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New Media News Every Morning

Ning poised to cross 300k social networks

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ning.gifNing, a platform enabling everyone to create his or her own social network, is expected to cross 300,000 social networks in “a matter of weeks” as announced by its co-founder Marc Andreessen in his blog.

This bold prediction comes up after Andreessen recently announced that Ning officially crossed 200,000 social networks for the first time. Based on its current growth rate, he estimates that 1,000 social networks are added per day.

Combine that growth rate with increasing usage will yield stronger growth and in terms of registered users and page views. In short, the milestone of 300,000 social networks will become a reality soon.

Andreessen also shared some interesting stats on about Ning at his blog. Here’s something really interesting:

There are now more — actually, a lot more — social networks on Ning than there are on the rest of the Internet in total, including all of the other services that let you create your own social network combined (i.e., all of our honorable competitors combined).

Originally posted on March 18, 2008 @ 11:20 am

LimeWire to go against iTunes

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limewire-store.gif
Apple’s iTunes has another reason to worry this year. Popular peer-to-peer site LimeWire has launched its own online music store, following the move of other sites such as Napster and BitTorrent to go legit.

Currently in beta phase, LimeWire Store’s pricing structure is similar to iTunes – 99 cents per track. But there are also different payment plans like $10 for 25 downloads per month, $15 for 50 downloads, and $75 for 75.

However, it cannot yet compete against the massive collection of other online music stores. Initially, it holds more than 500,000 tracks mostly from indie artists but as Download Squad pointed out, it carries big names like Dolly Parton, Gloria Gaynor, Bell X1 and Josh Rouse.

LimeWires promises to update its collection and boasts it will add thousands of tracks daily from across all genres.

via AppScout

Originally posted on March 18, 2008 @ 6:25 am

China blocks YouTube and Google News access

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free-tibet.gifChina is doing what it does best in times of crisis – block Internet access to control the flow of information. News and blogs report China has blocked Google News and YouTube to curb the distribution of video footages covering the violence happening in Tibet these days.

This trick is patterned after Myanmar’s signature move of cutting off Internet access to control information gathered during the last protest against military activities staged by Burmese monks.

Several videos were uploaded at YouTube showing peaceful demonstrations and marching. But there is also a restricted video showing the actual riots and injured bodies during the demonstration in Tibet. Even though this brutal clip is restricted to 18 years old and above, it is the most viewed video with more than 80,000 hits to date.

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 1:33 pm

WWW inventors says “NO” to Internet tracking

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phorm.gifSir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of Web, is protesting against the plan of many ISPs in the UK to install Phorm, an ad serving technology which tracks our online activities to deliver the most relevant ads at the right time and frequency.

In fact, BBC reports he’s very much willing to change ISP once this is implemented. This Semantic Web advocate compares Internet service to other utilities like water for it must supply “connectivity with no strings attached.”

Even though Phorm claims it protects personal privacy and provides protection against phishing sites, the company is compelled to offer a universal opt-out option due to negative publicity and complaints from privacy groups. Now, some ISPs are thinking about offering both opt-in and opt-out to avoid privacy issues with their client base.

Knowing the clout of Berners-Lee in the world he created and his theory about Semantic Web, it will be a tough challenge for the people behind Phorm to fine-tune its already tarnished image.

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

Sayonara illegal downloaders in Japan

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geisha.gifThe war against illegal downloaders will soon come in Japanese homes due to growing grumbling from music, movie and video game industries. It seems a tougher stance is needed since early measures to curb this problem were futile.

A news article reports that Internet service providers in Japan will issue a warning via email to all users notorious for illegally downloading files. Failure to stop this addiction would result to termination of connection.

Currently, there are about 1.75 million Japanese who are using file-sharing services and most are sharing pirated copies. If mininova, TorrentSpy and The Pirate Bay are the top sites in the US, Winny is the most popular in Japan.

Next month, Japanese ISPs will meet with different groups concerned with copyright infringement to flesh out the details and implementation of this plan.

Photo via The Age

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 6:20 am