Mobog: More The Mobile Pr0n This Time!

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Do you love the functionality of Web 2.0, but you hate all the rounded corners?  Then we definitely have the new startup for you.  Mobog, a site you might already be familiar with from their rise to prominence back in 2004, has been relaunched today, after an extended hiatus last year. The site originally undertaken Go to site

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» Some Startups Just Don’t Need Starting
I’ve been scrolling slowly down the list of items mentioned by Paul Graham, a partner at the startup micro-financier outfit Y Combinator, in a piece titled “Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund.” It’s an interesting write-up, and I think a whole lot of people should give it a look. Not necessarily because genius resides within. In fact, a lot of what Graham says will strike most any reader as fairly obviously wanting for the wand of progress.There are some points raised, however, that either seem too vague or uninformative, or just plain unnecessary, to be worth a “new” attempt. Of course, I do recognize that Graham’s post is only a soft invitation for startups to submit ideas to Y Combinator. And, well, it would be pretty senseless to object to the inclinations of the firm. That’s not what I intend for here. Rather, I simply wish to parse some items that I consider superfluous and unnecessary. The kind of stuff that invokes the “been there, done that” adage, in other words. Ideas that already have solid representation on the Web, and don’t require major fixes or alterations.First, there is the idea posited by YC (I’ll abbreviate it investor’s name from here on out) for a fresh startup to compete with Microsoft. Now, a plan to take on Redmond is all good and well. An admirable goal for sure. But others are already working toward that objective. Google is one. Zoho is another. Adobe recently introduced its own suite as well. And while they may ideally prefer to engineer a collective effort to bring down the software market’s reigning cash cow, they will no doubt look after their own health above all other concerns. Save for an acquisition, new rising stars aren’t likely to grow so tall, in other words. But with the tech sector feeling a few pangs of financial caution, the idea of buying only what you need would logically come to the fore. So at this point, I’ll short any newbies to this particular segment of the Web application market.Photo/video sharing services are another group on YC’s agenda. Why that is is somewhat of a mystery to me. Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook are all solid examples. YC explains that “there may ultimately be 30 different subtypes of image/video sharing services, have of which remain to be discovered.” I’m not so sure about that. People like having reams of data at their fingertips. That’s part of the reason why industry’s giant have succeeded. Everyone likes a winner, right? As for serving the long tail of the Web, where photo and video users may prefer to take their media host service’s platform and adapt it to fit conditions on personal websites, that can already be accomplished. SmugMug is a nice example of this, actually.On entirely separate note, while Y Combinator imagines there are “better” dating sites to come, I would say the life of those networks is finite. I sure hope so, anyway. To approach the concept in a different way, dating sites will simply be replaced by your run-of-the-mill social networking services. Mobile ones, especially. To keep perpetuating this idea of specialized matchmaking through ample profile metadata and the like is simply absurd. It may work some of the time, but it doesn’t work enough of the time.I really wish Wikipedia alternatives much luck, because they’ll need it. Wikipedia may evolve, it may invoke new layers of security, it may open itself up to cool new (or old) sources of information. But the chance of Wikipedia actually being irretrievably challenged or supplanted in the foreseeable future is now, but it shall. The fact of the matter is that Wikipedia has been built on a collective brain power similar in structure to that which built the Oxford English Dictionary. And how is the OED considered by academics, might I ask?Lastly, I’d like to highlight an idea put forth by YC placed somewhere near the  middle of its list of 30. This one is 16. It reads as such:“A form of search that depends on design. Google doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses. One of the biggest is that they have no sense of design. They do the next best thing, which is to keep things sparse. But if there were a kind of search that depended a lot on design, a startup might actually be able to beat Google at search….”There are a number of things wrong with that statement. For one, Google may not seem to have any sense of design for some, but it does. It’s actually described in Paul Graham’s subsequent line. Indeed, sparseness is Google’s schtick.That, and a super-simple color palette. Those appear to be the fundamentals for the company’s overarching design. And years and years of experience and trend setting and all other things that go into making an Internet company into a Internet giant and an Internet leader have shown that Google has largely been walking the right path. No, its engine doesn’t connote iPod-like elegance. Goodness sake, though, its primary businesses are search and advertising. How in the world do you make that visually delightful and retain a modicum of user friendliness?An even more pressing question to ask: What makes one think that fantastic design alone is a prescription for beating Google? There’s already quite a visually attractive alternative to Google. It’s called Ask.com. Take a look. You’ll see. And it’s nowhere near #1.To end, I would say that, taken as a largely suggestive request for fresh ideas, Graham’s solicitation definitely has its strong points. If some number of startups manage to develop something that addresses many of the weak spots in the Internet market currently afflicting users - particularly the non-tech-savvy - and those startups happen to take the route of YC, the firm’s partners could be riding some serious gravy trains. New ideas are what will let milk and honey flow. Companies which try to address the topics parsed above, however, aren’t likely to reach such grand heights.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Soup.io Offers Simplest Microblogging YetMySpace Slideshows from Your Phone - HeySanDisqus Challenges CoCommentTomorrow in Tel Aviv: TWS2008Free Advertising on Mashable for Three Lucky StartupsNew Mashable Blog - Weblist!Seedcamp’s 20 Startups Revealed
» Facebook Sets Second Redesign Launch Attempt for Tonight
Alright, so Facebook kind of failed to accurately estimate when it would be taking long-talked-about profile redesign. The number last tossed around was July 16. The day came, the day went, and nothing. No changes made. That may have made for an anticlimactic Wednesday for some. So will the second try, scheduled for this evening, according to Justin Smith of Inside Facebook, turn out to be the true charmer?As you may be aware, Facebook has been teasing users as of late with a test page to give a glimpse of what’s to come. And the network began in Spring to allow developers to familiarize themselves with the new layout. When doors officially open, all of Facebook’s members will be access, albeit through a transitional, opt-in model.The upgrade to the profile page isn’t a whirlwind transformation. Most users will likely intuit for themselves how to manage their information in no time. But it’s a welcome move all the same. The current design has been in place for quite a while. Lots of things in the social networking space have evolved with the seasons. Facebook would do well to alter itself a bit, too. Of course, it’s largest task has been to bring application developers into alignmentOf course, it’s largest task has been to bring application developers into alignment. If you’re counting on an entirely glitch-less upgrade, you may be in luck. Much may depend on your chosen third-party installs. In that respect, there’s still some chance for a bit of disappointment. And as far as potential hiccups on Facebook’s end, well, suffice it to say that the company acknowledged a problem with API performance days after days after the profile update was originally intended for public launch.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Facebook Profile Redesign: Sandbox Now Open to DevelopersFacebook Puts Off Early April RedesignFacebook Redesign: Are Developers Ready?Facebook Guy Dead at 3: Poke in PeaceFacebook Profile Redesign Beta Launches July 16th. Are Users Ready?YellowPages Redesigned to Better Accommodate Local SearchFacebook Loses Another Early Executive
» Rediff Follows Facebook’s Lead With Its Own Platform Launch
Rediff, one of the top online portals in India and one currently listed on the NASDAQ stock market, has evidently followed the past year progress of third-party developments within Facebook closely. Now it wants to stir a similar amount of interest in its own set of properties as well. Announced at Delhi’s Proto.in startup event, Rediff officially took the covers off its own developer program, called, plainly enough, The Rediff Platform.The reason for the Facebook reference is simple. The company states that its properties are “being made…to support FBML,” Facebook’s markup language.Indeed, Rediff is pushing an idea eminently synonymous with Facebook’s own. The phrase “apps economy” is writ large on the Rediff Developers page. But it’s also an effort that the company hopes will align with multiple pieces of the Rediff puzzle. To kick off the developer program, Rediff is first opening iShare, its music, video, and photo sharing service.The company is promising grants to some students and entrepreneur developers through a basic submission program it is calling “Sociali.” The sum being touted by the company to fuel ideas thought promising ideas is 250,000 rupees, or US$5,800. A relatively small figure, it seems, especially if juxtaposed against Rediff’s expected revenue report for Q2 2008 (roughly $17 million). All may depend on the supply of developers Rediff finds enticing enough to fund in the weeks and months ahead.The company states that developers ready to begin fabricating can now do so with data provided through its new website.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google and Yahoo Looking to Acquire India-Based RediffiShare, The Indian YouTubeYahoo Takes Large Stake in India’s Tyroo MediaThe Daily Poll: Would You Build Apps for the MySpace Developer Platform?LinkedIn Outlines Strategy for Upcoming PlatformClearspring Opens Community Platform for DevelopersThe Daily Poll: Which Platform is the Best Opportunity for Developers?
» Fed Up With German Copycat, Facebook Unleashes the Lawyers
Logic by numbers would have it that Facebook’s Chinese impersonators would irk the Zuckerberg gang more than any other similar copycat attempt made elsewhere on Earth. In fact, let’s assume they do. China’s Internet market will likely do little else but grow fast for the foreseeable future, so Facebook would have an incentive to combat the spoofs anyway it could. At the moment, however, the plan seems to be to deliver “the real thing” amid the fakes, and work to supplant the rest through sheer authenticity. (Does the adage that says “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery” still hold any credence today?)Meanwhile, Facebook is evidently taking a harder tack in more Western reaches of the world. According to Kevin Allison of the Financial Times, Germany-based studiVZ, which claims a membership ten million strong, spread throughout the region encompassing Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, has been served a lawsuit by Facebook. The charge: copyright infringement.A peek at the frontmost layers of studiVZ shows that Facebook is standing on quite solid ground. What’s more, success for Facebook may not be a simple skewering of its target. With legal persistence, it could net a good amount of cash as well. Early in 2007 it was reported that a German publisher by the name of Holtzbrinck GmbH had paid north of $100 million for the acquisition of studiVZ. That was only about a month and a half after studiVZ’s founder, Ehssan Dariani, took some head for personal blunders that made their way into mainstream press outlets like Der Spiegel.StudiVZ currently comprises a trio of “platforms.” In addition to studiVZ there are schülerVZ and meinVZ, which collectively purport to be growing at a rate of 100,000 memberships per week. The company says that its schülerVZ brand is its most popular, with 6.4 billion page views per month, circa March 2008.If we’re to compare financial largess among the Facebook look-a-likes of the globe, studiVZ isn’t the most substantial player. Xiaonei, a network purchased in 2006 by Oak Pacific Interactive for an unmentioned sum of money, managed to pull $430 million earlier this year from Softbank. Juxtapose that figure against an investment by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing of $100m in Facebook itself between November 2007 and March 2008, and studiVZ certainly isn’t the most pressing concern from Facebook’s vantage at present. Is this lawsuit filed by Facebook then a preparatory measure? Something to start with, to be followed by a hit against a bigger fish?---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:StudiVZ Acquired For $112MGoogle Loses Domain Name Battle in GermanyFacebook Now Offering German Language SupportCopycats: Top 10 International Facebook ClonesDoktus, German Scribd Clone: Samwer Brothers At It Again?Exposed: The 7 Most Blatant Web 2.0 Rip OffsGerman YouTube Clone Acquired by TV Station
» Scriblink Whiteboard Adds Small Business Dimension
When you join together the terms “online” and “whiteboard,” you probably conjure an image of some super-simple utility that allows one or more persons to share ideas. Companies like 37signals and Stixy offer such services. Yet they don’t take literally to the concept. Sure, they let users toss up text and files and so forth. But they don’t offer spaces totally open to a myriad of inputs, including free-form drawing and line figures and so forth. Scriblink appears unique in that respect.We first introduced Scriblink to you about ten months ago, and while its basic presentation is the same as it was originally, it’s been refined into a more user-friendly device, and there are some new features that might catch your attention.For starters, Scriblink’s toolkit is now displayed entirely openly. All components are positioned around the top and right borders of the main window, which you can use to specify your input type, color palette, etc. Everything seems easy to understand, and putting the board to use takes no time at all. Want text? Click the corresponding icon, find a suitable place on the screen, and write as you wish. You can even display a grid overlay if you like to keep things as organized as possible. An arrow button to adjacent to the ‘Clear’ option allows you to expand the size of the board if the default space proves too small.As was the case months ago, there is no registration necessary to get started with the basic Scriblink device, and with it you can do things like chat with collaborators, send files and enable a conference call. However, one recently upgrade not seen before is a new Business Solutions dimension. This allows small businesses to gain access to an API and create customized whiteboards with company logos and so forth. “SBS,” for short, the new option allows three different levels of group whiteboard use, segmented with Silver ($9/month), Gold ($19/mo), and Platinum ($29/mo) designations.As one would expect, all options are open for use on-demand. But they differ in two areas: users and time allotments. The Silver plan provided access for 6 simultaneous users, while Gold and Platinum allow for 8 and 10, respectively. As for usage permissions, Scriblink separates the plans with different bandwidth allotments: Silver, 25 hours; Gold, 100; Platinum, 200.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Scriblink’s Extra Basic Whiteboard ToolFacebook and Visa Team Up to Target Small BusinessesIdeablob is a Place to Grow Your IdeasSmall World Labs Gets $1M to Compete with KickApps, et al.MerchantCircle Receives $10 Million in FundingCoghead Offers Business Apps VerticalsCNNMoney Shifts Focus To Online Video
» Facebook’s iPhone App v1.1 Update Makes 1.0 Seem Quaint
Most anyone currently wielding an iPhone or iPod touch plus the 2.0 software update today is well aware of the volume of convenient apps made themselves available upon Apple’s (somewhat tarnished) App Store launch on July 11. In the social networking department, the most popular comes, perhaps predictably, by way of Facebook. Among the top free applications listed today, it sits in ninth place, just ahead of AIM.Of course, we’ve already spoken about the availability of Facebook for iPhone, both in Web-based and native download form. When I sized it up against its primary competition in the market, MySpace, it managed to convince me to give it a first-place start to MySpace’s own iPhone application, which, while well-crafted and visually impressive in its own right, was a little too stuffy for my taste. (For perspective, the MySpace Mobile iPhone application currently sits at #15 among Apple’s App Store’s top free downloads.)As of last evening, however, when Facebook introduced an update to its application, I must say I really can’t imagine how I had come to think so highly version 1.0. Honestly. Version 1.1 is clearly what should have been there at day one. I mean, really. To think I considered 1.0 a treat….The best way to describe the 1.1 update is that it is pretty much everything what Facebook amounts to without third-party applications. The important stuff, anyway. Yes, Status updates are there, just as they were for the debut of the App Store. And the mobile Facebook Chat feature was and remains a nifty item to have in your hand. You could also have looked at shortened versions of friends’ profiles and emailed back and forth among your contacts. Still, it is only now that the application comes full circle. How so? Pretty simple, actually.Now there are options to view your wall and the walls of all your pals. And write to them. You can also view users’ photo libraries (as you’ve been able via the website served to iPhone owners for many months already).These may seem like such basic additions. Sort of “duh, why not?” But though they are  what comprise the core of what makes Facebook such a popular social platform, they weren’t in evidence the first time around. Facebook has become one of the preeminent photo hosts on the Web, and its users’ activity on their personal walls and mini-feeds is so extensive, yet Facebook decided to keep them out ‘til the download’s second week in play.It’s only sensible that these options be available in an application built for a device often described as the benchmark for smart smartphone computing. In fact, looking back now, it seems a bit bizarre to think the biggest functions of 1.1 were absent 1.0.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:STUNNING: Facebook on the iPhoneWorld’s Simplest iPhone AppMultiply Launches iPhone EditionAWESOME: Meebo on the iPhoneSocial Networks Optimized For The iPhonePalm Users Get Their Own Optimized Facebook AppWidgetbox Launches iPhone Widget Gallery Sans Apple’s SDK
» Exploring VC Irrationality
This is the second guest post written by Ori Brafman, co-author of the New York Times bestseller ‘Sway,’ for Mashable’s new series Authors@Mashable. You can find Brafman’s first post here. For more information on Ori and Rom Brafman and ‘Sway’ be sure to visit our Authors@Mashable page.Thanks all for the comments and emails about your experiences with irrationality. A common theme that turns up is the moment right after we make the wrong decision, and how we hit ourselves over the head: “Why did I just do that?”What’s interesting to me also are times when we think we’re making the perfectly rational decision, when we think we’re making the decision for all the right reasons—but we’re not. One of the research studies we look at in Sway has to do with how venture capitalists assess their investments.You’d think that, of all people, VCs would evaluate an investment based on its return. Makes money=good. Loses money=bad. But it turned out that the most important factor for VCs was actually how frequently the entrepreneur they were funding kept in touch. Entrepreneurs who stayed in frequent communication—no matter what they actually talked about—made the VCs happier with the investment. Now, the tendency is to put our nose to the grindstone and actually work as opposed to chatting with funders. And when the news is bad, we especially want to hide and avoid the VC. But it turns out that VCs really, really want to have their voices heard, to feel that they’re a part of the process. So by all means pick up the phone and chat with your favorite (or even not-so-favorite) funders. Listen to them. Make them feel involved.What are your experiences with funder irrationality? Do you think that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are becoming more or less rational? ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Flagr - Real-World Social BookmarkingPlanetOut is Down and Out: Looking to SellLive Blog: What Google Knows about SpamSergey Brin To Conquer The Final FrontierNews Corp’s Jamba Loses CEOWine Library TV Moving to Revision3Is Ask.com’s Deal with Google Dead?
» 10+ Sites for Product Reviews from Experts and Consumers
Because they’re typically steeped in subjectivity, product reviews tend to be more effective when grouped together. This is generally why you, the consumer, often want to consult with multiple sources and individual perspectives in order to make an informed decision before you proceed to checkout. So, just to make things a little easier for you, we’ve put together a brief list of places on the Web you might like to go to stock up on opinions about a myriad of products, from gadgets to vehicles to attire to the miscellaneous, before laying down your hard earned cash.Perhaps the most abundant catalogue of product reviews on the Internet, Epinions, a Shopping.com property, is a megaplex of pretty much everything under the sun that pertains to human lifestyles of all sorts. Indeed, its supply of notes about electronics is vast, but it is also holds its fair share of opinions on travel, restaurants, and food and drink. Suffice it to say that its variety is as much a strength as is the sheer volume of information it manages today.A bit more rough-cut, but supported by Web-based heavyweights (About.com, NYTCo), ConsumerSearch is touted as a reviewer of reviews. While not the prettiest player in the market, the quantity of information found on its servers is quite large. If you’re willing to forgive its bland interface, you might find it a resource worth visiting and revisiting once in a while.This one’s an oldie for sure, but still relevant. Some might pass it off as a review source too focused on detailed research and less about connecting consumers with the broadest product list possible, but ConsumerReports has been trusted by a large number of readers for many years, and continues to play a very active role in the field. If nothing else, it’s one more place to go to achieve that well-rounded view you’re seeking.Amazon is a retail giant, for sure, but its product reviews are a massive resource in and of themselves. Some items will show pages of feedback, while others will show less, or maybe none at all. But taken as a whole, Amazon is a destination as valuable for its convenient shopping mechanisms as for its consumer commentary.If electronics are your focus, CNET carries some merit among review sites. The in-house review staff at CNET regularly put out text and video reviews of gadgets built for business and personal use, and user input helps to complete the picture. CNET was purchased by CBS not too long ago, and some are expecting the adoptive parent to focus more on the TV-style projects being produced at the technology site, but for the time being, CNET is still a decent choice for aggregate opinion.We covered Sazze earlier this year when it introduced itself as product review site with a social component, and it continues to look like a solid place for reviews. Its home page highlights a select number of products, and beneath the cover there are thousands more. There’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for here, and each page is laid out intelligently, so it’s all very easy to browse.Reevoo launched last summer, and in that time it has built itself a bit of an international name with the debut of a French adjunct in March of this year. Simple enough to use, with a database fronted by five main categories - ‘Phones & Computing,’ ‘Entertainment,’ ‘Photography,’ ‘Home & DIY,’ and ‘Toys & Baby’ - Reevoo has quite a lot of reviews and ratings beneath the hood. Take a look, we say. You might like it.Not to be confused with the option above, Retrevo is sort of a hybrid of reviews and general product information (product manuals, etc.). The site is completely intuitive, and while its presentation of data might not be everyone’s favorite cup of tea, its gets the job done.You might like it for its name alone, Buzzillions, but past the title, it’s actually a good piece of kit. It has a wide reach across the product realm, and everything is pleasantly wrapped. It is for sure one of the better places to visit among sites listed here.Another product search and review engine that presents itself as infused with expertise, Crowdstorm is low on material on its front page, which might be a touch disappointing for some visitors, but its method of delivering information is rather interesting. You can browse for products manually, or ask for “expert” advice on stuff you seek to buy. Crowdstorm operates sites for both US- and UK-based audiences.PEbuzz is one part social network and one part gadget review joint. We offered a few thoughts on the site some weeks back, and while it could definitely use a nicer, more modern exterior, it may well be what you’re after. For what it’s worth, PEbuzz is free to join.Photo enthusiast are you? Look no further than Digital Photography Review. Covering everything from the latest industry news to detailed - and we mean detailed - product reviews and comparisons, DPR is the place you want to go for anything to do with digital imagery.RateItAll has some decent offerings. It likes to tout lists having to do with anything deemed culturally or consumeristically (not part of the official lexicon, but we’ll go with it all the same) significant by the populace. Will this serve you well? That depends. If you’ve read this far, it’s safe to assume you’re privy to lists. And RateItAll is right down that alley. The site also offers applications for Facebook and MySpace users.Omgili covers more than just product reviews. Or, as it describes them, “consumer experiences.” But part of the puzzle has to do with stuff you buy, so what they hey, it gets the final spot here. Enter a search term, and you’ll get back a search page with product results along with ratings bars that manage five degrees of buyer approval/disapproval, from “excellent” to “miserable.” Omgili pulls reviews from about seven independent sources, including Amazon, PriceGrabber, NewEgg, CNET, Target, Yahoo Shopping, and Edmunds.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:ExpoTV Adds DFJ Gotham to Round of Venture FundingAmazon Launches Product WikiAbout.com Takes ConsumerSearch for $33MTestfreaks Launches Alpha Review Site; Seeks TestersAmazon Acquires Digital Photography Review SiteCiao Launches Lists Function: What’s On Your Top 10?Crowdstorm Still Kicking
» How to Build Your Online Brand
This is a guest post written by Chris Brogan, who blogs about social media for business at chrisbrogan.com.There are only so many hours in a day, and you’ve got to determine which social media tools drive business, which ones build community, and where you can learn the most in the process. Maybe you’ve built a blog or a home page or some other starting point for your online presence. How do you manage the rest of your online presence, and how do you keep track of everything? I have some ideas for you. Let’s start by building the following:Listening PostGet a Google account and get Google Reader. Go to Technorati and Google Blogsearch. Find the search bar and put in: -Your name in quotes.-Your company name (if that matters).-Your competition’s name.-keywords to your industry.Every time you do a search, look for the orange RSS subscription button on Technorati, and click it. Look for the RSS subscription link to the left on Google Blogsearch. Click it. Add all of these to your Google Reader (upper left area of the left sidebar).You’ve just built a rudimentary listening post.A Social Hub or TwoGo to FriendFeed. Build an account and add your blog, your Flickr photos, your Upcoming.org, and your whatever-you’re-doing-on-the-Web into it. This is another way to share out what you’re doing, but also another place where conversations are happening that you might not see if you’re not there with another kind of listening post.You might also check out Lijit, a service that offers a different spin on a similar thing.Some Social Network OutpostsAt this point, my top 3 choices for social networks are:-LinkedIn - for professional networking.-Facebook - for social circles.-Twitter - for everyday conversation and networking.I belong to and use several other networks for different things, including Utterz (I’m on their advisory board), Flickr, several Ning sites, and a few other niche things. The three listed above are the ones I think have the most resonance. You might substitute MySpace for Facebook. You might like Jaiku more than Twitter. The details don’t matter. I just listed what I feel are the best choices at present.On those sites, amongst other things, be sure to point links back to your primary site or your blog. Thread the needle for people.Note: several of these sites also have RSS subscriptions for comments and other updates. You can add those to your Google Reader, too, to keep track of it all.What to Do With It AllThis is partially difficult to answer, as it’s up to you what your goals are for using social media. But some of the things you can do once you have this all in place are:-Learn who’s talking about you (or your company, or the other keywords you put into your reader), and engage them in conversation on their site.-Make relationships with others before you need them on social networks.-Find other professionals in your field, or in unrelated fields on social networks.-Connect with old friends and business colleagues.-Discover new people through reading and learning, and follow the media they make on the various networks, and/or in Friendfeed.-Learn more about your competitors through the media they make, and discover where you can build more value.Obviously, there are dozens more possibilities. If nothing, I hope to have provided a potential starter kit for managing some of the elements of online presence around your primary blog or website. You might have some different experiences along the way, and some parts might not work, so feel free to adjust. Your mileage may vary.Would you add anything else to this premise?---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:GMnext Is an Online Car Show (With Commercials and Without the Models)Podcast: A Conversation with Metacafe’s Michelle CoxNetShops Adds Google Brand Executive to the Teamad:tech Panel: Advertisers Crave Social Networks and Social MediaPopularMedia, Getting Your Brand Word-of-Mouth MarketingGoogle Still The World’s No. 1 BrandYahoo To Launch Brand Sites with Avatars, Yahoo Answers, del.icio.us, Flickr and More
» The M in Meebo Means Missouri
In what seems to be a continuation of a never ending growth pattern by Meebo, it was widely reported this morning that they’re now going to be offering branded chat for social networks and online communities. They have a staggering list of volunteer launch partners as well, including DanceJam, Flixster, myYearbook, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s AddictingGames, Piczo, SparkArt, Sugar Publishing and Tagged.Sean and I had a great discussion with two of the three founders of Meebo on today’s Mashable Conversations, and we came away with two main things that really are noteworthy about this implementation, aside from the technology aspects of it.First of all, the sheer size of the expected network growth is particularly eye-popping.  According to Seth, Meebo, after implementation is finished, will have a global reach of 54.7 million, including an unduplicated reach in the US of 23.3 million. This is accomplished by allowing inter-site communication.  If you signup on Piczo, for instance, you’ll be able to speak with users from Flixter.  This is accomplished by use of the XMMP (Jabber) architecture for the IM service backend.The other thing particularly noteworthy is that each partner is entering into a revenue sharing agreement, so that advertising supported chat will not only be a tool to significantly increase stickiness, but it will be a profit center as well.Aside from that, we got a little bit of insight into exactly where the name Meebo comes from - you can too.  The video is embedded below (or you can download the MP4 version here).Never Miss an Episode! Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here (video feed). Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here (audio feed).---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Meebo Rooms Launches API and an Ad Network to Monetize ItMeebo Firefox Extension Now LiveCreate Custom Designed Meebo RoomsMeebo Plugin Now Available for FacebookMeebo’s Breakthrough: File Transfer Between IM NetworksMeebo’s Chinese Clone Causing Too Much TroubleMeebo’s Custom Chat Rooms for New Advertising Options
» Social Media 101: How to Get Your Business Involved
Many companies are intrigued by the concept of social media, but have no idea how to actually integrate it into business practices. In an earlier post, we explored one approach to putting a simple social media plan in place.Changing employee behavior is challenging, and social media participation is often looked at as an additional burden rather than leveraged to improve the efficiency of a current task. Unless traditional communications are replaced with social media infused conversations though, it’s difficult to seed corporate adoption of these new tools.Here’s a list to stimulate ideas for better social media integration into traditional business practices, which we’ve broken down by department:Human ResourcesIntroducing New Employees. Many companies ask new hires to send an email introduction to their department or to the entire company (depending on its size). Instead, start an internal blog or social network where new employees can post their introductions and connect with other employees that share their interests. Dow Chemical is one large company that launched an internal social network.Employee Newsletters. Replace the monthly employee newsletter with regular updates to an internal blog. Use tags or keywords to categorize the content, which gives employees a searchable database of information about the company rather than a folder full of emails that are cumbersome to review. Then when employees contact HR with questions about 401(k) contributions or sick days, direct them to the appropriate post on the blog. Employees can also pose questions and HR will be able to answer them once for everyone to see.Training. Depending on your business, consider leveraging one of many virtual world environments for training purposes. For a business that deals with customers, create a replica of your store or office where new employees can engage in a variety of real world scenarios, from responding to customer questions to learning where to find inventory and supplies.SalesSales Collateral. An internal wiki allows sales teams scattered in various locations to create, collect, share and download the most updated sales material from one location. By limiting the exchange of PowerPoint presentations, product sell sheets and other support collateral to one place, management eliminates a significant amount of heavy email storage and ensures everyone has access to the most updated information in real time as well as improves the ability to track edits and updates by team members.Lead generation. Many business people create profiles on popular social networking sites like LinkedIn. However, few use it for more than a contact database. Sales teams can leverage their vast network of contacts to generate sales leads, secure new business introductions and demonstrate industry knowledge. Sales managers can incorporate social networking challenges into sales goals.Management Communications. An internal blog run by the sales leads is an ideal platform for team communications. To ensure participation, ask each sales team member to leave a comment confirming they read the post.Marketing/CommunicationsPublic Relations. With an external facing corporate blog, the communications team can engage its publics (customers, media, analysts or other audiences) in brand conversations. Blogs can extend the conversation beyond the press release, provide a platform for thought leadership, and in the case of a crisis, prove an invaluable channel for direct community communications.Interactive Newsroom. Create an interactive newsroom where traditional media and bloggers can find links to the company’s social presence. This may include high resolution product photos hosted on Flickr, a link to the company’s Twitter profile, a bundle of RSS feeds for the company’s blogs, a searchable repository of podcasts, or even social profiles for media contacts (AIM/Skype/Avatar).Better Customer Engagement. Several companies, including Starbucks and Dell, have created social networks where customers can provide direct feedback on products and services as well as interact with each other. This two way channel allows for improved customer relations and a much quicker feedback loop with the company’s most loyal customers. Even in the B2B space, a blog or social network created exclusively for a specific customer set demonstrates a commitment to customer service and illustrates your company’s efforts to get as close to your customer as possible.Thought leadership. A CEO can submit an op-ed piece to the Wall Street Journal or Inc., but those opportunities are few and far between. Supplement traditional thought leadership pieces with a monthly or quarterly podcast, where employees can discuss industry trends and company views to a wider audience. These podcasts also become sales engagement tools and can be posted to internal employee blogs as well. And you don’t have to be a big company to host a successful podcast, as this example illustrates.Product/Design GroupCustomer Support. A staple of many technology companies, support forums are searchable threads of conversations where engineers or product designers can answer questions and help troubleshoot issues. The best part is that once a question is answered, the link to the discussion thread can be shared with others who have the same question, eliminating duplicate efforts.Product Prototypes. Creating prototypes is an expensive endeavor for many businesses. Furthermore, it’s difficult to share prototypes with teams spread out around the world. Virtual worlds allow for teams to collaborate in real time with 3D models, which are less expensive to create and easier to discuss during the development phase.Innovation. An internal platform where engineers or designers are encouraged to share their most outrageous ideas, pet projects, or passions often helps foster creativity. This in turn leads to new products and a greater sense of community at every level of the company.ConclusionThere are many more ideas than just those listed here. If you have tips on how your company uses social media to improve productivity or otherwise improve the flow of information between groups, please share them in the comments.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Aloha Social Media Summit Hawaii Discount CodeSmall World Labs Gets $1M to Compete with KickApps, et al.Save the Date for the New Communications Forum 2008Canadian Bosses Think Facebook Is More Important than TVBe a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox ExtensionTicket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CABusiness 2.0 May Be Getting the Axe from Time Inc.
» 5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand
This is a guest posting by Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online. Join Andy as he shares more secrets at his Online Reputation Management Workshop on August 7th.Micromedia tools such as Twitter, Plurk, and Pownce have introduced the concept of group conversations. Similar to instant messaging, Twitter allows you to send quick, short messages to hundreds of friends at once. Anyone that signs on to “follow” your Twitter profile will receive an alert—via instant message, mobile text message, or email—each time you send a new message.How can you use services such as Twitter to build your reputation? The service is still relatively confined to early adopters, but is already showing great promise as a tool for building your brand.Assuming that you’ve already matched your Twitter username to your personal or company brand, here are some suggestions for using Twitter to build your online reputation:1.Start conversations with notable peers.Don’t be the guy that jumps on Twitter, “follows” 10,000 people, then tweets “@” them every two minutes. That’s not the type of reputation you want to build for yourself.Do be the guy that follows those that have influence and audience in your industry. You’ll learn a lot just from listening to their often unguarded comments, but if you have something valuable to add to their conversation, send them an @andybeal or @chrisbrogan, or @garyvee. If you can engage them in a conversation, they might just @ you back–alerting their thousands of followers that you’re a person worthy of their time, in the process.2.Share valuable industry news.If you’re the kind of person that’s always discovering breaking stories, share those with your Twitter network. Maybe you’ll “tweet” something not yet seen by a popular blogger. They may not always give you credit in their blog posts, but you can bet you’ll quickly get on their radar.I’ve personally credited and linked to Twitter followers that gave me a “heads-up” on a breaking story and seen others credit me for sharing a story with them. How’s that for reputation building? You’ve just become the guy that keeps the top bloggers “in the know.”3.Build your blog audience.We all know how hard it is to build a blog’s audience. How often do you check your Feedburner stats to see if you’ve inched up or down that day? Conversely, building your following on Twitter can take much less time, and work–I’m adding up to three times as many Twitter followers each day, than blog subscribers.OK, but how do you get your Twitter followers to start reading your blog? Er, you ask them? Well, actually, you cherry pick your best blog posts and share them with your Twitter followers–many of whom likely don’t already read or subscribe to your blog.Tools such as Twitterfeed can automate the process for you, but be careful not to overload your Twitter followers with blog post updates–you want to build a positive reputation, remember?4. Stay connected at conferences and trade shows.Twitter really shines, when it’s used by conference attendees. “OMG Google’s Larry Page just farted on stage,” while fictitious, would be great fodder for the Twitterati. You may attend a conference as a complete noob, but Twitter can help you leave as a “someone.”The next time you attend an event, look for the official Twitter account. @BlogWorld is one example of a conference that makes heavy use of Twitter. Follow the Twitter updates at your next conference and you’ll learn the location of the secret parties, or where Guy Kawasaki plans to have dinner that night. For anyone uncomfortable with networking, Twitter is a great tool to connect with other conference attendees and build your reputation without having to actually shake hands.5. Monitor your Twitter reputation.Monitoring Twitter for mention of your personal, or corporate, brand can save you a lot of future reputation headaches. Conversations about your brand can happen on Twitter, hours before someone decides to migrate the conversation to something more widespread, such as a blog.Here’s a real life example. I recently had a bad experience with Office Depot. On the evening of July 14th, I posted this on Twitter:The next day, my “Office Depot Joins the Reputation Deadpool” post went live on Marketing Pilgrim. If Office Depot were actively monitoring Twitter, it could have saved itself a huge reputation headache by resolving the situation, before I posted to my blog.Don’t panic, you don’t have to monitor Twitter manually 24/7. You can use search.twitter.com (formerly Summize.com), TweetBeep, or Trackur to automatically alert you of any Twitter discussion involving your brand.There are many more ways that you can use Twitter to grow your brand and manage your reputation, but it wouldn’t be fun if we’d didn’t keep the conversation going. Leave your tips in the comments or tweet me @andybeal. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Twitter Mobile InterfaceQuick Fix For Twitter TroublesTwitter Acquires Summize; Launches Official Twitter SearchDon’t Send Bac’n: Use TwitterSearchMosio Uses Twitter For Mobile Q&ATwitter Adds GMail Contacts ImportHow Messed Up Is Twitter For You Right Now?
» Social Networking Stats: Facebook and LinkedIn Surging in US
The latest numbers are in, and they’re showing that June was a big month for at least two of the top social networking sites. According to Nielsen Online, Facebook swelled to 29.2M unique visitors in the US, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, professional social networking site LinkedIn grew more than 20 percent month-over-month to 9.5M uniques. Year-over-year, that represents 77% growth for Facebook, and 187% for LinkedIn, respectively.Meanwhile, it would appear that MySpace has officially hit a plateau in the US, though it still more than doubles up on the competition. Its 59.4M visitors in June represented zero growth over last year, and was a marginal decline from the 60.6M reported by Nielsen in May. Elsewhere, Ning debuts on the charts with 2.2MM unique visitors, up 326% from last year when the create-your-own-social-network site was just getting off the ground. The top 20 chart is embedded after the jump.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:UK Top 5: Wikipedia, MySpace, Piczo, YouTube, BeboMySpace is Old, MySpace Marketing Isn’tDesignsToLove Launches Social Network for CraftsBubble Alert: Facebook Traffic Declines 10% in AprilPikSpot Is Splashcast Plus NingThank You, February; Top Social Networks Grow in MarchNetscape Following Digg’s Footsteps?
» iPhone 2.0 Apps: The Social Networking App Comparison
I’ve spent the past five days testing the iPhone 3G and many of the wonderful applications that have been made available at the App store. Much of this time I focused on the “Social Networking” apps, or the ones that had social networking features. However, I came across a huge problem: without any friends, these applications are rather useless. This is a direct results of the Twitter vs. Plurk vs. Pownce issue: You have to go where your friends are.I tried twittering my my problem in the hope of finding a solution, and though my question spread to several friends and groups, it seems people are still waiting to see where everyone else goes. In the hopes of expediting this process I’ve put together a list comparing some of the popular apps. In alphabetical order, I’ve gone through each application three separate times and after browsing around each these are my summaries, options and conclusions:BluepulsePersonal Thoughts:This is a very generic app that I’m pretty sure just runs through an internal browser, as it has the look and feel of a Web page. There are friends, status updates, messaging, “stuff” (aka photos and videos), and that’s about it.Pros: Simple, clean and fast.Cons: Lacks too many features at this point, including location and intuitive messaging.CenceMePersonal Thoughts:The simplicity is beautiful, however, the features are visibly missing. The best part of the application is that it ties into Facebook and since Facebook is where many of us have a plethora of friends, this will come in handy if other users add the app. Features include: Location and status via icons and text.Pros: Simple and clean. Facebook integration will be key to app’s success.Cons: I’m not too sure how to find other friends through Facebook. Also, there are no photos or profiles, just nicknames.FacebookPersonal Thoughts: An almost perfect mobile companion to Facebook. The features and look and feel compared to the Blackberry version is just no contest. However, the better comparison is for Facebook for iPhone (Web) versus the app. I believe the app is significantly stronger in look, feel, and functionality (even though it’s missing some profile info).The integrated chat, phone number, and e-mail recognition has already come in handy several times.  The fact that this app doesn’t run in the background is the its biggest downfall since there are no active chat or mail features when you aren’t “logged in” to the app. Something tells me this “fix” is only a matter of time.Pros: All of your friends are already there. Clean and fast. Very functional beyond just Facebook features including e-mail and phone number recognition. Mail and chat options. Poking!Cons: No location awareness and doesn’t run in the background. No Scrabulous.iFobPersonal Thoughts: iFob is solely based on location and proximity. Which is great for a bar, networking scene, or concert, however, this makes it impossible to remain in connection with friends through iFob. This could, however, come in really handy at networking events to see who is around, who you should talk to, and who wants to be talked to. Something tells me that iFob would be a perfect tool for a singles event.Pros: Clean. Chat. Profiles based on personality.Cons: Only proximity based. No way to add friends.LimboPersonal Thoughts: If your core collection of friends were on Limbo, this would be a great status update tool with a Who, Where and When for each friend. While you can import friends directly from Contacts, this is really a “blank invite” tool as there is no awareness of whether the mobile phones are iPhones or even on Limbo. However, the combination of a Yelp like environment for Bars, Food, and Shops come in very handy for setting a proper status.Pros: Pinpoint location for nearest Food, Bars and Shops. Messaging and Groups.Cons: Find Me isn’t pinpoint, just city (in status). Profiles are limited to Picture, Activity, and When. Not the fastest. No way to sort Food, Bars, and Shops (by category or neighborhood). No friend search. No photo or mapping functionality. Member search isn’t by proximity.LooptPersonal Thoughts:A simple status/location program with 2 crucial aspects: Facebook and Twitter integration (RSS feed on the way). With these integrations more people are likely to use it compared to the other applications. Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps with Yelp Search Integration is a plus. However, I had many issues setting it up with Facebook and somehow still can’t connect my Facebook friends who are on Loopt to the mobile app. An amazing feature though is the ability to search your entire contact database for Loopt members (by mobile number), but it also tells you who is on the appropriate network (aka AT&T in US).Pros: Simple and Clean. Facebook and Twitter integration. Contact database Search. Map with Yelp integration. Status udpates can include a picture (from camera or photo library). Comment on other people’s status updates. The ability to “Call” or “Text” or Ping” a contact.Cons: Difficult to add friends who are not in your Contact List. Also, I could not figure out how to add Facebook friends. Profiles were too simplistic with just Name and Picture.MySpace MobilePersonal Thoughts: It’s MySpace on your iPhone without the flair of customization, which is a good thing in my opinion. However, I did run into several errors. Otherwise, it’s all there: friends, comments, requests, bulletins, status updates mail and photo albums. No location or mapping.Pros: All your friends are there and searchable (top, all, online, new, upcoming birthdays), direct messaging and comments, as well as Inbox.Cons: Full profiles are broken down into sections and a bit hard to navigate. There is a lack of information to get contact information outside of MySpace.PlumPersonal Thoughts: A bit confusing at the start until you realize that this is just a mobile version of a Social Network called Plum. The abilities include viewing your “saved items” and your friends “saved items,” which include media, links, notes, images, etc. There is Twitter and Facebook integration, however Twitter is only configurable on the Web and Facebook is only configurable if you look for it on Facebook. The shear lack of functionality on the app is astounding if you’ve never used Plum before. The application is similar to Evernote but with social features.Pros: Add photos and notes to a saved and shared location. Ability to separate locations of “saved items”.Cons: Absolutely no functionality besides seeing your “saved items” (media, links, notes, images, etc) and the same from your friends. No profile setup or really anything via mobile device.PowncePersonal Thoughts: Pownce is simple and so is the app. There are your collective friends’ updates and their individual updates. Notes include Note, Photo, Link and Event. Overall, if you use Pownce and Twitter, this app is too simple and misses any functionality besides the core basics.Pros: Message “The Public,” friends, or a specific friend (aka direct message). Photo integration via camera and photo library.Cons: No ability to really search and add new friends. No Profiles. No profile integration whatsoever besides profile picture. No real functionality besides viewing other people’s “notes” and creating your own. Without Sarafi integration having links via a “note” on iPhone is rather “weak.”TwitterificPersonal Thoughts:Think the first version of Twhirl… it has your friends, their feeds and info. You can update your status (bonus with twitpic/camera integration) and location, however, there isn’t much more. The design and usability is great. The bookmarklet feature (aka just a link and a how to) definitely comes in handy.Pros: Bookmarklet (although 3 steps to set it up, totally worth it) and Twitpic integration with Camera Photo.Cons: No contact Search, No ability to direct follow (takes you to Safari). Location doesn’t work for me. No ability to upload picture from photo library.TwitterlatorPersonal Thoughts: Beautiful design and amazing functionality (although it does run a bit between transitions). You’ve got everything you could want on a Twitter app except background running ability. Functionality includes: Friend Twitter, “My Replies,” Public Timeline, Featured “Tweeters”, Favorites, Bookmarks, Search (with Last Search), and full camera/photo and location features.The funnest/most scary part of the app is the “Alert” button, which pulls your location/map (via a link) with the message “This is an emergency! Please Help!…” You can even take a photo with that message. Beyond all of this, the profiles are full and provide easy access to the 4 key features: message, direct message, latest updates and friends (with the ability to follow anybody you come across or bookmark them for quick actions). Beyond all of that, the best feature is in a “new tweet” window, you can easily pull up your @friends list!Pros: Full search functionality with full friend functionality. Camera/photo and location integrations. Bookmarks. Emergency Button.Cons: A Bit slow and lags/freezes at times. No background running capability. Map had my incorrect location by just a bit, so no guarantee.WhrrlPersonal Thoughts: Whrrl is Yelp with limited social functionality. However, the social aspects are limited to a profile and their ratings. Overall without friends, the social functionality is easily lost. Also, without filtering, my few square blocks in NYC were littered with locations which would render it useless to find anything specific since there are so many “boxes” to choose from without any color coding.Pros: Full list of nearby restaurants, bars, shops, areas for free wi-fi, and “open now” (which is great for late night functionality).Cons: Can’t easily find friends (by e-mail invitations only). Map only displays what’s around your vicinity with no ability to zoom in and out of map. Map loads improperly when moving to other areas.ZintinPersonal Thoughts:Zintin is the simple iFob for friends and not dating/random related at all. The profiles are simple and clean. The ability to share your contact information (phone/email) with a contact is rather simple and functional. However because Zintin is location/proximity based, without any friends or nearby users it’s rather boring.Pros: Proximity based networks, interactive wall with photos, and simple profiles.Cons: Doesn’t run in the background, so proximity is only a limited feature, thus rendering the application useless unless running.ConclusionSo, those are my reviews and I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions and what choices you’ve come to. Personally, I plan to stick with Facebook and Twitterlator for now and hope that if one of the above takes off, it’s Loopt, as I can see myself using the app.If you’re interested in more information, I put together a quick chart of all the apps and their key points for further discussion.P.S. Please add me so we can chat beyond the post. I should be ‘adamhirsch’ on most of the applications above.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:iPhone 2.0 Apps - Social Networking Comparison ChartApple’s iPhone Directory is Really Real!World’s Simplest iPhone AppMinglets Launches Exclusive iPhone Chat ClientSocial Networks Optimized For The iPhoneNokia Buys PlazesiRovr Launches Mini Social Network for the iPhone
» Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Might Give Safari A Run For Its Money
Despite the version name (9.5) that sounds like a tired iteration which begs for the real makeover (10.0), Opera Mobile 9.5 beta is actually an important milestone for the only other mobile browser that doesn’t suck. We’ve talked about it when it was just an announcement; now it’s here for you to try it out. Just like with every new version, Opera claims significantly faster browsing and improved standards support, so you can just choose whether you’ll believe them or not. But there are some other important innovations in this version.First of all, Opera’s developer tool set, Dragonfly, is now cross-platform and better than ever. From the official press release:“It allows developers to debug JavaScript, inspect Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the Document Object Model (DOM), and view any errors, making development for the mobile phone even easier.”From the user perspective, the big novelty is the new user interface. The new one is a bit cleaner, and allows for cool effects like panning and zooming, while full page is now the default view. Additionally, you can now save pages and images with a click. Of course, the cool effects part sounds a lot like Safari; I’ve used both, and Safari on the iPhone still impresses me with its speed and web page rendering accuracy, but one has to admit that with this version, Opera has come mighty close. Of course, have in mind that this is a beta release, so expect some bugs and glitches. If you’re feeling brave, go over to the download page, and tell us what you think of the new version.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Opera Mini 4.1 Beta Is All About SpeedShare Bookmarks Between Your PC And Mobile With OperaOpera Mini Launches ‘Dimension’ for Mobile BrowsingOpera Gears Up to Release Opera 9.5 Alpha, with Several UpgradesOpera Mini 4 is LiveOpera Mobile 9.5 AnnouncedMobile Browser Skyfire Gets $13 Million in Series B Funding
» Loren Feldman, The New Yorker, and Social Media Evil
I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid talking further about the race relations meme that ran around the tech blogosphere last week as a result of a year old Loren Feldman video cropping up in the news. The reason for this is pretty simple: I didn’t have the guts to talk about race. That’s right, you heard me.  Me.  The guy that’ll take on just about any controversial political topic (so long as I can loosely bring it back to social media somehow) didn’t have the guts to speak his mind.The reason for this is simple: throughout the blogosphere and the various tentacled arms by which the dialogue extends from it, everyone was talking race last week.  And it wasn’t very long into the discussion that the very thing I spoke about yesterday in context of Wikipedia and other forms of democratic social media started happening to folks who in any way defended Loren: they were pushed to the fringe and given the most awful label someone can have these days.Racist.I’m broaching it now because one of the least controversial persons in the blogosphere, Chris Brogan, has decided to speak up on the topic and raise an important point. Before I get to his point, I’d like to explain my reasons for dropping out of the conversation, as I think it’s somewhat germane to the important issue he raises.In the past, I probably would have waded in hip deep to the ongoing debate regarding whether or not Loren Feldman was overtly racist in his video, whether the satire was appropriate, and whether Verizon’s response of removing him from the network was indeed a measured or nuclear response. The problem was (and is), I’ve found, is that this debate devolves very quickly into emotional territory, whether or not the participants in the discussion are racist, and who is next to receive the Imus treatment.In other words, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Speaking in analogy and metaphor is central to the art of explaining and debate. Unfortunately in this day and age of political correctness, it’s almost impossible to know when you’re about to step on a landmine when you’re in this emotionally charged quagmire.Simply put, I have a wife and two children.  My words are what put bread and butter on the table.  If I suddenly get the scarlet letter, my livelihood is gone from me.This has to end. Everyone needs to man up in the social media world, put aside their emotions for a moment, and put on their thinking caps.  Chris Brogan very rightly likens the current controversy over the New Yorker magazine cover to the Loren Feldman incident as an echo. The mainstream media is performing their punditry over the “Terrorist Fist Jab” in much the same black and white tones as we did last week over the Loren Feldman “TechNigga” video. He goes on to ponder the fact that there might be more important things to worry about:But this is what’s out there. This is the surface. This isn’t the secret campaigns that will (are?) spread through social networks, across back channels, hidden in some other kind of FriendFeed that we haven’t seen. Or maybe it’ll be out in the open, as Louis Gray reported on a short while back.For a moment, we need to consider the larger implications of how social media can power some really negative experiences. Flash mobs are fun. But what else could they be?What’s really ironic here is that this is one of the larger points that Loren Feldman was driving at with his satire (and he even spelled it out verbatim in an expletive-laden post after the series, embedded below). In between all the “gotcha, you’re a racist” moments in the conversation surrounding this, it seems that point is what was lost.Click To PlayChris goes on to say:This isn’t one of those “film at 11″ shocker posts. Instead, it’s something I wanted to write to say that if you think that beating Loren Feldman down because his video broke away from satire and fell into racism, then you’ve lost. The fight is, I believe, a lot more sinister, running deeper under the radar than that, and with names that aren’t in the blogosocialmediacirclefishbowl sphere.I don’t know if this post qualifies as a “Film at 11″ post, but I’m here to say that these days are here.  The things that Loren warned about last year are happening, and the malicious usage of social media for evil intent is here.Let’s go over a sampling of the stories of the last year or so where social media has been used to pursue a racist or hate-filled agenda:Senator Joe Lieberman Notices Al Qaeda Calls YouTube Home. Over the last year or so, I’ve kept a pretty decent track of the escalating level of hypocrisy in the enforcement of YouTube’s terms of service, particularly when it comes to free speech issues.  The government is starting to take note as well, and due to what is largely the Web 2.0 world’s inability to properly and consistently police themselves, is on a path to enforce draconian speech regulation similar to what the EU has in place.Orkut a Haven for Pedophiles. Google held fast the position to protect the identities of child predators until public opinion turned on them. These pedophiles were using the wilds of the mostly anonymous dark corners of popular social networks to, in an organized manner, prey on children.Al Qaeda Learns Social Media Marketing. An academic study shows that certain propaganda elements of Islamic terror groups are more well versed in social media marketing than most American businesses. We’re not talking YouTube only here, either.  Just about every major social networking tool is infiltrated, and they’re recruiting as young and impressionable as possible.How long do you think it will be before this malicious intent strikes home for you? For those of you with loved ones fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere - do you think they’ve met an enemy combatant who was recruited via social media tools?  Do you imagine it’s possible for the real racists in America (the ones who aren’t averse to violence to prove a point) might figure out these tools as well? It’s been speculated publicly by Hillary Clinton herself that America isn’t ready for a black president, and that he may not survive his term in office. Do you think the tools that aid communication and organization might be used to facilitate that?How long do you imagine it will be before the government figures out this is something they can use to frighten voters into supporting more freedom restricting legislation?It’s time for us to stop tarring and feathering one another over what are ultimately silly emotional fights and look for ways to police ourselves responsibly, before the government decides to do it for us.Let the brainstorming commence.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Good and EvilBe a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox ExtensionNGTV - Joost’s Evil TwinTicket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CAJohn Furrier Says Google’s CIO is Leaving for EMIThe Geek’s Guide to Good and EvilWeb 2.0 Invites for November 19th, 2007
» 10 Reasons Why FriendFeed Will Beat Out the Competition
This is a guest post by Aseem Kishore, a technology enthusiast and lead blogger for Online-Tech-Tips.FriendFeed has come a long way in a short amount of time. In the beginning, it was just a fancy RSS aggregator with commenting thrown into the mix. However, over time, FriendFeed has added a slew of great features which
» Guy Kawasaki’s Frienderati Slightly Flawed
This weekend and over the course of yesterday, Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop made the news for creating a new set of RSS feeds added to the site from FriendFeed. They called this the “Frienderati,” and it was a list of FriendFeed members as determined by a mystery algorithm worth following on FriendFeed. Stan covered this here
» Here’s An Idea: Location-Aware Disposable Apps For The iPhone
Since the first mention of GPS on the iPhone - and given the fantastic application deployment for the device - I’ve been mulling over various ideas of what could be done with it. One idea that came to mind is location-aware mini applications that show up on your screen, letting you install them based on
» Speckly - The Simplest Way To Search Torrents
Although the entertainment and software industry is crying foul over torrent trackers, dubbing them little more than havens for piracy, the fact is that not all users are happy about pirated content and some of the effects it inevitably has on torrent sites. Most of them are overwhelmed with misleading, huge ads, intentionally riddled in