Social Networking Hits Investing

Social Networking Hits Investing:
"Social Networking Hits Investing More investors are meeting and sharing ideas in online trading communities. Should you base your portfolio moves on the wisdom of crowds?"

Your Social Network Can Make You Skinny! (Wellsphere Blog)

Your Social Network Can Make You Skinny! (Wellsphere Blog): "Your Social Network Can Make You Skinny! Harvard researchers prove that being part of a social network of people getting in shape can help you lose weight! San Francisco, Calif., August 16, 2007 — A groundbreaking study released by the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that weight loss can spread from person to person through social networks of friends and families. The study showed the same effect for weight gain and weight loss, finding that “the relevance of social influence also suggests that it may be possible to harness this same force to slow the spread of obesity. “Network phenomena might be exploited to spread positive health behaviors… People are connected, and so their health is connected.” This mirrors the model underlying Wellsphere (www.wellsphere.com ), an online community recently launched by Stanford graduates that is specifically designed for people to help each other eat better, lose weight get fit and unwind"

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

There is about 15 different sites available:

"Web 2.0 Invites for August 23rd, 2007 August 23, 2007 — 01:30 AM PDT — by Pete Cashmore — Share This — 6 Comments masinvites.PNG Happy Thursday, fellow early adopter. Invites await!"

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

"Yahoo Teachers: Social Network for Teachers August 23, 2007 — 11:37 AM PDT — by Pete Cashmore — Share This — 3 Comments yteachers.PNG Yahoo is building a combination of social network, collaborative space and (most of all), lesson plan creator for educators called Yahoo Teachers."

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog

Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog: "YouTube Users Hate Ads; Won’t Make Money Anyway August 23, 2007 — 12:33 PM PDT — by Pete Cashmore — Share This — 3 Comments vidads.PNG The reactions are in from YouTube users about the addition of video ads, and it’s a wholly negative response. Part of the issue is that the YouTube blog tried to spin this as a way of putting users in control (obviously unwanted ads provide less control, not more), and partly it’s the end of the free lunch that YouTube has given users thus far. Some selected responses to the announcement:"

Looking To Invest In Social Media? Check Out Classmates Media's IPO (Social Networking Stats also)

Looking To Invest In Social Media? Check Out Classmates Media's IPO

Something a little bit different. Notice the visitation numbers in the graph:

Larry Dignan ( ZDNet) submits: United Online's (UNTD ) Classmates Media (CLAS) unit filed for a $125 million IPO in what could be a good litmus test for social media plays on Wall Street. Classmates isn't Facebook ( all resources), but does have enough name recognition to garner interest for investors looking to buy into the social media hubbub.

The company plans to trade under the ticker "CLAS" and has lined up some heavyweight investment bankers-Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank.

With the IPO it appears that Classmates is trying to front run some buzz ahead of social media peers such as Facebook and LinkedIn. MySpace is already part of Rupert Murdoch's empire. Classmates, which seems like it has been around forever, has 50 million registered user accounts as of June 30 and 2.7 million paid accounts.

Not too shabby for a site I've basically left for dead aside from a few visits following email prodding. It's also not bad for a site that doesn't rank among the top global social sites, according to Comscore. Classmates Media also includes MyPoints, a loyalty marketing service with 8.4 million members as of June 30.

After the IPO, United Online will control the company's Class B shares and Classmates. Classmates' IPO filing didn't detail how much United Online will own. United Online , which also owns NetZero, acquired Classmates in November 2004. MyPoints went public in 1999, and was acquired by United Airlines' parent in 2001. United Media then bought MyPoints in April 2006.

As for the financial outlook, Classmates Media is running a small loss. For the quarter ending March 30, the company had a net loss of $250,000 on revenue of $42.4 million. For 2006, the company had a profit of $171,000 on revenue of $152 million. The annual results are on a pro forma basis as if MyPoints and Classmates had been combined. Both were subsidiaries of United Online.

The biggest risk factor mentioned by Classmates is competition with the usual suspects. From the SEC filing:

Our social networking services compete with a wide variety of social networking Web sites, including broad social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook; a number of specialty Web sites, including LinkedIn, Reunion.com and Monster.com 's (MNST) Military.com service, that offer similar online social networking services based on school, work or military communities; and an increasing number of schools, employers and associations that maintain their own Internet-based alumni information services.

And...

Our MyPoints loyalty marketing business faces competition for members from several other loyalty programs that offer competitive online products and services, including Ebates, Upromise and ThankYou Network. We also face competition from offline loyalty rewards programs that have a significant online presence, such as those operated by credit card, airline and hotel companies.

The company's plan seems to be increasing and maintaining paying subscribers, a tough chore considering "only a small percentage of members initially registering for our social networking services sign up for a paid subscription at the time of registration."

I have seen a few folks pay for Classmates.com, but it takes repeated emails. More often than not people try Classmates, but don't buy. To wit:

The number of free members returning to our Web sites has been decreasing, and if we were to continue to experience such decreases, it would likely adversely impact our number of paying subscribers.

Bottom line: From United Online's perspective the IPO is a nice move to monetize Classmates at what could be the peak of the social media buzz. For investors, the deal may not be such a no-brainer.

Twitter, new features - Introducing People Search

Via email:

Hello Twitter-ers,

It's new feature season and we're starting with People Search.
This new Twitter feature is great for finding more people to
follow because it searches profile information such as name,
location, bio, and url. Come on by and find out if your friends
are already Twittering and you just didn't know it! The search
field is on the right side of Twitter when you sign in:
http://twitter.com

Twitter & MTV

We're partnering with MTV for the Video Music Awards next month.
They have some fun ideas which involve artists and celebrities
including the MTV Moonman twittering from Las Vegas during the
whole weekend leading up to the VMA broadcast on Sunday,
September 9th. Also, Twitter's gonna be on TV! We're looking
forward to it. The artists who will be joining Twitter are popular
and you can get their updates by following the Video Music Awards
on Twitter.

Follow VMA: http://twitter.com/vma

Nelson is Twitter Family

Speaking of celebrities, the genius behind Google's Search API is
Nelson Minar. Nelson left Google a while back but joined Twitter
months ago as a permanent advisor. Nelson continues to provide us
with engineering advice, helps us work through scaling and
infrastructure details, and in general brings more engineering
"gravitas" to our operation. Nelson is a such valued part of the
Twitter team we gave him an iPhone preloaded with all our phone
numbers. So yeah, Nelson rocks. http://twitter.com/nelson

A Fine Frenzy

Alison Sudol is the young musician behind A Fine Frenzy and it's
been really fun following her on tour for her first album, One
Cell in The Sea. Some of us from Twitter listened to her sing when
she came to San Francisco and had the opportunity to say hello to
Alison and her grandmother who she brought to the show. Her
grandmother told us she prints out every twitter Alison makes and
worries when she skips a day. (She also prints out Barack Obama's
twitters.)

Follow Alison: http://twitter.com/afinefrenzy

We don't recommend everyone print out Twitter updates as it's not
ecologically sustainable. However, when Alison's grandmother does
it, it's awesome. Okay, that's all for now.

Happy Twittering!
Biz Stone and the Twitter Team
http://twitter.com/biz

MTV Networks to invest big money in games | Tech News on ZDNet

MTV Networks to invest big money in games | Tech News on ZDNet

MTV Networks to invest big money in games Reuters Published on ZDNet News: Aug 16, 2007 2:11:00 PM TalkBack * Share o Digg o Del.ico.us * Print * Email * * + 1 1 Tags: Reuters, Games MTV Networks plans to invest well over $500 million in video games, seeing the red-hot entertainment category as a major pillar of growth in its goal to reach consumers wherever they spend time. The two-year investment is part of a global strategy to incorporate games development at the inception of all new programming plans and not as an afterthought, executives say.

Mobile Social Networking: $6 B by 2012

Mobile Social Networking: $6 B by 2012

"Mobile Social Networking: $6 B by 2012


User-generated revenues from social networking sites are expected to grow exponentially as users go mobile by Gemma Simpson Related Items * Leader: Is it safer to hide cash under your mattress? * Editor's Blog: Tech improves... but we don't? * The Weekly Round-Up: 22.06.07 * The CIOs transforming government IT * Bloggers driving change in Egypt Story Tools * post a comment * e-mail this story * print this story * order a reprint * digg this * save to del.icio.us partner logo Social networking fans will drive mobile user-generated content revenues to nearly $6bn by 2012. User-generated revenues from social networking services, dating and content uploaded to third party sites will increase from $572m in 2007 to more than $5.7bn in 2012, analyst house Juniper Research predicts. Social networking is expected to bring in half of the $5.7bn total revenue by the end of the 2012 forecast period, according to Juniper."

Failure of Second Life's Ginko Financial Leads to Calls for Regulation

Failure of Second Life's Ginko Financial Leads to Calls for Regulation

Bank Failure in Second Life Leads to Calls for Regulation By Bryan Gardiner

The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a 'virtual investment bank' in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse. Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.

Wikipedia is only as anonymous as your IP

Wikipedia is only as anonymous as your IP: "Wikipedia is only as anonymous as your IP Virgil Griffith, a good friend and fellow hacker, reminds us today that anonymity on the internet does not really exist. With his newly released search tool Wikiscanner, you can search an index of 35 million Wikipedia edits by IP, allowing you to find edits coming from within organizations like the CIA or the EFF (bonus if you can find something about Kevin Bankston smoking)."

STUNNING: Facebook on the iPhone

STUNNING: Facebook on the iPhone - Go to themob.facebook.com on your iPhone or web browser to behold what might be the best iPhone app so far.

I think stunning may be pushing it a bit. , but it is very good, esp. that fast.

Apple's new iMac - Engadget

Apple's new iMac - Engadget:



Who could've seen this one coming? Apple surprised no one this morning with brand new iMacs. Built from aluminum and glass, the new all-in-one desktops feature a complete, slimmer redesign and will come in two sizes: 20-inch and 24-inch. There's the usual compliment of ports like USB 2.0, Firewire 400 / 800, a slot loading SuperDrive, iSight camera and so forth. The new look features a glossy display to match the majority of Apple's consumer lineup, and new keyboards are indeed coming along for the ride -- in an extended wired version as well as a mini wire free model, running the Bluetooth 2.0 spec. Under the hood Apple has up to a 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics, up to 1TB of storage, 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0, with 8x SuperDrives and 1GB of RAM standard across the board. Prices start at $1,199 for the 20-inch, $1,499 for a processor and graphics bump, $1,799 for the 24-incher and $2,299 for Core 2 Extreme. The full rundown of Apple's stock models is after the break."

Education 2.0: The College Student's Guide to File Sharing

Education 2.0: The College Student's Guide to File Sharing: "Education 2.0: The College Student's Guide to File Sharing"

College: You finally made it. But now that you're here, how should you spend your first few weeks at school?

Filling up the hard drive of your brand-new Toshiba R500 with loads of music and video files, that's how -- harnessing the full file-sharing power of a high-speed university-class network?

But how? Is it safe? Legal? Faster than asking your parents to burn a few DVDs and put them into their monthly care package?

Excellent questions -- the mark of a true student. Welcome to File Sharing 101.

Digg - Best. Ad. Ever

Digg - Best. Ad. Ever

This ad is in the latest issue of Linux Journal has been run before (in 2000), and it offended some folks. Well, that didn't stop them from running it again.

Not really social networking, at all, but, funny.

A simple introduction to social networking (and some more up and coming sites)

The year is 2007 and the most popular meeting place on earth is the World Wide Web! Just what does this mean? Quite simply that there are millions and millions of internet users that are connecting to each other online and creating “virtual meeting places”. Whether you are a chess enthusiast or an avid cook, whether you collect rare insects or are devoted to keeping up with the latest fashion trends, or even if you simply enjoy being in touch with people around the world, there is a virtual gathering place for almost every interest and taste.

For an affiliate, the potential contained in these social networks is enormous. With their rate of growth, the possibility of gaining new customers and establishing relationships with potential partners within specific verticals is endless. A large number of networking sites make it easy to find users that are interested in similar topics, which means a marketer can find profiles and networks of users suited for their particular vertical(s) with relative ease. Growth and profits derived from social networks start with a proper understanding of these social portals.

Tips:

• Start by getting to know the biggest and most popular networks.
• As you get more comfortable, identify social networks within your vertical(s).
• Become an avid participant in the area(s) you have identified.
• Beware of the hard sell.
• Have a creative site that has original content and is in tune with the target audience.
• 
  

It is advisable to spend a good amount of time perusing some of the bigger existing social networks. This will allow you to understand the inner workings of these sites and to get to know their specific lingo – key factors in getting you comfortable enough to become an avid participant. LinkedIn, a profile-based website, is one of the fastest growing networking sites for professionals. An affiliate can benefit from LinkedIn by creating their own profile which highlights their main portals and the programs they have worked with successfully in the past. Using a service like LinkedIn allows affiliates to reach not only affiliate and marketing managers, but can also help establish relationships with other sites with which they may want to partner or provide co-registration services.

The hottest social network sites:

Digg ~ http://www.digg.com
Myspace ~ http://www.myspace.com
LinkedIn ~ http://www.linkedin.com
Del.Icio.Us ~ http://del.icio.us
Newsvine.com ~ http://www.newsvine.com
StumbleUpon.com ~ http://www.stumbleupon.com
Yahoo 360 ~ http://360.yahoo.com

Growing social network sites:

RepVine ~ www.repvine.com
Netscape ~ www.netscape.com
MyBlogLog ~ www.mybloglog.com
Magnolia ~ http://ma.gnolia.com

For the intrepid affiliate that is on the continuous search for new and innovative opportunities, tapping into social networks is a great strategy. After all, the internet is all about relationships – building relationships, expanding the boundaries of existing relationships and creating communities where the relationship sky is limitless.

Sulake Enters The Social Networking Market – Acquires a Highly Successful Social Networking Service in Finland with Intention to Launch Internationall

The company behind easy-to-use virtual world Habbo expands its product portfolio and becomes the largest online community company in the Nordics.
Helsinki, Finland (rushprnews) April 24, 2007 — Sulake Corporation, the company behind Habbo, one of the world’s largest virtual worlds for teenagers, takes a strong step towards the social networking scene by acquiring Finland’s leading social networking service IRC-Galleria.

The acquisition makes Sulake the biggest company in online communities and virtual worlds in the Nordic region. Sulake’s online services now reach more young people than any other media in Finland.

Sulake’s long-term goal has been to broaden its product portfolio with new online services, which can be launched internationally by utilizing the unique international network Sulake has built for Habbo. Currently Sulake has offices in 19 countries with a staff of over 300, over 150 payment methods in 32 countries, global hosting centers as well as distribution and marketing partners all over the world.

The objective of the deal is to launch a new social networking service based on IRC-Galleria concept to carefully selected countries using Sulake’s infrastructure and experience. The IRC-Galleria concept has localized versions already in Russia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany.

Timo Soininen, CEO of Sulake Corporation: ”Sulake’s objective is to become a major global player in online entertainment by focusing on virtual worlds and social networking services. We want to build a portfolio of products, which offer a wide range of social interaction services and entertainment for different target groups and for different user needs. Our new service IRC-Galleria fits this goal perfectly. The company behind the service and its skilled employees together with Sulake’s current resources gives us a magnificent opportunity to build up a new internationally successful social networking service. Sulake has managed to make Habbo one the most spectacular success stories in the area of virtual worlds and communities and I’m confident we can do this again.”

Taneli Tikka, CEO of Dynamoid comments: ”Our service has always been about real and active users. Our average user spends more than 20 hours in the service monthly, which is over ten times more than an average user in MySpace. An active IRC-Galleria user spends more than 35 hours per month using the service. Being a part of the Sulake group gives us a perfect chance to develop our business for international markets. We are thrilled about the opportunity to join the international network that Sulake offers.”

2.2 billion monthly page impressions in IRC-Galleria

IRC-Galleria is by far the largest and most used social networking service in Finland. The site is visited by more than 850 000 Finns every week (source: TNS Metrix) and the service has over 415 000 active members. The site receives an astonishing 2.2 billion monthly page impressions, which makes it one of the most active online communities in the world.

IRC-Galleria is an interactive service where users can e.g. post and share their photos and music on their own customized site, joint different communities and communicate with people in many ways. Currently the members are on average 19.5 years old and over half of the registered are over 18. Basic usage of IRC-Gallery is free, but users have an option to purchase additional services and enhancements. The service can also be used with a mobile phone. (wap.irc.fi)

Finland: http://irc-galleria.net/
Russia: http://my-gallery.ru/
Germany: http://ircgalerie.net/
Estonia: http://minugalerii.ee/
Lithuania: http://manogalerija.lt

Habbo has over 75 million registered avatars

Sulake’s main product Habbo, one of the world’s largest and most popular virtual worlds for teenagers, has already over 76 million registered avatars. Currently operating in 29 countries, the Habbo communities are visited by 7 million users per month, each user spending an average of over 30 minutes per session in the virtual world and community.

For more information please contact:
Sulake Corporation Oy, Timo Soininen, CEO, tel. + 358 50 564 8269

Dynamoid Oy, Taneli Tikka, CEO, tel. +358 40 771 9828

General press contact:
Sulake Corporation Oy, Juhani Lassila, Communications Manager, tel. +358 40 541 2365

Press images: http://irc-galleria.net/press

About Sulake:
Sulake is an online entertainment company focused on virtual worlds and social networking. Sulake’s main product is Habbo, one of the world’s fastest growing virtual worlds and online communities for teenagers. There are localized Habbo communities in 29 countries on five continents. To date over 76 million Habbo characters have been created and 7 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month (source: Nielsen Netratings). Habbo brand is being extended to include mobile games and content as well as real-life products.

Sulake was established in 2000 and it has more than doubled its annual revenues each year. The main shareholders in Sulake include Taivas Group, Elisa Group, 3i Group plc, and Benchmark Capital followed by Movida Group (in Japan), the company’s founders Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä, Sulake’s CEO Timo Soininen and other personnel.

Sulake has offices in 19 countries. Headquarters is situated in Helsinki, Finland. Currently the company has 300 employees worldwide.

www.sulake.com
www.habbo.com

About Dynamoid
Dynamoid Oy is a company behing Finland’s most popular social networking service IRC-Gallery. The company was founded in 2003 and has grown significantly every year. Currently the company has 27 employees and besides the Finnish IRC-Galleria, the company has opened services in Russia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany. The company’s product portfolio also includes the Dark Portal game community, aimed at World of Warcraft players.

Blogs, social networks used by the wealthy

Marketers wanting to make inroads to wealthy clientele should target blogs and social networks. That, according to a new study which indicates that the wealthy in America are interacting on social networking sites and reading blogs more than the general public.

According to a recent survey from the Luxury Institute, a full 76% of wealthy Americans are reading blogs. That is up from 57% in the 2005 study. Also interesting is that more wealthy Americans are blogging themselves (24%), up from 18% in 2005.

Compare that with the median income Americans and it is clear that those with more money appear to be more interested in technological advances. According to the report, only 25% of the general American population read blogs and only 9% maintain their own blogs.

Instant messaging is also a mode of communication that more wealthy Americans are using (55%) than the general public (39%). Also, 31% of wealthy Americans are active on a social networking site compared with only 16% of the general public.

For the study, the Luxury Institute polled 1,000 web users making $150,000 or more each year.

This is a clear indication that marketers with high-end merchandise need to accommodate the wealthy in their online advertising campaigns. Rather than simply purchases display ads on supposed-high-end websites, marketers may get a better response from advertising within the social mediums - advertising within high-traffic blogs or on social networks.

John Edwards + Social Networking

Much has been said about the candidates and social networking, however, I just think what they did here was really a good approach:

http://johnedwards.com/action/networking/

list of social networking sites

Check here for all the latest, I will repost as I find them:

Name	Description/Focus
43 Things	Tagging
Advogato	Free Software and Open Source developers
aSmallWorld	European jet set and social elite
BlackPlanet.com	African-Americans
Bebo	Schools and colleges
Blue Dot	Link sharing
Broadcaster.com	Video sharing and webcam chat
Blurty	Blogs, based on LiveJournal
Bolt	General (music and video)
CarDomain	Car enthusiasts
Care2	Green living and activism
Classmates.com	School, college, work and the military
Consumating	"Consumeetings"
Couchsurfing	"Couchsurfing"
Cyworld	Young South Koreans
Dandelife	Collective narratives or "shared biographies"
DeadJournal	"Dark" blogs, based on LiveJournal
Dodgeball.com	Mobile location-based service, owned by Google
DontStayIn	Clubbing (primarily UK)
Doostang	Careers
Ecademy	Business
eSPIN	Teen Dating
Facebook	College/High School students
Faceparty	British teens and 20-somethings
Flirtomatic	Flirting/Dating
Flickr	Photo sharing
Fotki	Photo sharing
Friends Reunited	School, college, work, sport and streets
Friendster	General
Frühstückstreff	General
FUPEI	General (Photo, Video, Music, Games, Event, and Chat Room)
Gaia Online	Anime and Games
Gazzag	General
Geni.com	Families, genealogy
GoPets	Virtual pets
Graduates.com	School, college, and work
GreatestJournal	Blogs, based on LiveJournal
Grono.net	Poland
Hi5	General
Hyves	General; focus on students and Dutch speakers
imeem	Instant messaging
IMVU	3D chat software
IRC-Galleria	Finland
iWiW	Hungary
Joga Bonito	Football (soccer)
JuiceCaster	General
Last.fm	Music
LinkedIn	Business
LiveJournal	Blogging
LunarStorm	Sweden
MEETin	General
Meetup.com	General
MiGente.com	Latinos
Mixi	Japan
MOG	Music
Multiply	"Real world" relationships
MySpace	General
myYearbook	General
Netlog	European young adults (14-24). Formerly known as Facebox.
Nexopia	Canada
orkut	Owned by Google
Passado	General
Phrasebase	Foreign Languages (education)
Piczo	Teenagers, Canadians, photo sharing
Playahead	Swedish teenagers
ProfileHeaven	British teens
RateItAll	Consumer ratings + social networking
Reunion.com	Locating friends and family, keeping in touch
Rimzu	Sociometric rankings
Ringo.com	General
Ryze	Business
Sconex	American high schools
Sportsvite	Recreational Sports
Studivz	University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries
Stumbleupon	Websurfing
TagWorld	General (tagging)
TakingITGlobal	Social action
The Student Center	Teens and colleges
Threadless	Custom T-shirts
Travellerspoint	Travel
Tribe.net	General
Twitter	Update friends with your status through SMS, IM, web interfaces
Vampire Freaks	Gothic industrial culture
Vox	Blogging
WAYN	Travel & Lifestyle
WebBiographies	Genealogy & Biography
Windows Live Spaces	Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces)
Xanga	Blogs and "metro" areas
XING	Business
Xuqa	Colleges
Yahoo! 360°	Linked to Yahoo! IDs
Yelp	United States adults
Zaadz	Social consciousness