The King of Pop, Michael Jackson has launched an social network game application to promote his new album, King of Pop.  The new album is set to release on August 25.  The dance game application is available on Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo.  Jackson’s fans will be able to win prizes.  The gaming application allows users to control Michael’s dance moves.

Prizes will be awarded to the highest scores every hour and per day.  Hourly winners will get ringtones and daily winners will get iPod Nanos.  The top 5 highest scorers on each social network then make it to the next level.  The next level is when the top scorers face off against each other.  Two of the players will get plane tickets to go around the world.  Or the winners will get a Sony Bravia 32″ TV and a PS3.  Sony BMG partnered with GMTV and the Sun newspaper for this competition.

The application will be available starting tomorrow.

MySpace, the social network site owned by News Corporation (NYSE:NWS.A) is launching tomorrow with a new look.  MySpace hopes to bring in new users and keep old users coming.  MySpace’s homepage will be revamped and there will the navigation will be easier.  MySpaceTV will be redesigned. And even the search tool will be more advanced.  The first rollout will take place on Wednesday. 

News Corp. is hoping that rebranding the site will increase ad revenues with the new look & feel.  News Corporation was hoping to reach $1 billion in revenues from FOX Interactive Media, a subsidiary of the company that runs MySpace.  Dani Dudeck, a spokeswoman for MySpace stated that a major advertiser.  The New York Times revealed that is the makers of the new Batman movie.

MySpace has over 118 million users (73 million American) and Facebook has 36 million.  Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) paid MySpace $900 million to run the advertising in the profile pages of MySpace.  That deal will be expiring in 2009. 

Banzai is a show that is produced by RDF Media’s Radar division. Banzai is a slapstick comedy that spoofs Japanese gameshows and encourages viewers to bet on the outcomes. Mr. Banzai, the show’s host is played by opera singer, Masashi Fujimoto.

The location of the Banzai video channel is available here.

Some of the betting contests include: wheelchair mop jousting, grandmothers playing chicken in wheelchairs, egg eating competitions, and amputee soccer. The stunts performed on the show is similar to MTV’s Jackass.

MySpaceTV, a division of the MySpace social network has won the exclusive rights to the show for the video channel. Through this deal, MySpaceTV will have access to the clips 30 days before they air on TV. Banzai sometimes airs on FOX, USA, Comedy Central, and G4 in the U.S.

Below is a clip of one of the more popular segments: squirrel fishing.
Squirrel Fishing

“Anybody who’s been thinking about engaging in spam are going to say, `Wow, I better not go there,’” stated Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer of MySpace. “Spammers don’t want to be prosecuted. They are there to make money. It’s our job to send a message to stop them.”

MySpace has been the victim of spammers harrassing their user base by sending mass messages and stealing passwords. Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines were expected to show up in court, but missed the hearing. Therefore, MySpace has won $234 million in the hearing.

“MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site,” added Nigam. “We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members.”

Back in the 90’s, Wallace sent over 30 million junk e-mails per day. Will MySpace actually be able to collect the money from the no-show spam kings? That’s the $234 million question.

Information Source:
[1] Associated Press:  MySpace tells AP it has won $234M spam judgment by Anick Jesdanun

“Social is in the air.”
-David Glazer, Director of Engineering, Google

Facebook and MySpace announced this past week that they are making profile data portable if a user chooses to.  MySpace is calling this feature Data Portability and Facebook is calling it Facebook Connect.   And now Google is launching the same feature, but calling it Friend Connect.  About two dozen sites will have access to Google Connect initially, but expansion will happen in the coming weeks.

“You’ll be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web like Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, LinkedIn, orkut, Plaxo, and others. And quite simply, you’ll be able to do things together,” wrote Mussie Shore, Product Manager of Google on The Official Google Blog.

On May 28 and 29, Google is holding a two-day seminar to discuss the OpenSocial initiative.  The event information is located at: http://code.google.com/events/io/.

Between Facebook, MySpace, and Google opening up this week, any guesses on who will be the fourth?  Microsoft?  Yahoo!?  Second Life?  My bet is on Yahoo!

“Today we are announcing Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect is the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to ‘connect’ their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site,” stated Dave Morin, Facebook’s Senior Platform Manager. “This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook.”

The competition between Facebook Inc. and MySpace is intensifying. A couple of days ago, MySpace made it clear that they are creating a way to make user data portable with a few key partners. They even said that they’d be happy to work with Facebook if they want to join the project. The data portability project that MySpace is working on is called MySpace Data Availability. MySpace also signed on to work with Google on their OpenSocial initiative.

Did Facebook respond by saying that they are willing to work with MySpace? No. Instead, Facebook announced that they are making their user data portable through a project called Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect asks the user if they want to allow third party companies to access their information. For example, Connecting Digg with the Facebook Account will probably automatically connect your name and location to your Digg profile. If your Facebook friends are also on Digg, you can find them through the connectivity options.

Stay tuned to Pulse 2.0 for the official launch of Facebook Connect and MySpace Data Availability in few weeks.

Information Source:
[1] Associated Press:  Facebook to let users carry profiles with them by Michael Liedtke
[2] TechCrunch: Facebook Responds To MySpace With Facebook Connect by Michael Arrington

“The walls around the garden are coming down.”
-MySpace CEO, Chris DeWolfe

MySpace has just allowed their user data to become more portable. While MySpace is the dominant social network, Facebook has been taking away a lot of it’s market-share. MySpace data will soon be able to be exported to Yahoo!, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter. MySpace is already well-established, but may feel that forcing users to pick one social network over the other may not bode well for the News Corp.-owned social network as Facebook is growing at a rapid pace.

“We, alongside our data availability launch partners, are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences Web-wide,” added DeWolfe.

MySpace profile owners spend hours customizing blog posts, music, videos, websites, and adding friends. MySpace will allow their users to transfer a lot of this data to partner websites.

“We believe that the more open and the more social the Internet becomes the better it is for MySpace. We are happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with us on this project, as with any group that wants to work with us.”

Will Facebook join? Stay tuned.

Information Source:
[1] AFP: MySpace lets users take profile data outside site’s walls by Glenn Chapman

“Responding to the needs of our growing Hispanic membership, MySpace Latino offers content that is culturally relevant to Latinos in the U.S.,” stated Vice President Managing Director of MySpace Latino, Victor Kong. “Thanks to our strategic media and content partners, MySpace Latino will showcase the sports, entertainment, and video content that our users are most passionate about, while creating a truly U.S. Latino bilingual hub for our users online.”

Social networks are rushing to adapt to different languages and cultures around the world with MySpace and Facebook being no exception. Today MySpace officially unleashed their site in Spanish called MySpace Latino. MySpace has roughly 9.7 million Hispanic members using the social network.

One thing that MySpace beats Facebook at is catering their look & feel to the Hispanic community rather than just translating the language. MySpace Latino has several relevant partners such as ImpreMedia, the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), Billboard en Español, and Remezcla.com. MySpace Latino has several relevant partners such as ImpreMedia, the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), Billboard en Español, and Remezcla.com. MySpace Latino will also feature an exclusive show called Show Secreto that stars Tego Calderon, Locos por Juana, Circo, and a special guest.

Some of MySpace Latino’s newest communities include Acústico, Get Your Band, Backstage, La Oficina, Entérate, TodoFútbol and En Tu Ciudad.  Competitors include ElHood.com, Quepasa.com, MiGente.com, LatinosConnected.com, MyGrito.com, and Vostui.com