Bebo, the once high-flying social network is getting ready to be sold – again! This would be the third time the company started by Michael Birch and Xochi Birch is getting buyer attention. Who’s interested? Large media companies, for starters, who are interested in the social network. Read more »
Groupon is growing faster than virtually any other tech-related company in history, including Google and Facebook, and is expected to close the year with revenue of more than $500 million. What then, are the lessons retailers and other companies can learn from the such incredible ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook Messages isn’t about replacing email. What the social network is really trying to establish with its recently unveiled unified communications hub is presence management, and this new "modern messaging system" is more concerned with intimacy and immediacy, as opposed to formality, flexibility and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This holiday season, 28 percent of U.S. shoppers will use a mobile either for price checking or for product recommendations from friends — all while in the aisles of a traditional retail store, says IDC. Are consumers finally ready for advanced mobile payments and digital wallets? Read more »
Hashable, a New York startup in private beta, looks to create and facilitate introductions and interactions. But CEO Michael Yavonditte sees a much brighter future for the venture as a way to encourage more real world engagement, measure social relationships and create a decentralized social network. Read more »
How big is big enough? When do new consumer technologies really start to catch on? What happens when they do? These are questions of critical mass, and there’s plenty of historical evidence to point at the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
New, private 3G networks in India combined with mobile adoption and Google’s march towards powering inexpensive smartphones in the Asia-Pacific region could bring half a billion more people to the mobile web in India by 2014. Is this the perfect storm for small, upstart handset makers? 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 »
Just about every company online should add some social spice to its site, but in Yahoo’s case, an aggressive dose could help the former Internet giant maintain its huge audience and advertising leadership ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Nearly one-third of Facebook’s 500 million members are using their phones to engage with friends via the social network. For Facebook to fulfill its potential in mobile, though, it will need much more than just a branded ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Nearly one-third of Facebook’s 500 million-strong user base is using phones to engage with friends via the social network. Facebook ought to fulfill its potential in mobile, but the social network giant will need a more robust strategy than simply releasing a branded hardware device. Read more »
Social gaming has been the biggest success story of the four-year-old Facebook Platform, but only now is Facebook rolling out a plan to offer a dedicated gaming experience, get game developers to stop spamming its non-gaming users, and make some serious money off of ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
No single strategy guarantees social media success. Twitter’s recent relaunch mirrors some of Digg’s tactics, but social services from Google and Apple take entirely different approaches. In other words, with multiple strategies available, there’s more than one way to win the social network game. Read more »
MySpace is expanding availability of video by allowing users to embed a player in activity streams to instantly play video they’ve created or shared. The addition of the player comes as the social network seeks to increase social viewing and sharing of videos on the site. Read more »
This weekend may be remembered for questioning of the value of social networks, as Leo Laporte explained why he’s leaving Google Buzz behind. Are you not getting value out of social networks or are you trying to use them as tools for something they’re not? Read more »
Half of all U.S. residents who have a profile on a social-networking site are concerned about their privacy, according to a recent poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Close to half of those who were concerned about privacy described themselves as “very concerned.” Read more »
Unlike some of Twitter’s other services, the upcoming launch of Annotations doesn’t involve a product, but a rethinking of the way the social network functions. The changes involved could have a tremendous impact on not just on the network, but on the nature of the web ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google recently launched a new indexing system called Caffeine, which it says produces results that are up to 50 percent “fresher.” Why the pressure to improve? Because Google needs to respond faster in a world that has become increasingly real-time. Not just because it wants to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This week while pondering how BP’s oil spill stacks up against Exxon’s in terms of Google search results, it occurred to me how badly BP is losing the social media war. No bones about it, BP’s online image is in tatters. How bad is it? ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Though navel-gazers may have freaked out this morning after seeing their Twitter follower counts reset to zero, a new paper out of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany finds that Twitter follower numbers are a poor indicator of influence. Read more »
In a major reversal of strategy and a sign that the “freemium” model may no longer be the route to web-based riches, Ning’s new CEO says that the company is shutting down its free social networking service and will now provide only a 100-percent paid service. Read more »
I can’t be the only person on Earth who, when I need information, heads to Good Ol’ Google and is sometimes frustrated by the results I get. Of course, there are other research tools I can use, too — social networks being one of them. Read more »
The BBC will make viewing of its on-demand videos more social by adding Facebook, Twitter and Bebo integration into its widely popular iPlayer online video application, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. The addition of more social sharing features has the potential to greatly […] Read more »
