19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Report: Apple Controlled 95% Of The Tablet Market In Q3 [TNW Mobile]
- Victory for paywalls? 105,000 shell out for Murdoch’s Times [TNW UK]
- Nissan Unveils New Zero Emission Concept Car [TNW Asia]
- CNN Arabic Gets New Trademark Design [TNW Middle East]
- Brand Loyalty in the Age of Social Media [TNW Social Media]
- Reuters: $1 billion Skype IPO in 2011 [TNW Mobile]
- Bill Gates makes the jump to Windows Phone 7 [TNW Microsoft]
- Australian Senator Wins International Internet and Politics Award [TNW Australia]
- Just launched: Bizzy. A personalized local business recommendation engine. [TNW Apps]
- Try This: Share Facebook photos on your blog with Pocketpix [TNW Apps]
- Promoted Post: Washington Post to have Promoted Trend during election [TNW United States]
- Interview with HootSuite Dir. of Community,Dave Olson on HootSuite, Twitter & Promoted Tweets [TNW Canada]
- Going to buy a Windows Phone 7 handset? Watch this first [TNW Microsoft]
- Google adds “Stores” and “Types” to related searches just in time for the holidays [TNW Google]
- Internet Explorer 9 just beat everyone in HTML5 compliance [TNW Microsoft]
- Google Books to get “Rich Results” starting today [TNW Google]
- Facebook page spam control, analytics and more via Facebook Page Central [TNW Apps]
- Can Facebook just become Dave McClure’s Facebook-killer idea? [TNW Social Media]
- Try This: VYou, a Q&A style video platform [TNW Social Media]
- Windows Phone 7 Users: Netflix streaming is now yours [TNW Microsoft]
| Report: Apple Controlled 95% Of The Tablet Market In Q3 [TNW Mobile] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 02:40 AM PDT
The iPad, released in April, helped push the total tablet market to 4.4 million units, a rise of over 900,000 from the previous quarter. Android, the second largest OS in the market, controlled only 2.3% of the market, but researchers suggest the demand for Android tablets will rise in the current quarter, especially with the introduction of products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. You may have noticed a sudden influx of cheap, Android-powered tablet devices becoming available at retailers, most are priced substantially lower than the both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab, but lack capacitive screens, significant battery life and are in most cases extremely buggy. The availability of such devices signifies just how quickly the tablet market is set to grow in the coming months, the iPad is expected to be a Christmas bestseller this year.Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]     |
| Victory for paywalls? 105,000 shell out for Murdoch’s Times [TNW UK] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 02:05 AM PDT
Today the company has revealed official figures that claim 105,000 people have paid to access its website, iPad app or Kindle edition. As Roy Greenslade at The Guardian reports, News Internationals Chief Executive, Rebekah Brooks is claiming this as a victory for the paid news model.
Is it really a success though? 105,000 is a nice, big number but dig into it and you find that it’s not quite as impressive as it looks. Malcolm Coles has a breakdown of the numbers that show the following: Half of these are monthly subscribers and the rest are day pass purchasers.That means that even if you just paid once just to see what the website was like, you’re in that 105,000.
This would equal a minimum of £117,526 per month being taken, or £1.4 million per year. Not a huge figure but it’s going to be more than that, as some day pass purchasers may well pay £1 several times a week. It’s worth noting that an additional 100,000 subscribers to the printed editions of the newspapers have activated their inclusive free access to the website too, although they’re included in the 105,000 figure. So, victory for paywalls? Maybe not yet, but it does show that it may be possible to persuade at least some people to pay up for non-specialist news in the “Quality” market. It will be interesting to see how the more downmarket News of the World‘s figures compare when they’re announced.Image source [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Nissan Unveils New Zero Emission Concept Car [TNW Asia] Posted: 02 Nov 2010 01:10 AM PDT Japanese car manufacturer Nissan‘s 100% electric vehicle, the LEAF, may not even be in showrooms yet, but, Nissan is already looking to the future with its “New Mobility Concept for Sustainable Zero-emission Society”, a two seater electric vehicle for urban use with the size and mobility of a motorcycle. Nissan envisages a future with an increasingly elderly and single population of urban citizens who need simple, clean transport for short journeys within the city environment. The New Mobility Concept is an user-friendly, ultra-compact 100% electric vehicle for such urban situations. Nissan’s concept will be used to study not only the physical aspects of the car’s design, but, also, the potential uses for such a car. For example, they are investigating the use of the EV‘s to enhance public transportation by interconnecting with public transport IT systems and the possibility of using the vehicles for 2-mode car sharing where the car is used for commuting in the mornings and evenings and as corporate transport during business hours. There is also potential to use these vehicles to improve mobility in large indoor and outdoor tourist locations where the zero emissions will be advantageous. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| CNN Arabic Gets New Trademark Design [TNW Middle East] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 10:41 PM PDT Back in October 2009 CNN.com relaunched with a new design that got them both praise and a traffic boost, although not without it’s shortcomings the design has been localized and implemented for CNNArabic today. I have to say I’m not CNN’s biggest fan for many reasons, most importantly their coverage of the region and their double standards when it comes to employee conduct, but you got to give it to them, they know how to design. The Crimson red has made it to CNN’s Arabic portal along with some interesting new features reported today by GMR including a page for Arab bloggers to send in posts which CNN says it will be displaying on the Arabic portal to create a stronger connection between the portal and it’s reader base. The Arabic design is an almost exact replica of the English version with a couple of differences you might want to know about:
And as long as we’re mentioning what hasn’t been included I think I should point the people from CNN in the right direction when it comes to Arabic fonts, because their obviously lost. Tahoma is the way to go with online Arabic content (see AlArabiya.net), that is till we get a free and easy to implement solution for Arabic browser fonts. To tell you the truth, I was doing my best not to ramble about it, but CNNArabic.com’s team have missed a couple of bullet points hanging out they might want to tend to in the Entertainment section. One thing no one can dispute is relevance. The people choosing CNN’s topics know their readers well, and I can safely say you’re going to find something interesting to read in any of the 7 categories you choose to browse. Whether or not you’re a fan of CNN Arabic, you’re probably going to be a fan of their new website which we hope will inspire others (I hope someone from AlArabiya.net is reading this) to improve.Image, GMR [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Brand Loyalty in the Age of Social Media [TNW Social Media] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 06:39 PM PDT Businesses chasing brand loyalty in their customers is nothing new, but the way they’re doing it may be. In these days of digital communication and smartphones, many companies are utilizing Social Media and emerging technologies to expand their marketing strategies. Facebook‘s “Like” button is all over the Web, email subscriptions abound on every blog imaginable, and services like Twibbon make it easy to display your support for a brand or cause on your profile picture. The question we must answer now is, do these methods actually create loyal customers? Clicking a “Like” button on Facebook, or even going through the process to add a Twibbon to your profile picture is a fairly passive action, and doesn’t cost the user anything. With the emergence of the “Like” button around the Web, and suggestions built into platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Social Media users are constantly bombarded with options to like, follow, or support various brands. A simple click as a passing gesture, however, does not necessarily guarantee a sale, a donation, or even a customer loyal enough to spread the word about your company. Using the information gathered from gaining followers and fans may be the crucial step to making use of these systems at all. Shopping site TheFind recently started using Facebook data to personalize search results, making products show up more frequently from stores or brands you have liked on Facebook. Facebook friends who have liked similar products or brands will also be shown, personalizing the shopping experience further, and encouraging you to like more Facebook pages as you shop. The information gained by Facebook as you like or dislike brands around the Web is now being used to create a personalized experience, and encourage further engagement in TheFind’s website. Businesses have also started latching onto location-based applications, making use of user data that illuminates shopping, eating, working, and recreational habits. Brands such as Starbucks and Saks Fifth Avenue have used Foursquare to run promotional campaigns that encourage users to follow brand updates, visit their stores, and make purchases. By giving their most frequent visitors free coffees, the Starbucks campaign encouraged both engagement with Foursquare, and frequent visits to their stores. The Saks campaign took it a step further by requiring users to check-in at various departments throughout the store to receive free gifts. InStyle magazine partnered with Saks for the promotion, offering style tips to users who follow InStyle's foursquare account when they check-in to each department. Offering a reward to customers through check-in applications encourages visits, but also increases the customers' engagement with your brand, making it more likely that they will remember your company once the promotion is over. Other location-based applications like SCVNGR build on the game-style aspect of checking-in that Foursquare has tapped into with badges and mayor titles. NFL team the New England Patriots created an in-depth location-based campaign using the SCVNGR platform to engage fans in Patriot-themed activities. Completing challenges like taking a photo of themselves dressed in Patriots gear, fans of the team racked up points and collected clues in their efforts to win a grand prize of lunch with three players. Similar promotions have been run by TV Network, Showtime, and The Smithsonian Institution. These type of campaigns connect with users virtually, but link these connections to real-life events, whether they be attending a physical event, completing challenges, or making purchases. The gaming aspect of these promotions take customers inside the marketing efforts to interact with the brand, rather than interacting passively with traditional advertising. These new ways of engaging consumers do not necessarily mean that old media is dead, however. While Facebook still has the biggest piece of user-information pie, customer databases will continue to be of importance. With a little creativity, tried-and-true methods such as email newsletters and even print advertising can still be used effectively to get a message out. When it comes to creating brand loyalty, however, the emphasis must be on creative engagement and interaction to ensure long-lasting customer relationships. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Reuters: $1 billion Skype IPO in 2011 [TNW Mobile] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:40 PM PDT Reuters is reporting that “several people close to the situation” have told the news agency that Skype will seek an IPO in 2011 with the offering being between $750 million to $1 billion. Skype “is still assessing a number of factors such as the current IPO inventory and its own preparedness,” and new CEO Tony Bates will make the decision on the timing of the IPO (assuming it in fact will happen). Skype is also not pursuing a dual track option, though according to Reuters it had a number of suitors following its S-1 filing about a pre-IPO investment, but that, “The valuation expectations were very high and never got anyone to really bite.” Those non-biters? Possibly Verizon, Google, Apple, Cisco, Comcast Yahoo, Microsoft and/or AT&T according to the report. When Skype filed back in August, we reported that it would seek a paltry $100 million in its IPO, which at the time seemed kind of on the low side – a $1 billion IPO seems much more in line for a company that had $406 million in revenue in the first half of 2010 alone.Reuters, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Bill Gates makes the jump to Windows Phone 7 [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 05:27 PM PDT
According to TwitPic information given up by his phone, captured by the company IdentityMine, the one and only Mr. Gates is using a Samsung Focus. Check out the data: And just in case you forgot, this is what a Samsung Focus looks like: I am sure that Samsung does not mind the endorsement. Do you have a Samsung Focus? Do you like it? Bottom Image Credit, WPCentral [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Australian Senator Wins International Internet and Politics Award [TNW Australia] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 04:56 PM PDT
Senator Lundy was presented with the International eDemocracy Award by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in recognition of her active and forward-thinking work toward building Open Government culture and practice in Australia. Senator Lundy has been strongly engaged in the Australian Gov 2.0 agenda and has put the principles to work in her own office through her online communications and Public Sphere consultations. Many of you will know Senator Lundy from her work with the Public Sphere/Government 2.0 series and the efforts she has made to both engage with and represent the local tech startup community. The aim of these efforts is to find new ways in which Government can fulfill their mandate by being more citizen friendly and inclusive. As we covered, it was hoped that Lundy might pick up the Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy portfolio after the recent Australian federal Elections, but that wasn't to be. That hasn't deterred her from carrying on her crusade to drag the Government into the 21st century. For those interested in finding out more about Senator Lundy’s work, CLICK HERE to watch a video from the eDemocracy Forum where she explains her goals and what's been achieved to date. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Just launched: Bizzy. A personalized local business recommendation engine. [TNW Apps] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 04:27 PM PDT Type “sushi restaurants NYC” into Yelp or Google and you’ll get the same results as everyone else. That’s search but it’s not smart search, and according to the folks at Bizzy.com, a “recommendation engine,” officially launching tomorrow, we have the right to be picky. Bizzy wants to get to know your tastes in the same way Hunch.com wants to know everything about you. The first phase of accessing Bizzy involves answering 20 questions like “Where’s your favorite place to grab a slice?” and “Where would you go to buy a birthday cake?” It lets you skip questions you don’t want to answer, but the idea is that it wants to know as much as possible about your preferences in order to give you accurate recommendations based not only on the likes of your friends and family, but mostly on users with similar taste in restaurants, shops and other local businesses.
The Bizzy recommendation engine launches in Beta tomorrow and hopes to attract enough people to share their favorite places to feed Bizzy’s hungry algorithm. Once it has, Bizzy will send out beta invites to users who have provided their preferences. As an end result, Bizzy will allow you to search for specific types of places, such as “vegan in L.A.” and the order of Bizzy’s search results will be based on your personal recommendations. Bizzy will also feature a “feed” that will provide users with deals from their favorite businesses, along with the ability to share suggestions and recommendations with people who have similar tastes. But Bizzy won’t feature reviews or ratings, because Shamia says, ”Life is too short to read irrelevant reviews or eat at bad restaurants over and over again.” [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Try This: Share Facebook photos on your blog with Pocketpix [TNW Apps] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 04:21 PM PDT
Pocketpix will take your photos and tidy them up by album into a gallery that you can then link to on your own blog or even toss onto someone’s Facebook wall. The service is also able to create galleries across your different services (Flickr, Picasa and of course Facebook) and then create a gallery widget for you to embed. Of course, even if it’s useful, it doesn’t matter much if it’s too ugly to use. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about that. The Pocketpix widget actually looks really nice, giving a circular flip motion to the photos as you go through them, without taking up more space on the page: Now, don’t you go thinking that Pocketpix is coming from simply from the heart of Pixable. You see that option to “Order”, up top? That’s because Pocketpix is made by Pixable, a service that allows you to print your photos from your online galleries. It’s still an interesting twist, though, and we do like the service. The service is in a private beta, right now. We’re trying to get our hands onto some invitations, but in the mean time you can request an invitation code directly through the site. Update: We snagged the code for you, so go nuts – LADYGAGA Also, if you’d like to print out your Pocketpix, just create one, embed it into your blog and link it here. The first 20, I’ll personally send you a coupon code to print it out and ship it for free. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Promoted Post: Washington Post to have Promoted Trend during election [TNW United States] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 04:01 PM PDT According to a new blog post by Twitter about the election tomorrow, the Washington Post will become the first news organization to pay for a Promoted Trend. With the 2008 presidential election all but ensuring that Twitter would be at the center of this year’s online version of the midterm elections, it’s pretty reasonable for the Washington Post to want to beat out its competitors on Twitter, and securing a Promoted Trend is a good strategy. Still, talk about media reversal, right? On the blog post, Twitter says:
Twitter also talks about how CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times as well as us little people (i.e. actual voters) will use Twitter tomorrow in the post. Update: PoynterOnline got a statement from Twitter’s Chloe Sladden, director of media partnerships.
Correction: We originally said “Promoted Tweet” and not “Trend”, and have corrected it. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Posted: 01 Nov 2010 03:57 PM PDT
So here is my chat with Dave about the new promoted tweets and what it means for HootSuite. Oh and I did ask about the available-any-time-now HootSuite for iPad and Dave has some interesting things to say about that too: [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Going to buy a Windows Phone 7 handset? Watch this first [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 03:44 PM PDT
Demonstrated below are the HTC 7 Trophy (left) and the Samsung Omnia 7 (right), with each phone loading the same game, an app called RetroSpace. The Samsung Omnia 7 loads the game by a full 5 or 6 seconds faster than the HTC 7 Trophy. Sure, Windows Phone 7 hardware is new, but this is not what we expected to see from the Microsoft line, especially after the company set strict component rules for vendors. Watch the video, would the load time change your buying decision? Image Credit: Engadget, WMPoweruser [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Google adds “Stores” and “Types” to related searches just in time for the holidays [TNW Google] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 03:30 PM PDT Google rolled out a couple of new “Related searches” categories, adding “Stores” and “Types” to the already previously seen “Brands”. Take a look at the screenshot below to see what we’re talking about (right under the HP ad): Now, we used “computers” as our search term for a very specific reason: we wanted to show you how Google is starting take over your shopping experience when you search now. Take a close look at that screenshot above – see what we mean? After the changes Google made with Places search the other day – which among other things puts the map in a better position on general searches, and with “Related searches” changes, it’s pretty clear that Google is really aiming really not only condense everything you need above the fold of the screen, but also to kind of act somewhat like sites like New Egg (which you’ll notice at the bottom of the screenshot), by putting all of your quick-hit shopping needs right there at your fingertips. Of course, it’s no coincidence that Google put the Places icon right above the Shopping icon on the left-hand navigation – Shopping and Places go hand-in-hand, and we expect they’ll continue to do going forward (along with mobile). One interesting note: when you click on “Stores” Google serves up that store as the top result and gets rid of the other “Related searches”. However, when you click “Types” the next page that Google serves contains both “Brands” and “Stores” like below: Update: Google got back to us and correctly said that it launched this last week, but it seemingly went under our and everyone else’s radar. Here’s the blog post talking about the changes.Search Engine Roundtable, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Internet Explorer 9 just beat everyone in HTML5 compliance [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 03:14 PM PDT
And no, this was not some small hack group looking to make a headline, the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) ran the tests and gave the results. Let’s get right to the chart before we do anything else: There it is, in grey and blue, the latest developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 coming in ahead of Chrome 7, Firefox 4 Beta 6, Opera 10.6, and Safari. I doubt that Safari will have many defenders, especially when you view its scores, but the trouncing of Firefox and Chrome is sure to raise a few eyebrows. If you are a developer, you recall exactly how compliant Internet Explorer used to be. This is nothing short of jaw dropping. TheRegister summed it up well:
Earlier today I asked how well IE9 was doing, now we know. Oh, and you can run the tester yourself across your browser fleet if you doubt the conclusions of the W3C. You can find it here. W3C, TheRegister, Image Credit, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Google Books to get “Rich Results” starting today [TNW Google] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 02:45 PM PDT
According to The Atlantic, which has a nice feature story on Google Books today, Rich Results, “selectively presents you with one extra-large result when it detects that you’re probably searching for an individual title and not a specific mote of information or general topic”. The Books algorithm incorporates over 100 “signals”, which are in The Atlantic’s words:
So basically, Google won’t just use keywords, it will present you first with the book title that it thinks you’re most likely after. For the many users (especially students) of Google Books, this should be good and time-saving news. Note: We haven’t seen this show up yet on Google Books, but we’ll add a screenshot of Rich Results when we do. We’ll also email Google to see when exactly it will go live. Update: Google got back to us with the info below, including the following screenshot of what Rich Results will look like: One note, we previously stated that the “100 signals” was part of the Rich Results, but Google clarified that the “100 signals” are part of the Books search algorithm, which is distinct from Rich Results, and that those “100 signals” have been for awhile.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Facebook page spam control, analytics and more via Facebook Page Central [TNW Apps] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 02:22 PM PDT
Sysomos, a company that makes its existence by finding and analyzing data, is solving the problems by introducing Facebook Page Central. The product gives you one-stop access to your Facebook page, allows you to manage comments, can find out the general feeling of those who comment and can even help you have a better interface through which to manage your page or pages. Facebook Page Central appears to be focused more toward major brands or larger pages, but we thought you’d be interested for a few reasons. First off, if you’re the one recommending products, FPC needs to be on your radar. Second, it’s powerful enough for large pages but can just as easily be used on smaller ones as well. While Facebook does offer Insights to help you figure out what happens on your page, you still have to log in to each one to manage it. FPC ends that frustration, plus lets you assign tasks to different people who might be managing the same page. Beyond the task assignment and easy access, FPC offers some other compelling features, as well. You can choose to be alerted by email when certain actions occur, you can filter all messages by keywords and you can even choose to delete posts that you don’t want to appear on your page. Though, a word of advice, don’t delete criticism because it will come back to bite you. So far, we’ve not seen another tool that can do all that FPC can. That’s why we wanted to make sure that you knew about it. There is no pricing listed for FPC, but you can request a demo through the Sysomos site. Is it worth the (even unknown) cost? With the growing number of businesses on Facebook, we’d reckon so. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Can Facebook just become Dave McClure’s Facebook-killer idea? [TNW Social Media] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:49 PM PDT  Investor Dave McClure today published a post that he’d “held off writing…for a long time” discussing how he thinks that there is “something wrong with the Internet” and that he thinks he’s figured out what that “it” is. Here’s a summary of what he says and then our reaction. McClure’s assertionsMcClure runs through three “assertions” in his post:
In his first assertion, McClure is mainly pointing to the fact that he has too many “friends” on Facebook (about 2,000) and that even those users that have only a few hundred “friends” must still be feeling the same as he is – that it’s just too public and not intimate with that many people listening. His second assertion says that value lies in the extremes; basically that for celebrities, brands, etc, Twitter is doing a great job because it allows them to reach out to many people without having to be their “friends”. However, where he contends that Facebook should have the advantage over Twitter – in very private conversations with a select few – he doesn’t believe that Facebook currently handles that well either. Finally, McClure explains that “intimacy” is defined by shared context, strength of connection and how long people have known each other. He says that when intimacy is achieved, “the conversation literally explodes with information”, and that information will lead to monetization, “that might just monetize more powerfully with 3 close friends, than they do with 300 acquaintances.” He concludes by saying that Facebook should watch out for new social network contenders that take intimacy and privacy more seriously than Facebook, not just because it will put that new network in line with regulators/the public, but also because it will lead to better monetization. Our reactionFirst of all, McClure is correct that even “normal people” often have too many “friends” on Facebook – most people just didn’t think too much about adding a person as a friend, especially when Facebook was exploding a couple of years ago (not that its really slowed down that much). McClure is also right to say that Facebook has encouraged this, and the business reason is simple: Facebook wants as many people on its site as possible, sharing as much as they can as publicly as they can so that it can make its money off of display (and possibly in the future search) advertising. McClure is an ex-early-PayPal-employee and as such puts a lot of weight into transactional monetization – we’ve heard him say as much in public a number of times. So it makes perfect sense that he is looking for a social network that will provide deep conversations that lead to a transaction – and there is nothing wrong with that model at all – it’s just not what Facebook’s model is. Yes, there are Facebook Credits, which are be default used in transactions, and Credits will certainly bring in a fair penny for Facebook, but mostly from games, virtual gifts, etc., at least in the near future. Is Facebook leaving money on the table by going after advertising and not transactions – some, sure, but ads have worked before and certainly seem to be working well for Facebook so far (even though it is just really getting started). So can Facebook be the “intimate” social network that McClure envisions – we’d say yes, on the condition that that is what Facebook – and more importantly the majority of its users – want. Facebook has enabled friends lists for a long time, though how many users use those lists to selectively share data we don’t know. However, the functionality is already there (though Facebook doesn’t do a good job of letting you make any list a priority). There is of course the issue of sharing something private to a few people and then – perhaps by accident – they then share it out to all of their friends, but that is kind of a reflection of life and the Internet – if you put it online, you lose all control. So if Facebook wants to, it could emphasize the things that McClure is talking about, but we kind of doubt that it ever will, at least at its core. So where does that leave us? Do people really want the kind of social network that McClure is predicting? Well, people certainly want their privacy, that’s for sure. That said, if we’re just talking about out BFFs as McClure puts it, do we really need a social “network” to accomplish that? Are half a dozen of your closest friends a “network”? They would seem like more of a node to us, with a network of nodes (which is of course basically what a social network is) perhaps forming around these super-private/select groups. Perhaps someone can accomplish what McClure wants using Facebook Connect? Is “www.therealfacebook.com” taken? Add in a purchasing/reservation layer to it, try to give users the ability to completely delete what they’ve posted (that’ll probably never happen) and give some (possibly SMS-linked) form of one-to-one and one-to-a-few communication, and perhaps it would take off. Or perhaps everyone would just stay on Facebook. Let us know what you think about either McClure’s and/or our assessment – how would you propose to take down Facebook?Master of 500 Hats, Techmeme [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Try This: VYou, a Q&A style video platform [TNW Social Media] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:21 PM PDT The Internet has one more social video network for you to join so that you can put your pretty face online, interact with friends and answer questions. It’s called VYou.com, and it’s being described as a combination of Formspring How It WorksAccording to the site,
VYou enables video conversation, allowing users to send and receive messages with friends and experts in a casual when-you-can-find-the-time fashion. Users can follow other users a la Twitter, ask questions and post responses accordingly a la Quora. Founded by Steve Spurgat and Chuck Reina, VYou is a New York-based start up that is angel-funded and still currently in beta mode so users must wait a few hours before receiving full membership access. Sign up is easy and users can link their accounts with both Twitter and Facebook. Users are asked to pick three categories that they are experts in like science, technology, media and publishing, food and wine, travel, etc. Then users must record a "Waiting" video and "No Response" video which users and followers can view as they wait for answers. CompetitionVYou is similar to the old Seesmic, which aimed to promote online video conversations and the recently closed 12seconds.com, which was a Twitter-like video status service that gave users 12 seconds to share video moments from their life. Seesmic has since refocused its site to feature a suite of tools that aggregates content from other social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. VYou as a technology is also competing with LA-based start ups Yowie and Vokle. Both start ups offer other sites a moderated and live platform where their users can interact via video and chat. Yowie, which launched at Comic-Con, focuses on entertainment while Vokle, which has successfully been implemented on the Huffington Post is more media focused. Similarly, New York’s Flavorpill.com, a lifestyle website plans to use VYou to power their "Interactive Video Interview Program" where editors will interview celebrities on the Flavorwire The Future of VYouWhile founders are taking measures to prevent VYou from becoming a Quora meets Chatroulette: “We moderate the content carefully and are COPPA compliant. We’re adding a user flagging system as well. No porn for us!” What’s to prevent users from using it as a dating site? Perhaps nothing. CEO Spurgat says, "Our only guidance will be to show the market that this is a utility, with a wide range of applications." Video isn’t just on the rise. It’s here and it’s exploding, mostly due to the fact that almost every device (with the exception of the iPad and other tablets, booo) now comes with web cam functionality. Video breaks down the barriers of 140 characters and adds a layer of intimacy to our often inane online social interactions. Next steps for VYou include improving its search function and expanding to multiple platforms, including mobile. A sampling of VYou’s content provided by VYou investor and advisor Rex Sorgatz: Alex Blagg defining "strat." Chuck Klosterman telling you the best color for a horse. Lauren Leto denying her Bukowski phase. Lauren Lane telling you the difference between a straight and a flush. Anna David letting you know if friends can date. America's Test Kitchen on pitted versus non-pitted olives. And here are some people to follow if you decide to sign up: EXPERTS + http://vyou.com/BobbieThomas (Bobbie Thomas, Style expert on TODAY) WRITERS + http://vyou.com/klosterman (Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs) COMPANIES + http://vyou.com/nextnew (Next New Networks) FOOD + http://vyou.com/americastestkitchen (Public Television show) MUSICIANS + http://vyou.com/dawallach (Chester French) CREATIVE / HUMOR + http://vyou.com/BajillionHits (Alex Blagg) [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
| Windows Phone 7 Users: Netflix streaming is now yours [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 01 Nov 2010 12:53 PM PDT It’s a bit of a kick in the pants to those of us on Android who have waited patiently for Netflix, but the truth hurts sometimes. When you have a streaming platform built on Silverlight and you have a mobile OS that is built on Silverlight, it only makes sense that Netflix would be available out of the gate for owners of Windows Phone 7 devices. Though the devices aren’t even available until November 8th (start that countdown timer), you’ll be able to access your Netflix content from the get go assuming that you have a Netflix account, according to what we’re seeing over at winrumors. Take a look at the demo, and then let us know your thoughts in the comments. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]    |
With Facebook’s enhancements to its photos service, the site is gaining even more popularity in hosting images. The issue with this, though, is that your photos are somewhat locked to Facebook. There isn’t a good way to embed those images into your own blog or other sites. That problem is being resolved by 
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