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TELEGRAPH.CO.UK -- Nov 21 -- Reid Hoffman, co-founder of professional networking site LinkedIn, doesn't take a holiday. In 2002 he helped sell PayPal to eBay for $1.5bn. Most recently, he has invested in Kongregate, the social gaming website. He has also taken a stake in Grockit.com, an educational site which has yet to be launched. LinkedIn is now the largest professional networking site in the UK, with 1m users. "I would make LinkedIn a public company – but not until we've finished innovating, said Mr Hoffman. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Mark Brooks: LinkedIn competes with Viadeo and Xing in Europe. Ryze used to be competition for LinkeIn in the USA but seems to be sliding into obscurity. See Alexa comparison. There's still room for competition in the business networking market.
PC PRO -- Nov 21 -- Facebook's policy could breach the Data Protection Act, which stipulates companies should not retain data for longer than is necessary. Facebook allows users to "deactivate" an account, however the company doesn't wipe all the user's data - including photos and messages - from its servers. FULL ARTICLE @ PC PRO
WEBWARE -- Nov 20 -- Flickr launched a new Places feature. It's a profile page for locations, letting users dig deep into both local photographers, and pictures taken around landmarks that have been matched up either by name, or geotags. Each places page also links up with other Yahoo services like Yahoo Weather, to show what the local time and temperature is alongside a detailed map. FULL ARTICLE @ WEBWARE
TECH CRUNCH -- Nov 19 -- Flux is a new social network, that was created via a partnership between Viacom and Social Project (formerly Tagworld). Flux launched the first key part of their platform called fshare, which allows users to share videos by placing it on other sites. Flux is similar to Ning. But the approach is different. Ning is drawing lots of users who are creating brand new networks, Flux is all about taking existing sites and turning them both into social networks as well as part of a bigger network of networks. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
IDG NEWS SERVICE -- Nov 20 -- Samy Kamkar was convicted for creating the first Web 2.0 worm, which forced MySpace to shut down in late 2005. Samy's worm forced more than 1 million users to declare him a "hero" on their profile pages. He talked to IDG News Service about what life has been like since his arrest and what he plans to do as soon as he's online again. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD
PRESS RELEASE -- Nov 20 -- Cassie Campbell, Canadian hockey player and spokesperson of Annesdiary.com, was interviewed by CTV's AM Canada. During the interview Ms Campbell highlighted the important aspects that young girls are protected and safe while online. Annesdiary.com is the first social networking site for children to employ secure biometric fingerprint technology to prevent access by non-verified members. FULL ARTICLE @ PRIME NEWSWIRE
Mark Brooks: Piczo is also for kids, and doesn't allow search. Kids can sign up and link to their real friends only.
GIGA OM -- Nov 20 -- Social network YowTRIP is for people who want to find travel buddies. Dopplr works well for people who travel frequently for business and want to meet up with people they already know. Vcarious, Virtual Tourist and myTripz are just three of the many other options targeting pleasure travelers rather than the professional crowd Dopplr suits. FULL ARTICLE @ GIGA OM
C NET NEWS -- Nov 19 -- Plaxo's numbers show a growth in 'connections' from 100 000 to over million since OpenSocial launched. Plaxo is a contant management that securely updates user's address books. Plaxo launched Pulse site in August which allows users to divide their contacts into business, friends and family. The VP of marketing, John McCrea, is expecting to see even more growth when Pulse is opened up to 20 million Plaxo's user base. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET NEWS
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK -- Nov 17 -- New children's social network called Moshi Monsters launched in UK. Moshi Monster is a group of cute or scary monsters kids can adopt. Once a monster is adopted within the game, it's up to the user to nurture it and be responsible for its wellbeing, creating what the site's founder, Michael Acton Smith, hopes is an emotional connection between pet and user, reinforced as the monster develops throughout the game. In US, websites for pre-teens are growing faster than adult-orientated sites and the big money is indeed with this market. Neopets, social network where kids can adopt a virtual pets, was acquired by Viacom in 2005 for $160 million (L80 million) and Club Penguin's by Disney for $350 million (L175 million) in August. Other popular children's social networks are Imbee.com, Barbiegirls.com. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
NEWSWIRE -- Nov 19 -- Social networking and online entertainment website, Capazoo.com, has implemented iovation's ReputationManager(TM) to ensure the integrity and safety of it's members. Capazoo.com is an online community with its own member-driven economy, empowering members to gain both personal recognition and to generate real money through their site participation. Capazoo will use iovation's device-based fraud management solution to identify and stop known online offenders in real-time before they can create fraud or engage in abusive or other inappropriate activities. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWSWIRE
