Latest Social Networking News

Yahoo!'s Not-So-Dormant Social Network
Motley Fool - USA
Mail accounts as a "dormant social network" just waiting to be awakened. Yahoo! Mail is a workhorse. Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Hotmail may be time-tested ...
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Social Network Site Benefits.
4Hoteliers - Wanchai,Hong Kong
By Ron McNeil Make your social network earn money for you - Choose the right social network software to design your website, and provide the right kind of ...
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Aggregating social network data
NetworkWorld.com - Southborough,MA,USA
There was an interesting controversy last week involving Facebook and Plaxo. Robert Scoble was using a script in an unreleased feature of Plaxo Pulse that ...
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imeem Teams With MTV Networks to Bring Expansive Library of MTVN ...
Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco,CA,USA
... the imeem community can share their tastes with friends and fans on imeem and across the Web. imeem is the first social network to partner with all four ...
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South Africa: Ten Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2008
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
It is also reasonable to expect a local rise in "social network marketing", something that may sound as foreign now as email marketing or online campaigns ...
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Where is the real Google Reader social network?
By Johnt
In this post I mentioned FeedEachOther, this is a true RSS Reader social network…Google Reader could make my day and take a look at this brilliant site. For more on Feed Each Other (FEO), take a look at my post Feed Each Other : the ...
Library clips - http://libraryclips.blogsome.com

Comment on Facebook: A call for openness by Wikinomics » Blog ...
By Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Decentralization...
Decentralization of the Social Network This is a follow up to Mike Dover’s posting on Facebook: A Call for Openness. […]
Comments for Wikinomics - http://www.wikinomics.com/blog

New Business Social Network, Now Open!
I am sure you have all heard about Social Networking. I am sure most of you have your own page at MySpace.How many of you have heard of Business Social Networking? Have you ever wished that their was a MySpace for Business? ...
Digg / upcoming - http://digg.com/

DrupalDojo.com and "social network"
By add1sun@drupal.org
One phrase that has been tossed out there for dd.com is "a social network for drupal wannabes" but I feel that the Drupal community is the social network for drupal wannabes and making some distinction for the Dojo that requires a ...
Drupal Dojo - http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo

Chinese Mobile Social Network Pica Gets $10 Million Funding
By rali@paidcontent.org (Rafat Ali)
Pica, a Chinese mobile social networking service, has received $10 million in its third round of financing. The round was led by Crosslink Capital, IDG Venture Capital and BlueRun Venture Capital, reports Redline China. ...
mocoNews.net - http://www.moconews.net/

Plaxo, Facebook, and Google go 'open' by joining DataPortability.org

In the wake of last week's explosion of attention on data portability on social networks, (that is, being able to take your data from one social network to the other) there is a huge development today. Google, Facebook, and Plaxo have all announced they're joining DataPortability.org.

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/01/08/plaxo-facebook-and-google-go-open-by-joining-dataportability/

Study Labels Social Networking Types

ySpace commissioned a study of MySpace and Facebook users and researchers identified six types. They also invented a word or two along the way.Some of those words include "mindies," "cheemos," "slash/slash kids," "rudettes," "double dressers," "toystep" and "power pop,":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/07/myspace.digitalmedia?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Social networking websites have become the hub for the UK's cultural underground, with a new generation turning to the likes of MySpace to make money, collaborate on creative projects and share ideas with their friends, according to a study.

An extensive social networking research project commissioned by MySpace has identified a host of emerging trends and tribes that the website says have previously gone undetected by the mainstream.

Researchers from the Future Laboratory set up a "virtual hide" in MySpace over six weeks, interviewing 1,000 users who explained how they define themselves as part of groups including "mindies", "cheemos"', "slash/slash kids" and "rudettes".

Mindies are teetotal under-18s who follow the teen bands Pull in Emergency, Lion Club and Kid 4077; cheemos combine chav and goth looks (the word is a cross between chav and emo); and slash/slash kids are multi-skilled MySpacers who like to create their own music and fashion. Rudettes follow Lily Allen's rude-girl style.

The study, MySpace 08: People. Content. Culture., also identified "double dressers" - friends who co-ordinate matching or complementary outfits.

Hot on the heels of the nu-rave fad last year, MySpace's musicians are creating their own music genres, including "toystep" - dance music made with plastic kids' toys; and "power pop" - a mix of rock, hip-hop and rave.

Researchers picked up hot tips for 2008 bands, including the toystep band Partyshank, rockabilly band Peggy Sue and the Pirates, and the Glaswegian indie/folk/pop band Make Me a Model.

Future Laboratory identified six types of MySpace user, classifying 38% as "essentialists", who primarily use social networking sites to stay in touch with friends.

Just under a third, 28%, are "transumers" – those who follow new trends rather than make them.

Around 10% are "connectors", who specialise in identifying and linking to cool content; and 5% are "collaborators", who create events and projects online by teaming up with other users.

One in 20 MySpace users get their thrills from "scene breaking" – hunting down new bands and talent online and sharing that through the site; and 4% classify themselves as "netrepreneurs", who use social networking sites to make money.

Future Laboratories also profiled a number of individuals who use MySpace as a platform to promote and develop their businesses.

The underground, hand-photocopied magazine Fever Zine coordinates contributors and subscribers through its MySpace page.

Fever Zine has 5,000 friends and a cult following; editor Alex Zamora said MySpace was essential to help find the new talent that he wants to feature in the lo-fi publication.

Researchers also focused on the fashion stylist Richard Shoyemi, who has secured work with Italian and Japanese Vogue through his MySpace exposure.

"They are essentially buying into me as a person as well as a talent, which all comes from my celebrity status on MySpace.

"I feel in order to expand as a brand it's important to reach out to all; everyone who expressed interest in me is important in my eyes," Shoyemi said.

Slash/slash kid Paul Griffiths started designing and selling T-shirts through the site and now employs three friends. He has sold 10,000 garments so far.

With a talent for self-promotion, 20-year-old Griffiths says he is completely self-taught and that his MySpace business has allowed him to ditch a career in telesales.

"We get up to 1,000 friend requests a day but only ever confirm a small number of the coolest MySpacers," he said.

Social networking sites have evolved beyond their original purpose of communication, said the report, to become "highly articulate, heavily visual, extremely collaborative and creative hubs, which have become for many a vibrant and engaging way to keep up to date with, and comment upon, changes in the cultural scene".

MySpace's "culturpreneurial" culture is part of the maturing of the internet economy, the research concludes, enabling users to collaborate to create, sellers and buyers.

"It is a mass experiment in collaborative creativity and cross-cultural pleasure and enjoyment, where the end goal is a currency of a different, and some would argue far more vibrant, sort," said the report.

"Social networking is entirely about playing, experimenting and redefining our understanding of creativity."