Tech — GigaOM

Tech

10 ways big data changes everything

The massive amount of data that is emerging from connected, digital systems, is fundamentally changing everything, from Internet search to entertainment, to disease management, to energy consumption. Here’s 10 case studies that highlight the power of big data. Read More »

iLike was once the most popular music application of Facebook, with close to 10 million active users generating 1.5 billion page views per month. On Tuesday, it finally shut down. Its demise proves once again that online music is a tough business to be in. Read More »

 
 

Uberpaper screenshot (click to enlarge)

Personalized algorithms and social recommendations are great for a lot of things. But when it comes to getting news, these technologies can create an echo chamber, where our existing beliefs are reflected back to us. Uberpaper, a new site from Dmitry Shapiro, wants to combat that. Read More »

News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch’s comments about piracy reinforce the sense that the billionaire media and entertainment mogul doesn’t understand how content works in a digital era, and that he is continuing to try and impose the scarcity that media companies have had in the past. Read More »

MySpace, the grand daddy of social is still wheezing along, comScore says. In fact it is bigger than Tumblr and Google Plus. Infact, people spend more time on MySpace, a dying platform than on Google Plus. Pinterest just cracked the top ten list! Read More »

Google’s new social network offers a nice collection of features and a great design, but none of these things is enough to create a social network that people want to keep using — that requires a critical mass of users, and Facebook is leading that particular … Read More »

Tumblr, the combination blogging platform and social network, continues to grow at a phenomenal rate — racking up more than 8.4 billion pageviews a month, which puts it in the top 25 sites in the world. But will it ever figure out how to make money? Read More »

As Turntable.fm has shown, a new era of social music may be upon us, one that is less about scaling wide, but more about going deep. The third era of social music is about immersion as sites add more immediacy and intimacy to the experience. Read More »

Markets with network effects tend to have explosive growth, and part of the excitement driving LinkedIn’s IPO last week comes from investors associating social media with that principle. But assessing the competitive positions of social media companies depends on knowing which network effects are actually present. Read More »

Most Internet analysts suggest Myspace fell from grace because it crumbled in the face of stiff competition from Facebook. But a Reuters report suggests it may have been Google that dealt the fatal blow by accident as long ago as 2006. Read More »

Facebook and search engine optimization are still useful marketing tools for online startups wanting to build audiences. Let’s examine how a startup making consumer apps or online services can get that much-coveted first million or two users as cheaply as possible. Read More »

Human beings naturally belong to a variety of networks based on different contexts like shared interests, work, school, geography and the like. So it seems logical that there is room for specialized or niche social networks oriented around those specific groups or activities. Read More »

More Must Reads

After cutting 500 jobs, Myspace boss Mike Jones has finally admitted that it’s time to spin off or sell the struggling social network. But Rupert Murdoch’s stubborn misunderstanding of the Internet means it is way too late for the site to make a worthwhile deal. Read More »

MySpace today confirmed that it is shedding close to half of the company, or about 500 employees, including virtually the entire international operation, in a dramatic restructuring that is aimed at saving the ailing social network. But the reality is, Facebook has won. Read More »

Gravity, a Los Angeles-based startup, says it’s developing an "interest graph" that will let it recommend content to users based on their preferences, but the initial offering from the company — a service called Twinterests, which pulls your interests from your Twitter feed — is unimpressive. Read More »

Myspace took another step down the road to full integration with Facebook today, with the launch of what the site calls “Mashup with Facebook,” which allows users to import their profiles and favorites into Myspace and then customize their content based on that information. Read More »

In the realm of might-have-beens, Myspace shows more promise than Friendster. But unlike some former web leaders, it’s still salvageable. Myspace shouldn’t try to challenge Facebook for social network leadership, but it can remain a valuable consumer media business, if not a technology driver. Here’s how. Read More »

Myspace is rolling out a relaunch starting today, but will anyone care? The social network may still have millions of registered users, but it has lost a ton of momentum over the past few years, and when you are a social network, momentum is everything. Read More »

Marketers have been lured by how easy it is to set up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for their brands, but according to a new report, their content often doesn’t get through, because Generation Y users are overwhelmed with Facebook friends and Twitter messages already. Read More »

Is the rise of Facebook partly a result of “white flight” away from MySpace? That’s the argument made by sociologist Danah Boyd in a chapter from a recent book based on her research into how teens use social networks, but her case is far from convincing. Read More »

MySpace is planning a major relaunch this fall, co-presidents Jason Hirschorn and Mike Jones said today. They said it will include a redesign to emphasize discovery and will be backed up with a marketing campaign to “help solidify this is what we’re going to be.” Read More »

In an odd role reversal, MySpace is now declaring itself a bastion of social networking privacy, at least in comparison to Facebook. The company will default many users’ settings to “friends only” and is pre-announcing new simplified privacy options that are probably too simplistic. Read More »

Gravity, a site meant to foster online conversations between people with common interests, became available to the public today. The company, founded by a trio of former MySpace executives and funded by Redpoint Ventures and August Capital, has built a, easy-on-the-eyes, snappy forum platform. Read More »

The recent exodus of executives and technical talent at MySpace has only bolstered my belief that the social networking site is nothing more than a carcass of its former self. In fact, it’s been rotting away for the past few years, as these charts illustrate. Read More »

Security services firm ZScaler is out with its “State of the Web” report for Q4 of last year, which presents views — many of them graphical — of the changing habits and patterns of web users. While some results are predictable, there are a few surprises. Read More »

MySpace, like all nightclubs past their prime, has hit its expiration date. The recent exit of CEO Owen Van Natta is a sign of a bigger problem: News Corp’s disinterest in digital media. Rupert Murdoch has moved on to the latest shiny shiny: tablets & eReaders. Read More »

Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive who was picked to revive MySpace last April, is stepping down, News Corp just announced. He’ll be replaced by two of his hires, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who now each share the title of co-president. Read More »

With 2009 coming to an end, it is not surprising that everyone (including me) has predictions about what 2010 will bring. So instead, four of us — Liz, Stacey, Sebastian and I — have put together a wish list of seven things we hope come true … Read More »

A U.S. district court judge has fined music site Imeem $1.77 million after it failed to appear in court to respond to a copyright infringement lawsuit. The suit had been partially to blame for the company selling its assets to MySpace for less than $1 million. Read More »

Gravity, a Los Angeles-based startup co-founded by three former MySpace executives launched a beta version of its service that tries to re-invent the concept of conversations. Looking at it purely from a very surface level, they have their work cut out for them. Read More »

A few years back when big media companies were snatching up web startups for exorbitant prices, old-fashioned concepts like corporate synergy were not a priority. Many acquisitions came with promises to leave startup’s brands, products and leadership alone. That didn’t end up working so well. Read More »

This morning news broke that MySpace, the second-largest social network that’s currently reinventing itself as a music destination, was buying imeem, a free online music service that has been remixed (and remade) more times that ’90s dance anthem “Keep on Moving.” TechCrunch, which reported … Read More »

Consolidation appears imminent in the free streaming music sector, as MySpace is on the verge of acquiring social music site Imeem. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that negotiations are in process, but no deal is set. If it happens, … Read More »

Speculation arose this past week that News Corp.-owned MySpace Music is considering moving to a paid model, as the cost of free streaming is making its current model unsustainable. News Corp. digital chief Jon Miller expressed some interest in such a move in an … Read More »

MySpace’s recent reorientation to emphasize entertainment over friends makes it more similar to Twitter than Facebook, said News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. “Twitter is about asymmetrical relationships,” said Miller, while Facebook users have mostly symmetrical … Read More »

Social networking has generally been discouraged in the workplace, with many corporate IT departments blocking access to sites like Facebook and MySpace due to privacy concerns. But these efforts are becoming increasingly futile as our lives continue to converge with social networks, analysts at a Gartner … Read More »

TweetDeck has released an updated version of its desktop application that includes features aimed at helping users get the information that matters most to them. The app, which helps you manage your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts by letting you organize updates from those … Read More »

Social networking and the real-time web are changing how information on the Internet is consumed, as the ability to disperse and share information through social platforms and do it using real-time tools is shifting the focus of content from “historical” news to real-time events. Such … Read More »

Adobe partnered with Gigya, a social widget maker, to offer a new service that lets advertisers and developers easily share their Flash-based applications across social, mobile and desktop platforms. The service, available today and called Flash Platform Services for Distribution, will enable developers … Read More »

MySpace said today that it’s rolling out a new feature in beta that lets U.S. users sync status updates in their Twitter feed and profile page on the social network, symbolizing MySpace’s efforts to piggyback off of the micro-messaging service’s growing popularity. The syncing … Read More »

People are spending less time on communication sites that are focused around email and instant messaging, according to an analysis released today by the Online Publishers Association, a trade organization, a decline it attributes to the rising popularity of social networks such as … Read More »

Today marks the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the bloodiest attack on U.S. soil in the nation’s history. No matter who you are or where you’re from, you’ll likely think back to where you were when you first learned about the planes hitting the Twin Towers and … Read More »

Almost a year ago, I predicted that Facebook Connect — essentially a single web identity that allows users to sign into sites that support Connect — would be the most important reason why Facebook would dominate the world of social networks. And that is … Read More »

TweetDeck is launching a series of new features today further aimed at shaking off its image as a Twitter-focused app, according to CEO and founder Iain Dodsworth, including integrating MySpace into the eponymous desktop application. It began opening up the focus of its app beyond … Read More »

Former MySpace SVP of Engineering Allen Hurff is launching a startup incubator in Southern California, according to TechSlate TrendSlate, which cited his LinkedIn page. It’s unclear at this point what it will be called, although there’s some speculation that it will be known … Read More »

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