Well this casts MySpace’s user-engagement metrics in a whole new light…
The social network today said it has identified and ousted 90,000 sex offenders–40,000 more than it reported last year when it was subpoenaed by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office as part of an effort to protect minors on social-networking sites.
Super Bowl XLIII is nearly upon us with ads in tow, and since there’s never been as much video, connectivity or interactivity as there is right now, the whole thing is shaping up to be quite the Web 2.0 extravaganza. From YouTube to Twitter to Facebook and beyond, here’s your guide to all the digital venues available to view, vote on and even interact with this year’s lineup of ad campaigns.
It was an eventful week–a new President-elect, Yahoo still playing the field with no takers, and the hovering recession beginning to hit a little harder, a little closer to home. It was hard to keep the storylines straight, so let’s approach it thematically.
Election 2008
Whether or not those voting machines malfunctioned or miscounted votes, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, much to the chagrin of comedians like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who–since the beginning of the McCain/Palin partnership–were handed once-in-a-lifetime material. Between the brilliant Saturday Night Live parody sketches of (and by) both Palin and McCain, and Obama’s victory speech, the other big winner (by a mile) was YouTube.
Looks like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is suffering from a bit of Freudian MySpace Envy. Now that the rival social network has launched what MySpace CEO Chris Wolfe likes to describe as “a mega-music experience,” Facebook is said to be looking for a foothold in the digital music business as well.
MySpace is no longer just “a place for friends,” deceptively flattering photos and seizure-inducing Web page design, but a place for the music industry as well. This morning the company rolled out MySpace Music, the music destination site with which it hopes to take on Apple’s iTunes. MySpace Music, in the words of MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, is a mega-music experience.
The best thing about social networks is also the worst thing about social networks: They make it easy for us to share information about ourselves. Of course, by making that information easier to share with friends and colleagues, social networks are also making it easier to share with less “social” entities. Among those are hiring managers, who are increasingly surfing social-networking sites for background info on job candidates.
As in search, in Web video Google is the one to beat. Americans viewed some 11 billion videos during July, and they watched most of them on Google sites, according to the latest metrics from comScore. Of the more than 11.4 billion videos viewed in the month, nearly 44 percent were seen on Google properties. And 98 percent of those were viewed on YouTube, which continues to dominate the online video space.
Social-networking sites may be nearing a plateau in North America, but they’re hiking diligently upward abroad. Worldwide usage of social- networking sites has grown by 25 percent in the last year, according to a new study from comScore. That’s more than double the 9 percent growth seen in North America.
If Orkut is the Facebook of Brazil, then Friendster is the Orkut of Asia. The company, which created the social-networking market only to forfeit it to Myspace and Facebook, is apparently doing quite well in Asia. So much so, that it’s used its success on that continent to secure some new venture funding and a CEO with a Google pedigree.
The hammer has fallen once again on Stanford “Spamford” Wallace. A federal judge in Los Angeles yesterday awarded MySpace a $230 million judgment against Wallace who, with partner Walter Rines, broadcast some 730,000 junk messages to MySpace members in October of 2006. The judgment is believed to be the largest anti-spam award to date, not that it really matters, since MySpace is unlikely to collect it.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best use of the Beeker “meee” ever.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
