Month: December 2005

THE DAILY MONITOR — Dec 29 — Mark Musoke of Global Internet café says that online dating has become as much a part of peoples' lives as the Internet is. What makes online dating even more fascinating are the high levels of privacy that are maintained. Most dating sites keep the details of their clients private and allow users to report incidents of harassment.  Dating online is very convenient and a lot more comfortable than real life experience. Online dating grants women security from premature physical advances from men, granting them and opportunity to study the date well before getting involved in a serious relationship. 

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS — Dec 28 — Davis, a media professor at UC Berkeley, has been given the keys to perhaps the biggest real-world lab in the world, Yahoo.  As head of Yahoo's new social media research lab in Berkeley, Davis has been tasked with helping Yahoo chart a course through the rapidly evolving world of "social media" from blogs and social networking services to interactive mobile devices.  Yahoo is aiming to build a technological playground where individuals can create and share their own content, from audio "podcasts" and blogs to message groups and photo albums.  Yahoo's focus has expanded to a "social search" concept. It allows people to search the subset of Web sites that friends and acquaintances have found interesting and annotated with their thoughts and comments.  Yahoo launched a social networking and blogging service called 360 this year, recently acquired Upcoming.org, an events calendar assembled entirely by the public, and has plans to let people create and share their own audio podcasts. It recently began including blog content in its news section, elevating grass-roots journalism and writing closer to mainstream media.

The full article was originally published at Middle East North Africa Financial Network News, but is no longer available. 

CBS NEWS — Dec 27 — A grandmother of eight, Marilyn Rogers may very well be a poster girl for online dating. Men are clamoring to meet this groovy granny. On the day Murphy visited her, she had 153 messages. That’s a lot of guys who think she’s hot. "The Internet has given me a lot of confidence," she says "I’ve always had confidence, but now I’m just better than ever."  FULL ARTICLE @ CBS NEWS

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD — Dec 26 — For a growing number of workers, more networking happens online rather than over martinis. Sites such as LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, Spoke.com, and Friendster.com all foster networks that let members multiply their connections exponentially. Linkedin differs from other networking communities in its business emphasis and more conservative approach. 

The full article was originally published at Omaha World-Herald, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: It's a shame Ryze isn't mentioned in this article.  Linkedin and Ryze are my favorite business networks.  Linkedin has been invaluable for business development work. 

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. 

The full article was originally published at Tahlequah Daily Press, but is no longer available.

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

MEDIA POST — Dec 22 — Google will pay $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL. The deal more deeply integrates AOL's content pages into the Google network, and allows the AOL sales force to sell image ads that will appear within Google's AdSense network of publishers. One of Google's goals is to become more of a comprehensive one-stop shop for media buyers. 

The full article was originally published at Media Post, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: AOL is partnered with Match.com for online personals.  Google comes one step closer to Match.com.