From Facebook to MySpace, YouTube to Second Life, social software is reshaping the world we live in. Steve O'Hear provides daily news and analysis of the emerging social web.
Described as "centralized control panel", the new Yahoo! Profiles will let users manage their "identity, activities, interests, and connections across Yahoo! -- and eventually the entire Web".
Tip’d, which launched today, describes itself as "a place for investors... to meet, share, discuss, comment, and vote on what’s happening on both Wall Street and Main Street." Essentially, it's another Digg clone targeting a particular vertical. In this case, financial news.
When it comes to online advertising everybody wants to be the next Google, and News Corp-owned MySpace is no exception. Today the company rolled out its latest advertising platform called MyAds, designed to service "individuals and small businesses" rather than the big name brands that the social networking site's existing ad offerings cater for.
Digg faces two big challenges going forward. How to expand its user-base (and therefore content) beyond its geeky roots, and in turn, how to increase ad revenue. Addressing the latter, co-founder Kevin Rose says the social news site is exploring "Diggable ads".
One theory: LinkedIn, the social network for "professionals", could actually be benefiting from the downturn. That's because the site's value proposition really kicks in for those that have or fear that they might about to lose their job.
The Obama campaign is hoping to turn Apple's iPhone into a political recruiting tool like none seen before, while Twitter usage and sign-ups received a healthy boost during last Friday's first presidential debate for the 08 campaign.
The social web weekly: a quick-fire roundup of some of the news, announcements and conversations that have occurred throughout the week…
MI6, a branch of the UK's secret service, is using Facebook as part of a recent recruitment drive to find the "next generation of spies".
On Facebook, the ads, despite all the innovation, still aren’t something users are really asking for
We've already seen the iPhone become a fertile ground for social networking applications and other forms of social software, thanks to its public Software Development Kit and modern standards-based web browser, but arguably Google's Android mobile platform will have an even greater impact on the social web.