Category: Outlets – San Francisco Chronicle

SF CHRONICLE — Apr 6 — Over the past few years, a number of Web sites — Spyspace, Trakzor, ProfileSnoop, MixMaps, WhosViewedMe — have sprung up to allow social networking site users to spy and be spied on. Most generate abit of HTML coding that their users plug into their MySpace profiles to collect IP addresses of visitors so they can then log on to spy sites and see who has been visiting. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

Mark Brooks: Anonymity anon. Friendster made people reveal their real identities rather than hide behind a username. Most people want to stay private, still, but the younger set are far more open. If it’s a social network then people generally reveal their identities. Online dating site users are not inclined to reveal their identities. The matchmaking business is strong now because of the elite group aspect, and safety/ background checks…and because many people have the money, but not the time to find a mate. Matchmaking clients spend $2k+ and go through a background checks with many services, which reduces the (perceived) chance of meeting a bad guy. Eventually some dating sites will brand on being more private, more choosy, and include an aspect of real matchmaking. Match is moving in that direction.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.com.

SF CHRONICLE — Apr 6 — Over the past few years, a number of Web sites — Spyspace, Trakzor, ProfileSnoop, MixMaps, WhosViewedMe — have sprung up to allow social networking site users to spy and be spied on. Most generate abit of HTML coding that their users plug into their MySpace profiles to collect IP addresses of visitors so they can then log on to spy sites and see who has been visiting. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

Mark Brooks: Anonymity anon. Friendster made people reveal their real identities rather than hide behind a username. Most people want to stay private, still, but the younger set are far more open. If it’s a social network then people generally reveal their identities. Online dating site users are not inclined to reveal their identities. The matchmaking business is strong now because of the elite group aspect, and safety/ background checks…and because many people have the money, but not the time to find a mate. Matchmaking clients spend $2k+ and go through a background checks with many services, which reduces the (perceived) chance of meeting a bad guy. Eventually some dating sites will brand on being more private, more choosy, and include an aspect of real matchmaking. Match is moving in that direction.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.com.

SF CHRONICLE — Nov 9 — For some users, losing ties to real life is the whole point of Second Life. But for others, the site is "a huge social network," with possibilities for offline business deals or potential face-to-face meetings. Catherine Smith, director of marketing at Linden Lab, said that Second Life’s members wholly determine the workings of their virtual world, which leads to great socializing opportunities. There.com (500k subscribers) is a similar site. FULL ARTICLE @ SFGATE

SF CHRONICLE — July 15 — Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey.  According to Harlequin Publishings annual romance report survey of 2,000 men and women in North America, 73% of women said "a sense of humor" was what attracted them to a man in the first place.  For more than 30 years, Thomas Technologies has provided services to help with corporate recruiting, interviewing skills and team building. Only recently has it moved into Internet dating. Director Patrick Marshall said, guys "see what she looks like, want to know if she is local, and if they could hook up. But women respond to the 250-word essay…They want to know, can he write? Is he amusing?" FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — Oct 23 — There's now a social network site for practically every subgroup. aSmallWorld.net is an invitation-only site for jetsetters. Dogster.com caters to dog owners. LinkedIn.com serves professionals. Friendster has about 19 million users. MySpace.com now boasts 33 million users. Facebook.com has grown to 8.3 million users and is the 11th most visited site on the Internet.  Among other things, each site is a treasure trove of consumer data. In May 2005, the Accel group, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm, bought a $12.2 million chunk of Facebook, which is currently valued at around $100 million. This month, Yahoo purchased Upcoming, a site that lets people publicly list and share their schedules of events with friends. In May 2005 Google bought Dodgeball; a site that brings social networking to mobile phones.  'Online social networking is in its infancy. There's a huge opportunity for players like Microsoft or Yahoo or Google to layer social networking applications on top of existing features, like utilizing existing buddy lists or saving e-mail addresses and connecting them to profiles. 'Social scientists ascribe the appeal of social networking sites to what they call "low cost." Rather than engage in long conversations to determine someone's favorite movie, for example, Facebook users can just glance at a profile and get a sense of the interests of the person living next door. But lots of low-cost friendships might mean lots of lower quality friendships. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE

Mark Brooks: Some social networks will morph into or be created as Personal Information Management systems to complement the likes of Outlook (or CRM, in the case of LinkedIn) to allow people to orgnise their networks of friends more easily.  Many social networks spur on the 'connectors' to connect with as many people as possible, turning their networks into popularity contests.  This creates a low focus, low integrity network.  Facebook is the best example of a high integrity, high utility social network; they masterfully limited connections to a core group of students/alumni.  This will ensure their success well into the future…and give classmates a run for their money.  Social networking is indeed still in it's infancy.