While social networks are great at connecting people and bringing them together for various aspects, sometimes a nice site is what you’re looking for. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and such just don’t server your needs, and perhaps you’ve tried the Ning communities to no avail.
For those of you out there that are collectors of various things such as stamps, bottle caps, dolls, coins, or just about anything else, Colnect is for you. This social networks brings togethers collectors from around the world to buy, sell, trade, and share stories and locations with people. This niche specific network is amazingly popular, so if you’re a collector and missing that special, cornerstone piece to your collection, perhaps this network can help you complete your empire!
There is no doubt that the market is becoming overrun with social networks. While there is value in a great number of them, after awhile they all starte to look the same. With only slight variations it makes a person wonder why one would be different from the rest if they are all so similar. That being said, the grand-daddy of the social network medium, MySpace, might be on the endangered species list.
It’s no surprise that during an economic crunch that “re-structuring” is inevitable, but recently we’ve seen a large number of the U.S. staff released from the company, and now the wave appears to be hitting Europe. After reading an article on TechCruch it got me thinking if MySpace is even relevant anymore.
It’s become a marketing ground for new bands, comedians, and other entertainers. The playground to the 15 and below crowd, it fails to reach the depth that other social networks like Facebook have reached in recent years. Much like AOL was a pioneer and has slowly been phased out of importance, is the same happening to the social networking pioneer MySpace?
Do you still use MySpace? If so for what? Do you find it relevant in your life, why or why not? I’d love to gauge the readership of Crenk and find out if MySpace is even a blip on the radar in terms of connecting with people.
Blellow burst onto the scene a few months ago, and after winning a few awards paired with an explosive launch at SXSW, the social networking site is experiencing explosive growth. For any self starters, entrepreneur, freelancer, or contract worker, this network has been the hub for meeting new people, finding job leads, and joining project teams seeking specific talents. Companies are welcome to also post their job listings for a reduced nominal fee to attract some highly talented professionals.
The unique name is an extension of its unique community. Putting together some of the best aspects of popular social networking sites, it fosters creativity, innovation, and looks to be the dominant force in finding work for the self starters around the world. While Elance and Odesk serve as bidding job boards, Blellow looks to use its extensive network to rely on recommendations and friendly introductions to new people to pair people with the right project.
If you’re looking to expand your contacts, find unique job postings, and converse with people in a specific industry or topic, then Blellow is the place to network!
Have you ever wondered what social networks are dominating in what parts of the world? Well over at Vincos.it they have put together a great map that illustrates which countries are using what, and it seems as though Facebook is easily in control of the world!
Video conferencing used to be a tech heavy, equipment demanding effort that was unheard of for the common person at home. Nowadays with the bevy of online tools available, video conference is accessible to just about anyone with a desktop/laptop and a webcam. TinyChat helps to facilitate such an opportunity by allowing several people to join a video chat room at once, much like a group IM, only this time you can see everyone!
TinyChat recently did a massive update that propels this online application into the forefront of the video chat options. This past weekend they released not just an updated product, but a new site that really highlights their offerings and the creativity of the team behind it. Looking under the hood first, here’s what we find with the update:
New design for main page / Chat pages
“On Focus” Support will alert you of new messages via flashing title and a sound (optional) if the tab or window doesnt have focus.
More intuitive private messaging system
Ability to join a chat with pidgin / Trillian / Any Jabber client – We also have a IRC -> Jabber Proxy in place
Tons of bug fixes, Scalability tweaks and other stuff you wont notice.
Proper Embed system allowing you to make a room to host on your site
Moderation system, so you can kick and ban bad users
This most certainly makes the service that much more attractive to the already booming user base it has established. Their understanding of the social space is also helping them develop strong ties to their expanding community, listening to the request being made by their supporters. Already in the plans for the next update are things such as country flags associated with the user, private messages via command, recording playback, and the ability to boot people from the chat that are not participating effectively.
There is no doubt that TinyChat is going to experience continued growth and their site welcomes its users and new members alike to interact with them. This easy and free to use application is a must have for anyone who continues to have group chat via IM, and does not want to pay for an account with Skype. With the added benefit of embedding it into your site and sharing it across various social networks, this is definitely an option for the vid-curious.
There is another music streaming service that we didn’t mention in our Top 10 free music streaming services and that is Spiral Frog. Spiral Frog is an ad-supported music download service which has had a huge amount of hype since launch.
Today it has been reported that Spiral Frog might be in a bit of trouble and heading towards the deadpool. These reports come from executives within the struggling company. Why is Spiral Frog in trouble? When launching Spiral Frog was in a growing advertising market in which was still yielding good CPM (cost per 1000 ads) rates, however now in the economic downturn these rates are quickly dropping. Therefore, companies need to keep increasing pageviews and presence to stay ahead of the curve. Spiral Frog has been losing a lot of traffic of late and this combined with the big licensing fees they had to pay upfront for major label catalogues means their in a lot of trouble.
There are only a couple of options that will save Spiral Frog. Firstly, a miracle could happen and they could turn around the traffic and the revenues, but that’s not going to happen. Secondly, they could get more funding and sell part of the shares, but they are running out of shares so I don’t think this would happen either. Finally, the only real option is for someone to step in and purchase the company just before they run out of money and get a bargain basement price.
To be fair in the past Spiral Frog has had a lot of issues and they have been in trouble a couple of times. This is probably what has lead to Spiral Frog getting a lot of media attention. I think Spiral Frog will be acquired by the end of 2009, its the only decent option of the company.
Never before have we as a global community ever felt so connected as we have in the past ten years. We have grown from gatherings, town hall meetings, forums and message boards, internet chat rooms, to social networks. I host a podcast over at Tech in Twenty, and we’ve discussed the growth in popularity for social networks and how niche interests have played a huge part of that growth.
We have all heard of the popular social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Ning, etc. But there are a lot of networks out there that cater to a more specific market, no matter if you’re into music, television, knitting, dating, marbles, or candles, there is a group for you. BookSprouts is the newly developed social site for book clubs. The site is a amongst a few competitors that claim to be a space for readers, but BookSprout is different in that the actual design is easy to navigate at the layout is welcoming to new users with little confusion. Every step for you is laid out so that users can get started immediately without getting lost in the site.
I had time to explore the site and came across the same problem the write of the TechCruncharticle did. Only two of the books I listed had actual groups connected to them. This was rather limiting since those books were not considered favorites of mine, so it left me little desire to join that discussion. While I won’t blame this entirely on BookSprout, this is a user generated community, unless someone starts a group for the book, I have little time to manage one on my own.
I like how the site is free of ads. Though one might question the ability of the site to sustain itself, other social sites like Ning are free of advertisements and function perfectly well without all the advertising. The ability to purchase what other users are reading straight from the site is nice with an easily accessible Amazon link, but might be too limiting considering that there might be other places offering the book cheaper. For that you might want to check out my post on Booksprice.
Here is a video that details what Booksprice offers and what they’ve done for their users. Pick a couple of books, sign-up, and enjoy!
It’s a known fact that if you’re on a social network, there are those that are simply on to connect with a few people, co-workers, family, old friends; there are also those that connect professionally because they are considered industry leaders in their field and they attract a lot of attention when they say something or share something on their profile. I’m not touting to be one of those people, but we all know who they are. Whether you’re in media, finance, law, science, there are people that we follow that people listen to.
Still no matter what level we are in with regards on online status, many of us go through the same facets of life, experience the same problems at the home, at work, in conferences, etc. These topics blur the line of who we are when people do a search for us. Someone doing research or looking to find credible information on a topic might come across someones rant just as easily as they would someones concise opinion on a situation.
It’s this very premise that the idea of authority based searching be something all social networks consider, more specifically, Twitter.
The Low-Down
This most recent cage rattling has resurfaced thanks to Loic Le Meur, and his pleading with Twitter to build in this authority based search function to filter out, for lack of a better word, the rabble. I highly respect Loic and all of his efforts with Le Web ‘08 this year, and despite the backlash it received regarding the finer details, I thought what was UStreamed was quality panel discussions and speakers. Someone of Loic’s capacity does a lot of Internet searching, finding hot trends, finding the right people, and ultimately wants to make every minute he spends doing work count. If you don’t like Loic, substitute anyone you’d rather hear about in his place, the outcome is still the same. He only wants to read what top users are saying because their voice as a wider broadcasting scope as opposed to someone who only has 100 followers.
The question becomes does it matter? Well, the topic of discussion might be the same; there is a reason why someone with 100 followers would have come up on a search of that topic, but in terms of people listening, they just don’t have it. Users with a large established follower base are those that people go to when they are looking for information, thus becoming portals or hubs that can connect the seeker with the information he needs from either the hub or someone in that network of followers. Transfer the idea to real life. Do you take your ideas to someone on a soap box with five people watching, or to someone in a conference room with thousands of people listening?
Is This Discriminating?
So you’re one of those people with 100 followers, you’re reading what Loic is saying, and perhaps have heard others clamour for the same thing, are you offended? Does this make you feel like what you have to say has little worth compared to someone with a larger number of followers saying the same thing? I think it’s silly to think that just because you happen to be discussing the same topic as someone noteworthy, that you rank on the same level as them. It’s like having two degreed people with the same piece of paper, except one has 20+ years of experience and one just got their degree, there is no way they stand on the same ground.
As stated earlier in this post, the idea of authority based searching is nothing new. Technorati does this with its blog search function, filtering in search of sites with merit in terms of page hits and readership. It’s nothing new, but to those that fall out of the category it sounds pompous and conceited.
I disagree, I think there is definitely something to be said about finding the authorities on different topics for the sake of saving time and also ensuring that more people here what you have to say. Personally, I don’t see this happening with Twitter, but perhaps Loic has the power to make things happen. Right now Twitter has seemingly tackled the stability issue, needs to focus on a monetizing method, and who knows what else is happening internally.
I’m curious to hear what the readers have to say. Is there merit to authority based searching, or is this just conceited demands made by those in the top tier of their profession looking only to associate with other top tier professionals?
Crenk is looking towards building a solid community of fans who not only provide us a sense of community around Crenk, but also have an opportunity to share their thoughts on some of our stories, and interact with other fans of Crenk.
The reason Crenk continues to go on is because of all of our loyal readers. Those new to Crenk are just as important and we welcome you and hope you leave your feedback. No site can stand alone, but together we can share ideas, innovation, and progressive thinking.
That being said, here’s what Crenk is looking for. All of you out there are amazing, smart, and techy people no doubt, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Share your story with us and show us your stuff. We’re looking for two things!
1. Send in a video or photo of all of your tech. Lay in a bed with it, sit in a chair with it, lay it out on a table and put yourself in it. Hell stand in a tech store and take a photo of all the stuff you want around you. We want to know what our fans are using, loving, and wanting to share with others.
2. We also want readers of our site to share their thoughts on stories. Send a quick video of your thoughts on articles posted on Crenk. No censorship as long as all videos are in good taste and profanity is used when appropriate. Otherwise, share your thoughts good or bad, and if you’d like, predict the future and let us know what you see in the future for a specific topic, product or brand.
Crenk’s Facebook Page just went live, so make sure to upload your files there, and we the staff of Crenk will be reviewing them. Could there be future benefits involved? Hmmmm…good question…what do you think?
In recent months the number of social networks has grown exponentially. At the beginning of this boom there were obvious leaders in the market, networks like MySpace and Facebook come to mind. In that time there have been a lot of networks looking for their place online, attracting niche groups from within the online community. Other networks were developed that had entirely different purposes, but still remained under the guise of a social media tool such as Twitter, Yelp, and Digg to name a few.
Everyone can see that at some point all this development will culminate a scenario where thousands of networks will be fighting for the dominant number of users, the smaller networks either dying out or being bought out. We saw this in a recent purchase of Pownce by SixApart, whose plans are to disable the service, but acquire the users via another service that will undoubtedly be under the sole development of SixApart. Users are given the option to transfer their data, but ultimately there is an example of services being absorbed by larger offerings due to the over abundance and saturation of the market.
Facebook Connect is now becoming the new battleground for social networks. The face of the war for users is changing, and MySpace and Facebook are battling for dominance. Luckily for users, we will ultimately benefit, and the winner is yet to be determined.
Facebook, In It to Win It
Facebook Connect was announced mid-summer with an expected launch of 24 partners on board. The concept was to create a portal by which users of Facebook could sign on and using their profiles, access data on other social networks, all without leaving the Facebook platform. By allowing users to port their profile data to third-party Web sites, several opportunities become available to the user.
You can leverage your identity across the web in trust environments for ease of use
Take your friends across various networks ensuring trusted social context anywhere you go
The piece of mind knowing that the privacy settings you set on Facebook will go with you as you cross the boundaries into other networks
Actions you make on partner sites will be shared with your friends on Facebook, keeping them in the know about what you like, what you’re doing, and what you find interesting
The idea of the project is to create a deeper, enriching experience using Facebook as the anchor for all your social media experiences.
What’s In It For Partner Sites?
The curious thing anyone would ask is why the networks would come together in such a way that their services rely on large sites like Facebook? For starters, the instinct to survive as to be at the top of the list. Networks are competing for users, all of them hoping to break out and be the leader in their respective niche. Secondly, by partnering you ensure that the millions of users that Facebook states they have will eventually bleed over onto the partnering network.
For example, by utilizing Facebook Connect a user and sign in and perhaps read about Digg. Wanting to be a part of the Digg community the user only has to select the partner and the profile data will port over to the Digg profile creation page instantly making it easier for the user to begin their Digg experience. The benefit is obvious ease of use, but also new users, and the power of link backs which gives the social sites their traction. By sharing contact lists, you increase the power of the network and Facebook benefits by being the hub for all of your social media access.
Currently MySpace is also fighting is also in the fight for your time, your identity andyour data on the social networks, but Facebook has come out of the gate with very powerful alliances.
I’m curious to see the outcome of this online competition from two of the largest social community sites on the net today.
Microsoft have now made the decision to turn the Live.com site into a social network that will compete directly with Facebook and Myspace.
Microsoft Windows Live senior director Ryan Gavin has outlined why he is excited about the raft of social networking improvement in the new software, admitting that this would have been a more appropriate time to launch the ‘Live’ brand.
Talking to TechRadar, Gavin expressed his belief that Windows Live was a step in the right direction in giving people a platform to bring all of their social interactions together on the web.
“When I think about what’s happening online today it still is really two things – what’s happening in my world and what’s happening in the world and fundamentally those two activities make up 65 per cent of online usage.
“What’s happening in my world is where Windows Live is – in the communications and sharing section that makes up 33 per cent of the time online and includes email, instant messaging and social networking. Social networking has come on very strong as the third leg of that stool.
Legacy
Hotmail and what was formely MSN instant messenger make up the cornerstone of Windows Live’s audience, but adding in the social networking aspect is of paramount importance to Gavin.
“Live has its base in mail and messaging with 460 million active users and 17 per cent of online time specifically in the UK which is quite staggering when you think about it.
“The lines between instant messaging, email and social networking are really being taken down; we’re thinking about these things less as discrete categories and more as integrated thing.
“When you look at how things have evolved it’s been an explosion in rich ways to communicate in the past few years and it’s also set up a new set of challenges.
“So there’s been an explosion of ways to communicate but there’s only one consumer at the centre of this with one list of friends to manage or one list of contacts and they are saying ‘help me manage that list.
Communications
“There are ways that I like to communicate and ways that I like to be communicated to. Tons of ways to get hold of someone but I don’t want to log into five accounts to find out if someone is trying to get hold of me and it’s the same with stuff like documents, data and pictures. This gets spread over several devices but you should be able to access it easily
“Finally there are applications and a truth in that which says when you think about consumer service no one company is going to build the end to end consumer value properly so you’d better have platform so that third parties can make that first party platform better.
“And because it’s my data when I leave I’d better be able to take it with me.”
Gavin believes that this update indicates a sea change for the software and web applications, admitting that the past confusion over the move away from brands like MSN and hotmail to the ‘Live’ name make a lot more sense with this raft of changes.
“In some ways this would have been the best time to launch the Live brand,” he adds.
Social Networks have been the method of communication for adults, adolescents, and businesses the world over. Kids have been curious about the many social sites that exist, but none are targeted for the under 12 year old market. Today parents are more worried about who their children talk to since it’s impossible to really know who is on the other end of the conversation. While understandable, there was no real forum for younger children to make their mark on the net until KidZui debuted.
What started as a pay service quickly changed to a free model, and since then they have had a lot of success attracting the 3-12 year old demographic. Recently KidZui has changed a lot of the functionality of their site, and have introduced some new tools to make the site fun for parents working with their kids. Parents are encouraged to participate on the site with their kids so that everyone is in the know as to what the child is looking at and sharing online.
KidZui offers limited profiles that offer superficial details about the user, the site offers no real two way communication to prevent those looking to lure children, and tabs where users can share the sites they’ve visited, approved videos, and even a section for homework help. Status can be set by the user, but instead of typing there is a menu of premade options that can be chosen from. Again, this introduction is to get the child used to the idea of larger social networks, but still maintain a safe environment for kids to enjoy their time online.
If you’ve got kids, I recommend you check out KidZui and get your kids prepared for the future of communication!
There is another music streaming service that we didn’t mention in our 
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