Social Networking Juggernaut Strikes Again

Juggernaut                                Facebook

Facebook claims they have more than 500 million active users. There are now 2 billion people that use the internet. So this means that 25% of all internet users are on Facebook according to the International Telecommunications Union. Facebook seems to have a death grip on the social networking scene and even the internet as a whole. This digital monopoly is basically caused by everyone being on the social network and everyone wants to be networked with each other so they’re on Facebook. But even so, the lifespan of a social network can be tricky to determine. More than a few social networking sites have seen their prime come and go with the social networking juggernaut that is Facebook.

Dead MySpace

MySpace is one of those dying social networks that at one point had more members using it than Facebook. It was even sold to News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million. After losing traffic from sites like Facebook and Twitter, MySpace switched gears and tried to find a niche with their bands and filmmaker members. According to Mashable.com MySpace is now up for sale and yet the bidding is likely not to reach $100 million.

Many social networking sites that pop up today or even ones that have been around but lost users because of Facebook are turning their attention towards a specific niche. Another example of a Facebook defeated SNS is Friendster. Friendster was one of the first SNS around, forming in 2002. It was announced yesterday that they will be deleting all user data on May 31. On a Friendster help forum for exporting friends they say:

2. What will happen to the current version of Friendster and my Friendster account?

We are introducing a new and improved Friendster in the coming weeks that will be focused on entertainment and fun. There will be new features that will leverage on your online activities and will enable you to connect with friends or engage new friends with similar interests.

So with everyone joining Facebook and leaving the other sites in the dust is there any way a smaller social network can fight back? I say yes, there are things wrong with Facebook. One thing I find annoying about Facebook are the businesses and people that are trying to get you to their website to make money. It’s also not the best site for everything it just has the most people networked into it. Sites that have seen an increase in users recently have found niches in the SNS sphere. For example, Tumblr is a blogging site that has seen membership rise. LinkedIn takes a professional approach to social networking. Also growing is the website StumbleUpon, a site that chooses a random website based on one’s interests sort of like Pandora does with music. Ignite Social Media posted a very interesting infographic about declining and blossoming social network sites.

All of these “niche-type” SNS are competing against Facebook (and each other) for a piece of the new media pie. There are many alternative sites that Facebook has to deal with to remain as the sole, dominant social network site. But Facebook has had a head start and is already monopolizing the market. Some people may not like the idea of a monopoly in any market, but I believe this market (at least in the U.S.) is suited for this type of dominant website that is kept in check by its users.

 
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dfarkins Joe S.

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No Explanation for Hacking?

Playstation.blog

I was disappointed to turn on my Playstation 3 on Thursday and learn that Playstation Network was not available. As Easter weekend approached, Sony took down their worldwide internet gaming service Playstation Network. Playstation Network provides over 70 million gamers around the world with free online play and downloading of some particular games. There have been some issues with internet hackers (hacktivists) in the past and there are some people viewing this as another hack by a primary group called Anonymous.

At first, Sony only let out a statement on their blog saying that they were “aware certain functions of Playstation Network are down.” But there was speculation that the network had been hacked and this was partially confirmed by Sony in their next blog by saying that an “external intrusion” was to blame for the service being suspended.

pcmag.com

There has been some thoughts as to if the hacker group Anonymous is to blame for these latest hack attacks. This is because of the lawsuit filed by Sony upon Playstation 3 hacker, George Hotz, who is believed to have uncensored some of the PS3’s methods of how it works and running custom packages with the system. After Sony filed the lawsuit, Anonymous sent them a letter threatening them of hacking their websites and they did just that. Sony’s main web sites went down for a full day.

These so called hacktivists (a play on hackers and activists) are supporters of whistle blowing sites such as Wikileaks. They have even gone so far as to introduce a site called Tunisileaks when the country of Tunisia blocked Wikileaks.

Here is where people begin to disagree with the function of this “group”. On one side people will tend to say that, first off, companies should not make enemies with people that can hack their systems. Another side will say that Anonymous isn’t even a group and therefore cannot be recognized and or blamed for these acts. These people think that Anonymous stands for an anarchist idea of internet freedom and free speech. Even so, other people will believe that these hackers are sort of like terrorists in that they think they are always right and can go about with shutting down networks and disabling sites at their own will.

Personally, I agree that hacking groups like Anonymous are good for showing corruption among physical entities. But honestly, I just want Playstation Network back online as soon as possible. Then I’ll be able to play my Call of Duty: Black Ops and watch Cheers and Trailer Park Boys on Netflix again. Heck, I might even Skype with a friend just to get my use out of it in the four days I’ve lost so far.

Here is a video from earlier this month stating that Anonymous did not want to interrupt the PSN but wanted to target Sony, among stating other things.

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kevinlove Kevin Love

Happy Easter!

The Corporate Battle for New Media Continues

Mashable

In my last blog post I introduced the current and future battle of mobile computing. The rate at which Facebook and Google come out with new ideas and applications for the virtual community is astonishing. Since my last blog Google has made another move against Facebook. Google’s +1 button is the answer to Facebook’s Like button. It will act as a “public stamp of approval” for any and everything that Google shows you on its site according to Google Labs. And not just that, pretty soon external websites will be able to include a +1 button on their own site that allows viewers to recommend a story, ad, or whatever to everyone else. Here is a video introducing Google’s new move into social media.

And a day after the button was understood by tech junkies; somebody has cracked the code and found a way to put +1 on external websites. Google had said that this wasn’t going to be made public for a while. It just goes to show you how quickly the public expects these new advancements in social media. In a similar fashion, internet users found holes in the New YorkTimes innovative paywall and breached it within the first week of use.

Advertising money is how these two websites generate revenue. Google stepped into the social networking scene with Google Buzz in early 2010 because Facebook was taking away tons of advertisers. To date, Google has had very little success with their making their business more social. The +1 button takes a different approach then Buzz and hopes to take hold of some Facebook users.

The reason we are seeing advertisers turn more to Facebook with the placement of their ads is because new ad platforms see quality over quantity in the form of expression is greater than impression. Facebook allows advertisers to target their audience with the use of keywords and the user’s demographics. Google has been using the impression model of advertising. Where more clicks equals more money. While Google has more unique visitors according to a Nielsen Company study, Facebook users spend 5 times as long on the site.

Marketing Charts

To update the battle going on between Apple and its many competitors, both HP and Dell top executives badmouthed the iPad this week. In an interview with CIO Australia Andy Lark, Dell’s Global Head of Marketing Enterprises alleged:

“[Apple has] done a really nice job, they’ve got a great product, but the challenge they’ve got is that already Android is outpacing them. Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”

So there you have it. The battle rages on…on the web. The Google v. Facebook, search engine v. social network skirmish seems to be the most interesting as of now. I believe these fights between digital media companies can only mean good things for the public consumer. We get more variety of newer technologies at a rapid pace.

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cnnbrk CNN Breaking News

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Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Google vs. Facebook

Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook vs. Microsoft... does that even make sense??? I mean, Apple and Microsoft make computers right? Google is a search engine. And Facebook is a social networking site. So how are they competing? Well those two things may have been what these two COMPANIES were mainly known for but I think that is all about to change.

As of right now the main battle going on between Apple and Google is the mobile computing duopoly they have on smartphones and their operating systems. Apple has done well to stay ahead of the curve and invent new consumer electronics such as the Macbook, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. The iPhone was really the first widely accepted and used smartphone on the scene. But then Google came out with its own operating system for mobile devices called Android OS to compete with iOS for the iPhone. It really is a battle between a closed, limited system (Apple) versus an open, choice based system (Google).

And now enters the heavyweight into the smartphone fight. Microsoft’s Windows Phone has been released and is starting to get play from new phone users that have a history using Microsoft software. Microsoft has long been known as the leader in operating systems with Windows being a steady winner. Back in the late 80’s and 90’s Apple tried to use their own software with their own hardware against IBM and Microsoft and other companies that used a more open form of computing. 

Gizmodo.com

Nowadays it’s a fight for a chunk of the social media and mobile computing market. The Nielsen Company released data on who is winning the U.S. smartphone battle. The following graphic illustrates that it depends if you look by operating system Android holds a slight lead but it shows Apple and Blackberry as companies make their own devices so are they winning?

The Nielsen Company

Enter Mark Zuckerberg and his fresh company, Facebook. Android phones have started to incorporate more seamless apps and experiences with Facebook on their phones but Google and Facebook are competing. So we may not be far off from a Facebook operating system. Either that or a merger of sorts between Apple and Facebook are possibilities. John Dvorak, a writer for Wall Street Journal, writes:

Let’s assume that Facebook does not want to develop a new phone OS from scratch. This leaves open the possibility that Apple Inc.  could do a specially branded iPhone that is Facebook-centric. It could be a blue model, for example, and have the Facebook brand burned into the body. This is not a stretch for Apple, since it has done special versions of the iPod in the past.

This all leads to some very interesting situations in the mobile computing market and beyond. The post-PC era is dawning on us and these four tech giants are competing for the right to change the way we use technology to communicate. Beyond smartphones and tablets the options are limitless for these digital leaders.

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Target Target

Yesterday, Fat Tuesday. Today, Up&Up antacid.

(Spring) Break From Social Media

Spring break is only a week away for NDSU students and over 2.1 million other college students across the U.S. This seems like a fitting time to talk about the sometimes much needed escape from many aspects of our lives but also from social networking sites. When you think of spring break you may think of vacationing, partying on the beach, working, or just going home and resting.

Student City

Another thing we should be reminded of doing is detaching ourselves from our computers, smartphones, and in general the virtual world that is social networking. This break is going to be important for me to get away from the stress and hassles of working two jobs, going to school, family and friends, and my social networking life. Just as with sleep in real life we need to take planned break in our online life every once in a while to get energized. I don’t believe there is a certain amount of time. It’s different for everyone.

For example, someone running a small business that relies on social networking sites as a big part of its business should not take more than a week off. But a busy parent of 4 young children that works in a non-social networking related workspace might be able to take a few weeks off at a time. And for me personally, I think taking days around holidays off and also this spring break week off is a good idea as it will help recharge my mental and physical batteries while having a good time.

The reasoning behind needing to recharge ones batteries from social networking is that it is not a passive medium like traditional television. Social media is an interactive conversation between either two people at the least but capable of up to millions and millions of people. People are constantly able to think about not only their own (sometimes extremely mundane) thoughts, but everyone else’s also.

Another reason we need to take a step back from social networking sites is because a lot of us have become addicted. A news article from WHEC-TV in Rochester, NY says there are new studies that liken Facebook to a gambling addiction. It also states that the more friends you have on Facebook the more stress you will encounter.

In the following infographic I found on Mashable.com there are some interesting yet scary statistics illustrated. Take note that there are over 10 million comments made in just 20 minutes on Facebook. And I believe the addiction shows moreso than anywhere else in this stat: 57% of people talk to people more online than in real life.

Mashable.com

Yikes, now that is a lot of information to take in. I’m stressed just thinking about my social network life now. Spring break can not come soon enough!

Tweet of the day:

charliesheen Charlie Sheen

Face it folks, you just feel better when you say it. #WINNING