Category: Uncategorized

MEDIAWEEK — May 12 — The top 10 social-networking sites collectively grew 47% year over year, reaching 68.8 million users in April 2006, which represents 45% of all Web users, according to a Nielsen//NetRatings report.

IM PLANET.COM — May 11 — Myspace announced it's MyspaceIM for Myspace members. The network is closed to users on other public IM networks.

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

WICHITA EAGLE — May 11 — FriendsOrEnemies is for pop-punk music lovers. FoE focuses on content generated by a few VIP members who keep journals on the site and has ~40,000 users. TagWorld gives users one gigabyte of storage and allows user-generated tags. A one-stop shop for all the online services people use; blogs, photos, video hosting…nearly 1.5 million users.  Buzznet has ~200,000 users.

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

Mark Brooks: Social networks are sticky by design, but social networking users are fickle like nightclub revellers.

PR NEWSWIRE — May 11 — Nielsen//NetRatings, announced that April’s top 10 social networking sites collectively grew 47% year over year, increasing to 68.8 million uniques in April 2006, reaching 45% of active Web users. MySpace had 38.4 million uniques and 367% growth. Blogger, #2, had 18.5 million uniques, growing 80%, followed by Classmates with 12.9 million and 10% growth. Newcomer YouTube and the more established MSN Groups rounded out the top five, with 12.5 million and 10.6 million uniques. Top 10 advertisersfor April 2006 were; Vonage, GUS, United Online, Netflix, LowerMyBills, Verizon, Apollo Group, NexTag, E*Trade and Scottrade. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

NEWS.COM — May 11 — A proposed federal law (Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA) would effectively require most schools and libraries to render Myspace and Facebook inaccessible to minors. "When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Reublican. Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is co-sponsoring the measure.

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

Mark Brooks: The mind will always drift to what is most interesting. Kids minds will always drift to Myspace/Facebook. However, this is meddlesome legislation…isn't it? Your comments please…

PR WEB — May 11 — Shark dating business software 1.0 is determined to make a dating business profitable. This is implemented via number of business tools…

Mark Brooks: OK, stop right there. I’ve seen a few of these Russian company press releases…and they’re scary. You MUST get your English right on your website, software and press releases to inspire any level of confidence in your software and services.

MARKETING VOX — May 10 — Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger beta has been opened to the general public and features a free VOIP service, Windows Live Call is being provided by Verizon. Landline or cell phones calls are 2c per minute.

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

MARKETING VOX — May 10 — YouTube has launched a service for uploading homemade video clips to its site via mobile phones or PDA. YouTube gets 12 million uniques and 1.2 billion pageviews a month.

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

Mark Brooks: Vids are sent via phone email rather than MMS.

 TORONTO SUN By Valerie Gibson — May 7 — A new report from England's Durham University (sociologist Judy Richards PhDthesis) about Internet dating, Love On The Net, has found that women, instead of looking for a sole companion for all of their life, are much more likely to choose different men for the different stages of their life. In-depth interviews with English women ages 48-62 showed that, although mid-life women still have faith in love, they are more romantically realistic than ever before. Richards research indicates there are four distinct romantic/sexual stages for women looking for a man today. The first is "looking for fun," the second is "looking for Mr. Right," the third is "looking for Mr. Right Now — especially a younger man," and the fourth and final stage is "looking to settle down with someone close to their age to share life and similar experiences with." 

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

Mark Brooks: Fascinating! Your comments please…

THE DEAL — May 4 — Several companies that initially expressed interest in buying Friendster were reluctant to take on the company’s ~$6 million debt and balked at the modest $10 million asking price.  ‘Friendster unfortunately was losing money and losing market share, and that’s not a great dynamic.’  In September Friendster 2.0 launched, emulating features offered by competitors.  The upgrade stanched the bleeding. As of March, Friendster had 1.1 million U.S. uniques, up 9% from 975,000 visitors in March 2005. MySpace had 41.9 million unique users, and Facebook had 12.9 million uniques.

Uniques (millions) to selected social networking sites, March 2006 (comScore Media Metrix) – MYSPACE.COM 42,  FACEBOOK.COM 13,  XANGA.COM 7, LIVEJOURNAL.COM 4,  Yahoo! 360° 4,  MYYEARBOOK.COM 4,  HI5.COM 3, TAGWORLD.COM 2,  TAGGED.COM 2,  BEBO.COM 1,  FRIENDSTER.COM 1,  Tribe Networks .9, 43THINGS.COM .7,  SCONEX.COM .4,  Total Internet audience: 171 million.  FULL ARTICLE @ THE DEAL

Mark Brooks: Jonathan Abrams knew Friendster would do well.  He just didn’t quite expect its growth to be meteoric.  It was a victim of its own success and deserves a second chance.  Friendster 2.0 is delightfully feature rich but the GUI needs a revamp.