high integrity, high utility social network; they masterfully limited connections to a core group of students/alumni.  This will ensure their success well into the future...and give classmates a run for their money.  Social networking is indeed still in it's infancy. 

Your Face Here

KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE BUSINESS NEWS -- Sept 22 -- MySpace has 29 million members with 110,000 new members joining each day, and more than 350,000 musicians profiles.  Intermix Media parent company) was purchased in July by NewsCorp for $580 million.  danah boyd, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, who doesn't capitalize her name, studies the demographics of MySpace as part of her research on social technology. She said most MySpace members are younger than 22, and she compared them to the young people who spent hours on the phone or hanging out in malls in the 1980s.  MySpace offers special features for musicians and bands including Mp3 players that can be added to a profile for free, giving independent musicians an easy way to get their music heard. The site also has an extensive list of area shows.  FULL ARTICLE @ FORT WAYNE

Mark Brooks: New social networks could be built around other specific interests such as gaming.

Class Action Suit to Prevent Acquisition of Intermix (MySpace)

BUSINESS WIRE --Aug 31 -- Kreindler & Kreindler LLP today announced that it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of shareholders of Intermix Media (MySpace.com, Alena.com), alleging that current directors, officers and controlling shareholders of Intermix designed a sale to News Corporation that benefited themselves at the expense of the Company and public shareholders. RELEASE @ BUSINESS WIRE

The New, Impersonal Personals -- Blogs

PACIFIC NEWS -- Aug 26 -- Friendster, MySpace, Xanga and Facebook are supposed to keep friends connected, but I see people with about 100 plus "friends." Do they actually know these people? One thing I've noticed about the blogs and personal profiles people post online is how open people are. The friendships I've created in the real world have slowly drifted into blog form. Conversations are short, to the point, and can be edited with the click of a mouse. What's next, catching up on old times at an online bar with virtual drinks? I recommend a support group for this sort of thing. No one should be a flaming addict alone with their computer at 1 in the morning. Nothing good comes out of that, except maybe delusional flashes. FULL ARTICLE @ PACIFIC NEWS

Mark Brooks: We should remember, online community is indeed 'virtual.' Nothing will ever touch 'face-to-face.'  The internet is a great vehicle for managing relationships, even initiating them, but some brow time is needed for real, spiritually uplifting relationships. 

News Corp. in Talks to Buy Blinkx

REUTERS -- Aug 15 -- News Corp. is considering buying closely held Web search provider Blinkx. Murdoch last week confirmed during an earnings conference call with analysts that the company was in advanced talks to buy a controlling interest in a Web search engine, which he would not identify, and that it had budgeted up to $2 billion for investments and strategic acquisitions. RELEASE @ BIZ RATE

Mark Brooks: News Corp. just bought Intermix which owns Myspace.

Making Online Connections the Microsoft Way

SEATTLE TIMES -- Aug 1 -- MSN is planning to boost Spaces' popularity by launching social-networking features this fall. The service could compete with more established services, such as MySpace, Friendster and Orkut.  "You end up with a series of cascading relationships that get further away from you, at least from your closed circle of friends, but they're very important for you," said Blake Irving, a vice president in the MSN division.  Spaces is free, but users must deal with banner advertising at the top of the blogs. Similarly, Microsoft said that it will place some advertising on its Virtual Earth site. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE TIMES

News Corp. Banking on Continued Growth for MySpace

REUTERS -- July 23 -- MySpace is gunning to become the Internet's next major consumer brand. Jupiter Media analyst David Card says that while there is evidence that MySpace has figured out the formula for success in social networking, it is still not clear that its popularity is sustainable. MySpace 15 million uniques and 7.5 billion page views in May, making it the fifth-largest domain in the United States, according to ComScore Media Metrix.  MySpace claims more than 22 million users worldwide.  "We have plans to build MySpace into a next-generation portal," said CEO Chris DeWolfe.  In the works are plans for MySpace to create products and services for mobile devices and push into Europe and Asia. RELEASE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: A key difference between Friendster and MySpace is in the integrity of the connections. I believe Friendster users tend to be more oriented towards 'real world connections' whereas first level connections made on MySpace are more likely to have been initiated online. Friendster has battled 'fakesters' in the past to maintain this connection integrity.

Social Networking Attracts Interest

THE DEAL -- Jul 19 -- News Corp.'s $580 million acquisition of Intermix Media Inc. and MySpace.com yesterday could spark some renewed interest in this once-hot Internet sector. "Media companies tend to keep a close eye on what the others are doing. With a purchase like this, you can't help but believe that other media companies will be looking closer at other social networking sites," said Brad Bowers of BlackInc Ventures LLC. The acquisition will boost the valuation of other social networking companies. August Capital partner David Hornik, an investor in Tickle, argued the increased ability of online companies to monetize their viewership could lead to more consolidation. Last year, Barry Diller's IAC agreed to pay an undisclosed amount for ZeroDegrees Inc. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: How long did it take Yahoo and Amazon and Match to become profitable? The leading social networking sites will make money aplenty. Users will demand value added premium services in time, and be willing to pay for the conveniences. Huge viral traffic volumes are keeping the major players afloat with healthy advertising fees right now.

MySpace is (Free) Music to the Ears of Bands, Fans

SEATTLE TIMES -- July 1 -- MySpace.com has an almost overwhelming amount of music, all free to consume. This site is similar to Friendster.com but way cooler.  Nonregistered users can zip all over MySpace.com and listen to thousands of songs.  More than 2,500 bands within 10 miles of downtown Seattle are on MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE TIMES

Mark Brooks: Myspace is enjoying similar media attention to Friendster in 2003-2004.

Web Site Serves Music, Dating Needs

NEWS TRIBUNE -- June 24 -- MySpace is addictive, and the rock gods are flocking to MySpace in increasing numbers.  Queens of the Stone Age have a MySpace page. So do Nine Inch Nails.  The shift from cyber-fraternizing to music marketing began early on. Small-time rock bands quickly learned that MySpace could be a valuable marketing tool. The site allows bands to post music and send bulletins that reach hundreds, sometimes thousands, of fans on their friend lists with the click of a "send" button.  1.7 million listeners surfed on over to hear "Around the Sun" before it was available for sale. More than 500,000 fans tuned in to MySpace to hear Nine Inch Nails' "With Teeth."  But it doesn't stop with the music. NBC-TV saw the potential to generate a little buzz when it partnered with MySpace to webcast the debut of the American version of "The Office" before it was broadcast on television. Around 150,000 viewers watched the webcast.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS TRIBUNE

Why MySpace Is the Hot Place

BUSINESS WEEK -- May 31 -- Only 20 months old, MySpace has 14 million uniques a month. Friendster started three years ago and has 1 million uniques. "We're crushing it," says MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, 39. Bands can create their own home pages, with photos, tour dates, and as many as four songs -- all for free.  Now, MySpace has become something akin to the hippest bar in town.  They need to boost revenues, which come largely from ads from companies ranging from Procter & Gamble to NBC. Complicating matters is rising competition from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL who are moving into social networking.  Yahoo (112 million) plans to launch Yahoo! 360 this fall.  MSN (88 million users) launched 'Spaces, in April, and signed up 10 million users in a matter of weeks.  Blake Irving, VP for MSN communications says it will offer e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking all in one place. "I think people will want one digital profile that says: 'This is my digital self.'"  These networks are part entertainment -- a substitute for TV.  Myspace is developing into a powerful way to reach 16 to 30 year olds, one of the most sought-after and elusive demographic segments.  Friendster, with its smiley-face logo, has focused on fostering safety and trust. MySpace has let its members do whatever they want. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: I know, I know, yet another article on MySpace...but it's Business Week already!  Friendster still has shot at stealing back some of it's thunder.  I will interview the new Friendster CEO, to try and get some insight on his plans, for a feature on OPW at the beginning of July.

High School Pals - Keep in Touch

ARIZONA DAILY STAR -- May 23 -- For today's high school graduates, there's plenty of options for keeping in touch.  LiveJournal.com is basically an online diary friends can view.  Sites like Friendster.com and MySpace.com can introduce you to your friend's friend's former roommate.  Reunion.com and Classmates.com are devoted to ensuring old schoolmates never lose contact with each other in the real world.  Classmates.com has 60 million users.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: I lost my black book of university contacts whilst adventuring across the US in an RV after graduating.  In 2000 I worked on eturn.com which was an early form of plaxo (anyone remember planetall.com).  Finally these sites have taken off.  My best avenue for fingind my UK friends is www.friendreunited.co.uk which is huge in UK.

Artists Make Good Use of MySpace

SOUL SHINE -- May 16 -- As rock star Billy Corgan is helping to prove, MySpace is the new Friendster, with decidedly better benefits. More and more acts are using MySpace.com to promote themselves. Corgan is using his space www.myspace.com/billycorgan to give fans the chance to get inside his brain via his super-detailed blog, to stream songs from his upcoming solo album, to win free tickets to his summer tour, and yes, even to become his “friend.”  Alongside the big names (Oasis, Weezer, My Chemical Romance), some not-so-famous artists make a home on MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ SOUL SHINE

Mark Brooks: Musicians and DJ's are the greatest 'connectors' (see Tipping Point and Unleashing the Ideavirus).  MySpace captured their attention and they 'sneezed.'

Searching for Profit in Networking Web Sites

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE -- May 12 -- LinkedIn is hoping to create a viable business by capturing a small piece of a classified advertising market estimated to be worth more than $20 billion.  It charges employers $95 to post a job listing for 30 days.  It had 1,000 or so job listings last month.  "They're giving recruiters access to people they wouldn't normally be able to get to," said Charlene Li, Forrester Research. "These are passive job seekers - people who aren't actively looking for jobs - who are extremely valuable to the recruiter and the hiring manager."  Tribe.net, raised $6.3 million, and encourages users to join "tribes" of mutual interest.  A free service that charges for classified ads posted on its site.  Tribe had 243,000 unique visitors in March, according to comScore Media Metrix, 3.7 million people turned to Craigslist.  Friendster received ~$13 million in funding...and found itself eclipsed by a pair of newer, more narrowly focused social networking companies, MySpace, specializing in music, and Thefacebook.com, geared to university students. Friendster had 975,000 uniques in March, according to comScore, 11.3 million users visited MySpace, 4.1 million to Thefacebook.  FULL ARTICLE @ IHT

Mark Brooks: These sites are also doing a good job of reaching the 18-30's crowd...which is an increasingly valuable, and hard to reach demographic.  They're tuning in to the TV less, in preference to the internet.

Longhorn to Get a Social-Networking Infusion

MICROSOFT WATCH -- May 3 -- Microsoft has moved 10 of its social-computing experts from Microsoft Research onto its Windows user interface team. Social-networking technologies, including blogs, Wikis, and RSS, are likely to play a key part in the Longhorn "Aero" interface.  Cheng is known as the main mover and shaker behind "Wallop," Microsoft's Friendster-like social-networking prototype that combines blogging, Wiki and RSS technologies.  Cheng and her team also have worked on Stacks for organizing photos; Personal Map for organizing contacts, and MS Connect and Point-to-Point, which show connections between people, individuals and groups.  FULL ARTICLE @ MICROSOFT WATCH

Mark Brooks: In 1999/2000 I was working on a site called eturn.com; an early version of plaxo/social network.  MSN killed jump.com in 2000 after acquiring it in 1999.  Message from MSN.  They melded new features into MSN including, "the ability to invite others to group events," and, "your space on the web to create, publish, and share pictures, files, calendars and information with friends and family."  MSN wanted to further their, "vision of The Everyday Web and are dedicated to offering solutions to help simplify your life and you keep in contact with friends and family."  Social networking is not a new concept.  Friendster got the design, name and viral seeding right.  MySpace added a little meat to the bone with their affinity for music, and they recognised users wanted more freedom to express themselves.

Site Helps Teens Find Old Friends

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- May 3 -- Move over, Friendster. There's a hotter site on the Web.  Teens are turning to Myspace to keep in touch; 14 million users.  Myspace is more than a personals site. Some musicians are creating pages dedicated to their work. The site dedicates a section of its home page to 'Myspace Music,' where unsigned and popular bands alike are profiled with links to their Myspace sites.  It even released a single by the rock group Oasis that could be heard only on www.myspace.com/oasis  FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

Mark Brooks: MySpace has empowered their users with far more customization options.  They live up to the name 'my space' and that's something worth talking about apparently...to the tune of 14 million users!  What can online dating companies learn from MySpace?  Your comments please...

House of Wax Promoted on MySpace

KESQ -- Apr 30 -- Users of MySpace can see clips from the upcoming film "House of Wax" and hear the entire soundtrack thanks to a deal with Warner Brothers and Maverick Records.  Other entertainment companies have used MySpace to promote their product, including NBC, which streamed the first episode of its new show "The Office" before its television premiere. Friendster, similarly promoted the Fox series "Stacked," starring Pamela Anderson.  FULL ARTICLE @ KESQ

Mark Brooks: I handled 'promoter/agent' offers whilst at Friendster.  Definitely no shortage of opportunity in that department.

Spitzer Goes After Spyware

USA TODAY -- Apr 29 -- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit Thursday against Intermix Media (myspace), charging the online marketer with illegally disseminating spyware programs.  Intermix operates about 40 Web sites that supply online games, greeting cards, social networking, trivia and jokes. According to Webroot, maker of anti-spyware software, there are more than 220,000 sites distributing spyware, up from 60,000 at the start of the year.  According to the lawsuit, free software on Intermix Web sites secretly installed programs that generated advertisements. One known as KeenValue delivered pop-up ads; another, dubbed IncrediFind, redirected visitors to certain Web sites. Spitzer is seeking a court order restricting Intermix's business practices.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Did Intermix do this knowingly.  Was the code slipped in with a banner ad run and overlooked?

Online Gated Communities: A Revolt Against Friendster

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE -- Apr 27 -- Catch27 encourages members, mostly 18-30, to trade their friends for 'hotter, smarter ones.' The site also is launching a "black ball" feature that some members will be able to use to kick others off.  FunHi, with 150,000 users, emulates a club and 'bounces' users who lack style, like people who 'look homeless,' according to co-founder Ray Savant.  The sites' founders think the Friendsters of the world went wrong by letting anyone in -- and that, as a result, those pioneering services lost the feeling of a community mirroring an actual clique. Friendster, which takes in ad revenue, says it just became profitable this year. ASmallWorld plans a premium membership service where members would pay for additional features. When a site called www.closedsociety.net launched, it opened its first 100 registrations to the public via a Google ad: "Join now and be a VIP." Only about 40 people applied. FULL ARTICLE @ PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Mark Brooks: People want what they can't have.  The 'perception of exclusivity' is a powerful element of the success of social networking.

Do You Want to be My Friendster?

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE -- Apr 17 -- Young professionals are turning to neatly packaged Web sites like Friendster, MySpace, NamesDatabase and LinkedIn to help them create relationships.  "It is sort of the next generation of lifestyle portals," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace.com.  Michelle Wohl, marketing director for Friendster, said "really, the stigma is gone from meeting people online." That stigma is what spurred Jonathan Abrams to start Friendster in 2003. He had been unsuccessful in online dating, calling it "a bit creepy," and decided a better way to meet people was through common friends.  The "viral nature" of the trend has grown Friendster's membership to 15 million.  MySpace, whose slogan is "A place for friends," is gaining on Friendster with 9 million users. It has focused on a specific interest, music, and the company has even organized large parties.  NamesDatabase offers fewer bells and whistles.  It has revenues of $1 million, runs on two Dell servers.  Users must submit more than 20 e-mail addresses of friends to the database for full access or buy a $12 subscription. The site boasts 13 million users.  LinkedIn is targeted at business people who use the site to find employees or clients.  It has 2 million users, many of whom are high-ranking execs.  FULL ARTICLE @ SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE

Some Parents Worried Website Could Expose Children to Pedophiles

RENO CHANNEL 4 NEWS -- Apr 18 -- Denise's daughter is a middle school student, but to Internet users she's a very different person. "She put that she was 18, making $100,000 a year," on myspace.com. Her daughter got a lot of responses from older men. The website requires users to be over 18, but that hasn't stopped school students from logging on. School officials say myspace.com is one of several online networks they may seem fun to kids, but can make them easy targets for Internet predators. "We got filtering software installed in all the servers in schools, it automatically updates itself, we can add a specific address which is what we did in this case." News 4 attempted to reach myspace.com for comment, but did not get a response.  FULL ARTICLE @ KRNV

Mark Brooks: Sheesh, where to start with this one?  MySpace does have a younger audience.  HotorNot also.  But we can only do so much policing.  Of course, if everyone put down their credit cards we could verify age quite easily.  Freedoms vs infractions.  Your comments please...

Social Butterflies Flock to Internet Friend Sites

TELEGRAPH -- Apr 10 -- Friendster was the first big hit. But when your mom gets her own Friendster profile, you know it’s time to move on. Enter Myspace, Habbohotel, Linkedin, Jewster, Orkut and Tickle. Danah Boyd, a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate (online communities) says such sites connected her to like-minded people when she was an isolated teen.  Judith Meskill, editor of the Social Software Weblog recently met someone she had been corresponding with online. “I showed up and, plop, in the middle of the grassy knoll was a guy sitting in a wheelchair and flailing like he had no motor control. He was wearing a football helmet, with a bent straw that he would use to punch out words on a Ouija-board-size keyboard. He was laughing; it was amazing. We were both laughing. I never knew it (from chatting with him online).”  Says Tickle.com CEO James Currier: “People are reaching out for richer interaction. In your real life, you probably only interact with 100 people. On the Internet, you find ones most like you and that have same interests as you.”  Flickr.com combines blogging, social networking and photo sharing. On Last.fm, users create a profile with a list of songs, and the Web site connects users with similar musical tastes. “Of course it’s addictive,” Boyd says of these social Web sites. “It plays into human nature.”  FULL ARTICLE @ NASHUA TELEGRAPH

Mark Brooks: Flickr was just bought by Yahoo.  Fotolog.net is a popular competitor.

MySpace Releases Online Music Album

SOCALTECH -- Mar 18 -- MySpace.com has launched an online music album for the group "Queens of the Stone Age". MySpace offered streaming access to the new album to users of the MySpace.com service ahead of the album's physical release.  FULL ARTICLE @ SOCALTECH

Mark Brooks: MySpace; in with the in crowd.  Prime territory for the 18-34 yr olds that TV is failing to captivate. 

'The Office' Remake Set to Debut on MySpace

CNET -- Mar 16 -- NBC's remake of the cult hit British TV show "The Office" is getting an unusual advance airing Wednesday night online, courtesy of MySpace.com.  The early look at the show is a plum for the young social networking site, which has captured much of the initial buzz around Friendster and other rivals with its focus on music and other entertainment communities.  FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: MySpace is great territory for seeding viral campaigns.  Friendster should have had owned this territory.  Now they are playing second fiddle to MySpace.

Friendster Befriends Blogs--and Fees

CNET -- Mar 3 -- Friendster earned some notoriety for firing a blogger...and is now bringing bloggers into the fold--and hoping to collect fees in the process. Friendster launched a beta of Friendster Blogs. The underlying technology is provided by Six Apart (TypePad). The default option is $4.95 per month. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET

Mark Brooks: Finally, some meat on the bone. This should help Friendster recover some lost ground from MySpace.  OnlinePersonalsWatch is built on TypePad btw.

College; Internet Dating Expedites Meeting Process

SACRAMENTO STATE -- Feb 23 -- Online personals have become an alternative for college students looking for a more objective way to find dates.  Everybody should be familiar with the phrase “you get what you pay for.” Internet dating is no exception to this rule.  FULL ARTICLE @ STATE HORNET

The Story of Money, Love and Friendster

ABS-CBN NEWS -- Feb 22 -- Friendster endured three CEO's during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks.  New CEO Scott Sassa "has figured out how to make a business of this," said John Doerr (VC Google, Amazon). Doerr said they would announce a partnership deal in February and "reach profitability within the next 90 days."  Friendster has 16 million registered users, MySpace has 7.6 million.  5x people visited MySpace as Friendster in December and they spent far more time there (Friendster - 17 mins, MySpace - 78 mins) according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  According to MediaMetrix, MySpace logged 2 billion+ page views last month compared to 152 million page views at Friendster.  "Unique visitors and page views drive revenues, not registered users," said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. MySpace now hosts sites for 110,000 musicians. Users IM, play games, contribute to blogs or browse events.  Geoffrey Yang, VC with Redpoint Ventures, said he is days away from investing in MySpace; "these guys in a sense are trying to be an MTV for the Internet."  Marissa Mayer, who manages Orkut, acknowledged that it and Friendster have "similar capabilities and similar limitations."  FULL ARTICLE @ ABS-CBN NEWS

Mark Brooks: Friendster has been out-Friendstered.  What has Scott Sassa got up his sleeve?  Your comments please?

MySpace Spammer Arrested

LA TIMES -- Feb 19 -- Spimmer arrested for broadcasting 1.5 million instant messenger ads on MySpace.com for pornography and cheap mortgages.  Federal prosecutors said it was the first criminal case involving this new form of spam — known as "spim."  Anthony Greco, 18, was arrested at LAX, where prosecutors lured him from his upstate New York home for a bogus meeting with MySpace president.  Greco had threatened to tell other spammers how he sent the unsolicited instant messages to MySpace users if he wasn't given an exclusive marketing contract with MySpace, which has 9 million users.  about 1% of traffic on AOL Instant Messenger is spim.  Greco, faces 18 years in prison if convicted.  He was released under a $25,000 bond.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Celebrities GuessWhatiHeard.com Launch Party

PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 16 -- Celebrities flocked the Viper Room for Star Magazine's Pre-Grammy party. GuessWhatiHeard.com was a main attraction for celebrities as they fashioned the sites latest slogans and attire. GuessWhatiHeard.com allows people to talk about their ex-friends, flames, business associates, and classmates. In turn, this information can then be used by others when considering whether or not to date, befriend, or do business with these very people. Founder Kelly Felix created the site after hearing websites such as Friendster and MySpace were boring.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO

Mark Brooks: Friendster is getting it's act together.  MySpace is anything but boring.

Friendster, Love and Money

NY TIMES -- Jan 24 -- Fifteen months ago, Friendster enjoyed the kind of enviable status that Silicon Valley start-ups dream of: A-list investors and millions of users. The company endured three chief execs during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks. A younger, flashier rival called MySpace has eclipsed Friendster and Friendster loyalists have groused that the company has done almost nothing to enliven its site. Reid Hoffman (of LinkedIn), another early Friendster investor, agreed that the company frittered away its sizable head start over the competition. Last summer, the company hired Mr. Sassa a former NBC executive taking over from Timothy Koogle, an early Friendster investor and former Yahoo chief exec, who ran the company after the board lost faith in Mr. Abrams. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Jonathan did a stellar job of observing the real world and emulating social group interaction online. I'd love to see Jonathan take the Product Development reigns. Seems MySpace has outfriendstered Friendster.

Proctor & Gamble and MySpace

NEW YORK TIMES -- Dec 3rd -- PROCTER & GAMBLE, the country's largest advertiser and an eager pursuer of new marketing methods, has begun an experimental promotion for its Secret Sparkle deodorant using music stars' personal profiles on a social networking Web site. Under the deal, the MySpace.com home page features a profile of the singer Hilary Duff accompanied by logos for Secret Sparkle, an extension of the Secret brand that went on sale a year and a half ago. Those who view Ms. Duff's profile can try to win an iPod in the "Secret 'Discover the Secret Strength of Today's Hottest Rising Music Stars' Sweepstakes," and sign up for more information on Secret Sparkle, other Procter & Gamble products or Ms. Duff. The promotion will feature a succession of other artists and their MySpace profiles. NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: Unbelievable. I just checked the Alexa rank for MySpace and nearly fell out my chair. MySpace, underdog 'underground' social networking site appears to have more traffic than Friendster now! Friendster vs MySpace

eHarmony and Friendster Launch Online Personals Matching System

BUSINESS WIRE -- Nov. 30 --Friendster and eHarmony announced an exclusive partnership. The companies will jointly launch a co-branded matching service that will combine eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System(TM) with Friendster's vibrant 13-million member community to help Friendster members find love and long-term relationships. YAHOO FINANCE

Mark Brooks: So that's how Friendster will make money! Nice move. Friendster gets a cut of eHarmony's premium membership revenues without alienating their avid userbase. Still, MySpace has an even more avid, but slightly younger userbase. I wonder who they're talking to?

Phillipines Chosen as Launchpad of Friendster’s Cell Phone Service

INFOTECH -- 11/21 -- Friendster will soon launch its first mobile service in the Philippines to test the concept of merging the biggest online social networking service with mobile phone technology. The mobile service will soon be rolled out in other countries. Founded in August 2002 by Jonathan Abrams, Friendster has had an unprecedented growth in the number of its registered users. To date, it has 13 million users worldwide. INFOTECH

Mark Brooks: But how will Friendster make money? How about some additional services for US users? MySpace is stealing ground from you Friendster.

Social-network Sites Scramble for Prosperity

SEATTLE TIMES--...There are two strategies now in play. The first: Some startups have decided social networking will never make any money, but they'll try to make money off other services instead, such as job or apartment listings. Mountain View, Calif.'s LinkedIn is one.
The second — used by dozens of companies, including Friendster, MySpace and Multiply — is to draw so many users that advertisers will pay to be on the Web site. SEATTLE TIMES