social networking

Business decision makers are turning to social networking - a medium traditionally favoured by teenagers thanks to sites like Facebook and MySpace - to virtually interact with clients, suppliers, business partners and potential employers and employees. Viadeo, a professional networking site, officially opened its doors to UK executives this week, following on from its success elsewhere in Europe which saw it gain around 3,000 new members every day.The site, which was founded by a network of 200 entrepreneurs in France, now boasts more than one million members

web 2.0

The popularity of web 2.0 content across different demographics has meant that social networking sites have continued to successfully target specialised or localised markets, recent developments have suggested.The marketing research site also reports that online advertising has proved to be successful on Disney-related websites via branding or third party deals.

orkut

Google Blog announced that Google will be launching a new feature for Orkut users that use Claro as their mobile provider in Brazil. The feature will enable users of Orkut to SMS message their Orkut friends from their mobile phones. The details on exactly how this is done, is not exactly clear. But if you do receive a "scrap" message from a friend and it has the word "mobile" next to the friend's name, then it was sent via mobile phone .

orkut

Google Blog announced that Google will be launching a new feature for Orkut users that use Claro as their mobile provider in Brazil. The feature will enable users of Orkut to SMS message their Orkut friends from their mobile phones. The details on exactly how this is done, is not exactly clear. But if you do receive a "scrap" message from a friend and it has the word "mobile" next to the friend's name, then it was sent via mobile phone .

Girlfriendscafe.com

A new social networking Web site has launched at Girlfriendscafe.com. Geared toward women in the United States and Canada, the online community provides a safe haven for women to communicate to one another and have fun.The social networking site is free to all members. Women can choose from the exciting menu to create their own personal online profile; talk in chat rooms; post on a message board; create their own and view other member blogs; and be instantly connected to their girlfriends through instant chat. Girlfriendscafe has also set up a post office for its members to send and receive e-mail

online community

animeOnline , Ltd. today announced the launch of the beta version of animeOnline.com , the new online community and news resource designed to reach the growing entertainment audience interested in anime , manga and Japanese entertainment. animeOnline is headed by Rob Bricken.

web 2.0

In the last 12 months Web 2.0 has emerged as a technology capable of bringing about the sort of business upheaval that was initially attributed to the web back in the heady days of the dotcom boom. Commentators have predicted that Web 2.0 will destroy traditional news providers and that community and collaborative information resources will sweep online publishers away in a tide of new business models.

social networking sites

First social networking site was Classmates.com, started in 1995. The interface was bare-bones, but the idea was powerful for the time.MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) is the largest social networking site (in terms of members) and basically has the same model. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) did almost exactly the same thing, but focused on college, then high-school schools, and then alums (open to everyone now though.

blogger

popularity of Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and widely used social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube, several candidates are gravitating toward such technology to garner support and raise money.

business and Social networking

Internet-based social-networking services today are most popular among consumers, particularly the teen-age set. But social-networking tools hold a lot of promise for business applications too.Think of a task group that's putting together a customer proposal and could use some input from an employee with deep knowledge of the target customer's vertical industry.The application's search tools let users search the system by name, expertise or keyword. It lets people with common interests and work objectives form communities, bookmark and share documents and Web pages.

Mixi

Japan's top social-networking site is the 8-million-strong "Mixi," .MySpace allows anyone with a valid e-mail address to sign up for free accounts. By contrast, Mixi requires an introduction from someone who is already a Mixi member, a bit like winning entry to an old-style club in this society long reputed as guarded against outsiders.That feature, designed to give a sense of security and in-group feeling, has been critical in Mixi's success among shy and conformity-driven Japanese.

adsense

Revenue is growing for many of web 2.0 companies. So you have to believe that the advertising model can work. People are spending tons and tons of money on online advertising. They key is, you have to have a lot of traffic if you’re a destination site for it to work. The other way to make money … is to build advertising infrastructure companies.

posthumous messages

More than half of teenagers who use the Internet frequent social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, where they create elaborate profiles and personalize them with photos, music and video. It follows that the online hangouts have become as important to young people in death as they were in life .MySpace avoids deleting the deceased's profiles unless asked by family members, which means the profiles-turned-memorials can stay active for years..

DNA social networking

DNA and genealogy research has been gaining popularity with the ease of DNA testing .This could be the biggest social network in the world where everyone can find cousins everywhere.

PaidSpaces.com

PaidSpaces.com is set to revolutionize the way we do social networking.PaidSpaces.com is the newest rival that is aligning to help others get connected with their friends while getting paid.Google adsense users may even get to use adsense on their profiles. The marketing team of PaidSpaces.com says that if they are going to share the wealth with their members why not allow them to also get paid on the many adsense clicks that their profiles could bring..

web 2.0 and poverty

The term 'Web 2.0' captures the transition of the worldwide web from flat websites offering static information to a new computing platform independent of earlier shackles.The applications available include web-based word processors and spreadsheets such as gOffice or ThinkFree, online calendars like Kiko and backup services such as that provided by Mozy. Most of these also offer free storage space, acting as a kind of virtual hard disk for saving files.these applications are all web-based -- users create, save, and retrieve files online. Thus, they are not confined to any particular operating system or hardware.This drastically reduces the cost of using applications, which can be run, for example, through a free web browser (such as Firefox) and a free operating system (such as Linux). Users only need access to the Internet to benefit from these applications.In many parts of Africa and Latin America, progress has been made toward providing access via internet cafés, government installations, kiosks, and computing clubs. The Drishtee program in India and IT clubs in Egypt are products of this trend.But the reduced costs alone will not entirely solve the access problem. Users need education -- particularly in English, the dominant language of the Web -- and a familiarity with computers to get the most out of these applications.

MySpace

The News Corp owner social network and blogging service MySpace now has 45.5 million users and is growing by an amazing 160,000 new users a day, according to MediaPost. In the US, one in five internet visits in September was to a top 20 social-networking sites.MySpace received over 80% of visits to those social-networking sites.YouTube’s growth continued to be border on the steroid-induced side, with 249% growth from March to September.

Imeem- social networking

A new social networking/ blogging service “Imeem” has launched today with software that “lets people communicate and share photos with each other in private or semi-private communities.Imeem enters a market currently dominated by services including the now News Corp owned MySpace and Yahoo’s 360 service.the service requires the downloading of software to be used as opposed to its web based competition, with Windows being the only platform the software will work on.

Social Networking Can Kill Your Career

Everyday, there are millions of people who apply for jobs at various locations. What those millions do not realize is that their cyber social life may cost them the dream job that they have been looking for.Cyberspace is a great place to post your thoughts, communicate your fears and even find the next girl/guy. Unfortunately in our day and age, putting your thoughts online may cost you your next career.One 2006 graduate, who preferred to remain anonymous, was turned down for a summer job based on the contents of her MySpace page.

social networking sites growth

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that April’s top 10 social networking sites collectively grew 47% since last year — a climb from 46.8 million uniques in April 2005 to 68.8 million in April 2006. Nielsen//NetRatings says these social networking sites reach 45% of active Web suers. MySpace led the other social networks with 38.4 million unique visitors and growth rate of 367%.

farmers on net.

around 70% of British farmers are now connected to the Internet, with a large percentage of those having broadband connections. This is leading to increased online activity, particularly at the Farmers Weekly Interactive web site.

web 2.0

A new Senate Bill filed by Illinois Senator Matt Murphy outlines a legislation that would force any computer made available to the public in a public library and schools to block social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. Murphy describes his bill as a “proactive” move to “protect kids” from potential new threats such as sexual predator looking for victims on sites such as MySpace.com.

web 2.0

Yahoo! Mail, who has provided mail services since 1997, was No.1 web mail provider in the world with 249 million users in 2006, according to comScore Media Metrix. MSN's Hotmail, a major competitors of Yahoo! Mail, with 236 million users, was listed as the second major provider followed by AOL and Google with 50 million and 60 million users respectively. To keep its leading role in mail service market, Yahoo! Mail has provided several new services such as drag-and-drop support, right-click menus, RSS feeds and a preview pane, and launched Yahoo! Mail Beta, a significantly different and advanced version, since 2004.

web 2.0

Cell phones play a crucial role in relationships among young techies in a high-tech Indian boomtown as they provide technical support to people half way across the world in North America.So suggests a US study focusing on the very personal side of personal computing noting that technology workers in Bangalore use mobile phones to bridge modern and cultural values - to facilitate arranged marriages, as one example. They also rely on the phones to maintain personal relationships despite the modern realities of living apart or working hectic schedules, suggests research by doctoral student Carolyn Wei in the University of Washington's department of technical communication.

web 2.0

The transition from Microsoft Windows XP to Vista, and from cell phones to iPhones, mimics the cultural transition we've already made from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.The term Web 2.0 was used by O'Reilly to imply a new, improved version of the web. In Web 2.0, websites have merged with computer applications and content has been separated from individual websites. It's all about the data: accessing data, sharing data, and distributing data.

web 2.0

Yahoo blended its free e-mail and instant messaging services on Monday, making it simple for users to "chat" online from any computer connected to the Internet.Yahoo is the largest provider of web-mail service, according to ComScore industry tracker.
Yahoo said it will roll the service out in phases to its approximately 250 million e-mail users during the coming three months.This deep integration across Yahoo!'s e-mail and instant messaging services enables e-mail users to easily connect to contacts in Yahoo! Messenger's thriving IM community, without leaving the Web mail experience.People can choose to let others know if they are online and available to exchange messages in real time, and users will be able to see the online status of everyone in their contact list as well. Each instant messaging dialogue will take place in a new conversation tab within Yahoo! Mail beta, allowing people to chat with multiple friends simultaneously, without leaving the e-mail experience. Users can also convert e-mails seamlessly into IMs when friends come online .

web2.0

The Google Blog announced that they will be adding personalized search results by default for any person signed in to their Google Account. That means if you use any one of the following Google services Gmail, Orkut, AdWords, AdSense, Groups, Alerts, and so on... you will automatically be shown search results tailored to your past searching history.There are two clear concerns here. The most obvious is the privacy concern, but that is for a different blog. The second concern is the search engine optimization area. How can one optimize a site for a search results environment that is constantly changing.

social networking

Friendster, a social networking web site founded in 2002, was one of the early pioneers of social networking on the web, but it lost some momentum when newer sites with more facile features appeared on the market.Friendster is repositioning itself as the social network for young adults. It seeks to attract a grown-up, post-college crowd rather than trying to compete for MySpace's teenage audience or Facebook's college-age users. Lindstrom says that adults in their 20s and 30s are the biggest users of the site today.

web 2.0

Like Google, Yahoo! started focusing on personalized in earnest around 2007. Any user willing to sign up for an account soon found that the search engine started to learn from his or her search behavior, identifying themes, topics and web site neighborhoods of particular interest. Relevant pages were given a boost in his or her search engine results.At the same time the search engines started to weed out sites and pages he or she did not find interesting (for instance by measuring how much time the person spent on that page).The information gathered from registered users was also used to influence the results for non-registered users.

web2.0

You've heard about the new era that is sweeping the World Wide Web? Dubbed Web 2.0, this online revolution is all about sharing: be it a personal page at MySpace, a video on YouTube, a podcast or a blog. Now, a Website called HR OptIn has brought the power of Web 2.0 to working women, or more specifically, to women who used to be working for some of the top organizations in America but who took time off to care for a child, a parent, or to raise a family.

my space

MySpace is trialling a content filtering system that can identify copyrighted material on its site. The move follows a lawsuit against MySpace filed by Universal Music in November in which the record label claimed MySpace had infringed copyright by allowing its 90m members to upload music videos. MySpace rival YouTube has yet to install a digital fingerprinting system on its video-sharing site.

web 2.0

immense popularity of MySpace and other social networking sites on the Web still strikes some as bizarre, the technology industry is clearly bent on extending that puzzling phenomenon to the cell phone as a ripe new revenue opportunity.Mobile manifestations of social networking are springing up as both a cellular extension of existing web sites and communities that exist only on mobile devices. Complicating the discussion is that there’s no strong agreement as to what exactly mobile social networking is or should be.Some of the more basic offerings revolve largely around joining chat rooms and searching for new friends to communicate with by text message.

web 2.0

Indian portals are trailing behind in popularity in a recently released JuxtConsult survey (one of the very few surveys conducted to study Indian surfers). Insiders feel that foreign players have an edge as they have the resources and mature marketplaces to test their search engines and mail systems before coming to India. “Global companies like Yahoo amortised entire cost over a huge user base.Though Rediff claims to have emerged right on the top of Indian customer’s preference list for email in a com- Score Media Metrix survey, one cannot brush away the market perception that Indian portals have failed to match the growing influence of Yahoo and Google. In fact, Rediff Mail has lost some of its client base both to Gmail and Yahoo, according to JuxtConsult.Despite an impressive array of numbers from Rediff and others, internet pundits insist that they have to be quick on their feet to match up to global bigwigs. Consider Google’s social networking site Orkut and Rediff’s Connexion, for instance. Though Rediff launched Connexion three years ago it’s still a long way to go before Indians really start using it as a place of social meetings compared to Orkut which arrived a year back in India and is just rocking.

web2.0

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch noted recently that the advent of Web logs or blogs, as they are commonly known, and personal websites is probably comparable to the invention of the printing press some five centuries ago in terms of their potential to revolutionise humankind's knowledge dissemination and knowledge creation. Blogs (the term "blog" entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003) are a natural progression from Internet chat rooms, ICQ and online diaries. According to Microsoft's latest survey on blogging in Thailand, about 21 per cent of the country's 8.4 million Internet users are now bloggers, those who read or write online diaries or journals. Comparing this to the regional average of 46 per cent, the survey noted that while blogging is still quite new in Thailand, it is ahead of other places such as India.The survey is part of the "Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report" conducted online across seven Asian markets, namely Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, in which more than 25,000 people participated between August and September 2006.

web 2.0

The opportunity that the gaming companies see is huge- with the number of internet users having increased from 5.5 mn in 2000 to 40 mn in 2006 and this growth expected to continue, the gaming companies see an opportunity that they can't afford to miss. Meanwhile, broadband services also show promise with the number of broadband subscribers in Indian expected to reach the 20-mn mark by 2010, according to Nasscom estimates. India, clearly is all set to be one of the leading online markets and it makes good business sense for these gaming companies to be out there.

web 2.0

There has been an increasing dependence on non-traditional media like the Internet. There was also a strong need among people to create their own space through interaction and personalization. The new mantra is to communicate, share and connect! Blogs and social communities were also emerging as strong influencers.Comparing the earlier version with the present, Web 1.0 was all about one-way publishing whereas Web 2.0 leveraged UGC (many-to-many, consumer-to-consumer). It was largely about consumer-to-consumer, user-generated content. He gave examples of several successful Web businesses, such as Amazon, Ebay, Classifieds and YouTube.

face book

For the first time, Facebook.com is facing the realities of being used by predators.
Wildly popular with college students - but now attracting an increasing number of minors and adults - the social networking site known for its elaborate privacy controls is tackling some of the same safety issues that for years have dogged its chief rival, MySpace.com.When the site was launched in February 2004, Facebook members were required to have a valid e-mail address issued by a college, university or alumni association. In late 2005, the website established high school networks, and students needed an e-mail address from their school to sign up.With membership peaking at 8 million in September, Facebook opened access to all Internet users. In less than six months, the site's popularity has doubled to 16 million users, about two-thirds of whom are enrolled in college or high school.Facebook is made up of 47,000 networks - individual schools, companies or regions - which are each independent and closed to non-affiliated users. Most Facebook users can view less than 0.5 percent of the site's total profil.

web 2.0

While Web 2.0 offers many new opportunities for companies to grow their business, few enterprises realize how to implement the full range of capabilities to succeed. By 2008, the majority of Global 1000 companies will quickly adopt several technology-related aspects of Web 2.0, but will be slow to adopt the aspects of Web 2.0 that have a social dimension, and the result will be a slow impact on business, according to Gartner, Inc.The challenge is that Web 2.0 is not just a set of technologies, but also has attributes that have a social dimension — new business models, user-contributed content and user-generated metadata, more open and transparent business process, simplicity in design and features and decentralized and participatory products and processes.

web 2.0

A recent poll conducted for Careerbuilder.com showed that 26 percent of hiring managers admitted to using the Internet to perform background checks on job candidates. A further 12 percent admitted to using social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com as a screening tool. For many college students, social networking sites such as Facebook.com and Myspace.com are a core part of their cyber profile used for networking. However, many students are surprised to learn that their candid and sometimes sexually explicit photos and the details of their drinking and dating lives in their profiles can negatively affect their job search. Those disparaging comments, risqué photos, inappropriate language and lewd jokes posted on their profiles could be viewed as a reflection of their character by a potential employer. According to an HR director, people should carefully consider their potential audience and the impression they may have based on your pictures, personal opinions, and ideas posted online.

feed

What is RSS?
RSS is Really Simple Syndication. It is an XML-based format in which content from blogs and web sites, including dnaindia.com, is delivered to RSS news readers. DNA's RSS feeds include headlines and summaries.

web 2.0

Co-founders of the Internet telephone service Skype unveiled the brand name and details of their latest project: an Internet based television service, Joost.Currently available in private beta testing, Joost combines the best of TV and the best of the Internet by offering viewers a unique, TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0.The company, known under the code name The Venice Project, revealed its official brand.

web 2.0

The potential for Web 2.0 in India is definitely exciting, but for now, a concept should be for the global market, not just for the home market.The challenges for entrepreneurs building a web start-up with their own money is also daunting, unlike the first wave of dotcoms in 1999-2000, when venture funds chased eyeballs that never earned them revenues, instead of using a stickiness yardstick, resulting in the notorious dotcom bust.Today, analysts say there are about 30 web start-ups in India and another 20 are gearing up for launch in a few months.But many online ventures with a good revenue model are the first generation dotcoms focused on e-commerce, travel, job portals and matrimonial sites and some of them such as makemytrip.com and travelguru.com have raised cash to grow their business

orkut india

Even before the storm over the alleged defaming of a Delhi airhostess on Orkut has died down, a Delhi teenage girl has fallen victim to the Orkut mischief-makers, who have posted a profile on the web page, describing her as a 'sex teacher'.The girl's profile also has obscene photographs and contact details such as her home address and telephone numbers. The matter came to fore after the girl's family started receiving vulgar calls and her father approached the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing.

web 2.0

The evaluation and classification of the top 121 highly popular websites in India was done by JuxtConsult by measuring these websites on 32 individual criteria grouped under six different usability aspects, branding, navigation structure and value added features, website design, company and contact info, contact responsiveness and technical parameters.Of the 26 user-friendly websites, 12 websites -- Shopping, Shaadi, Yatra, HSBC, Jobstreet, Ebay, Spicejet, Travelguru, SimplyMarry, Citibank, Reliance and Samsung -- are in the 'best practice group,' scoring more than 95 per cent points.

web2.0

Sun Microsystems announced that the Norwegian government has deployed a combination of Sun hardware and software technologies as the foundation of its national rollout of the "eNorway 2009" initiative designed to provide the country's citizens with Web-based access and support for all government services.

web 2.0

Lycos is set to go after a portion of the popular online-video and social-networking spaces by launching a service that lets users create video playlists composed of footage from several websites.Users of the US-based service, called Lycos Mix, will be able to select video from YouTube, Google Video and MySpace to create playlists. The free service, currently in beta testing, uses Lycos technology that allows both real-time chat and permanent comments.

social networking

Cisco Systems Inc., whose core business is selling the routers and switches that direct data traffic over computer networks, said it has acquired a small social networking company that allows businesses to create MySpace-like communities on their Web sites.Cisco said Friday that it was paying an undisclosed amount to acquire privately held Five Across Inc., an 11-person San Francisco company whose software allows companies to add user-interaction functions and multimedia-sharing capabilities to their Web sites.Five Across' publishing platform allows users to create personal Web pages and post photos, videos and audio clips, much like the proprietary system used by News Corp.'s MySpace.

web2.0

Fast pitch an online social network for professionals has launched a portal for people of African American origin, and other ethnic minorities, called MyBlackFriends.com. Representatives of Fast Pitch say the portal is a networking website which is tailored to, but not just for, Minorities. The content, they say, is built around African Americans and other ethnicities and 'people of color'.

web 2.0

Vodafone and MySpace announced a deal today to provide social networking services to European customers for the first time.MySpace Mobile will be available in the second half of 2007 for United Kingdom users first, with plans to implement the service for the rest of the European Union at a later date.

social networking

Online communities or sites, which bring people together, are an excellent way of bonding people. They not only cut across limitations of distance and time but also give you an opportunity to meet people you wouldn't have met otherwise. They also take care of inhibitions among people who don't have great social skills. Having a medium between two people, even though it may be non-personal, makes it a lot easier to communicate which might have been tough in a real life situation. You also get to meet a lot people you might have lost touch with like school friends, college friends, friends from your previous residential area, friends from your coaching classes and so on and so forth. You also meet a lot of like-minded people who share similar interest and then there are some who use it for business networking also. So all in all, a great innovation, that's brought our world just that much closer

web 2.0

A new generation of net-savvy denizens is doing away with the drudgery of geography and finding unique ways to socialise. But online communities are not just about meeting and mating, they are becoming melting pots of views, information, ideas and contacts for just about every subject.Music communities are some of the more popular communities, as people with similar tastes tune in and recommend new music to each other. IndianGuitarTabs.com, one such site, is a popular haunt for South East Asian music enthusiasts.Following in the footsteps of international networking sites are specialised Indian community engines. Fropper and Minglebox, social networking forums, have grown exponentially since their launch, as has Yo4Ya.com, a new entrant in the Indian youth networking space.

web2.0

MuslimSpace.com was started by Mohammed El-Fatatry, a 21-year-old UAE-born Egyptian software engineer, media specialist and documentary filmmaker who now resides in Finland. A student of media technology at the Espoo-Vantaa University of Applied Sciences, he calls himself a Muslim entrepreneur, and has set up several websites targeting the Muslim community the world over, including a peer-to-peer file sharing site called IslamicTorrents.net, a support site for the popular BitTorrent.Although you can do the same things you do on other social networking sites — create Web pages, write blogs, join groups, post pictures and even add their favourite audio and video favorite audio and video —the rules are stringent, and require rigorous adherence to an Islamic code of conduct. For instance, women posting their pictures have to pose in traditional Islamic clothing. Indeed, most of the pictures of women posted show them revealing only their eyes. El-Fatatry also bans “unIslamic” words like four-letter exclamations. And yes, you cannot use your membership to date other users.

web2.0

About 93 per cent of the 28 million Indians online belong to the age group 18-45 years — a target audience that has the maximum buying power. Ten million of these are hooked on to some form of online social media, be it personal, career or business networking, matrimonial sites, discussion rooms, virtual activity platforms, instant messenger, podcasts, RSS feeds and blogs.Social media advertising has been taking the online advertising industry by storm. The total marketing spend on social media is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 106.1 per cent from 2005 to 2010, reaching $757 million in 2010, according to a report from PQ Media. Blog advertising, worldwide, totalled $25 million in 2006, which includes blogs, podcasts and RSS advertising .

web 2.0

More than half (55 percent) of all American teens between the ages of 12 and 17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teen-agers conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which conducted phone interviews with 935 teens.The study claims girls use social networking sites like MySpace to reaffirm existing friendships, while boys are more often there to flirt.The research suggests that these sites were most popular with girls aged 15-17 as 70% of those questioned said they had an account at one or more of the social networking sites. By contrast only 54% of boys aged 15-17 were such keen users. Some teenagers are avid users of the sites and 48% of those interviewed said they visited the sites on a daily basis, while 22% said they looked at the sites several times a day.

web 2.0

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.In an open letter, Nobel Peace Prize winner Gorbachev said the teacher, Alexander Ponosov, from a remote village in the Urals, should be shown mercy because he did not know he was committing a crime. "A teacher, who has dedicated his life to the education of children and who receives a modest salary that does not bear comparison with the salaries of even regular staff in your company, is threatened with detention in Siberian prison camps," Russia has been mounting a high-profile crackdown on piracy as part of its efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

web 2.0

China.com will provide Menllo.com with strategic market coverage for one year in exchange for the interest. China.com will have the right to appoint a director to the Board of Menllo.com and will have the option to increase its holdings in Menllo.com in the future.With a large and fast growing user base across China, Menllo.com is a platform that empowers individuals to share music, videos, journals, photos, whiteboards and more with their friends, and find people with common interests. It is a popular online destination for emerging musicians, writers, photographers, and a variety of other talents.By collaborating with China.com, much of the user-generated content on Menllo.com will also be made available on mobile phones through CDC Mobile's 3G services.

Project Panama

Yahoo has upgraded its search advertising system, an initiative to close the gap with Google in the race for search advertising dollars. It is being said that the much-delayed ad system, known as Project Panama is Yahoo’s attempt to place ads in front of users that are more likely to be clicked on. Until now, Yahoo gave top billing to the advertisers who were willing to bid the most to have their ads listed alongside a particular search result.

social networking..

In this age of technology, forms of online expression such as MySpace and Facebook have become increasingly popular amidst our generation. With these new forms of expression, new issues about privacy are being raised; particularly issues over employment. person’s profile is a place for self-expression in the virtual world. It’s a place to project a tiny piece of personality using any type of media you’d prefer. Photos, videos, graphics, songs, quotes, and Favorites lists are all .

my space

Visits to MySpace accounted for nearly 12% of all time spent online by US Internet users in December 2006, according to Compete Inc. The firm's December 2006 Internet traffic data put US Internet user time spent at MySpace over other sites including eBay, Google, AOL and YouTube. Yahoo! came in second, accounting for 8.5% of time spent online by US Internet users.The amount of time spent at MySpace suggests that people are leaving the site open during the day to see when new instant messages or e-mails arrive from friends.MySpace.com is the most popular social networking site on the Internet with more than 140 million members worldwide. It's free, easy to use and everybody is invited to join. It seems like fun. That's why so many teenagers post their profile on the Web. Thousands of pictures of teenagers, their names and addresses, where they go to school, their personal interests laid out openly for everyone to see. Anyone, including predators, can use the profiles like an online color catalog.

tagging

Driven by the growing popularity of sites such as del.icio.us and Flickr, an increasing number of internet users are tagging content on a daily basis.A December 2006 survey by research house Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that 28 percent of US internet users have tagged or categorised content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts.Tagging is gaining prominence as an activity which some classify as a Web 2.0 hallmark, in part because it advances and personalises online search. Traditionally, search on the web (or within websites) is done by using keywords, " Pew stated.

social networking..

immense popularity of MySpace and other social networking sites on the Web still strikes some as bizarre, the technology industry is clearly bent on extending that puzzling phenomenon to the cell phone as a ripe new revenue opportunity.Mobile manifestations of social networking are springing up as both a cellular extension of existing Web sites and communities that exist only on mobile devices. Complicating the discussion is that there's no strong agreement as to what exactly mobile social networking is or should be.Some of the more basic offerings revolve largely around joining chat rooms and searching for new friends to communicate with by text message.

social networking..

Social networks are now cropping up like mushrooms after a monsoon, most of them slight variations on the MySpace1-Facebook2 model. Unfortunately that trend has pigeonholed the notion of social networks3 into a web-page paradigm, a virtual Rolodex that grows so big that it lacks context, and hence relevance.It is time to rethink the whole notion of social networking, and start thinking of it as a feature for other online activities.

social networking

The University of Dayton recently performed a study that found that 42 percent of employers surveyed would factor in an applicant's online profile when deciding whether or not to hire them. A growing number of people may find themselves turned down for a job because they decided to make their private life public by posting the most intimate details about their life on the Internet.

you tube

From the remote control to the Digital Video Recorder (DVR), there have long been predictions that live TV and its embedded advertisements were going to be adversely affected by consumers' ability to bypass commercials. More recently, a different kind of threat has emerged from YouTube, the Internet's response to one-stop digital video viewing. Recent research by Harris Interactive suggests that this fear may indeed be warranted. Over four in 10 (42%) online U.S. adults say they have watched a video at YouTube, and 14 percent say they visit the site frequently. Almost one in three (32%) of these frequent YouTube users say they are watching less TV as a result of the time they spend there. However, YouTube has its own set of challenges as it tries to monetize the viewer traffic it has amassed. If YouTube is considering airing ads before its videos, they may be advised to halt that thinking; 73 percent of frequent YouTube users say they would visit the site less if it started including short video ads before every clip.

social networking

THERE are many projects underway in IBM's research labs to push social computing further into the enterprise and the latest to come out of the wraps is Many Eyes. Many Eyes, created by IBM's visual communications lab, will allow users to share and analyse large amounts of data on its social computing website. By allowing users to upload data and then turn it into a visual representation such as a graph or chart, users will be able to make better sense of the information, said Matt McKeon, research developer for the visual communications lab.

asian market

looking at the Asian telecom market, it is impossible to avoid the impact of China. With its huge population and strongly developing economy, it is a powerful presence in the region. Having rapidly moved to become the biggest mobile market in the world, China’s mobile sector has continued to expand at a rate of almost 20% per annum. - China had 400 million mobile subscribers by April 2006. Japan has been a long-time global and regional telecommunications leader. It has a reputation for innovation, regularly adding value to the telecom market. Its leadership has embraced the application of wireless Internet access, with over 79 million mobile subscribers using either NTT DoCoMo’s i-Mode or one of the other proprietary products by early 2006. Asia claims the world’s largest regional Internet market. With an estimated 375 million Internet users (a user penetration of 11%) by end-2004, Asia was maintaining its lead over Europe (292 million) and North America (227 million). Internet application in Asia continues to be led by the developed economies of the region - Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. This group has been joined by China. With a penetration of 8.5%, China had a massive 111 million Internet users at end-2005

web 2.0

United States' Internet users send e-mail and surf for information on personal computers, young people in China are playing online games, downloading video and music into their cell phones and MP3 players and entering imaginary worlds where they can swap virtual goods and assume online personas. Tencent earns the bulk of its revenue from the entertainment services it sells through the Internet and mobile phones.Another distinguishing feature is the youthful face of China's online community. In the U.S., roughly 70 percent of Internet users are over the age of 30; in China, it's the other way around -- 70 percent of users here are under 30, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.Because few people in China have credit cards or trust the Internet for financial transactions, e-commerce is emerging slowly. But instant messaging and game playing are an obsession, now central to Chinese culture. So is social networking, a natural fit in a country full of young people without siblings. Tencent combines aspects of the social-networking site MySpace, the video-sharing site YouTube and the online virtual world of Second Life.

mobile money solution'.

There will soon come a time, predict teenage mobile enthusiasts, when these machines will be studied as essential parts of the human anatomy. Older buffs are understandably sceptical. They take a minute to look up from checking stock market fluctuations on their palm-sized machines to say that may take a few years more. There is no denying that today the mobile is more accessible than portable water or education in many parts of the country. While this is also cause to lament how technology has taken precedence over other essentials in life, one company decided to use it to advantage. Foreseeing the future for mobile money, Bharti Telesoft came up with the concept of Mobiquity or the `mobile money solution'.

africa and internet

Broadband Internet connections in Africa are expected to more than double by 2011, but the continent is falling further behind the rest of the world as governments fail to open markets and drive down costs.High-speed Internet connections in Africa -- including DSL, WiMax and wireless technologies such as 3G -- are likely to rise to 7 million by 2011 from 3 million now, according to a recent report by South African research group BMI-TechKnowledge.That compares with almost 70 million connections already in European Union countries. The gap means broadband services will be inaccessible to all but a few rich and privileged Africans, which is likely to deter needed foreign investment.Less than 1 percent of Africans have access to broadband services due to a lack of international connectivity and unwieldy monopolies, compared with 22 percent of Americans and 30 percent of western Europeans, Hurst said. More than three-quarters of Internet connections in Africa are dial-up.
North Africans are the most Internet-savvy on the continent, because governments have liberalised telecoms sectors, while Internet service providers can get access to a number of undersea cables thanks to their proximity to Europe.But in East Africa, broadband is virtually non-existent, because there is no undersea cable linking countries to the rest of the world, forcing ISPs to rely on expensive and unreliable satellite connections.

you tube

Online video is starting to follow a familiar path in the media business.Today on the Web there are probably more than 200 sites where video is the dominant draw, although no one knows the exact numbers.If you look hard enough, you'll find interesting things besides YouTube.Call it a part of the gold rush sweeping the Web for video. Through the first three quarters of 2006, $522 million in venture capital was raised for video start-ups. By comparison, in all of 2005, $294 million was raised, according to figures from Dow Jones VentureOne.There are many reasons why the money is rushing in. Start with YouTube's stunning success and $1.65 billion payday from Google.Also, the technology to create a home movie and post it on the Web has become pretty simple. To watch a Web video, you need a high-speed connection, which the majority of Internet users now have

social networking

Facebook and MySpace are home to countless photos of college students taking whiskey shots, dancing clumsily and passing out on the floors of apartments. While these pictures entertain friends and casual Internet surfers, employers often disqualify potential job candidates for inappropriate pictures online.College students are more and more posting things that are inappropriate and things that might prevent them from getting a job or from creating a good impression with future companies.

my space

The Chinese market is already home to 137 million Internet users, most of them under age 30. News Corp.'s MySpace is the champion of reaching youth and making money from user-generated Web content.The exact size of the stake MySpace might take in the China venture remains in flux, according to the people with knowledge of the talks.Almost every other international Internet company that has tried to move into China has stumbled over an obstacle course of management, regulatory, and competitive challenges. After years of struggling on their own, Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc. have both handed over their Chinese operations to local companies. Google Inc., which hasn't, is far behind local competitor Baidu.com Inc. in market share, despite a big push into China in the last year

social networking

one in every 20 Internet visits went to one of the top 20 social networking websites in November 2006, nearly double the share of visits compared to a year ago. This and other findings were released in the Grafdom Consumer Generated Media Report, which examines recent trends in social networking, photo sharing and online video.MySpace was the undisputed leader in social networking, receiving 82 percent of visits among the top 20 leading social networking websites in November 2006. Visits to MySpace increased by 51 percent from March to September 2006, outpacing category growth in visits of 34 percent. Other social networking websites which received larger than average growth in market share of visits were: Bolt, up 271 percent; Bebo, up 95 percent; Orkut, up 63 percent; and Gaia Online, up 41 percent.The influence of MySpace crosses over into other industries as users integrate social networking visits with other web activity. In November 2006, 2.6 percent of visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites came directly from MySpace. Other industries receiving increased traffic from MySpace were Telecommunications, Banks and Financial Institutions, and Travel.

outscoring

Staff at the BBC licensing headquarters will go on strike .Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) at the Bristol centre will walk out for 48 hours in protest at work being outsourced to India.Workers fear the switch of work could lead to hundreds of job losses.

Bihar govt makes RTI accessible

Bihar became the first state in the country to open a call centre for facilitating use of the Right to Information (RTI) by people.Aptly christened 'Jankari', the call centre was inaugurated by CM Nitish Kumar in presence of RTI activist and Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal. Speaking on the occasion, Kumar said RTI would prove a milestone in taming corruption and red tapism, and help government tone up administration. "It will help in bringing Ramrajya in real sense of the term," he said.Since a large chunk of rural population is unable to read and write, the call centre would prove a boon for them as it would virtually write application on behalf of the complainants. A sum of Rs 10 as fees (under the RTI provisions) would automatically be charged in the caller's telephone bill. The call centre's number is 155331.

web 2.0

The Indibloggies, India's first and foremost blog awards would be unveiling its annual nomination process for the 2006 event on 26 January 2007. This is the fourth year of the Indibloggies award, organised by Pune-based blogger Debashish Chakrabarty. The nominations would be open in 16 different award categories for Indian blogs from all around the world from 26th January until 5th February. At stake are prizes worth more than Rs 1,20,000.India has seen a tremendous upsurge in the IndiBlogging scene. According to a recent Windows Live Spaces survey the number of active bloggers in India was put at 3.5 million with 39% of the 25 million Indian internet users being aware of blogs."We are trying to broadbase the awards as much as possible in keeping with the expanding nature of the Indian blogosphere.

Google shares

Google posted fourth-quarter profit that nearly tripled from the year before and beat analysts' expectations. The results also marked the first time Google's quarterly earnings have exceeded $1 billion in its eight-year history.The average "cost-per-click," one measure used to sell online advertisements, fell from the third quarter as Google started selling ads on MySpace, a social networking site, where conversion rates are low. The figure was also dragged down as advertisers turned to lower-priced keywords to reach niche audiences, and as Google expanded into emerging markets where CPCs are lower.

web in 2006

Worldwide Internet usage increased 10 percent from December 2005 to December 2006. In the search category the top three sites that have the largest global audience grew 9 percent. Google the number two site worldwide increased visitors to their site by 13 percent. 40-percent year-over-year growth in visitors to Google Image Search, the 71-percent growth in visitors to Gmail, and the 62-percent growth in visitors to Google Maps." Both Microsoft and Yahoo sites grew 5 percent worldwide in 2006. Microsoft sites held the top position with Yahoo ranking third. Multimedia was the leader in the top-gaining category in 2006 growing 37 percent followed by Community, which grew 33 percent. YouTube was partly responsible for the growth in the multimedia category. The video sharing site grew 1,972 percent in 2006 and had 120 million visitors. The growth in the community category was due in part to social networking site, MySpace and Blogger. MySpace grew 159 percent in 2006 and had 90 million visitors globally. Blogger grew 90 percent and had 93 million visitors worldwide.

web 2.0

Still doubting the power of the Web? Then pick up a copy of Time magazine's "Person of the Year" issue. The newsweekly bestowed the past year's honor on participants of the "new digital democracy" and highlighted the impact of Web 2.0, the concept of the Internet as a platform for interaction and collaboration, with linchpins like YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace.To some, the heralded phrase alludes to user-driven content on the Internet, featuring innovations like wikis (Web sites that allow anyone to edit content) and blogs (journal-like Web entries)—and a departure from the static pages that embody the current state of the Web. Others argue that Web 2.0 simply implies a vision for a better Internet, with the precise definition still evolving.

web 2.0

IT'S AMATEUR HOUR at the Super Bowl this year. On Sunday, 90 million television viewers on CBS will be subjected to commercials made by "You"--Time magazine's Person of The Year for 2006. Three Super Bowl XLI advertisers--Doritos, the National Football League, and Chevrolet--will all be running 30 second commercial spots made by amateurs. The Web 2.0 revolution in user-generated content has infiltrated the American living room. These amateur creators, who Time praise as "people formerly known as consumers," are now providing the entertainment at the biggest event in the media calendar.