Category: Uncategorized

OPW — Aug 2 — The photos from the San Francisco Internet Dating Conference in July are live at idate2006.com.  Here’s the link.  This specialty conference covered background checks and payments.  I gave the keynote and suggested some alternatives to background checks.  Representative Kevin Ambler gave as good an argument for background checks legislation as I’ve heard yet, which was then debated on the final panel.  As usual the lunches were a hive of activity and networking and the media were in attendance.  The event was visited by SF Chronicle, local TV and others.  Amsterdam is next.  See you there in September. – Mark Brooks

OPW — July 31 — Here’s a Fox News New York segment on mobile dating that I helped out with. Sprint and Webdate are featured. Users of mobile phone dating services are younger than online dating users, and they’re more likely to be of a minority race. There will be a conference in Amsterdam on 25th-26th September which will cover the European online dating industry and mobile dating. See idate2006.com – Mark Brooks

PR WEB — July 27 — Attending the event will be senior executives from all aspects of the European online dating industry and social networking industry, as well as executives from wireless telecommunication firms, SMS companies, software companies, marketing firms and entrepreneurs. Speakers at this event include executives from companies and organizations such as: Neu.de, Parship, FriendScout, Online Personals Watch, Plutolife, ComScore Media Metrix, Jupiter Research, playtxt, Wirenode, Kenet Works, 24/7 Real Media, Relationeering and Flytxt. Some topics include: current European online dating market size, EU social networking trends and future, European marketing for the personals business, social networking in the Baltic States, mobile dating, mobile marketing for communities, outsourcing, programming and coding for mobile communities, and mobile software development. See InternetDatingConferennce.com, iDate 2006 holds the largest industry events for the online dating and social networking industry. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

STAR TELEGRAM — July 23 — Swahili for "hello," Jambo Networks is one of many companies trying to stand out in the increasingly crowded world of online social networking.  A kind of wireless matchmaker.  Jambo's software turns laptops and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices into a radar for nearby people who share common interests. Jambo.net is working on partnering with those sites and sharing in the revenue. Other location-based social networks include Meetro.com and Plazes.com and Dodgeball.com. A couple of Jambo deals will probably be announced this summer.  Jambo is raising venture funding and preparing to expand Jambo's capability to Bluetooth-enabled gadgets.

Mark Brooks: Jambo wants to partner with the online dating industry…big time. Seems like the perfect match. But, who will move first. Someone (dating site/socialnetwork) has to push this service to critical mass, then it will be very valuable and useful. So far they've been demoing the technology at conventions.

MARKETING VOX — July 28 — The House of Representatives rushed through and overwhelmingly approved a bill that could ban not only MySpace but also Amazon, Slashdot, LinkedIn and other sites from schools and libraries. The bill makes "chat rooms" and "social networking sites" inaccessible to minors who use terminals at publicly funded libraries and schools. But the bill's language is imprecise enough to categorize other sites among the censored – those that allow users to post profiles, include personal information and allow "communication among users," for example. The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) – leaves it up to the FCC to define.

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

Mark Brooks: Let's see if it gets any further. It will still need to be approved by the Senate I believe.

MARKETING VOX — July 26 — As social networking sites grow in popularity not only with users but also advertisers, they will begin to attract hundreds of millions in ad spend, and soon surpass the $1 billion mark. U.S. advertisers will spend some $280 million on social networking sites this year (mostly to create profile pages and sponsored promotions), or 1.7% of total U.S. online advertising spend. By 2010, social networking sites are projected to take in $1.86 billion, or 6.3% of all U.S. online advertising. MySpace is estimated to garner $180 million in U.S. ad revenue this year. Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report "Social Network Marketing: Carving Out MySpace said,"user-generated content and word-of-mouth are two big buzzwords right now in online marketing, and social networks give marketers an opportunity to experiment with both."  The average CPM is a mere 10c on MySpace.

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

MARKETING VOX — July 26 — Apple will provide up to 250 million songs to Facebook users who are members of the site’s Apple’s group page, which now has some 130,000 members. Apple will run banner ads on Facebook to inform users of the promotion. Apple will send a redemption code to group members to download each week’s “sampler.”

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

PR NEWSWIRE — July 27 — Friendster today announced the appointment of Aaron Barnes to VP Sales (Quote.com, WhenU, Looksmart), Chander Sarna to VP engineering and operations (Siebel Systems, Greenlight.com, Netscape, Intel), and Josh Hannah to its board of directors (Benchmark Capital).  Friendster recently reached an all-time high on Alexa.com with a sub-30 ranking.