Who do you nominate for mobile applications?
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YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of sports and fitness include (but are not limited to):
Who do you nominate for niche and miscellaneous social networks?
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YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of niche and miscellaneous social networks include (but are not limited to):
Microsoft signed a check to Facebook with a pen that was heard around the world. The amount Microsoft gave to Facebook was an astounding $240 million for a mere 1.6% equity in the company.Â
Li Ka-shing, a billionaire in Hong Kong decided that he wanted to ride the wave of Facebook’s success as well. This is why Ka-shing invested $60 million (roughly 467,415,544.52 Hong Kong Dollars) in Facebook according to Kara Swisher. Facebook now has nearly $340 million in capital.
Li Ka-shing is the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa Limited. The investment in Facebook was not made directly through company money, but from a different entity.Â
Ka-shing is worth $23 billion and is considered the richest man in Asia (9th in the world). “The deal with Ka-shing came through a Facebook investor, who introduced the company to Solina Chau, director of the Li Ka-shing Foundation [Kara Swisher].”Â
In related news, the media was recently speculating whether or not Facebook was attemping to buy out Zhanzuo, a Chinese social network. But then the rumor was later denied.Â
Friendster and MySpace both have Chinese versions of their social networks. This investment may give Facebook an incentive to expand their operations for the world’s largest and most populous country.
An official announcement has not been made yet. Keep checking Pulse 2.0 for when the investment is confirmed. This specific blog post will be updated.
“We’re sorry if we spoiled some of your holiday gift-giving plans,” stated Facebook Customer Support Rep, Paul Janzer. “We are really trying to provide you with new meaningful ways, like Beacon, to help you connect and share information with your friends.” Janzer also acknowledged Beacon “can be kind of confusing.”
As the 1984 Twisted Sister song says, ‘We’re not gonna take it!’ Facebook has made concessions to attempt to alleviate protests over Facebook Beacon. Facebook Beacon is a platform that allows more than 40 web sites to embed a beacon to track user activity within the social network. Some of those web sites include Overstock.com, Blockbuster.com, and Fandango.com. When a user consumes something from the aforementioned web sites, his or her friends would then be alerted via Facebook’s News Feed homepage.
Users have complained that their friends and family may have found out about gifts bought for them for Christmas and Hanukka after Beacon shared information on Overstock.com [Source: Associated Press via Yahoo! News].Â
The new Facebook Beacon will give users more of an opportunity to opt out of information-sharing. When a user has activity that alerts a Beacon, a notification will ask the Facebook user whether sharing the transaction is permissible. Users will also be able to customize which web sites are allowed to publish information via the External Websites privacy option:
This is why Facebook is successful. The social network takes feedback from its users seriously. And still manages to provide a platform that is still valued-added for marketers. Adding privacy features after user revolt gives the perception that the social network puts its users first and revenue second.Â
Coincidentally, this is the second time that Facebook stepped up their privacy options after adding a controversial feature. When Facebook first introduced the News Feed and Mini-Feed, users got mad, but then the social network added advanced privacy features. And now they’re doing it again. Its like déjà vu and personally I get this feeling that they were planning to introduce the privacy options anyway, but want the good press. But of course, thats just my thoughts so take it with a grain of salt.
Google recently was discovered to be testing out a Digg-like style of voting to determine relevant search results. Last February, I suggested that Digg could directly compete against Google by making their own search engine and leveraging their users to vote the search engine results up or down [Pulse 2.0: How Digg Could Compete With Google]. The Google voting model will be tested within Google Labs for about 3 weeks.
However, there is a search engine that focuses on such a model and its called Sproose. Sproose has been developing this model for about 2 years and went live in August 2007. “Sproose allows users to vote up the search results, the more users vote a site the higher up in the results it will move. Sproose takes this model a step further also improving the results by the community and sharing the vote histories with others of like interest [source: press release sent to Pulse 2.0].”
Sproose was started by Bob Pack, a former VP of Sales for Scholastic Inc. The company is based in Danville, Calif.
Who do you nominate for social shopping?
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YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of social shopping include (but are not limited to):
Who do you nominate for places and events?
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Some examples of places and events include (but are not limited to):
Who do you nominate for music?
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Some examples of music include (but are not limited to):
Google has a new service called My Location. Apparently what it does is track the closest phone tower that gives your mobile phone the service provider juice it needs to make calls. Essentially this feature gives you a “You Are Here” radius and that makes it easier to track where you want to go. This is done so without tracking your number, who you are, what your favorite food is, or where you have urinated. Google Street View Maps on the other hand…
[Picture credit: Consumerist]
But from what I hear, Google Maps is starting to take down such incriminating pictures.
Back to the subject at hand, Google My Location.
The best part of this feature is that it doesn’t require any GPS capabilities on your mobile device. On a mobile device, when the Google Maps application is loaded hit the 0 button and it should tell you where you are. I tested it from my apartment, but it didn’t work for me. I’ll try it out on the streets of Minneapolis tomorrow and will update this blog post to tell you guys whether it worked or not. I use an HTC Mogul 6800 with Sprint as my phone service provider.
Below is a video demo from Google:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6gqipmbcok[/youtube]
Information Source:
[1] GigaOM: With Google’s My Location, Who Needs a GPS?
Pouchons is a hip-hop social network that looks like an ordinary social network, but with a hip hop twist. Pouchons has social networking characteristics like profile pictures, photo albums, comments, and other personal information.
Your friends are known as your “Homies” and your messages are known as “Shout outs.” Users can send each other props, kisses, and hugs.  Users can start rating other profiles after they have uploaded a Salute picture.
Top rated users get a featured spot on the homepage. There are Top Ratings, Kisses, Hugs, Props, Body and Style. Pouchons also has Hip Hop Music and Videos. Pouchons also has Forums, Chat, and Search.
Pouchons started in 2005 and was only available in French back then. The new version launched on Nov. 8th in both English and French. Pouchons currently has close to 70,000 members. The company is based in Montreal, Canada. “Pouchons” means cute and sexy in Creole (Haiti) slang.
VoIP startup, TringMe has a click-to-call widget. The widget allows website visitors and friends to call each other anonymously. Other companies that offer similar widgets are Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, and GrandCentral. TringMe connects Flash widgets to mobile phones, GTalk, and landlines. A microphone is required though.
Phone numbers are kept private on TringMe. TringMe widgets can be set to receive only voicemails. The voicemails are emailed to the user, saved in a TringMe mailbox, and can be played back on GTalk. Calls can only be made from a computer.
TringMe also has a Facebook application. Facebook users can call other users via the TringMe application. TringMe can also be added on MySpace (sample at: http://www.myspace.com/tringme). TringMe also works on any social network supported by Google OpenSocial.
The founder of TringMe is Yusuf Motiwala. TringMe is working on a new service called TringBox. Although the full details on TringBox is not released, I do know that it will be related to video communication.
Who do you nominate for photo sharing?
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YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of video sharing include (but are not limited to):
Who do you nominate for video sharing?
Write a comment in the format – “NOMINATE – COMPANY NAMEâ€
YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of video sharing include (but are not limited to):
Who do you nominate for sports and fitness?Write a comment in the format – “NOMINATE – COMPANY NAMEâ€
YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Some examples of sports and fitness include (but are not limited to):
Pluck Corporation sent out a press release stating that traditional media companies will be able to link their web sites to social networks, MySpace and Facebook. “If I comment on a story about the presidential primary, the story itself is going to be noted on my Facebook profile, and so is the comment I made,” stated Pluck CEO, Dave Panos.
USA Today, WashingtonPost.com, Statesman.com, Better Homes, and Fox News are some of Pluck’s clients. The new initiative also gives Facebook and MySpace users a way to expose their interests in current events. And between MySpace and Facebook, there are over 165 million users that will have access to Pluck’s new service.
“If you’re a media company, you’re now attracting more users to your site,” stated Panos. “For them, I think it’s about reaching a broader audience, and maybe a younger demographic.”
Reuters invested $7 million in Pluck last year. Facebook users will have access to the service in early 2008 and participants in Google OpenSocial (including MySpace) will have access to Pluck’s service starting in mid-2008.
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