The reason I like Google Alerts, is that when I get behind on my blog reading I still get pushed information via my inbox.

Check out what come into my inbox today.

Social Network Poem.
“There are no social networks. There is only one social network. My social network…But your site is not my social network. It’s just part of the online social ecosystem.” see the full post at The Man in Blue

Also, check out a new IDC document that came out about Social Network Advertising.
Social Networking Services in the United States — Popular, Yes, But How to Monetize Them? Price $3,500.00
“Operators are only beginning to learn how to monetize social networks. Advertising will eventually be big”
Exciting stuff, reminder… keep reading blogs

social ecosystem, social media, social network, Social Network Advertising, social network portability, Social Networks social software

Social interface design is becoming very important in the current development of the web. We are really only now discovering that our old assumptions are not always correct. As the web matures we start seeing that we have to look at our users differently. Its not just an individual but a whole ecosystem around that individual that needs to be considered.

Bokardo has a great post with gives a very clear idea of the changing landscape…

Gone are the days of traditional usability testing. Almost all testing assumes that 1) people want to use your software and 2) people use your software alone. Each of these things is becoming less true every day. There’s so much software! A much bigger problem, at this point in time, is how to get people and the social groups of which they are a part interested and keep them interested in your software.

You’re not convincing just one person, you’re convincing one person and all their friends.

design, new media, social interface design, Social Networks, usability web2.0

Now I’m not talking about Social Search but social networks.

The Cyworld’s, MySpace’s, and other hundreds of niche networks are turning into the “new search”.
“Ad Spending in Social Networks will reach $865 million in 2007.”

MySpace getting at least $525 million leaving the rest to the niche networks.

Will Social Networks be dominated by the big gorillas, or will smaller players have a stronger play?

What will happen in 2010 when Ad Spending in Social Networks reach $2.15 billion.
Internet consumers are embracing social networks the way the present and past consumers have embraced search.

myspace, search, social network Social Networks

We’re inching ever closer to a real live beta with the mobiuslive music social network project and I’m personally having a lot of fun with the final set of modules, i.e., the playlist manager and Flash jukebox. As you can probably tell from their names, the playlist manager allows users to “star” their favorite tracks around the site similar to the way you would represent a given email’s importance in GMail.

(The icons on the right side mean “Has Video”, “Has Lyrics”, “Is a Favorite”, “Buy This Track” and “Preview This Track,” respectively.) Marking a track in this manner appends it to your personal playlist, which you can then manage via a funky little drag-and-drop interface built using the scriptaculous javascript library, shown below:

You can add tracks manually using a simple form below the list (although obviously these will not necessarily be playable by the jukebox). In either case, any item you add to this list can be dragged and dropped for sorting, regardless of whether it exists within the mobiuslive library or not.

The jukebox application itself is based on the very excellent XSPF playlist specification and web music player.

To get everything to work together, we created a dynamic XML file that pulls the relevant user tracks from the database, formats it according to the XSPF specification and feeds it back into the Flash player. I had to spend a little time tweaking the player itself to be a bit more in-line wiith the mobiuslive look, but other than that, it was a fairly straightforward process.

ajax, design, flash, social network, Social Networks social software

A new report named S–Commerce: Beyond MySpace and YouTube (PDF) talks about two challenges with social commerce.

Traditional advertising is not as affective on social networks and the barrier to market is quite high for creating “branded socials networks”.

“The average online socialite
currently frequents three social networking sites;
when polled, these same socialites stated they would
consider participation in up to four communities. Social
saturation clearly poses a challenge for marketers
considering launching their own online social network”

Specific context and purpose is what will drive those socialites to participate.

Is MySpace without a context and purpose?

online communities, S commerce, Social Networks, Social Saturation social software

Working in this industry I get notified by friends, google, or a blog about every new social network that hits the streets. In Febuary 14th 2005 the the social software weblog (now retired) put out a Social Networking Services Meta List.

This list now stands at 380 entries. Posted Feb 14th 2005 5:55PM by Alberto Escarlate

It’s now October 2006 and lets just say that list has grown. Yet Another Social Network Service (YASNS) after another. Most of us only here about the gigantic communities when something drastic happens like MySpace power outage or a Facebook revolt.

But what started it all?

Who was the first Social Network Service?

SixDegrees.com was the original social network service website that lasted from 1997 to 2001. Wikipedia entry:SixDegrees.com

What happened to the first Social Network Service?

People who confirmed a relationship with an existing user but did not go on to register with the site continued to receive occasional email updates and solicitations; probably for this reason, SixDegrees acquired a reputation as a spammer.
.....The company was based in New York City. At its height, SixDegrees had around 100 employees, and the site had around 1,000,000 fully-registered members. The site was bought by YouthStream Media Networks in 2000 for US$125 million. Wikipedia entry:SixDegrees.com

Not all social networks make it, the more examples we have in market the more we get to understand what keeps people coming back and engaging in a community.

Cheers to Yet Another

Social Networks YASN