The full article was originally published at Search Engine Watch, but is no longer available.
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
MARKETING VOX — Oct 6 — Craigslist, which has been charging for classified jobs ads on its New York and Los Angeles sites since 2004, will begin charging employers a flat-rate fee of $25 per post in Boston, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
The full article was originally published at Marketing Vox, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Craigslist is one of the largest free personals sites. It currently has 75,000 active personals ads in San Francisco and 100,000 in NYC. Job ads are $75 in the S.F. Bay Area. Craigslist makes more $10 million+ a year of job ads. I just paid for a job ad listing there last week…and got several top notch responses. I highly recommend Craigslist…as do ten million others…which is exactly why Craigslist is a top 40 website. Craigslist started as an events list. (I put up my little site, Markslist.com, on my 35th birthday this week. An events list, to complement my efforts with Ace Club.)
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.
TECHCRUNCH BLOG — Oct 5 — Yelp (1,5 million uniques/mo) took $10 million in Series B funding from Benchmark. Yelp specializes in local reviews and competes with Judy's Book which raised $8 million from Mobius, Ignition and Ackerley last year. FULL ARTICLE @ TECHCRUNCH BLOG
Mark Brooks: Yahoo is moving differentiating itself from Google by focusing on social search. Sites like Yelp and Judy's Book are trying to bottle the 'friendly referral' in essence. Online dating services such as Engage, and GreatBoyfriends are also trying to provide 'friendly referrals.' Successful unisons between internet dating sites and social networking are non-existent. Connectors won't connect when there is a real and apparent commercial agenda, which is why sites like Yub.com and FriendFinder's internet dating meets social networking (Q3/Q4 2003) services never took off. The best internet dating sites can hope for is getting feedback/testimonials from other users.
REUTERS — Oct 5 — The average number of monthly visitors to U.S. newspaper websites rose by nearly a third in the first half of 2006 (to 55.5 million: Nielsen//Netratings), though print readership at some larger U.S. newspapers fell. Report by: Newspaper Association of America. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
Mark Brooks: Here’s a summary of a great report by Rate or Date on newspaper and internet dating distribution deals.
BUSINESS WEEK — Oct 5 — Skype's co-founders are preparing to unveil a video web site that combines professionally produced TV and video. theveniceproject.com will be available for download by the end of the year. The Venice Project is currently trying to convince media and TV companies to place their full-length, professionally produced content on the network, and advertisers that could place video ads on the network.
The full article was originally published at BusinessWeek, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Great Expectations allows members to view profile videos and charges thousands of dollars for membership. It's time for internet dating services to revisit video (and 'authenticate' users). There will be a significant paradigm shift around the meaning of 'TV' over the next two years as projects like Venice Project come online. Netflix/Blockbuster will offer streaming video. The 'tube' will be extinct within five years.
HIP MOJO BLOG — Oct 4 — YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley is looking to pull a Google on the $75 billion TV ad industry by introducing contextual ads. It currently sells its home page ads for $175,000 for 400,000 viewers. $5.25M a month for the home page. Its monthly bandwidth costs are rumoured to be in the region of $1 million each month. But, YouTube is far more of a legal risk than Napster ever was.
The full article was originally published at Hip Mojo Blog, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: You can be sure YouTube is trying to get into bed with the Warner Brothers of the world. The illusive 18-35 year old crowd will tune into the YouTubes of the world instead of TV eventually. Have you tried browsing YouTube for funny videos recently. It's addictive. There's something on everything, for everyone.
READ/WRITE BLOG — Oct 4 —del.icio.us will essentially turn into a social network, with more focus on people instead of data. The CEO recently stated, "I want to help people connect with others within the system, either to people they already know or discovering new people and communities based on interest."
The full article was originally published at Read Write Web, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Next – del.icio.us to offer personality profiling matchmaking based on bookmarks
READ/WRITE WEB BLOG — Oct 4 — Social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Here are a few social networks worth keeping an eye on: LinkedIn – For business networking. CollectiveX – Team collaboration. Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) said CollectiveX is social networking "the way it should have been done in the first place." PeopleAggregator – A meta social network system which enables you to connect other social networking services together. Wetpaint – Free hosted websites. A combination of "wikis, blogs, and social networks." e.g. WikiFido. Multiply – Sharing your life, with privacy. Imeem – Allows sharing blogs, photos, audio, and video.
What we require is a system that connects all social networks. i.e. Social groupware – like CollectiveX and PeopleAggregator.
The full article was originally published at Read Write Web, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Social networking will follow the same trajectory as internet dating. More niche sites will emerge. Users will have a presence on mainstream sites and add personas on niche sites. 'Profile portability' is needed but has never happened for dating sites. The sites want to lock in their userbase. Social networks, similarly, want to lock in their userbases. But they will take more heat from users for not allowing profiles to be ported to other sites. People like PeopleAggregator's founder (and Macromedia founder) Marc Canter have been pounding on the table for open networks and profile portability for a few years. Marc decided, if you can't join them, beat them, and developed PeopleAggregator independently.
WHARTON BLOG — Oct 4 — In January Facebook turned down a $750 million offer from Viacom and is now mulling over a $900 million offer from Yahoo. MySpace may be on pace to be worth $15 billion in three years? Even Google’s $120 billion market cap may reflect some irrational exuberance. Its shares sell for ~55X earnings, triple the PE ratio of the average S & P 500 company. Using the 55x ratio, MySpace would need about $270 million in annual profit to justify a $15 billion value. It’s expected to generate $200 million revenue this year. Facebook has nine million users and annual revenue of ~$50 million. At 55x earnings, it would need a $16 million profit to justify a $900 million price. FULL ARTICLE @ KNOWLEDGE WHARTON BLOG