Category: Uncategorized

MEDIA POST — Apr 14 — MySpace this year quietly began hosting live music concerts, the latest of which features Franz Ferdinand playing the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City today. News Corp’s MySpace has relied solely on word-of-mouth to promote the live concert initiative, dubbed "secret shows." To receive tickets and notifications of upcoming secret concerts, MySpace.com users must add the profile "SecretShow" to their list of friends, and place the profile "SecretShow" in a "top 8" — a coveted position that appears on the front page of each MySpace profile, and then print out a page, bringing it to an announced location. The idea is that if everyone knows about it, there’s no reason to tell anybody about it– It’s only appealing if only a few people know about it.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

Mark Brooks: Myspace know w-o-m.  The internet dating industry can learn a lot from these Myspace antics. 

MEDIA POST — Apr 14 — YouTube is now serving 30 million video views a day, and receiving ~35,000 video uploads daily. Alexa.com ranked #32.  YouTube’s interface is its greatest asset as a content provider. Banner advertising or anything else that is going to clutter up the interface is nowhere to be found. It has relied on Google AdSense ads. 

Mark Brooks: I gave up on TV a few years ago.  I’ve been watching You Tube vids like TV, recently. 

NEWS CORP.'S INTERNET COMMUNITY SITE –  Apr 13 — MySpace hired Hemanshu Nigam who was previously the director of consumer security outreach and child-safe computing at Microsoft.  Myspace is consolidating a number of duties; outreach to law enforcement, overseeing site security and user safety.  Myspace is deleting profiles that include "questionable material" (200,000 profiles), and is reviewing 2 million images a day.  It has also launched a series of online public service announcements on its own site as well as other News Corp. properties, warning users about online sexual predators. "1 in 5 kids online is sexually solicited. Online predators know what they're doing. Do you?"

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

Mark Brooks: Smart move.  LA Times called into me last week to enquire about them and ask for user tips.  Myspace is going through a PR nightmare. 

MEDIA BUYER PLANNER — Apr 12 — The trick of advertising on social networks seems to be creating less formal and invasive advertising techniques that attract young users. "What they struggle with is the content, the environment and the right approach – pretty much everything," said Jeff Lanctot, VP for Avenue A-Razorfish, the largest buyer of internet ads.  MySpace racked up $13 million in ads last month. 

Apr 13 — Here’s a really bad Myspace mockumentary video. 

Apr 13 — I'm starting a little list of dating software and dating service providers for those who are considering starting their own dating site or switching services.

Dating Software – Aewebworks, Asp.net Dating, Built2go, DateApp, Datetopia, Dating.lt, Datingsoft, Datingsoftwares, Datingpro, DatingSoftware.biz, E-classifieds, Emeeting, G-Dating, Mojopersonals, Osdate, Scorpio Dating, Silver, Skadate, Vldpersonals, Webscribble

Dating Services – Dating Site Builder, Spring Street Networks (owned by Friendfinder), Vintacom / Relationship Exchange

Social Network Software – Alstrasoft, Sparta

This list will appear under 'Handy Little Lists' on the left bar, for future reference. Please add your comments if you have had experience with any of these.  – Mark Brooks

PRIME ZONE — Apr 11 — The web-based Personal Emergency Notification System (PENS) provides time-released emergency messages via email, IM or SMS text messages to a pre-designated list of loved ones in case an emergency should occur while on a date.

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

Mark Brooks: Nice idea, but I can't see PENS being used consistently.  My three rules for online dating safety are 1. don't give out personally identifying info  2. don't have them meet you at your home/work  3. have someone call you 2 hours into the date to check-in

BUSINESS WIRE — Apr 11 — Friendster, with more than 27.5 million users, implements Akamai's content delivery and managed storage services to improve site performance, page download times and avoid the need to buy additional costly infrastructure. 

Mark Brooks: Recently I still heard complaints about Friendster's page loading speed.  Hopefully Akamai/Internap can help solve this longstanding problem.

NEW YORK TIMES — Apr 10 — About 11 million of Orkut's more than 15 million users are registered as living in Brazil – a remarkable figure, given that ~12 million Brazilians use the Internet from home.  Schools, workplaces, even residential streets have "communities" joined by people who have studied, worked or lived there. No one quite knows why Orkut caught on among Brazilians and not Americans. It exploded once it gained a foothold in Brazil.

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

Mark Brooks: Rate.ee is Estonia's social network.  Bebo 'owns' Ireland. Friendster is huge in the Phillipines.  Please email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com or comment if you know of any other regionally focused social networks.

Apr 11 — Online Personals Watch is, #1, for online dating executives.  I recognised the need for OPW whilst at Friendfinder, then started it while at Cupid.  Colleagues would forward articles around which were often laden with good ‘intel’ on the market, product developments and trends.  There was never enough time to route through all the articles.  OPW is ‘CNN’ for online personals industry execs, marketers and product managers.  I personally review all articles to cut through to the core intelligence that online personals [internet dating, social networks, business networks] industry decision makers need.  #2, OPW is for the press to get a quick read on the industry and contact execs.  #3, it acts as a watchdog, of sorts.  – Mark