Category: Uncategorized

University Plans Psych Study of Social Networks

Posted on September 1, 2006

YouthUNITED PRESS INT. — Sep 1 — Researchers at USF plan to conduct a study on the psychosocial effects of Internet social networks on youth. Suicide is the third most common cause of death among those 15 to 24. The team hopes that understanding how young people communicate about suicide online could help build prevention initiatives. FULL ARTICLE @ PHYSORG

Mark Brooks: …and hopefully if social networks contribute or allay kids motivation to commit suicide. I’ll contact them and see if I can get more info on this study.

YouTube Launches Colleges Service

Posted on September 1, 2006

Logo_youtube_1NMA.CO.UK — Sep 1 — YouTube is going up against Facebook by launching Colleges on YouTube, offering students and staff closed networks through which they can contact each other and watch videos.  The service launched yesterday serving over 30 US colleges.

Mark Brooks: The student market is the largest hyper-viral ‘niche’ market around. Moms, is another great market. Minti, amongst others, serves that market well. 

McAfee Warns of ‘SMiShing’ Wttacks From Dating SMS

Posted on August 31, 2006

PC ADVISOR — Aug 29 — Some mobile phone users have started receiving an SMS that reads: "We're confirming you've signed up for our dating service. You will be charged $2/day unless you cancel your order," David Rayhawk wrote in the McAfee Avert Labs blog. The message includes a URL that, if clicked on, downloads a Trojan horse that could allow a web-enabled phone to be controlled by hackers.

The full article was originally published at PC Advisor, but is no longer available.

Pincus Back at Tribe’s Helm; Pledges “New Direction”

Posted on August 31, 2006

Tribeg_1SILICON BEAT — Aug 28 — Mark Pincus declared on the Tribe site: "…as of today jan and the board are gone. i've taken over tribe and you're going to see big changes fast like getting rid of this big stupid masthead and returning tribe to the users where it belongs."  Mark is the only board member, is in full control and will be taking Tribe in "a new direction." Tribe will focus on grownups. Before Mark came back into the picture a few months ago, Tribe's previous CEO Jan Gullet was trying to sell the company, but Tribe never got the deal it wanted. Investors at Friendster reportedly did the same, trying to sell for $18 million or so, before throwing the towel, restarting, and now doing quite well. FULL ARTICLE @ SILICON BEAT

Mark Brooks: Long time Friendster C-level and investor, Kent Lindstrom is turning around Friendster.  Mark will do the same with Tribe. Jonathan Abrams (Friendster CEO), meanwhile, is working on Socializr. 

Paltalk Social Network: Video, Voice, IM

Posted on August 28, 2006

PaltalkPR WEB — Aug 25 — Paltalk (four million active members) launched Paltalk People 2.0, with video, voice and text chat. People 2.0 users can build video chat communities. The Paltalk Messenger is free and lets users chat with people on the People 2.0 site, existing Paltalkers, and friends on AOL, Yahoo and ICQ buddy lists. Since 1998 the company has grown to become one of the most popular online services with more than 42 million downloads accounting for eight billion voice minutes per year. Paltalk has 250 volunteer moderators making sure discussions are open and appropriate, and also operates web conferencing service HearMe. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Delightful New Social Network, OurStory

Posted on August 25, 2006

Our_storyOPW — Aug 25 — A friend referred me to OurStory.com, which allows users to upload a multimedia chronology of their life. The free service allows photos and social networking. The paid service allows video. Thought provoking questions help open up users lives one easy question at a time. "What childhood memory still makes you laugh, even today?" "Describe your circle of friends around the time of your thirtieth birthday." OurStory is a delightful (and viral) social network geared towards the mature ( i.e. non-teens) audience. – Mark Brooks

MySpace Founder Invests in China

Posted on August 24, 2006

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER — Aug 24 — Brad Greenspan founded eUniverse in 1999, which housed dozens of Internet sites including MySpace. He objected to the $580 million sale of MySpace to News Corp. (revenue was skyrocketing, the price tag was too low) and has now trained his sights on China.  He's founded BroadWebAsia, which has in turn taken stakes in 20 Chinese Internet companies that focus on entertainment and — like MySpace — social networking. Brad credits the promotional power of the eUniverse sites, in particular its dating sites, for allowing MySpace to overrun Friendster. His China investments so far have ranged from $200,000-$3 million and all have been financed through BroadWebAsia, which employs 15 people in offices in L.A. and Shanghai. He intends to raise $50 million through private equity or the public markets in the U.K. or China and invest in Asian companies outside of China. About 120 million people in China have Internet access, ~10% of the population, so the growth potential is phenomenal.

Microsoft Signs Ad Deal with Facebook

Posted on August 23, 2006

Facebooklogo_1MARKETING VOX — Aug 23 — Using its online advertising platform, Microsoft will provide banner ads and sponsored links to Facebook, starting early fall and running through mid-2009. Microsoft launched adCenter in May to compete with Google and Yahoo. Earlier this month, Google struck a $900 million advertising deal MySpace. (Advertising group IPG took a 0.5 percent stake in Facebook earlier this year.)

The full article was originally published at Marketing Vox, but is no longer available.

Instant Message Mark Brooks

Posted on August 23, 2006

OPW — Aug 23 — I'm trying out Meebome.  Meebo (funded by Sequoia Capital) is a hosted/online alternative to Trillian, which allows users to consolidate their instant messaging accounts into one IM system.  AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger, all in one place.  Meebome allows users to add an instant messaging box to their HTML-enabled profile. – Mark Brooks