SEO Training & Website Optimization Steps

For an advertising agency to employ staff and train them on website design search engine optimisation, you can imagine the task to advise the account mangers on all aspects of online media solutions. Most advertising companies that deal with internet marketing promotions train their staff to know mainly about banner advertising. Any form of banner advertising is real easy pitch to learn. The employee just needs to be aware that it is one banner, one placement and it appears on a search engine.

SEO is a vast and rapid growing market in this day and age.

SEO training takes time and patience as there is so much to know and learn about that at first seems pretty daunting. Any advertising company that do SEO training will know that the employee will have to need to be aware of banner advertising in all shapes and sizes, cost per click advertising, cost per acquisition advertising, pay per lead advertising and the list goes on for your internet marketing strategy.
Before anyone wants to attempt SEO training be prepared for a long windy road as you integrate the knowledge of website design, keyword analysis and density checks, together with time taken for the actual SEO advertising campaign to have a good impact on your website. SEO training requires the employee to explain to potential customers the reason why SEO is the way to go for their online media solutions.

SEO Training - Website Design

When doing SEO training Weblinx let their account managers be aware of what a website design requires to be effectively picked up by search engine spiders not the web design itself. SEO training makes the account managers aware of page layout, internal and backward linking strategy and the text that is required on the web page for effective Google SEO.

SEO Training - Internal and External Linking

Another important factor of search engine optimisation we take into account in SEO training is the use of a proper internal and external; backward linking strategy of the website.
An internal linking structure is how you can guide a search engine spider around the site easily and effectively. The most common form is the use of text navigation menus or links on each page of the website. These are extremely beneficial to your search engine promotion campaign, as a search engine spider can easily navigate around the site and access all the other pages on the site rather than just coming into the one page and being stuck on it and then leaving your website.
The external or backward linking also needs to be put in place or implemented as it can improve the way in which a search engine would position or rank the site.
The more relevant external links you have in place going to the relevant sections of your website the more beneficial it is to your website promotion as a whole. This is because search engine spiders can easily come to your site from various locations and visit the site and view the content more often.
We go through how linking for external and internal links should be put in place during our SEO training sessions for your most effective online media solution.

SEO Training Cost Per Click

With SEO training CPC our account managers are trained to let you know that we are an internet marketing company who design at least fifty new pages for your website. It will be these pages that get found in the listings on Google delivering potential buyers to your website. When a costumer searches for the keywords you have secured with us it will be the page optimised by Weblinx.biz that they click on to enter your website. Weblinx.biz SEO Training lets the account managers know that you pay on a thirty day invoice only when you have agreed to the charge on the invoice and sign it then fax the invoice back to us. Our SEO training covers the use of a stat counter to monitor your clicks and keep in communication with you throughout the campaign. SEO training also covers the fact that Weblinx.biz need your campaign to be successful if we are to cover our costs so we keep optimising the pages when appropriate to deliver a profitable website design search engine promotion.
More info on SEO cost per click

SEO Training Pay On Page Placement

SEO training pay on page placement covers the fact the customer only pays when the website pages that Weblinx.biz design, reach within the agreed search engine positions (top twenty and top ten) on Google. There is a charge for the top twenty placement and the top ten position. SEO training covers the value of advertising on Google for just one keyword. How much are you willing to pay to have your website appear in the search engine rankings on the search engine Google? All prices for gaining search engine ranking will be agreed to at the onset of your website design search engine optimisation campaign. All of these aspects are covered in our SEO training sessions.

Best SEO Tips

Below is an easy to follow SEO training steps compiled by professional search engine optimisers to assist the businesses with their search engine optimisation and to help you understand how to implement the changes to your website that are required for successful SEO on the major search engines. The following may be considered as SEO secrets for onsite SEO optimization but in order to deliver a successful SEO campaign on the search engines you require external resources to compliment onsite SEO. The steps below are guidelines and a lot more is required but they are the fundamentals in preparing your website to have the right tools to compete in the front pages using basic SEO techniques.

SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 1 - Keyword Analysis	The first step of any website optimization for SEO is to define which keywords or search terms you would like to be found under. The keywords selection is usually defined by the client; along with suggestion from your Weblinx account manager. Keyword sources generally tend to include search tools such as Google Suggest, overture and keywords related to the website/business the client is involved in - other keywords will generally be defined by client recommendations. This is because in all likeliness clients generally tend to already have an idea what they need to target for the SEO campaign.	Keyword selection is imperative for SEO and can often decide how effective your website can be. If the right keywords are targeted you would expect to see a much better return of click and enquiries as opposed to 'less relative' phrases for your SEO.
SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 2 - Keyword grouping	Keyword grouping involves an analysis into the keywords which have been agreed by client and Weblinx for the SEO package. This SEO process is to define which keywords are to be targeted on certain pages. An old method many SEO's use is to create a new page targeted for each keyword. Due to Google algorithm changes a more efficient way we feel is to group 'like/related' keywords together and target these phrases across one optimized page. This reduces the risk of content repetition across the site which can have the effect of holding the site back from obtaining its anticipated search engine ranking for the SEO	It is important to target key phrases on website pages which are relevant for successful SEO online. For example if a keyword 'cars' was optimized on a page related to 'walking' the likeliness of an increase in enquiries would realistically be small thus the SEO campaign will be unsuccessful.
SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 3 - Content Generation	We create content around the agreed keywords for your SEO to reap rewards. This content is then placed onto the web pages targeted to ensure the density of the keywords targeted is ideal for ranking on search engines.	Content plays an important part in any website. In SEO content plays a vital part. Google algorithms prefer sites which have relevant content rich information related to the targeted keywords.
SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 4 - On Page Optimization	This SEO technique is to ensure the pages targeted have the correct foundations in place. This usually involves ensuring titles, meta tags, alt tags, h1, h2, bold text, underlined text are in place	To ensure your site is in the right state for optimization is to ensure the page is laid out correctly containing the tags which Google search spiders look out for
SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 5 - Internal Linking	Internal linking is the SEO process of ensuring the site has a strong linking structure internally. This ensures Google spiders stay in the website longer and can easily navigate around the site to the pages you want to focus on for the SEO campaign	Linking can play an essential part in SEO. The bulk of optimization for SEO is done mostly on-site and internal linking via keyword anchor text links.
SEO - Process	SEO - Descriptions	SEO Significance
SEO 6 - External Linking	External linking is the process of ensuring the site has a strong linking structure externally (often referred to as backward links). The process is to generate links to the website from sites in a clean cache on Google. This is what is known as quality linking	External linking (provided the internal on site optimization is done correctly) hugely compliments work done to a website for SEO. It is through external linking and on site optimization that best results are achieved for SEO

Source: http://www.weblinx.biz

Social media : Distinction from traditional media

Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves. Social Media Optimization is improving the linking structure of the websites by making it highly visible in social media searches.

Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. The social media sites typically use tools like message boards,forums,bookmarks, communities etc.

Social media has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media such as newspapers, television, books, and radio. Social media does not have a finite limit: there are no set number of pages or hours. The audience can participate in social media by adding comments or even editing the stories themselves. Content in social media can take the form of text, graphics, audio or video. Different formats can be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users to subscribe via feed readers and allowing other publishers to create mashups.

Social Media is a term that is used for a broad spectrum of topics, and has several different connotations, however in the context of internet marketing, Social Media refers to a collective group of web properties that primarily driven by the users. For example, blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the process of trying to get one's content more widely distributed across multiple Social Media networks.

There are two sides to Social Media, the first side is known as SMO as stated above. This refers to on-page tactics that a webmaster can do to improve their website for the age of social media. Such optimisation includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily 'saved and submitted' to and for these services.

Social Media Marketing on the other hand is the off-page characteristics of Social Media. This includes writing content that is remarkable, unique and news-worthy. Marketing this content can be done by trying to get the content 'popular' on the services mentioned or even creating a video that is likely to be viral on the likes of Youtube and other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page work can include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums and niche communities.

Source: http://www.searchengineoptimiser.biz

Mobile Social Networking on the Rise

Mobile media authority M:Metrics today released its first ever measurement of mobile social networking, revealing that 12.3 million consumers in the United States and Western Europe accessed a social networking site with their mobile device in the month of June.

Not unexpectedly, America had the largest audience for mobile social networking sites with 7.5 million (3.5% of all subscribers) accessing a social networking site from their device at least once in June. The U.S. was followed by Italy (2.8%), the United Kingdom (2.5%), Spain (2.3%), Germany (1.9%), and France (1.7%). MySpace and Facebook were the most popular sites accessed in the United States and United Kingdom, while MSN reigned in the rest of the countries surveyed. MySpace’s U.S. and UK numbers were 3.7 million and 440,000 respectively, while Facebook came out to 2 million and 307,000 users, respectively. YouTube was third the United States with 901,000 mobile visitors, and Bebo rounded out the top three in the UK with 288,000 mobile users. Unsurprisingly, those under 25 are the most active users - the 13 to 17 demographic reigned in France, German, Italy, and Spain while the 18 to 24 college crowd were the most active in the U.S. and UK.

Of course, a lot of these numbers are dependent on the availability of these social networks across operator portals. MySpace had strong distribution, appearing on the Amo’d, AT&T, Helio, and NExtel decks. Facebook was distributed on Spting, AT&T, Virgin, and Amp’d decks and YouTube was available on the Verizon deck. YouTube’s numbers are likely to go up because of its inclusion in the iPhone deck, which was not released at the time of the survey. In the UK, MySpace has distribution on Vodafone and Bebo on 3, but interestingly MSN is not offered on-portal anywhere. This shows that while there is strong correlation between popularity and being on-portal, off-portal activity is emerging as well.

It’s clear that the industry is noticing the compatibility between mobile devices and social networking sites. Some more on this from Mark Sullivan at PC World:

“Still, a lot of people believe that mobile social networking is going to be huge, especially as faster wireless networks become available. Meanwhile, mucho venture capital continues to flow into mobile social networking tech in its many forms.

What is it about mobile devices and social networking that make them a match made in heaven? Is the urge to social-network so strong that we simply can’t wait to get home to do it? Or will new mobile social networking services simply do things that static, desktop-based sites cannot? Will mobile devices take social networking to a whole new level? If the future is really ‘unwired’ and ‘always on’ as they tell us, then people will demand it.”

We’ll have to keep our eyes open for the next advances in mobile social networking. Pretty soon we may see contact lists consolidated between Facebook and your phone book, for example. Either way, if you’ve ever felt that getting home to check who just posted on your wall takes too long to bear, rest assured that you’re not alone.

Source:www.searchviews.com

Social networking evolves

"Evolution is fascinating to watch"
Shana Alexander

We are an electronic civilization and as it spreads deeper our family, professional and social lives are getting increasingly electronic. While sms today speaks the language of our personal and professional relationships, the web and internet are increasingly driving our personal and professional lives. Consider the case of social networking. Orkut probably has been the largest facilitator of getting old friends and family together in the recent history. Perhaps Google itself didn't anticipate the revolution Orkut would bring about and has only recently started taking the "Orkut business" seriously. Social networking has become such a huge revolution that by the time I write this there must be atleast a good triple figure clone of social networking sites on the web. It isn't any longer about just a forum where millions of Internet users connect, express themselves and communicate. Social networking is now evolving to another level and getting into areas as interesting as jobs to food and much more. Revenue models unknown before are evolving around social networking sites.

Food on your network - iFood.TV

How about a site where you can connect with other people with diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and countries, make friends, chat about shared interests etc. All this sounds quite mundane for a social networking site, right? Ok then how adding an ingredient of culinary traditions and culinary curiosity. IFood.tv does exactly that. It's probably the only site that focuses on connecting people through food. What's more you can load and create your own videos, you can use text (blogs, comments) or pictures or video to interact with other foodies. Hence people who love food can create their own online food channel, it could be either textual (blogs, comments), pictures or video. There is more you can upload your own recipes along with learning and sharing with others foodies. iFood.tv goes further you can even view multiple channels or simply decide which cuisine you want to focus on. According to the iFood.tv founders Nitin Agarwal, Sharib Khan and Alok Ranjan "The common thread is simple- share and spread your love for food."

Online Recruitment gets a social networking twist

The growth of social networking can be gauged by the fact how it is spreading into our social and professional lives. If iFood.tv was about taking food on the network and a bit on the personal front then on the professional front sites like techtribe.com and yellojobs.com are adding a twist to online recruitment by combining a social networking angle to it.

We all have heard about job sites. Techtribe.com and yellojobs.com have brought the power of personal referrals in recruitment. While techtribe.com has a program called 'frontfoot' which they claim is the world's first referral recruiting service of its kind. A simple successful referral could earn Rs 10,000 plus more for other referrals. Plus they have a quality control mechanism to keep the weed out.

Yellojobs.com on the other hand recently introduced a referral driven online recruitment service, called YelloRewards, under which employers can offer cash rewards to those who refer their friends to the posted jobs. The company hopes to place over 50,000 candidates annually by this model. The revenue model is also a bit different in terms of subscription. While other job portals charge a subscription fee from companies, yellojobs.com allows them to place ads for free, provided they pledge to pay cash reward to the referrer when they hire a candidate. The reward amount could be Rs 5000 or more.
Taking social networking seriously
Social networking is about serious business now. Consider the case of Google renewed emphasis on Orkut and the activities it is conducting there now. Earlier this month Google conducted an opinion poll on the Orkut site to celebrate India's 60th Independence along with its users. The seriousness can be gauged from the fact none other than Google India's Managing Director, Shailesh Rao sent a message to its users saying, " We are proud to be a part of India's 60th Independence celebrations and know that the energy, enthusiasm and conviction so apparent throughout Orkut communities will be on display as we ask users for their opinions through this poll. Orkut has always been associated with youthfulness and zeal and w e are very pleased with the response and affection that Indian users have shown towards Orkut."
On the other hand the success of these sites can be seen from the fact iFood.tv is about to launch a new feature called the ifood explorer based on a p2f2p (person-to-food-to-person) concept. According to the founders "The purpose of this is to simply reflect the interconnections or the links between multiple individuals in the network, a host of foods, food products, restaurants and relevant information."

The Last Word

Social networking with a twist is the new mantra in the world of ecommerce. As our friends, jobs, foods get transformed into their electronic avatar one wonders what's next on the agenda.

Source:www.hindustantimes.com

Facebook DMCA Notices Silence Digg and Google

Google has shut down Facebook Secrets, the Blogger blog that gained notoriety when the anonymous author posted code from the recent Facebook server snafu. The mysterious owner of Facebook Secrets is not going down without a fight, however. S/he has posted a new site called Facebook Secrets Again, though the Facebook code is not included.

Instead there are two DMCA notices from Google. The second, which appears to be a response to some sort of challenge about the site removal, reads:

As mentioned in our previous email, we work with a third party to post DMCA notices we receive. The notice we received because of the content on your site can be found here (once the notice has been posted):

http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=3836

We have had to remove the content mentioned in the complaint from your blog. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits.

The link above leads to a page on Chilling Effect, a site which tracks DMCA notices. The page reads: “DMCA (Copyright) Complaint to Google. The notice is not available.”

But Facebook Secrets isn’t the only site that’s been served with a DMCA takedown. Digg also received a takedown notice and complied. So far, the Digg community has remained oddly silent. Apparently Digg users aren’t as interested in Facebook code as they are in DVD unlocking codes.

Earlier this week, Facebook contacted Wired News to give an official statement about the code leak, which read:

A small fraction of the code that displays Facebook web pages was exposed to a small number of users due to a single misconfigured web server that was fixed immediately. It was not a security breach and did not compromise user data in any way. Because the code that was released only powers the Facebook user interface, it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook. The reprinting of this code violates several laws and we ask that people not distribute it further. (emphasis mine)

Requests made by Wired News for clarification from Facebook regarding what specific laws were broken have gone unanswered. The complaint filed against Digg cites copyright violations, which isn’t exactly “several laws,” though it is enough to file a DMCA complaint.

Source:www.wired.com

Well Matched: Facebook on the iPhone

Developers around the world have been building new sites and retrofitting existing ones for use on the iPhone, and the social networking site Facebookslide show posted to Flickr by Citizen Agency's Chris Messina. joined the fun yesterday. To see what Facebook on the iPhone (http://iphone.facebook.com) looks like, check out this

Facebook for iPhone is smartly designed because it keeps things simple. I found that you can perform most of the tasks you'd normally do during a normal Facebook visit (checking mail, checking up on friends, approving new friends, etc.) easily on the iPhone. The four parts of Facebook you use most--the Home, Profile, Friends, and Inbox pages--are organized in tabs across the top of the page. This helps you get to the stuff you need with just a touch or two; this is important because mobile bandwidth isn't always predictable. On a purely aesthetic level, Facebook for iPhone manages to retain much of the clean, uncluttered look you notice at the desktop browser version of Facebook.

Response from tech bloggers and discussion board posters today has been almost completely positive--Michael Arrington at TechCrunch called Facebook the best iPhone-optimized app yet.

The buzz over mobile social networking has been going on for awhile now, but actual user numbers remain low. M:Metrics released new research today saying that only 3.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (7.5 million) accessed social networking sites during June. The firm says Facebook’s mobile U.S. audience is about 2 million, and is made up of mainly college-age users.

Still, a lot of people believe that mobile social networking is going to be huge, especially as faster wireless networks become available. Meanwhile, mucho venture capital continues to flow into mobile social networking tech in its many forms.

What is it about mobile devices and social networking that make them a match made in heaven? Is the urge to social-network so strong that we simply can't wait to get home to do it? Or will new mobile social networking services simply do things that static, desktop-based sites cannot? Will mobile devices take social networking to a whole new level? If the future is really "unwired" and "always on" as they tell us, then people will demand it.

Source:www.pcworld.com

iRovr Launches Social Networking Site for the iPhone

We've seen a lot of new sites popping up designed specifically for the iPhone. What's more, many existing sites have designed iPhone-sized interfaces to make the iPhone user experience of their services more welcoming. The latest of these offerings, iRovr, is a full fledged social network designed specifically for the iPhone.

iRovr offers blogging, photo sharing, video sharing, bookmarking and user profiles - but all sized to fit the iPhone's screen. Media sharing is accomplished through POP email aliases.

Sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us have already offered iPhone an iPhone sized interface. However, the largest sites in social networking land - such as MySpace, Facebook, and Orkut - have not.

Source:http://iphonefaq.org

Orkut faces Facebook challenge

Social networking site Facebook is growing rapidly in India according to a report by comScore. From 238,000 users in January 2007, Facebook has grown by 230 per cent to 785,000 users from India in June 2007. According to the report, Facebook's growth in India was remarkable between April and June 2007, when it added 323,000 users.

I created my Facebook profile in the same period and I find that Facebook is a much better product that Orkut.

But Orkut is still ten times larger than Facebook, with 7.2 million Indian users as of June 2007. It added nearly a million new users during April-June 2007.

Among social networking websites - Orkut, Facebook and Linkedin are very popular in India. While the world leader MySpace does not have much traction here, slugging with 399,000 Indian users.

Here are the Alexa rankings of popular social networking sites in India.


* Orkut = 2

* Facebook = 21

* Hi5 = 53

* Myspace = 65

* Linkedin = 75


About 40 per cent of Indian Facebook users are women, while they constitute 28 per cent in Orkut. Indian companies like NDTV, Info Edge, SBI and Indiatimes are already advertising on Facebook. (Source: Agencyfaqs)

Orkut's popularity is also landing the site in trouble with Indian authorities. It was involved in quite a few controversies, most of which are cases of obscene or defamatory fake profiles and hate communities.

Homegrown social networking sites like BigAdda, Rediff iShare, Fropper, Yaari and Minglebox are gearing up to challenge the international heavy weights. Their success will depend on whether they are able to leverage their local knowledge and understanding of Indian sensibilities to differentiate their offering. The global social networking giants start with a huge advantage - that of a large exisiting userbase - which helps in creating the network-effect and boosting viral growth.

Source:www.cnet.com

Mobile operators see 10 times more potential in social networking

The success of social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and even YouTube could represent the next boom for the mobile phone operators.

Revenues from putting so-called user-generated content - meaning content such as videos and blogs created by consumers rather than media organisations - onto mobile phones is expected to rise more than tenfold over the next five years, according to estimates by Juniper Research published yesterday.

Allowing the legion of bloggers, Facebook posters and comedy clip makers to upload and view each other's every movement on their mobile phone could be worth $5.74bn (£2.87bn) by 2012, according to Juniper, from just $576m this year.

"One of the most attractive elements of social networking on a mobile phone is that it's universally accessible so people can look up their friends, update their status or whatever on the move, which for the young demographic is particularly appealing," according to the study's author, Dr Windsor Holden.

Social networking has become one of the fastest-growing internet trends of the past two years. According to internet metrics firm Comscore, Facebook saw users increase 270% from June last year to June this year. It now has more than 52 million users worldwide. MySpace registered lower growth of 72% but still leads the market with 114 million users. Bebo, with a majority of users in Europe, grew 172% to more than 18 million users. The mobile phone companies reckon the people who are using sites like Facebook are exactly the sort of people likely to be interested in using the internet on a mobile phone.

Further research by Comscore shows that people who are already experimenting with the internet on a mobile phone are younger than users who access the web only on a computer. In Britain, more than 25% of mobile internet users are aged 15 to 24, compared with 20% who go online using a computer; a further 41% of mobile internet users are 25 to 34 compared with less than 20% using a computer.

The concern for the mobile phone companies, however, has always been that offering the sort of flat-rate mobile internet access packages likely to lead to an explosion of usage would leave them as little more than big dumb pipes in the air. Their worry has been that once they offer fixed-rate packages, all they can compete on is price and over time they will end up as sidelined as internet service providers (ISPs) have become in the fixed-line internet world.

Some mobile phone companies have tried to retain their position in the value chain by setting up their own UGC services. For instance 3 has scored with its SeeMeTV portal, which lets users upload clips and share them with other 3 customers. SeeMeTV has also created its own social networking service called Moko (formerly Kink Kommunity) with users paying £2.50 a month to keep in touch.

But Frédéric Huet, director at Greenwich Consulting, says that the mobile operators have a real opportunity to persuade more customers to use their mobiles to access the internet by "mobilising" sites such as Facebook.

"I would not be too dismissive of data revenues. If the mobile operators can start increasing take-up of data services they will increase revenues for quite a few years before commoditisation and price competition sees those revenues erode again," he said. "By then the operators will be in a position to offer other services such as mobile advertising.

"The trick is to start building an audience now and the mobile phone operators are starting to understand that."

Sensing this opportunity, several mobile phone companies - such as T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone in Britain - have launched flat-rate mobile internet tariffs.

Facebook, in fact, is already available on mobile phones in the US through the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel networks, with users able to update their profiles and check on their friends. Several of the UK's mobile phone networks are understood to be eagerly chasing deals to add Facebook to their mobile web offerings. In addition, Vodafone has signed an exclusive deal to put YouTube clips on its mobile internet service.

Juniper Research's Dr Windsor, meanwhile, points out that the transition from social networking on the fixed-line internet to the mobile internet could allow new entrants to muscle in.

One such new entrant is Itsmy.com, owned by German tech company Gofresh, which has already signed up more than half a million users.

But these new entrants are going to have a fight on their hands once people can easily update their Facebook status to "I'm on the train" using their mobile.

Source:www.guardianweekly.co.uk

Top 5 new Facebook applications: Buffy, Beer Diary, Heat and more...

You can't beat a good Facebook application, although you can bury it with hundreds of rubbish ones - something that due to the popularity of Facebook's development platform, is in danger of happening.

I wonder if the site will introduce proper five-star ratings for apps, so you can sort through them that way. In the meantime, I've been combing through the list of recent new apps to find five worth putting on your profile. Starting with...

1. Buffy Photos, Quotes and Trivia (pictured). It's new, but has already sailed past the 2,500-user mark. Show your Buffy fandom by adding it, and you can even chat to other fans from within the app.

2. Interactive Friends Graph. Another neat app that plots your friends and their interconnections, but the big selling point here is the way you can actually interact with it, sending messages, pokes and add people from within the graph.

3. Beer Diary. Keep an accurate record of just how many units you've drunk, and then show it off to the world (and, er, your boss / mother / AA counsellor).

4. Heat RSS. Simple way to get the latest gossip from Heat magazine's website on your profile. You didn't know Heat had a website? Join the club!

5. Social Chat. The latest Facebook chat app to set up private rooms for friends, or meet random strangers for red hot cyberlove stimulating interaction.

Source:www.techdigest.tv

BigAdda, an Indian Youth Networking Site launched by Reliance ADA Group

Social networking sites are the fad of the present day. They offer entertainment, interaction and a lot more. But somewhere they are becoming so common that one cannot go wrong if they are literally compared to the stereotype reality shows too. Both equally hyped but eventually fizz out as time passes by. And there’s yet another social networking site adding to the bandwagon.


Monday, the 13th of August 2007, saw the launch of Reliance ADA group’s ‘BigAdda.com’ which touts itself to apparently be the ‘Indian Youth Networking Site’. BigAdda.com makes possible networking and self-expression by creating, uploading and sharing of videos, photos in a public, yet private, space. Some of the interesting features of this networking platform includes blogs and scribbles, which help the users express, comment and connect, Addas(communities) and forums - all of these catering to one of the most important needs of the youth today - ‘Self Expression’.

Indian social networking site BigAdda.com, plans to gather a user base of 10 million users by 2010 they have already taken a significant step in this direction by acquiring over a 100,000 customers in the last 6 weeks. The company plans to introduce a Music vertical for uploading, streaming and sharing of user playlists. Web Instant Messenger (IM) and wireless interface would also be introduced shortly, which acknowledges the youth’s asynchronous messaging habits and need for connectivity.

Since BigAdda.com has been made with the prime intention of catering to the youth, the panel of speakers too was celebs that are highly popular in their own respective fields amidst the Indian youth community. Present at the event were 5 youth icons to drive their communities online, namely popular glamour photographer Atul Kasbekar, music maestro Shankar Mahadevan, leading Indian female golfer Irnina Brar, top filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and stunning Bollywood actress Diya Mirza.


So what exactly are these youth icons going to do on BigAdda.com? As communities are a key driver for growth in the networking business BigAdda has these 5 youth icons joining them for the initiative.

To begin with, Kasbekar will be offering a sneak peak into his shoots and would head a Mobile Photo Contest where users would be induced to shoot and upload photos from their mobiles of which Kasbekar would shortlist the best. And this lucky member would get a chance to work on an assignment with the man himself.

If music is your passion then you can head to Shankar Mahadevan’s Music Adda, who will be encouraging the youth to compose and share their original music. One short-listed member would then get a chance to meet with Shankar and release an album through Big Music Label.

If you prefer being on the golf course, then Irina Brar’s Sports Adda is where you need to be, where she drives a community specially focusing on Girls in Sports. Now this is surely interesting keeping in mind how stereotyped somewhere India is with regards to its choice of sports, sport stars and of course gender too.

Ever dreamt of being Spielberg? If yes, then you can kick start here, not with Spielberg of course, but the Indian directing genius Madhur Bhandarkar, who would steer the Video Category and promote youngsters to share original scripts and video stories.

And if you are simply in awe (just the way our videographer was after seeing the ethereal beauty) of the lovely Dia Mirza, join her Adda, which would steer the Movies category and promote her fan club.

Also present at the event were two leading men from the Reliance ADA Group, namely Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Entertainment and Siddhartha Roy, Chief Operating Officer, BigAdda.

Speaking about BigAdda.com, Sawhney said, “According to the 2007 NASSCOM Report, it is estimated that by 2010 there will be 20 million Broadband subscribers, up from 1 million and 100 million Internet users, as compared to 40 million today. The number of Internet users has witnessed an upswing, and so has their need to socialize online and gain acceptance in the virtual world. Virtual hang-out plays a key role, because it gives them the space to be amongst friends and peers, while sharing an image of their own, which they would like to project. BigAdda.com aims to evolve a youth community, inclusive and aspirational and create a youth culture that will be cool and aspirational for them.”

“Music, Fashion, Movies and Sports are something that cuts across all segments and age groups. The idea was to create a platform where the fans/users can talk/share with their icon. Going forward, we plan to increase our community drivers and supplement it with innovative marketing and promotional activities,” continued Mr. Sawhney.

Giving his take on BigAdda.com Siddhartha Roy, Chief Operating Officer, BigAdda said, “As a society, we are at a moment of transition when social relationships may no longer be restricted to face-to-face interactions in our own immediate surroundings, but also include a large number of relationships conducted over vast geographic distances. Photos, Videos and Music are the key drivers of online consumption today. Hence, we wanted to let our users upload content of their choice, as one of the many features on BigAdda.com, as it gets to showcase and express their personality. Till date, there has not been one particular destination for Indian and International video content, a void which BigAdda will fill. In just 6 weeks of the site being in the test phase, BigAdda.com has over 12000 videos with over 5,000 television advertisements.”

One really wonders that with the likes of highly renowned social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace and zillions more, where does BigAdda.com actually stand? Perhaps as the site is banking on the power of the youth, especially keeping in mind the fact that around 54 percent of the present Indian population is below 25 years of age, there may be a bleak possibility that this very youth may consider BigAdda.com as their haven. A place to express, learn and share.

Source:www.techshout.com

Facebook and social networking sites drive web filtering technology

The latest internet phenomenon, social networking websites offer an interactive network of photos, user profiles, email and chatrooms.

Unlike MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty, YouTube and most other mainstream social networking websites, Facebook is currently favoured amongst young professionals and consequently take-up of the service within the corporate environment has been extremely swift, with many companies creating their own groups on the site.

Although there are undoubtedly some commercial benefits for using the service, particularly for smaller businesses, Facebook in particular relies heavily on email to inform users of new messages received and other activities taking place on site, thereby incentivising users to return to the site again and again for activity updates. With 40%+ of emails at work being non-business related already (IDC research) this adds significantly to un-required traffic.

The sites represents a number of other risks to business, with many staff choosing to use their time online to discuss their employer and air grievances in the public domain. Moreover, with users of social networking sites freely offering personal details to many, there is also an increased risk of identity theft.

As a result, adoption of web filtering technology is currently being largely driven by the phenomenal take up of social networking sites such as Facebook.

Indeed CTOs and IT administrators are increasingly choosing to specifically block access to Facebook, alongside the other chief time-sapping websites – hotmail and gmail. 47% of Email Systems’ web filtering customers have already blocked Facebook as an implicitly selected site and 83% have blocked it by category (social networking). Additionally, Email Systems has identified a trend for blocking viral video sites, such as YouTube, with over 53% of its customers choosing to block this site during work hours and 64% of customers blocking streaming and download video content from its users.

According to a recent survey, nearly one in five companies has disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies in the past year, while 7.1% of companies fired an employee for such infractions and 10% investigated the exposure of financial information via a blog or message board posting in the past year.

With several city firms – including Credit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort - having announced a ban on the site earlier this week and many of Email Systems new web filtering customers citing Facebook explicitly as one of the key catalysts for adopting web filtering, the issue is fast becoming a top concern.

It is estimated that over 60% of UK companies have no web filtering in place today. These social sites pose a real threat to business productivity, confidentiality and possibly reputation with many staff often discussing company issues and opinions in public.

According to the DTI: “Inappropriate web and e-mail usage is the second largest cause of reported security incidents”. The same report indicated that 52% of organisations have reported misuse of internet resources with the two most common being access to inappropriate websites (41%) and excessive web surfing (36%).

With child violence sites currently in the headlines as another example of undesirable web-content, Email Systems web filtering service allows customers to block internet access for specific sites, types of sites or users, whilst providing detailed real-time reporting.

Neil Hammerton, CEO of Email Systems commented: “Facebook is a growing concern for many of our customers, mainly because the site is so addictive and encourages constant, repeat usage throughout the day. Clearly many businesses have long considered webmail services to be a significant risk in terms of time, productivity and security – but Facebook is the latest incarnation to really get the industry stirred up.”

Source:www.securitypark.co.uk

Facebook Source Code Leaked to Internet

Social networking site says the leak didn't compromise user data.

The source code that powers the user interface for popular social networking site Facebook was inadvertently exposed over the weekend due to a misconfigured Web server.

The source code, which was posted Saturday to a blog called Facebook Secrets, was still posted Monday on the blog.

A spokeswoman for Facebook said in a statement e-mailed to Computerworld that "a small fraction of the code that displays Facebook Web pages was exposed to a small number of users" because of a misconfigured Web server that was fixed "immediately."

The incident was not a security breach "and did not compromise user data in any way," the spokeswoman said. "Because the code that was released only powers the Facebook [user interface], it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook," she added.

However, Pete Lindstrom, a senior security analyst at Burton Group, said that anytime source code is accidentally revealed, "there is potential for an increase in risk." He added that when a company dismisses the security implications of such an incident, there likely really are security issues.

"There are enough folks out there trolling the Web sites and pull that code who will be perfectly happy to try to identify vulnerable areas that could be exploited," Lindstrom said. "If you're release source code to the wild, you're going to have some level of increased risk associated with it. I can't think of a case where you wouldn't."

Nik Cubrilovic, a developer and contributor to TechCrunch, which originally reported the source code leak, blogged that the code could be used by outsiders to better understand how the Facebook application works. With that knowledge, Cubrilovic said, those outsiders can find additional security holes or bugs.

"From just this single page of source code, a lot can be said and extrapolated about the rest of the Facebook application and platform," he wrote. "At a quick glance, I know that I can see some obvious things in the code that both reveal certain hidden aspects of the platform and give a potential attacker a good head start.

"[Facebook] will also need to take some very quick short-term measures to mitigate the risk to users since you can bet that right this minute there are hundreds of potential attackers pouring through the leaked code and probing their systems," he added.

Source:www.pcworld.com

Google launches YouTube-style embeddable maps

Google Australia this morning showed a new iteration of Google Maps, launching about a week from now.

First up, if you know how to embed a YouTube video in your blog, you'll be able to embed Google Maps in your website, Google promises.

It'll be as simple as cutting and pasting a bit of HTML code into your website, just like a YouTube video.

The embedded maps have the full functionality of Google Maps -- they provide satellite view, map view or hybrid view, and users can click and drag the maps around.

The development has substantial ramifications for the web: any business will now be able to include a map of their location (or locations), and users going to their website will be able to get driving directions to the business in a couple of clicks.

Petrol prices plotted onto Google Maps

Find cheaper petrol via Google Maps: any third party data provider such as a petrol prices website can plot their data onto Google Maps using Mapplets

Google also showed how people can now integrate data such as petrol prices with maps. Google showed a Google Mapplet provided by a petrol prices website which shows the cheapest petrol stations and their locations in your area.

Mapplets can also be combined together. For example, a website that provides vineyard listings has the results plotted onto Google Maps, and this can then be combined with another Mapplet from a website called Panoramio, which shows photos from different places. Result? You can see photos from vineyards in a region to plan a scenic weekend away.

Paid listings for maps

Google also revealed that it is now be accepting paid listings for maps. Businesses will be able to go to the Google "Local Business Centre" and bulk-upload all their locations in an Excel spreadsheet.

Paid results will appear in mapping search and are clearly differentiated with a blue background, different icon and "sponsored links" label -- just like web search. However, the sponsored results do appear at the top of the list of map search results.

"The key thing here is you control your messaging," said a Google spokesman. "You get a huge branding opportunity, you get a great location element... at least 50% of search queries are of a local nature. You can take advantage of this and also stand out."

Google showed an example of Hertz located on a search for "car rental Melbourne", which included a Hertz special offer and logo appearing on the search result.

Paid results on Google Maps: Hertz has marked its territory in trademark yellow.

Google says it has already seen significant uptake of this kind of ad from advertisers. "Companies are taking this up at a very quick rate," he said.

Google working on integrating Australian public transport info

According to Google Maps' Carl Sjogreen, Google Australia is "actively looking for data in Australia" for Google Transit, which is a Google Labs product that provides public transport-based routing.

"We're somewhat dependent with local government agencies," he said.

"Some of them have expressed concerns about how frequently they can provide information to us so that it's accurate, so we're working on those issues."

However, Sjogreen said there were various websites that already provide public transport routing and that "mapplets is another great way to expose some of the existing transit routing sites in Google Maps."

Write reviews on businesses on Google Maps

Restaurant review: reviews have to be longer than a certain length as an anti-spam measure, according to Google.

Google is now allowing users to add reviews to any business or location listed on Google Maps.

However, it admitted that there is a challenge around defamation laws. Restaurants have been particualrly litigious

The challenge with reviews in general is it's hard for us to know in a one-off case whether it's a legitimate user or a competing business.

We have systems in place to stop widespread spamming of reviews, but we'll also look into complaints on individual reviews.

Google maps in cars and planes

According to Google Australia, BMW and Volkswagen are installing Google Maps and Google Earth into their cars, and Virgin America and JetBlue are also installing it into the back of their planes so that people can zoom in on the ground and see what exactly they're flying over.

Hi-res satellite imagery coming back to Australia: no APEC conspiracy

Google claims the disappearance of hi-res satellite imagery in Australia is not a conspiracy with the Australian government to protect the 21 world leaders, including US President George W. Bush, visiting Australia in September.

"It's a commercial issue with one of our photography suppliers," says Google Australia's Rob Shilkin. "We're really hopeful of getting high-res imagery for Sydney and other cities in Australia back up as soon as possible. I hate to ruin a good conspiracy theory, but that's the boring reality."

Source:www.apcmag.com

MySpace Page Educating People About Prescription Drug Addiction

According to the Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc. press release, Addiction411 has started a new MySpace page to educate people all around the world regarding Opioid addiction.

For those who do not know what Opioid addiction is, let me educate you. Opioid addiction is the addiction to prescribed pain killers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, heroine, and methadone. An estimated number of 6 million Americans of all ages will misuse or become addicted to prescribed pain killers at one point in time of their life. Opioid addiction has increased so drastically over the past few years that the National Institute for Drug Abuse now considers Opioid dependence as a chronic brain disease.

With all of the new information and statistics coming about regarding Opioid dependency, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals has become the first company to become partners with MySpace and offer people from around the world important information regarding Opioid addiction. The MySpace page which is located at MySpace.Com/Addiction411 has much needed information for anyone who is interested in educating themselves regarding the dangers of Opioid addiction.

The Addiction411 page at MySpace offers an interactive online addiction questionnaire. A doctor locater in your area to help with the Opioid addiction. Information regarding how prescription drug use can lead to addiction, as well as information regarding the dangers and the red flags you should look for if someone you love or care for is misusing prescriptions drugs. Unfortunately those who are misusing prescription drugs do not realize it until it is so bad that they are embarrassed to even mention it or get help. With the Addiction411 MySpace page, abusers can help find the resources they need to get their life back without announcing to everyone around them that they have an addiction.

Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a specialty pharmaceutical company that makes Suboxone, a drug that treats Opioid dependency in a medical based setting. Suboxone and Subutex, also made by Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc., are the only two drugs approved by the FDA to be used in treating Opioid dependency inside a medical facility. To learn more about these two drugs, please visit opioiddependence.com.

For all other information regarding Opioid dependency and what you can do if you know someone or if you are that someone who needs help. Please visit the TurnToHelp.com website and order your free information kit regarding Opioid dependency and it's dangers.

Source:www.associatedcontent.com

Advertisers find new headaches in lawless world of social Web sites

First came the soaring ascent of online social networking sites and now comes old fashioned soul searching about a sprawling universe where staid advertisements can scrape up against profiles of giddy young professionals and pages devoted to self-proclaimed angry "straight, white men."

While sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Habbo Hotel have a powerful allure, the companies that run them are finding themselves on the front lines of criticism about fast-evolving standards. Some of the criticism in Britain involves advertising for junk food that is migrating to the sites from children's television programming, where such ads are now banned, and corporate concern about employees distracted by time-sapping virtual networking.

For traditional advertisers rushing headlong into this new territory to reach tantalizing, young users, the ultimate nightmare is the surprise of sharing virtual real estate with risqué material or racist rants.

"Ultimately there are going to be mistakes and unfortunate incidents," said Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with the research firm, eMarketer, and the author of a report predicting that global advertising spending on social networks would grow to $3.6 billion by 2011 from $445 million this year.

"Social networking content is very dynamic and it's always changing," she added. "We're moving to a world of user-generated content and it's changing on a minute-by-minute basis. I think marketers are just going to have to get used to it."

Online advertising is a vital part of development for social networks, which have grown dramatically in the past two years with MySpace attracting more than 114 million visitors internationally in June, followed by Facebook with 52.2 million and Bebo at 18.2 million, according to comScore, an Internet tracking service. And all of those sites are feeling some growing pains.

In London, with the number of Facebook users swelling, government agencies and six companies, including Vodafone, Virgin Media and First Direct, made a jumpy, temporary exodus from the site this month. The companies withdrew advertising accounts from Facebook after their brands surfaced in blind purchases alongside a page for the anti-immigrant, right-wing British National Party.

Now the party's Facebook profile has been whisked clean of advertising, but the government's Central Office of Information has temporarily pulled advertising until it receives assurances about appropriate placements.

Other companies are jittery for other reasons; Credit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort cut off company access to such sites because of concerns about unproductive use of work time.

"Access to Facebook is denied by our automatic Web site filtering software as it may contravene our Internet use policy," said Murray Parker, a Dresdner Kleinwort spokesman. "Dresdner Kleinwort only provides Internet facilities to staff for the purpose of conducting company business."

MySpace and Bebo, which has evolved into the most popular social site for European users, have already given their assurances to British government authorities. Facebook, as well, announced last week that it was developing new systems to allow advertisers more control.

But the controversy in Britain has had an impact on all companies in the social networking category, many of which have been taking steps to highlight their ethical responsibilities, by hiring special "safety officers" or to refuse ads for profile pages.

"Bebo, unfortunately, gets tarnished with the same brush as Facebook, which is very new in the U.K. market," said Mark Charkin, head of Bebo sales for England and Ireland.

The British flap happened just after Bebo rolled out an edgy new series called KateModern, which it had commissioned from the producers of infamous and fictional Lonelygirl15, a Web series about a young girl named Bree. The ambition is to attract more users to the site, but also to tap a new revenue pool by integrating products into the story line to give advertisers greater exposure instead of click-through advertising banners.

The advertising is just starting to surface, like a glimpse of a Microsoft brand on a computer. But Charkin said no ads would appear in the more serious and dramatic scenes. Orange, Proctor & Gamble and Buena Vista, have all signed up to give their products bit parts, according to Charkin.

Bebo and Habbo House, an animated world with sites in 19 countries that draws users between the ages of 10 and 16, are both integrating candy and food advertisements into their sites, which has drawn particular criticism in England, where authorities banned junk food advertisements in April for television programming aimed at children aged 4 to 9 years. At the start of next year, the ban will extend to programs for viewers younger than 16.

Bebo has been running a campaign for Skittles candy, "A World of My Own," that offers users a chance to create their own ads. Habbo Hotel, with its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, incorporates brands like Burger King or Juicy Fruit gum, into the public spaces where players hang out in rooms with shiny tile floors and counters that look very similar to a fast food restaurant. "We think the future is having users acting or interacting with your brand. How do we solve that?" said Henrik Hoglund, who leads advertising sales for Habbo. "By setting up a competition, a quest and other things that can activate brands."

Habbo, according to Juhani Lassila, a company spokesman for Sulake, the parent company of Habbo, has adopted a code of following the rules in different countries; in the case of Britain, it is not showing the Burger King advertisements on local sites.

A Bebo spokeswoman, Sarah Gavin, said the company was working with the British regulator Ofcom and was following guidelines from the U.K. Advertising Standard's Authority.

Some institutions have reacted by building their own walls. A number of schools, companies and government authorities are filtering out social networks by blocking access. That counter-reaction has been building over the past three months, said Greg Miller, the head of sales for Email Systems, a Web services company, which also filters billions of mail messages a month for hundreds of private and public clients.

"Social networking has come into the fore in the work space," Miller said. "People knew it was there, but they were quite happy to not necessarily ignore it, but to accept it. But now it's gotten to the point where they can no longer tolerate it."

But the desire to communicate about personal issues is a powerful force. One of the newest entrants into the field is an international Web site called Respectance, which is creating a virtual memorial for the dead that enables surviving friends and relatives to create and share user-generated tributes and obituaries.

Ultimately, the company's founders and investors want advertising, but they are moving into untrammeled territory while striking the right dignified tone. "This has to be handled very carefully," said Barend Van den Brande, a partner in Big Bang Ventures, a Belgian venture capital fund that has invested in Respectance. "What you don't want to see is an ad for a BMW on your grandmother's obituary."

Source:www.iht.com

Orkut becomes 'media' popular social networking site

Pop singer Paris Hilton promoted her new music album 'Paris' on YouTube. Fashion brands, such Ralph Lauren, Gap, Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein, Adidas and more are on YouTube connecting with the community through videos, commercials, behind-the-scenes, footage and fashion shows.

India is beginning to witness a similar trend, though it is at a very rudimentary stage. Orkut, a more popular social networking site, is attracting the attention of marketers. Naturally, brand advertising potential is huge. And some are already on board.

Meow 104.8 FM, the exclusive women FM station, is present on Orkut. Anil Srivatsa, COO, Radio Today, who also hosts Between the Sheets on Meow, enters into a discussion with the community and regularly updates audiences regarding his shows through Orkut. "It is an opportunity to engage with audiences, create a viral effect and spread the word about the brand," says Srivatsa.

Besides Orkut provides the ideal environment to promote a channel such as Meow, since it is positioned as a "talk format" radio station.

Srivatsa says he has made 700 friends in 30 days, and through those 700, he now reaches 2000 people. "Being on Orkut creates a buzz." Srivatsa hopes to have a meaningful business partnership with Orkut in the near future and is in talks with prospective advertisers.

Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, says that social networking websites such as Orkut, YouTube, Fropper and Facebook give marketers a well profiled target audience. This is a golden opportunity for marketers, since traditional media is mostly mass, and one never knows if the money spent is actually leading to conversions.

"Segmentation allows the marketers to get close to its consumers, and therefore, targeting them is easier," says Bijoor

Research findings from JuxtConsult show enthusiasm amongst surfers to network. According to JuxtConsult's India Online 2007 survey communication, online networking is a hot trend, be it social or professional. Mrutyunjay, Director, JuxtConsult, says the popularity of social networking sites such as Orkut, Friends, Tagged, Fropper and Hi5 is a positive sign for Indian marketers.

For one, social networking sites are great way for spreading the word says Sachin Bhatia, co founder and chief marketing officer, MakeMyTrip.com. The travel portal is also present on Orkut.

"Users of social networks are a close-knit community, where opinions are trusted, or at least considered," Bhatia says. In fact, social networking sites can serve as great opportunities for the socially ostracized products such as cigarettes and liquor points out Bijoor.

But despite the potential of the medium, Indian marketers are sitting on the wall observes Bijoor. One worry is tampering of the content. Once the content is online, the brand owner has little control over the matter and could make the brand vulnerable.

Though there are technologies to prevent such a situation, marketers are in no hurry it seems. Another reason for the marketer's lack of enthusiasm is the size of social networkers. "It is small; just 11 million of the total of 30.23 million urban Internet users," says Mrutyunjay.

"Once these sites have the critical mass, marketers will begin to show interest," points out Bhatia of MakeMyTrip.com. On the other hand, Bhatia says that this is the best time to acquaint oneself with the medium, in terms of how best to exploit it in the future. MakeMyTrip has a two-member social networking team in place.

While social networking sites are yet to catch the fancy of advertisers, online communities of different brands such as sunsilkgangofgirls.com, Whisper's BeingGirl.co.in, ITC's website for Bingo Chips or Oktatabyebye.com, continue to get popular.

Source:www.televisionpoint.com

Social Studies: It's the Interface, Stupid!

A report reveals numerous flaws in popular social networking sites' design for user experience--but also some good processes.

Social networking is a booming medium for online communication, especially among young adults, and therefore a potential gold mine for marketers who can connect to its users. But a new report from Forrester Research shows that even the most popular sites put obstacles in the way of people who wish to sign up and become part of the social networking community--specifically lack of privacy information, poor text legibility, and inefficient task flows.

In the report, "Social Networking Sites Need A Usability Boost," Forrester applied a modified version of its Web-site review methodology to evaluate five social networks--Facebook, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, and Tagged--in terms of how easy it was for a new user to create a profile. Ratings for each of 10 criteria range from -2 (severe failure) to +2 (best practices), leaving a final score between -20 and +20, with +10 considered a passing grade. None of the five sites achieved higher than +4 (Facebook), and the lowest was -5 (Friendster).

According to Forrester, the notable failure points included:

* Lack of privacy and security policies. Four out of the five sites failed to present links to privacy and security policies in context when asking users to provide personal information.
* Text that was difficult to read. Three out of the five sites failed to provide easily readable content and field labels.
* Inefficient task flows. Friendster and Tagged exhibited awkward sign-up processes, with Tagged achieving a severe failure score in this area. Tagged required the user to add contacts to the new profile from a personal email account, and pushed for additional personal information like home address and phone number.
* Poor error recovery. Tagged, Facebook, and MySpace all failed to present users with clear error messages that might have helped correct mistakes. Facebook and MySpace presented error messages on registration forms one at a time, forcing users through multiple attempts at submitting their information.


"Customer experience executives and site managers at social networks should take these scores to heart," writes report author Bruce Temkin, vice president and principal analyst for customer experience at Forrester. "While Gen Y consumers might enjoy fun experiences and seek out entertainment more than their elders, young adults want sites that are, first and foremost, easy to use."

Temkin says that there are two components to consider when discussing social networking sites' usability: the immersive experience and the directed experience. "The immersive experience is the reason people, especially kids, spend so much time on social networking sites," he says. In the Forrester paper, he writes, "For young adults, using social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace isn't just another activity to do online--for many, it is their life online. This is because their friends form the central point of their social networking activities, which revolve around communicating--and not media consumption."

The directed experience, on the other hand, is "using social networking for an explicit goal, like finding a friend who knows somebody in the Boston area who works for Microsoft and can get me a job," Temkin says. "A directed goal, like setting up a user profile, is basic to the function of social networking, and it's easier to apply standards and metrics to understand it."

Despite the overall negative evaluation Forrester levied on the social networking sites in its study, a handful of good scores emerged in individual criteria--at least for Facebook, which achieved the study's only four "+2" scores in the following categories:

* Are essential content and function given priority on the page?
* Does text formatting and layout support easy scanning?
* Are form fields and interactive elements placed logically on the page?
* Does site functionality provide clear feedback in response to user actions?

These lessons--both good and bad--can and should be taken to heart for professional communications as well. "According to TechCrunch, it's only a matter of time before Facebook meets the market need and improves its 'relationship' features and becomes more of a business platform," writes Paul Greenberg, author of the book CRM at the Speed of Light, on his blog, "PGreenblog." "What I find interesting is the anecdotal evidence supporting this. I find myself communicating with my business contacts more frequently with Facebook and, more importantly, they answer me a lot faster than either via email or via LinkedIn."

Greenberg also writes that he has "almost [four times] as many contacts on LinkedIn as I do on Facebook, but Facebook seems to do the most important 'business thing' for relationships better--break down the barriers so that the conversations are human. And that is a priceless business benefit."

Source:www.destinationcrm.com

Google explains privacy policy on YouTube

Google has posted a video on YouTube that explains aspects of its privacy policy.

Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said in a blog post on Wednesday that Google had launched the video to explain "cookies, IP addresses, and logs" to "non-techies". YouTube is owned by Google.

ZDNet.co.uk understands that Google's privacy video is part of an attempt by the search giant to allay EU privacy concerns.

However, the official Google line is that an explanation of server logs and cookies is necessary in the interests of "transparency, and to empower you to make informed decisions about how you want to use our services".

In the video, entitled "Google Privacy Policy: Plain and Simple", Maile Ohye, a senior support engineer, says: "To improve [Google] search results, as well as maintain security and prevent fraud, we remember some basic information about searches. Without this information, our search wouldn't work as well as it does or be as secure."

The security reasons for retaining server logs are not raised in the video. However, a Google spokesperson said: "By being able to look at data trends over time, Google is better able to identify hacking attempts against Google systems and those of our users."

Fleischer has been unwilling to divulge any more information about Google security practices in the past, so as not to undermine those practices.

The video and Fleischer's Google blog post make no reference to EU privacy concerns over Google's server log retention period.

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in May published a letter saying it was concerned that the "storage period of 18 to 24 months on the basis indicated by Google thus far does not seem to meet the requirements of the European legal data-protection framework." The watchdog has also said that Google's cookie-retention period is "still too long", despite having been reduced to two years.

Besides Google, the EU is to also probe other major search engines' log-retention policies.

Source:www.zdnet.co.uk

Facebook Faces Up

As the social networking behemoth meets new challenges, three startup college networks are waiting in the wings

Facebook has had a rough ride of late. Users complain about the site's frequent shutdowns, with some observers seeing the malfunction as a possible troubling security breach (see BusinessWeek.com, 07/31/07, "Facebook Outage: Wakeup Call").

And though the news media continue to talk about the network's rapid growth and market dominance, commentators have expressed misgivings about Facebook's ability to sustain and monetize that expansion (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/6/07, "Fogeys Flock to Facebook") and (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/6/07, "Too Old for Facebook?").

Now, with founder Mark Zuckerberg heading back to court Aug. 8 to defend himself against accusations that he stole the site's concept from ConnectU, another collegiate social network with its roots at Harvard, the vultures are on the sidelines, flapping their wings.

Staying in School

Not least among them are those looking to fill the void they claim Facebook has left behind by deserting its core audience, college students. According to ComScore, 71% of users are now outside the college age-bracket. As of May, anyone could join the network, whereas users once needed a .edu e-mail address (as proof of college affiliation) to join.

But the demand for student-only online spaces—the very thing that made Facebook take off in the first place—remains. And that's where three ventures by young alumni—Off The Record, CollegeTonight.com, and CollegeWikis.com—hope to come in. Their success and strategy depend on staying loyal to that college niche, and they're looking to find ways to complement rather than compete with the networks students already use.

Niche marketing has been the strategy of choice for many new networks in the last year (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/14/07, "Social Networking Goes Niche"). Users have responded well to being a part of a distinct community, whether grouped by profession, ethnicity, or school. And advertisers like that specificity too.

College-Specific Blogs

Furthermore, research done this April by iProspect shows that among the younger age group, the top social networks have overlapping user-bases. For each of the eight social sites in the report, 30% to 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed reported some involvement, which means most respondents are frequenting more than one of the sites. According to iProspect, the likely overlap is three to five networks per average student user. If that's true, the niche model just got a whole lot more interesting to mainstream business.

College campuses provide an ideal niche case, not only because they are self-contained, but because they are communities with ample social needs and active online populations. "[They] are probably the best example we've seen of communities that can be easily activated by online media," says Columbia alumnus Doug Imbruce. This September, Imbruce is launching a series of college-specific blogs called Off The Record, where students can post information about their schools, their peers, and their professors and administrators, while using a pseudonym.

Content will be managed by student-editors reporting to an editor-in-chief in Off The Record's New York offices. Though the controlled structure and pseudonyms may seem impersonal, Imbruce promises that editors will be chiefly concerned with controlling logistics, technology, and privacy. He predicts a site culture in which students collectively feel free to post the truth of college life as they see it. By virtue of its selectivity—students can only contribute to their own college's page—Imbruce believes Off The Record is "more intimate" than a larger network or more public blog.

Pep Squad

Given the specificity of the information that will be contained within each blog thread, Imbruce also promises the sites will remain exclusive to each college. "We're looking to create college sites," he says. "We may add more content, sports scores, and news, but we will stay vertical within these communities."

Student-exclusive networks provide users with a sense of importance: It's easy to become a big fish in a small, students-only pond. Emory University alumus Zach Suchin hopes to capitalize on this desire. His venture, CollegeTonight.com, will establish distinct networks for each U.S. college, where students can post information about parties, concerts, and social events, download contact lists to their mobile phones, and make plans to meet up. In September, CollegeTonight will launch a nine-month nightlife tour of 129 sponsored events at colleges across the country. Business partners already include car manufacturer Subaru (JASDAQ) and CBS (CBS), which will sponsor the concerts and parties on the tour in the hope of reaching Suchin's user base.

Suchin proposes the site as a tool chiefly for "the trendsetters and the tastemakers" and, notably, wealthy students with disposable income (the tour begins at Ivy League schools Yale and Brown). And it's actively promoting a sense of exclusivity and privacy. Former FBI profiler John Douglas crafted the site's privacy settings and users must have a .edu e-mail to join. "That will never change." Suchin says. "We're trying to create the sense of community that Facebook abandoned."

Weaning Away From Facebook

As it turns out, for now at least, students are loath to leave the network that still dominates online socializing. "Facebook has such a strong hold on the college social networking market that people are [still] interested in developing things for Facebook," explains Joe DiPasquale, founder of CollegeWikis.com. He hopes to strike a balance by creating college-specific sites with a widget that links to Facebook.

On CollegeWikis.com, students can e-mail questions about local restaurants, classes, and dorm life. Each question and e-mailed response from other students becomes instant content on the Wikipedia-style Web site, a viral format that DiPasquale believes students are more likely to use than mass administrative e-mails, which most students simply delete. Since its launch in April, CollegeWikis has expanded to 60 schools nationwide and achieved 15% penetration at some campuses.

Meanwhile, on CollegeWikis.com's sponsored Facebook application, SuperWall, users post college-specific information that is instantly communicated to the virtual message walls of other registered users at their college. SuperWall is currently one of Facebook's 10 most popular applications.

Room for Everyone

Again, the appeal of CollegeWikis.com is its specificity. A site is created for any college if a student submits a request to the central wiki page. Within that wiki, users can join or create lists for their major, their class, and their dorm. Already the average college wiki page has 216 more-specific lists. Says DiPasquale, "When we did focus groups, we found people wanted the sites as specific as they could be."

DiPasquale's dual approach to advertising and site sponsorship—be authentic, be transparent—epitomizes these niche networks' business model. Young consumers are expert multi-taskers so there is room for multiple offerings within their expanding online life. These three young entrepreneurs hope their offerings will complement one another and Facebook, creating more business for all of them. Says Off the Record's Imbruce, "Media in this group [are] additive and not really competitive." Though he's talking about college students, the insight applies to online business overall.

Source:www.businessweek.com