Category: Uncategorized

TOP HOSTS NEWS — Aug 22 — Michal Frackowiak, a 28-year old Polish Web developer and PhD student launched Wikidot.com, a Wiki-based publishing platform and social network aimed mainly at advanced Internet users, content publishers and broadcasters. "We want to build a social network of users running their own sites. This distinguishes us from most Wiki or blog providers and takes us closer to social services like MySpace.

The full article was originally published at Top Hosts News, but is no longer available.

MEDIA BUYER PLANNER — Aug 22 — YouTube today launched yet another attempt to generate ad revenue, allowing advertisers to promote their brands via customized channels on the site. Warner Brothers created the "Paris Hilton Channel" to promote Hilton’s new music album "Paris," and includes a video ad produced by Hilton for her YouTube fans. Advertisers will be able to customize the look and feel of their channels once they meet pre-determined spending quotas. YouTube cofounder and CEO Chad Hurley is quoted as saying he hopes brand channels help build an ad platform that "both the community and advertisers" could embrace.

THE AGE — Aug 21 — Mobile carriers are scurrying to package up live chat and picture sharing services into subscription packages. Australia's slow entry into the 3G mobile market, and the prohibitive cost of mobile data downloads has meant that such services here remain thin on the ground. Hutchison's 3 service was first to enter the 3G market in Australia and offers subscription-based social networking service, Kink Kommunity (owned by Perth company, Loop Wireless which is now owned by Adultshop).  New services that blend sophisticated multimedia and location-based services with social networking are beginning to make a mark in the US. Meetro allows people to find and and meet up with people located nearby and combes instant messaging, social networking and location based data. Rabble, combines mobile blogging with location data so subscribers in the area can check out restaurant or music reviews, and user generated photos and video. In Japan, a company called ImaHima has also broken new ground, with technology that can locate where friends are. FULL ARTICLE @ THE AGE

EAST BAY BUSINESS TIME — Aug 18 — Microsoft spinoff Wallop Technologies has taken 8,300 square feet in San Francisco, which will give the social networking startup room to grow once the top-secret site is launched. Wallop is developing a Web site to compete with MySpace. Wallop is using technology developed at Microsoft’s research laboratory in Redmond, Wash. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS TIME

Mark Brooks: It was very wise to spin Wallop off from Microsoft. Wallop still has a chance to be a small, secretive, cool, home-spun new social network…which is critical for the seeding stage of growth. A social network started by Microsoft would be too big to be cool. Too loud in the media to be worthy of talking about. Wallop will get a nice balance of plentiful media attention but will still be able to be hip and cool and renegade enough for people to want to talk about it.

OPW — Aug 21 — Clay Elliott, from Gizmoproject just informed me that their instant messaging and telephone service is launching on LiveJournal in the next couple of weeks. They also have a online version available at gizmoweb.com, although it's a little shakey on Firefox, btw. Gizmoproject is an alternative to Skype. – Mark Brooks

ALL HEADLINE NEWS — Aug 16 — A Brazilian court ordered Google to provide information of its users. Orkut is being used by criminals to traffic drugs and commit other crimes.  Google denies accusations it is ignoring the court order.

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

PR WEB — Aug 8 — Cheekymonkeydating allows users to publish personal contact details and incorporates Skype buttons. It's geared towards allowing people to contact each other directly. "I view the site more as a directory of people seeking dates than a traditional dating site," founder, David Thomas, commented. "Most online dating agencies get people to write their profiles which they will publish for free, then they charge them the earth for a subscription that allows them to send mail. Often the money will be wasted, because many of the people receiving the messages will not have paid a subscription fee, and therefore won't be able to reply." FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: Internet dating sites need to capture the entire communications continuum. Email is old hat. Instant Messaging is where most dating site users are at now. But they really want to talk to each other, and see each other. Voice and video. How can internet dating sites capture the full communicatios spectrum? Is it viable, really? Your comments please…

PR NEWSWIRE — Aug 9 — The "Social Network Wars" have begun and Zorpia is on a quest for global domination. Today the company announced the launch of its new Chinese social networking site, Zorpia.cn. Zorpia’s expansion into China is the first step in an aggressive global expansion plan of taking on 22 additional markets including the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Taiwan, Japan, Europe, Latin America, and beyond. "We see Zorpia.com as the first ‘Global Social Network,’" founder Jeffrey Ng said.  In the past year, Zorpia.com has added more than three million registered users and receives 3.6 million page views daily.  Zorpia Ltd. is a privately owned company and is currently seeking venture capital.  Jeffrey Ng, (650) 331-7390. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS COM

Mark Brooks: Currently Zorpia has a 996 Alexa rank. They’ve been around a couple of years but morphed more recently into a social network. Cyworld, South Korea’s monster social network, opened an office stateside but I’ve not seen too much of them. There’s more to social networking than just opening up a site in a new country and hoping new users come. The sites need seeding with local ‘connectors’.  That usually takes a local presence and network. There are numerous examples of sites that were borne in and did well in their respective countries.  Grono.net (Poland), Rate.ee (Estonia), Yonja (Turkey) LIST.  Orkut is over represented in Brazil. Friendster has a huge following in the Phillipines. MySpace is the biggest worldwide.