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MyBlackBerry social network launches

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RIM has decided that it’s time to launch a social network for BlackBerry users and dreamers: MyBlackBerry.

Perhaps it’s because the company, while far from abandoning corporate users, is increasingly looking to impress consumers that the move has happened. The company has a large user base but certainly needs to do something fresh to stave off competition from the likes of Apple’s iPhone and other smartphone manufacturers.

Facebook this social network isn’t, but rather it’s designed more as a bulletin board for users to talk (rant) about the various flavors of BlackBerry, set up a personal profile (tailored dependent on which handset you own), and rate and review applications. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 14, 2009 @ 11:32 am

Social networks driving Britain’s mobile Internet growth

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texting-teenagerWith an increase in Internet-friendly mobile phone handsets and “all you can eat” tariffs in the UK, it’s no surprise that a recent survey finds that mobile Internet usage in Britain is soaring.

The CCS Insight survey of 1,000 adults aged between 16 and 35 found that a third of them accessed Facebook and Twitter from their handsets (despite some teens suggesting Twitter is for “old people”).

Men are twice as likely as women to access the Net via their mobile phone, while this age group particularly expects mobile content, and in particular music and video, to be free. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 15, 2009 @ 3:23 am

Google Reader Starts Looking Like Facebook

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Facebook’s news feed makes it look like a content aggregator. Now Google Reader is starting to look more a like a social network. The world’s leading RSS reader now copies features from the world’s leading social network: people search and “like” buttons. The people search feature is itself powered by something else that’s very Facebookish: Google Profiles.

This isn’t Google Reader’s first step into social networking. Google Reader users have long been able to share content with each other. Join a blog on Google Friend Connect, and it shows up in Google Reader. Once again, we see the different approaches these companies take to the Web: Facebook starts with people and moves to content, while Google starts with content and moves to people.

We all know which approach advertisers prefer right now. Google makes billions matching ads to content, while Facebook is still trying to figure out how to match ads to people (Beacon fiasco, anyone?). Even in that area, Google is starting to match ads to people through behavioral targeting.

Thing is, advertisers go where people go. We must ask which approach people prefer right now. Do people prefer discovering connections through content, or content through connections? Google Reader’s social experimentation should help answer that question.

Originally posted on July 16, 2009 @ 6:41 am

NoitWorld.com: online auctioning meets social networking

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noitworld-logoNoitWorld.com has been open for just over a month now, and claims to offer a “cooler” and more “consumer friendly online marketplace” than the likes of eBay, with a major selling point being that it’s designed to integrate with popular social media services.

Cofounder Todd Foret (a US Army veteran, hence the site’s name — “noit” means cool or hip in US Military speak) says that because many Internet users spend so long on social media sites, it makes sense to provide tools for buyers and sellers to easily share stuff that way.

So, cool merchandise can be propagated across the likes of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 7, 2009 @ 8:56 am