July 23, 2008
Digg commenter
Hiji writes, “This is the beginning of the end. In a few years all the major blogs and social-media sites will be owned by large corporations, putting us right back where we started.”
The topic of discussion is, of course, TechCrunch’s rumor that Digg will soon be acquired by Google for somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. Digg’s users are debating what Google acquiring Digg might mean for their community in this thread on the site. The question is, would being controlled by a big company like Google ruin—or enhance—the community that Digg has worked so hard to build?
Some background on Web 2.0 acquisitions
A few of the major Web 2.0 sites that have been acquired by big companies include YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace. Each of these sites has been greatly affected by being acquired by a larger company.
Once it was acquired by Google, YouTube was forced to take down much of the copyrighted material that had helped it rise to popularity. I would argue that YouTube has benefited from the financial backing and support that Google was able to provide, so the acquisition may have been a necessity at the time.
Flickr has seen little to no improvements in the way of new features, aside from Flickr Video, since being acquired by Yahoo. Despite the lack of innovative new features at Flickr, its photo community is stronger than ever, thanks in no small part, to Yahoo’s ownership.
Although MySpace is still a force to be reckoned with on the Internet, especially in the music scene, it has watched its seemingly insurmountable lead in the social-networking space slip through its fingers and into Facebook’s. Whether this is due to being bought by News Corp. is purely speculation, but the influence of the big media company may not have helped.
Why does Google want Digg?
In the case of Digg, Google would clearly be buying the site to acquire Digg’s community. Digg has one of the strongest communities in the social-media space. Google certainly has the engineering power to build a site similar to Digg, or Yahoo Buzz, if it wanted to. But what it is really after is the people. If we can agree that Google wants the community, it would only make logical sense that the company would do whatever it could to keep that community happy and to get it to stay, post-acquisition.
How Google would change Digg
The other side of the coin that must be considered is the volume of people who would be streaming into Digg if it is acquired by Google. The added promotion of the Internet giant would send lots of newcomers to the site, who could break the delicate dynamic that Digg has right now. Digg suddenly being flooded by gardening tips, for example, might drive away a lot of the core users. Digg would, almost certainly, survive under mainstream attention, even thrive. But it could become a very different place from what we see today. The category structure of Digg submissions was built out for this very reason. If and when the mainstream public turns its attention to Digg, the audience that it has today might be able to find refuge in its own sections of the site—if it decides to stick around.
This acquisition would be a tremendous opportunity for Kevin Rose and company to cash in on some really hard work. They have done a great job building this company and carefully crafting the Digg community into what it is today. Being taken under the wing of a company like Google may be their big shot at really breaking into the mainstream.
Like I already said, the move would absolutely change the dynamic of the site. Some would like it and stay, some would hate it and leave, and many more would discover Digg for the first time. So, what do you think? Would Google destroy Digg or take it to the next level?
CNet News
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July 22, 2008
Social news site Digg.com, a perpetual target of acquisition rumors, is in “final negotiations” to sell itself to Google for $200 million, according to a TechCrunch report Tuesday that cited multiple sources.
The two companies have been in talks to bring Digg into the Google News group, but it could be a few weeks before the deal closes, if it closes, according to the report.
Representatives for Google and Digg did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Usually a “no comment” or the like is the corresponding response to questions about rumored acquisition negotiations, but that was not the case in March—when the Digg takeover rumor mill was in full swing.
Rumors that the social news site might be purchased by Google, Microsoft, or two major media companies had whipped a sizable number of Digg users into a panic. Digg CEO Jay Adelson, perhaps in an effort to assuage those fears of having a corporate owner, posted a blog that seemed to go a little above and beyond the call in denying the rumors.
“Normally our policy is to not comment about things like this,” Adelson wrote, “but this morning’s rumors about a bidding war involving Google and Microsoft have created such a stir we feel compelled to tell you all directly that they are completely inaccurate.”
He continued: “Sorry to burst any drama theories, but they aren’t true. We remain focused on improving Digg and rolling out great features.”
So the silence this time around is a bit curious. Digg users, meanwhile, were more vocal with their opinions. In addition to how much compensation founder Kevin Rose and others in the Diggnation would receive was bandied about, some Digg users expressed relief that Google appears to be beating out Microsoft in this race.
“I would rather have Digg sold to Google than to Microsoft,” wrote one user who goes by the name neil1492. “Although it’s odd how Google is buying up almost everything on the Internet. What gives?”
Meanwhile, the Regular Geek blog welcomed the prospect of a takeover, arguing that it would give Digg some of the Google cachet.
By becoming a member of the Google family, they instantly get put on the mainstream fast-track. Google also gets a property that can compete with Yahoo Buzz. The biggest problem current Digg users may have is the flood of new users to the service. Digg is not overly welcoming so it would be interesting to see how that progresses.
Will the rumor prove true this time around? Stay tuned.
CNet News
Posted in Internet Marketing, News No Comments »
July 22, 2008
PUYALLUP, WA – This past May, six Puyallup business owners traveled to Colorado to hear business growth guru Jon Schallert share ideas to grow, market, and promote their businesses. Shaun Nestor, of Coffee Bar in downtown Puyallup, was one of the attendees and wants every area business owner to hear what Schallert has to say.
“Jon shared some excellent tips on how to build a business worthy of becoming a ‘destination’.” Nestor says. A destination is exactly the goal Nestor has for downtown Puyallup. “People will drive from Puyallup or Tacoma to shop at the discount stores in Centralia, we can have the same draw to downtown Puyallup. I can imagine people getting on the Sounder train to come to downtown Puyallup for a day of shopping.”
Schallert has arranged to come to Puyallup and speak for 90-minutes to area business owners and marketers who were not able to attend his 3-day seminar in Colorado. The shortened seminar, entitled “Increase Sales & Profits with Branded Marketing”, will cover many of the topics he covered in Colorado, internet marketing, employee shareholders, customer loyalty, and how to get free publicity.
The seminar will take place on August 13th at the Liberty Theater from 8:00am until 9:30am. Schallert’s presentation is co-sponsored by the Puyallup Main Street Association and the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce. Admission is $15 per person for PMSA and Chamber members, and $20 per non-member attendees. Anyone interested reserving a seat or in meeting with the BootCamp group contact Dave Eatwell at (253) 840-2631.
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July 17, 2008
I’ve spent the past few years on Facebook and various social networks. While I had been using the internet daily since middle school, social networks were really what helped me increase my ability to stay in touch with the everyday person I interacted with. In college, you go out to a party and thanks to the brief interaction you have with somebody, they instantly became your Facebook friends.
The Path to Hyper Connectivity
Then the real world entered and suddenly I had to remove some of the photos and monitor what people were posting. Unfortunately there weren’t any tools developed yet to filter out your contacts’ access to information based on granular privacy settings and friend lists. Within one year of graduating from college though I was already way too plugged in and had more contacts than I could handle.
Within a couple years thanks to being “hyper connected” contacts lists became practically unmanageable. That brings us to today where the problem still exists and goes unresolved. It took us less than 15 years to go from the mainstream adoption of email to people being overloaded with communication. Throw in instant messages, phone calls, social network messages, SMS messages with your email and suddenly you feel the pain.
The Primary Cause
If you ask me, I would say that one of the primary source of hyper-connectivity and information overload stems from my social networks. Email is obviously the 800 pound gorilla in the room but a large number of people wouldn’t have knowledge of my email without being connected to me on Facebook or LinkedIn or one of the many other social networks I am on.
Do you think the guys behind Friendster or even Mark Zuckerberg knew what would eventually happen thanks to people being able to contact me so easily? It’s hard to imagine that Mark Zuckerberg would have the foresight to know where Facebook would be today when he was hacking away in his dorm room at Harvard.
Whether he or anybody else knew where this was going, the combination of my social networks with all my communication tools have made things difficult to maintain. Occasionally I want to break free from it all. This is my job though so I expect no sympathy from any readers. What I do expect though is that readers of this article and other can relate to the challenges of being hyper connected.
What’s the Solution?
So the billion dollar question is how do we effectively manage being hyper connected? One way to figure it out is to ask people that spend their lives answering these questions (like
Jared Goralnick). I think that the primary people responsible for answering these questions though are the ones that helped make us hyper connected in the first place!
Why doesn’t Facebook have a more efficient messaging system? Why don’t they provide tools that enable me to access and sync my contact list everywhere I go? Finally, why don’t they give me a way to store contact information of the people that have not yet accepted my “friend request” yet? While Facebook can’t be everything to everybody, they sure as hell can make life easier for people that are using their system.
LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft Messenger and many others are responsible for the overload that people experience daily. Why aren’t they doing anything about it??? If any of these companies are going to be worth the ridiculous valuations they’ve been hyped up to be, solving the problems of the user should be in there best interest and their number one priority!
Conclusion
The bottom line is that I don’t need nor do I want to have my contact information in 30 million places. I also don’t want to have all of information exchange with people tracked in 30 billion locations. I want one singular place to track all of my contacts with people. I also want that information to be accessible anywhere. So how can anybody do it and why haven’t these companies solved the problem yet?
Social Times
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July 17, 2008
Looking for funding for the next hot Facebook application? You aren’t going to find it. So claims Nicholas Carlson who quotes an executive at one of the Facebook application firms as saying “It would be insane for a new developer” to begin creating new apps on the platform. This exact same issue was brought up at Graphing Social Patterns East back in June when one of the large developers suggested that somebody ask Facebook how they expect a new developer to launch on the platform now?
Honestly, I think there is still an opportunity for well designed applications to succeed on the Facebook platform but it has definitely become a lot harder for them to. Additionally, I have spoken with numerous investors that are no longer betting on the Facebook platform. Even Facebook’s venture capital fund has had some issues with finding good applications to fun (although there is buzz that a few of them are about to receive funding).
Whatever the case, as Facebook makes significant adjustments to their platform, it becomes much more challenging to build a sustainable business. Also, in contrast to Windows where old systems remained functional as is until upgraded, Facebook will be forcing the new user profile to everybody. That makes it much more challenging for developers in the long run. Valleywag suggests that all of these challenges are going to result in companies like Zynga and SocialMedia being unable to find funding.
I’ve heard buzz about one of the companies facing some challenges raising money but no word on others. In my own opinion I think Facebook Connect is going to change the whole dynamic and move much of the platform beyond the Facebook domain. It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out!
AllFacebook
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July 17, 2008
Many companies are intrigued by the concept of social media, but have no idea how to actually integrate it into business practices. In an earlier post, we explored one approach to putting a simple social media plan in place.
Changing employee behavior is challenging, and social media participation is often looked at as an additional burden rather than leveraged to improve the efficiency of a current task. Unless traditional communications are replaced with social media infused conversations though, it’s difficult to seed corporate adoption of these new tools.
Here’s a list to stimulate ideas for better social media integration into traditional business practices, which we’ve broken down by department:
Human Resources
Introducing New Employees. Many companies ask new hires to send an email introduction to their department or to the entire company (depending on its size). Instead, start an internal blog or social network where new employees can post their introductions and connect with other employees that share their interests. Dow Chemical![]()
training purposes![]()
internal wiki
Lead generation. Many business people create profiles on popular social networking sites Most-Networked-Executives ![]()
LinkedIn![]()
industry knowledge![]()
external facing corporate blog![]()
interactive newsroom![]()
RSS feeds for the company’s blogs, a searchable repository of podcasts, or even social profiles for media contacts (AIM/Skype/Avatar).
Better Customer Engagement. Several companies, including Starbucks and Dell,![]()
B2B space![]()
CEO can submit an op-ed piece to the Wall Street Journal What-Murdoch-Must-Do-With-Dow-Jones ![]()
this example![]()
collaborate in real time with 3D models, which are less expensive to create and easier to discuss during the development phase.
Innovation. An internal platform where engineers or designers are encouraged to share their most outrageous ideas, pet projects, or passions often helps foster creativity. This in turn leads to new products and a greater sense of community at every level of the company.
Conclusion
There are many more ideas than just those listed here. If you have tips on how your company uses social media to improve productivity or otherwise improve the flow of information between groups, please share them in the comments.
Mashable
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July 17, 2008
A few hours ago at 11am ET one of the better domain extensions to debut in recent memory – .me – went on sale at GoDaddy
for $19.99/yr. Since then, chaos has ensued, as apparently purchases are either not going through, or going through but the domain name remains available for others to buy. As an illustration of the problem this creates, according to the Twitter message below, at least 8 or 9 people are claiming to have receipts for the domain name aweso.me.
It’s not surprising to see a huge rush to register highly desirable .me domain names, but it appears GoDaddy is buckling under the pressure and is about to have an ugly mess on its hands. We’ve contacted the company to see how they intend to deal with the issue and will update accordingly when we hear back
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July 17, 2008
The latest numbers are in, and they’re showing that June was a big month for at least two of the top social networking Most-Networked-Executives sites. According to Nielsen Online, Facebook swelled to 29.2M unique visitors in the US, up more than 10 percent from May. Meanwhile, professional social networking site LinkedIn grew more than 20 percent month-over-month to 9.5M uniques. Year-over-year, that represents 77% growth for Facebook, and 187% for LinkedIn, respectively.
Meanwhile, it would appear that MySpace has officially hit a plateau in the US, though it still more than doubles up on the competition. Its 59.4M visitors in June represented zero growth over last year, and was a marginal decline from the 60.6M reported by Nielsen in May.
Elsewhere, Ning debuts on the charts with 2.2MM unique visitors, up 326% from last year when the create-your-own-social-network site was just getting off the ground.
Posted in Social Networking No Comments »
July 17, 2008
Remember that annoying question mark that would show up when somebody didn’t want to upload their picture? Well, worry no more because Facebook has now changed the default image for a user from a question mark to a more gentle silhouette. Now for those people that you may or may not know what they look like, you can at least know that they are in fact a human. Well, maybe not completely human because it appears that the new default icon does not have any ears.
So how will the person hear you? Fortunately you don’t have to worry about that because pictures cannot hear no matter what they look like. In my own opinion, I would imagine that the new default icon does not ‘incentivize’ a person to switch their avatar too quickly. Previously, the bold question mark was so annoying that a user would immediately feel compelled to switch their image.
Apparently it wasn’t too compelling though given the new shift. My guess is that after the designers completed their design of the new profile they got bored and decided to switch the default icon. Now millions of photoless users can now sleep soundly knowing that they too have at least a silhouette and not a question mark.
AllFacebook
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July 16, 2008
Cybercrime, the harvesting and sale of credit card and other data for online fraud and theft, is a “shadow economy” that mimics the real business world in its practices and the mafia in its structure, according to a new report from security firm Finjan.
“The current cybercrime organizations bear an uncanny resemblance to organized crime organizations such as ‘La Cosa Nostra,’” concludes Finjan’s Malicious Code Research Center’s Web Security Trends Report for the second-quarter of 2008 (survey required before downloading the 21-page report).
This diagram shows the organizational chart of a typical cybercrime group. It is very similar to the structure of another type of criminal enterprise, the mafia, according to a Finjan study.
(Credit: Finjan)
There’s a boss that heads up the organization for both the cybercrime gang and the mafia. The boss does not commit the crimes. Under him is the “underboss” who manages the operation, providing the Trojans for attacks.
Underneath the second-in-command are several “capos” or “campaign managers” who have their own “affiliation networks” perform attacks and steal data, just like “soldiers” do the “dirty work” in the mafia. “Resellers” similar to “associates” in the mafia, trade, or “fence” the stolen data.
The business of cybercrime has evolved from auctioning vulnerabilities online to the highest bidder in 2006 to creation of “one-stop-Crimeware-shops” where hackers sell toolkits to less tech-savvy attackers in 2007. The toolkits have gotten more sophisticated and providers are even now offering “Crimeware-as-a-Service,” ala the Web’s software-as-a-service model, the report says.
Cybercriminals have even built into the systems ways for buyers of credit card numbers to do real-time verification of the data to see whether it has expired, said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threats researcher at security firm Trend Micro.
“It’s become very professionalized…a cradle-to-death software life-cycle regime, just like The Sopranos,” Ferguson said in an interview in May. “They are pushing the money up the tree. It’s a multitrillion-dollar enterprise…It’s not just a kid in his basement anymore.”
While inflation is raising prices in the real world, prices for credit card numbers and bank accounts with personal identification numbers have dropped from $100 or more to $10-$20 each, according to the report. (McAfee Avert Labs discovered a price list of its own earlier this year.)
Finjan also has located crimeware servers, where stolen data is stored, that function as “drop zones” of organized attacks and interviewed resellers of data to find out how the system is structured and how it works.
This diagram illustrates the operations of a crimeware server, showing the flow of crimeware and revenues forming a “closed ” business loop.
(Credit: Finjan)
CNet News
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