Posts filed under 'facebook'
Ugh it’s been a while, with some general shenanigans going on for me personally (i’ll fill you in in due course) i’ve neglected this badboy somewhat, however i’m back and with more content than you can shake a stick at.
I got a notification that i had been ‘bought’ the other day in my facebook newsfeed by one of my friends…. really? To find out who had bought me i had to add the ‘Owned’ application which i duly did as i was obviously wanting to find out who i was now a skivvy for. Thats where the fun ended, it asked me to spam my friends and let them add the app as usual which i always skip to just give me the good stuff i want to see.
Hmmm, was it broken? as it wouldn’t let me skip the invite step, so i spammed a few friends which i didn’t like and when i got to it no-one had bought me at all. Blatent bait and switch (seems to be happening a lot lately). I was so annoyed i removed it immediately. Not only had it wasted my time, wasn’t any fun when i got it but also made me annoy my friends with the invites grrrrrrr. ‘Owned’ is not the only app doing this, there’s a fair few more out there. We need some quality control over this crap, otherwise we will just continue to annoy our friends with spam and thats the end of social networking right?
February 26th, 2008
I presented yesterday at this conference on Mobile Social Networks and how i thought things might progress this year. I only had 40 minutes (including questions!) and i know sometimes i can get carried away and run out of time…. So for those of you who were there and even if you weren’t here’s a short recap on what i wanted to get across:
Why Mobile Social?
With the iPhone, WiFi and 3G on handsets, mobile browsing is becoming a more engaging experience, moving away from walled gardens and into our regular browser applications. Mobile social applications allow for easy portability, instant content generation and a genuine ability to become really social (meeting face-to-face? Shock horror!) with location based services.
Facebook still leads the way with an easy mobile experience to allow slick crossover from your computer and have a great interface for the iPhone. Myspace and Bebo are way behind with MySpace mobile being an awful experience and reminds me of playing on the Spectrum ZX81; great in the old days but now massively outdated and unbelievably slow to load. Bebo are still beta testing…….
Consolidation
There are far too many social networks and applications to keep up with, updating facebook/myspace/bebo/twitter/flickr/youtube etc etc so what i think we will see this year are more and more piggy-back applications that allow consolidation (just like those loan ads) into one easy monthly payment application. Check out Fring which is a great mobile service offering free VOIP calling across all your messenger services. You can already see this happening successfully online with a browser i’ve been using called Flock which integrates my facebook/flickr/youtube/twitter and media all into my browser window
Content
Instant content generation and consumption is something we all seem to want whether good or bad (i’m thinking Big Brother) and mobile video and cameras are all continuing this with easy to use upload platforms being provided by youtube, flickr and facebook. Yeah yeah that’s all fine but that’s not really using mobile effectively.
Instead take a look at two new things from Yahoo! labs - Zonetag and Zurfer. I like these! With zonetag you take a picture on you’re phone and when you upload the image it suggests relevant tags based on your location and the phone you’re using etc. Then if you’re out and about, zurfer allows you to view photos on your mobile taken by other users based on your location and places of interest around that area, such as restaurants, museums etc. Also take a look at Qik (courtesy of the legend that is Jackie Danicki) which is taking off in a big way in the US right now. Qik allows you to stream live video from your phone to the web. Sweet!
Applications
Current options for mainstream social network application dev are either for the iPhone, facebook (FBML) or Opensocial. For mobile i’ve watched the rapid takeup of app development for the iPhone with everything from games to weather to recipes. Most come out reasonably well and others i think are completely useless! The dev guidelines are over on apples site.
I think that’s the topline but i’m sure i talked for longer than that…..
January 18th, 2008
Happy New Year everyone!
So….. it seems there’s a lot of predictions flying around as to how social media will develop in 2008, Bah! The truth is, no-one has really cracked it yet. Social media, lets not forget is all about being social right?
People are so hung up on how to make money out of it immediately, they’re missing the bigger picture of what this is all about….. Sharing. You need to really understand how communities interact and what you can really offer that will give value to both them and you.
So, in terms of growth this year, my stab is that it will be technology and sector reliant as people start to verticalise (is that a word?!) not only their friends but also how they use and 
interact with social media. Now this is handy as i’m speaking on two such topics this month; mobile and travel.
I have to admit. I’ve avoided mobile web for years as the experience has been too lethargic and non-engaging due to speed/data restriction and walled garden browsers. However i think this could be the year of the mobile due to two things: iPhone (obviously) and social networks. The iPhone has changed the game in mobile web experience massively, utilising the safari browser we’re all used to, wi-fi and a decent size screen. Add to this a new generation of social networks that are location-based and you can now be truly social and catch up with friends in the same vicinity when you’re out and about. What am i on about? Check out loopt to see what i mean. I’ve also been using facebook mobile for a while now and am finding it very useful, especially for micro-blogging so it’s taken over from Twitter for me! I’ll be covering this and other things at the Mobile Search conference this Thursday the 17th January over at BSG House in London.
Next week, Travel and Social Media in Austria. More on that and snowboarding later….
January 14th, 2008
Another $60 million to be exact from a Hong Kong Billionaire called Li Ka-shing. With a name like that it sounds likes it’s April Fools…. apparently not.
He is the 9th richest man in the world and has an estimated wealth of $23 billion, so this is like loose change. Here’s the fella on the right, although i cant’ work out what his expression is; strained or happy? and check out those gigs, thats real old school.
My question is why has he done this? I’m still struggling to see how he and Microsoft can make their money back before the cycle of people jumping networks every 18 months kicks in.
Initial testing of the new facebook SocialAds system has showed great targeting potential but low interaction from users, add to that the amount of porn spam that i’ve been seeing lately and it’s a shaky start.
Perhaps i’m completely missing the point and he just wants to make more friends, can’t wait to see his status update “Li Ka-shing is hoping facebook makes some money after dropping $60m on it”. Searches for his facebook profile are through the roof right now, so he’ll be getting spammed to high heaven with friend requests (if it really is him) and i vote he uses this as his profile picture.
November 30th, 2007
Ok, if you don’t know Justine Ezarik you probably have a real offline life and don’t spend that much time on social networks. However, since it’s my job (lame excuse i know) there isn’t a day goes by without me seeing her.
At 23, Justine has become an online celebrity just by completely embracing every social network or application there is. She jokingly describes herself as ‘i am the internet’ but the amount of content this girl produces is phenomenal. For a start she’s covered the obvious bases (yep she’s one of my facebook friends) with myspace (48804 billion friends - really?), flickr, a blog etc. But shes also on every new thing to take off.
If you really want to know how you should be using any social network or application Justine is your girl. Hell you can even watch her live on cam all day long! I really cannot believe how much time it must take her to update all her profiles or to even manage all her friends. However, the only thing i’m left wondering is, would she be so successful using these things if she wasn’t so hot?
October 26th, 2007
The popularity contest that is the facebook phenomenon is opening easy doors for identity theft by Fraudsters.
Sophos, the IT Security company, undertook an exercise to see how willing facebook users are to give away personal information. Their research showed over 40% of Facebook users will divulge personal information - such as email address, date of birth and phone number - to a complete stranger.
Make sure you protect your identity properly, here’s some best practice guidelines to start.
The only question left to ask yourself is: Do you really know all of your ‘friends’ on facebook?
August 20th, 2007
People have an innate ability to always destroy things.
Wars, terrorism and the environment to name a few examples. This is the world we live in and we have to deal with this.
With the development of online social networks and communities, it has created a space to be more anonymous, so previously socially unacceptable actions now don’t seem that bad to the people involved. They can feel like they are not governed by the same rules and laws, this can also create an anarchic society, reminding me of Mad Max. Additionally, as the space has become more dominant with huge amounts of users and reach within the communities, it has also fuelled the egos of those involved, believing they have power and control to influence many. And they do.
This week has seen a big uproar with advertisers pulling their ads on Facebook because they are being shown against the BNP group. This is only getting airtime due to Facebook’s current popularity.
Showing on inappropriate sites has been a problem in traditional online display advertising that most advertisers don’t even realise. Due to display advertising blind networks you could be shown against any kind of site out there and the agency doesn’t even tell you where your ad is appearing. What a joke. However companies have been happy to do this for years, so don’t come crying now when you’re ad is shown up against a subject on a social channel like Facebook that you don’t agree with! I notice there has also been no comment from any of the media buyers on this - better to keep quiet or they might rumble the whole lot eh guys…
Also the BBC are reporting on ‘pro-ana’ (anorexia) groups on Facebook and Myspace commenting that they are now getting more reach due to the community base. This may be true but they don’t mention the community backlash this has been evoked with many ‘anti-ana’ groups being setup.
This brings me back to my earlier comment about the anarchistic nature of people. At some point, as it reaches critical mass, a social community without strict laws and policing will inevitably self-implode.
The paradise that was initially started with good intentions becomes a dark, harsh reality. This is also seen in the recent events on Second Life where corporate buildings have been bombed by the community, and avatars leaving the American Apparel store have been gunned down. This has led to a mass exodus of businesses leaving their space on second life including the closure of the American Apparel store.
Stricter rules and policing are needed by the social media sites involved such as Facebook and Myspace to control this. But this is very tricky. Myspace say they are working with anorexia help organisations to advise on the best approach to take. However the biggest problem is trying to censor or ban things such as BNP and ‘pro-ana’ appearing in these networks. Neither are illegal, and banning them just creates more awareness and goes against the whole internet ethos of freedom of information. Welcome to the real world…
August 8th, 2007
