Category: Uncategorized

DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL — May 16 — Kent was on a tour of Asia with other college students last summer when he heard people saying, ‘Oh, this would be a perfect facebook picture.’ Thefacebook is a free site that connects college students, faculty and recent alumni and boasts 2.4 million users at 573 campuses. People use it to learn more about hot classmates, track down information on homework, sign friends’ "walls," and generally waste time. Users must have an e-mail address connected to a member institution. Some students are using a similar site, collegeclub.com.

SOUL SHINE — May 16 — As rock star Billy Corgan is helping to prove, MySpace is the new Friendster, with decidedly better benefits. More and more acts are using MySpace.com to promote themselves. Corgan is using his space www.myspace.com/billycorgan to give fans the chance to get inside his brain via his super-detailed blog, to stream songs from his upcoming solo album, to win free tickets to his summer tour, and yes, even to become his “friend.”  Alongside the big names (Oasis, Weezer, My Chemical Romance), some not-so-famous artists make a home on MySpace.  FULL ARTICLE @ SOUL SHINE

Mark Brooks: Musicians and DJ’s are the greatest ‘connectors’ (see Tipping Point and Unleashing the Ideavirus).  MySpace captured their attention and they ‘sneezed.’

PRWEB — May 16 — FilipinaEyes (Asian online dating) has decided to offer lifetime memberships for $45.  There is a one time lifetime membership fee for gentlemen.  RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: Many early singles clubs/groups went under, leaving their lifetime members high and dry.  Consequently, I'm informed, lifetime memberships in the U.S. are not entirely legal these days.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE — May 12 — LinkedIn is hoping to create a viable business by capturing a small piece of a classified advertising market estimated to be worth more than $20 billion.  It charges employers $95 to post a job listing for 30 days.  It had 1,000 or so job listings last month.  "They're giving recruiters access to people they wouldn't normally be able to get to," said Charlene Li, Forrester Research. "These are passive job seekers – people who aren't actively looking for jobs – who are extremely valuable to the recruiter and the hiring manager."  Tribe.net, raised $6.3 million, and encourages users to join "tribes" of mutual interest.  A free service that charges for classified ads posted on its site.  Tribe had 243,000 unique visitors in March, according to comScore Media Metrix, 3.7 million people turned to Craigslist.  Friendster received ~$13 million in funding…and found itself eclipsed by a pair of newer, more narrowly focused social networking companies, MySpace, specializing in music, and Thefacebook.com, geared to university students. Friendster had 975,000 uniques in March, according to comScore, 11.3 million users visited MySpace, 4.1 million to Thefacebook. 

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

Mark Brooks: These sites are also doing a good job of reaching the 18-30's crowd…which is an increasingly valuable, and hard to reach demographic.  They're tuning in to the TV less, in preference to the internet.

PRWEB — May 10 — Psychologist Dr. Kevin Leman unveiled a free online Personality Compatibility Test.  Leman has authored over 25 books on practical approaches for building lasting relationships. His online dating site is MatchWise.com has as its main goal the prevention of marital mistakes through the psychology of birth order. "We'll show you that the best marital match isn't with someone just like you," says Leman. "If each of you is too similar in personality and conflict skills, you're likely to have more difficulty, not less. For an 'ideal' match, you'll want some things in common; but the best matches are opposites!"  RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: A budding Dr Warren perhaps?  As eHarmony pulls away from it's Christian focus towards the mainstream, perhaps Dr Leman will find success in maintaining it's focus on Christian singles matching.

NEWS 14 CAROLINA — May 10 — Some have success with online dating, others don't. One expert says it’s because people don’t have a clue on how to put together a strong online profile.  You need more than just one good picture.  Beyond pictures, the words are where so many people fail… being too generic. Don't just list an activity, share the moment. Dodson started her consulting business two years ago. So far she has helped 60 clients improve their profiles for $250. 

The full article was originally published at News14, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Check out www.lookbetteronline.com and www.e-cyrano.com.  My favorite photos and profile help services.

INFOWORLD — May 12 — Google continued extending its reach beyond the PC this week by acquiring social networking service Dodgeball.com; a grad-school project started at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. The service lets users "check in" their location at a bar, club, restaurant, or other local gathering spot, then transmits that information as a text message to the mobile phones of selected other Dodgeball.com users in the area. The goal is to spark in-person connections among friends, acquaintances and friends-of-friends.   "As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken dodgeball about a far as we can alone.  We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really 'got' what we were doing — that is until we met Google. The people at Google think like us. They looked at us in a 'You're two guys doing some pretty cool stuff, why not let us help you out and let's see what you can do with it' type of way."  He and Rainert will remain with the company and begin work on new features. 

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

Mark Brooks: Wireless online dating is coming…  Heck, it's already here.  Webdate.com has the nicest application I've seen so far.  Yahoo is available on Blackberry now.  Check out the mobile dating internet conference, San Francisco in July, www.idate2005.com.  (Member of the press?  Contact me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com) 

MICROSOFT WATCH — May 3 — Microsoft has moved 10 of its social-computing experts from Microsoft Research onto its Windows user interface team. Social-networking technologies, including blogs, Wikis, and RSS, are likely to play a key part in the Longhorn "Aero" interface.  Cheng is known as the main mover and shaker behind "Wallop," Microsoft's Friendster-like social-networking prototype that combines blogging, Wiki and RSS technologies.  Cheng and her team also have worked on Stacks for organizing photos; Personal Map for organizing contacts, and MS Connect and Point-to-Point, which show connections between people, individuals and groups. 

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

Mark Brooks: In 1999/2000 I was working on a site called eturn.com; an early version of plaxo/social network.  MSN killed jump.com in 2000 after acquiring it in 1999.  They melded new features into MSN including, "the ability to invite others to group events," and, "your space on the web to create, publish, and share pictures, files, calendars and information with friends and family."  MSN wanted to further their, "vision of The Everyday Web and are dedicated to offering solutions to help simplify your life and you keep in contact with friends and family."  Social networking is not a new concept.  Friendster got the design, name and viral seeding right.  MySpace added a little meat to the bone with their affinity for music, and they recognised users wanted more freedom to express themselves.

KESQ — Apr 30 — Users of MySpace can see clips from the upcoming film "House of Wax" and hear the entire soundtrack thanks to a deal with Warner Brothers and Maverick Records.  Other entertainment companies have used MySpace to promote their product, including NBC, which streamed the first episode of its new show "The Office" before its television premiere. Friendster, similarly promoted the Fox series "Stacked," starring Pamela Anderson. 

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

Mark Brooks: I handled 'promoter/agent' offers whilst at Friendster.  Definitely no shortage of opportunity in that department.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE — Apr 27 — Catch27 encourages members, mostly 18-30, to trade their friends for 'hotter, smarter ones.' The site also is launching a "black ball" feature that some members will be able to use to kick others off.  FunHi, with 150,000 users, emulates a club and 'bounces' users who lack style, like people who 'look homeless,' according to co-founder Ray Savant.  The sites' founders think the Friendsters of the world went wrong by letting anyone in — and that, as a result, those pioneering services lost the feeling of a community mirroring an actual clique. Friendster, which takes in ad revenue, says it just became profitable this year. ASmallWorld plans a premium membership service where members would pay for additional features. When a site called http://www.closedsociety.net launched, it opened its first 100 registrations to the public via a Google ad: "Join now and be a VIP." Only about 40 people applied.

The full article was originally published at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: People want what they can't have.  The 'perception of exclusivity' is a powerful element of the success of social networking.