Category: Uncategorized

MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS — July 18 — MySpace
last month garnered 17% of online display impressions–up more than two
points from May’s 14.6%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance. Yahoo Mail drew 35.7%, MSN Hotmail 7.2%. Financial services companies
accounted for 24%, telecoms and web media 18%. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS

SUN SENTINEL — July 18 — MySpace has a marketing deal with the Improv chain of comedy
clubs to bring performances, behind-the-scenes footage and other
content to the new humor section of MySpace. Other MySpace sections
include music and movies. The sports
and games sections will be revamped. Pepsi-Cola’s Sierra Mist
beverage is the main sponsor of MySpace Comedy and it’s Aquafina
bottled water brand sponsored the Filmmakers section. 

Mark
Brooks: By and large, you don’t see much advertising on dating sites. The ROI on time for the amount of money to be earned hasn’t be there. Click thru rates are relatively low. But, the targeting capability is
A1. MySpace is doing a great job of warming up advertisers for dating
sites.

WASHINGTON, DC — July 16 — Americans' circle of close confidants has shrunk dramatically in the past two decades according to a new study by sociologists at Duke University and the University of Arizona. The mean number of people with whom Americans can discuss matters important to them dropped by nearly one-third, from 2.94 people in 1985 to 2.08 in 2004. The number of people who said they had no one with whom to discuss such matters more than doubled, to nearly 25%. The number of hours that family members spend at work and the influence of Internet communication, may contribute to the decrease in the size of close-knit circles of friends and relatives. The number of people who depend totally on their spouse has increased from about 5% to ~9%. Data from General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by National Opinion Research Center, funded by National Science Foundation and the CIRCLE Foundation. Changes in work and the geographical scattering of families may foster a broader, shallower network of ties. New technology allowing people to connect over larger distances might diminish the need for face-to-face visits.

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

Mark Brooks: And as a society we're not as happy as we were 20 years ago. The solution: turn off the computer, spend time with friends, face to face, …and cut back that 80 hour work-week for goodness sakes. Your soul will thank you for it.

NEWS RECORD — July 16 — MySpace is the fifth most popular site in the world. Online social networks often ask users to categorize their romantic status via a drop-down menu. In addition to standards such as "single" or "in a relationship," Facebook added an "it's complicated" option a few months ago, and MySpace users can choose "swinger."  Think you're in a committed relationship? Check Facebook to be sure. Changing your status from "single" to "in a relationship" is such a big deal that the process has spawned its own term — Facebook Official.

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

NEWS 14 CAROLINA — July 13 — Parents are advised to let their children use MySpace, but to keep an eye on what they are doing. Matt Gullett, a MySpace instructor, says the class teaches parents the dos and don’ts of dealing with their teenagers and MySpace. "’We’re going to go into how a MySpace account is actually set up, and then some of the clues as to as a parent what you should be looking for," he said. It’s recommended that teens keep detailed information private, use an alias, avoid online flirting and to trust their gut feelings. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS 14

Mark Brooks: Teens are not going to use an alias. The whole point of social networking is that it’s not anonymous, and gives visibility into the networks of friends, and friends of friends. Anonymity anon.

BURLINGAME — July 14 — Click here to see how MySpace stacks up to other social networking sites. In order to make their community sites pay off big, a balance needs to be struck between subscriptions and advertising. FULL ARTICLE @ FORBES

Mark Brooks: WAYN.com is doing well with it’s membership based social network. Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams had originally intended to charge a $9.95 a month membership for allowing users to be able to communicate with other users who were more than one degree of separation away from them.  He’d intended to go live with the membership for the end of 2003, but was dissuaded.

You can usually reach me at 212-444-1636 seven days a week 9am to 9pm EST.  Or on AIM/Skype/Yahoo/MSN IM: brooksace. 

SILICON REPUBLIC — July 12 — Profileapproval, a company developed by the owners of dating site AnotherFriend.com, has come up with a technology called Profile Approval to keep inappropriate material from appearing on websites such as Bebo and MySpace. The service will help to eradicate inappropriate or misleading photographs or profiles. The service is capable of processing 1,500 photographs an hour.

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

Mark Brooks: I’ve asked Barry or Kevin to add a comment to explain a little more about the service and leave contact info.

BUSINESS WIRE — July 10 — TagWorld Video Chat enables TagWorld members to see and chat live with their friends and other members of the community in real time whether logged on to TagWorld or not. The two versions of TagWorld Video Chat — downloadable desktop client and web-based interface — work with all webcams.

VALLEYWAG — July 2 — Tribe, the social network preferred by Bay Area hippies and ravers, may be a damsel in distress but NBC is swooping down to whisk Tribe to its castle in the media sky. NBC, the broadcast network, is in the process of acquiring Tribe Networks. A letter of intent has been signed.  A team will be visiting the Tribe offices soon to go through the basic steps of due diligence.

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

Mark Brooks: Here's the two year Alexa chart.  Tribe.net at ~1700 rank now.  I interviewed the CEO, Jan Gullet, back in May 2005.