In honor of MySpace’s 8th anniversary, we asked the Mashable community to send in their memories from the social network. While opinions were mixed, most of the responses were centered around nostalgia, personalization and music.

Mashable community members met significant others, connected with artists and learned to code on MySpace. They also commented about three separate MySpace marriages, how much they miss personalizing pages with graphics and songs, and how the site jumpstarted their careers.

We handpicked a few of our favorite comments and included them below. Be sure to check out the Follow pages of the users with our favorite submissions, which are linked to in the slide names.

Steve Joseph

erinwye

Robert Kiefert

Frances Livings

Davidson Scott, Kathy Hernandez, Yemoonyah

John Weaver

James Nichols

Natalie Norris

mickyb273

Jamie Lipson

Brad Ruszala

Andrew Vazzano

April Denton

Alessandra Bifulco

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Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Tom Anderson, the former President, founder and first friend on MySpace. You can now find Tom on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

If it’s not obvious yet, Google+ is going to be able to “undercut” Facebook when it comes to game developers and platform transactions. Instead of taking a 30% cut of all Farmville seeds (or whatever people are buying), Google will be able to take a smaller percentage for themselves. They may even take nothing. And when it comes to “monetization” on the G+ “website,” Google’s trump card against Facebook is that we may never even see an ad on G+. Google has plenty to gain without ever showing an ad and, put simply, Google doesn’t need the money. Facebook’s got to know this, and it’s got to have them just a little bit concerned.

This week, the WSJ reported that FB is testing out a “real-time” feed (as opposed to Facebook’s current default “Top News” algorithm). Presumably this new feed would become the new norm for users. Though I’d like to think Facebook has been listening to me when I critique their Top News algorithm, what’s really moving Facebook’s hand here (according to the WSJ) are complaints by advertisers and app developers. It seems that the “Top News” stream is killing the virality of advertisers “content” and of apps that are trying to find new users.

If it’s true that FB is considering these changes because of complaining developers and advertisers, that’s a real bad sign for FB. Facebook has made some defensive moves since the launch of G+, which in itself is unusual for them. But this is the first indication they may kowtow to complaining third parties. (Hey, the IPO is coming… competition is heating up, it has to happen, right?) Making decisions informed by the concerns of these third-parties doesn’t automatically spell doom, of course. But Facebook has been so darn good for so long because of their refusal to IPO, their refusal to think about the short term, and their refusal to let one party’s needs overshadow the general health of the service. The tough thing for Facebook is that the larger you get, and the more competing interests you have to consider, the more difficult your choices become.

FB’s trouble may seem like a positive for G+, but it’s not that simple. It’s a virtual certainty that Google will launch a platform (and not just a games platform), but how they do this is critical. We don’t want a repeat of Facebook’s cycle—where FB promised the world to developers, gave them free reign to build the hype, then cut off their marketing channels and destroyed their businesses (an oversimplification yes, but read this harrowing tale from Paul Allen)—so G+ needs to carefully balance the needs of developers with the health of the overall community.

From what I can tell, the heads at G+ are aware of the delicate balance that’s needed here. Though they gaffed in the way they carried it out, Google’s decision to block business accounts indicates that Google understands they need a real plan here. Frankly, I’m surprised that no “regular users” have spoken up to say they don’t want brands on G+.  Maybe that’s just because 80% of the active users on G+ work in the “Internet industry” (at least according to my unscientific poll), and thus have something to gain by letting “businesses” into the service .  Would “regular users” be so happy about this? As Matt Hogan argues, it may not be the best idea to let businesses come in and muck up the place at the very beginning.

That said, what we may be seeing here is a general evolution of brand-user interaction to the point that users trust that it just can “work” (like Twitter, where you can follow brands, but they can’t really bug you).

Because of poor planning on my part, the regular-user / business relationship on MySpace was never quite right. Businesses wanted to be able to go around and add people on MySpace, and it was hard to tell them “no” because of they way MySpace evolved over time. Facebook was smart to make it impossible for “Pages” to add people & comment for the first few years. But they recently reversed that decision. Whether that turns out to be a good thing remains to be seen. (It’s an easier move to make for Facebook now when the “true” user base is already established, and Facebook has years of refining spam prevention algorithms under their belt.)

But whatever the case, both Google and Facebook have some tough decisions ahead of them: how do they balance what’s best for the regular guy (you & me), advertisers (big brands), small local businesses (who can never afford the big spend), platform developers with non-competing services (games & music, which it appears FB won’t get into) and platform developers with potentially competitive services (like business networking and dating, which FB/G+ may want to get into themselves someday).

Over the long haul (5-10 years), the company that makes the right choices in these areas may just end up winning.

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This is just a guess, but I’d bet money that Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz probably feel like their heads are going to explode. Anyone on the Google+ team who really cares about G+ is probably getting very little sleep, and are annoying their friends and family with their one-track G+ minds. There’s been such an amazing amount of feedback, the Google+ team can’t help but be overwhelmed—and what we see is just on the site and in the press. Imagine what’s coming into that “send feedback” inbox that’s at the bottom of every G+ page?

At MySpace I tried to digest that “inbox” and “community” by myself, and that worked pretty well for a few years. It was a little easier back then, but today’s G+ users are an entirely different breed. There are a ton of early adopters, technologists on G+, and they’ve all been through the social networking ringer before. G+ users are offering powerpoint slideshows, illustrated screen mockups and long-winded essays on what needs to happen. There is genuine, high-quality thinking going on in the “free advice” that G+ is receiving from the global community. How can the G+ team cut through the noise and decide what’s important? (Especially when there’s some really high quality noise being directed Google’s way.)

Here’s a few things I’d do right now, if I were Google.

1) Start seriously courting the journalists, tastemakers, and celebrities that are using and/or pontificating about G+. This doesn’t mean Google should ignore “regular” user feedback, or even that Google should do what the triumvirate says they should do. It just means they should have a real, personal relationship with those people. During MySpace’s run-up, journalists continually got their facts wrong about MySpace. They wrote story after story about how Facebook was bigger than MySpace when in truth Facebook wasn’t even 1/10th the size of MySpace.

Why? Because the journalists’ Ivy League educated children were using Facebook, and journalists have deadlines and other things to think about. If you get to know people, they think of a real human being when they write those stories, and they care a little more. I don’t want to say people are “sheep,” but if the general Internet population believes G+ is happening and here to stay, then they’ll commit the time to try it out. Popular opinion is the biggest “filter” for most people—they don’t have to try something if they’ve already been told it’s not cool. Popular opinion is the ultimate “social search” if you will. This doesn’t just apply to user counts (G+ hits 20 million!), of course. Popular opinion will shape every aspect of people’s G+ perception.

2) Exhaustively think through the privacy issues and tie up any loose/ends that G+ has on this front. I’ve seen multiple people share their phone number with me without knowing it. They may not be wanting to share other things as well, though those things have been less obviously private. I’d make sure that people understand how their posts can be shared/reshared, and how their other Google accounts (profile, Gmail, docs) and content (Youtube, Picasa) are connected to G+. I don’t believe Privacy is a real issue to most people, but most people think it is a real issue to them. As thus, it plays a big role in the psychological justification for defecting from competitors. “Safety” hysteria destroyed MySpace in the press. It got MySpace banned from schools, Apple stores, and by well-meaning parents who had been terrorized by what they were reading. Privacy advocates have tried to destroy Facebook and Google in the past. You need the best PR person in the world on your team, Google, but even more so, you need to make sure the software doesn’t give the privacy hounds something to be rightfully angry about.

3) Move Google’s top analysts (probably focused on monetization right now) onto the Google+ project to form a skunk works team. Mine the data about G+ usage like it’s Gold, because it truly is the future of Google’s long-term revenue and profit growth. (And I actually don’t think there’ll ever be advertising on Google+, theme for another article.) Facebook was really good at understanding their onboarding process, knowing what key activities led to later usage (adding x number of friends, putting up a picture and getting a response, etc.).  Google needs to closely track users who are not adopting the service, those that are, and try to understand what type of user is the one that is ahead of the curve—identify the user who is illustrating the future “common” use case through their pioneering activity. G+ needs to understand all three types of users and develop a plan for each of them.

4) Hire the best product executors & visionaries in the world, something that clearly has not been Google’s forte in the past. (In fact, it seems that some good ones have left, because they felt they weren’t valued at Google).  I’m not referring to run of the mill product managers and UI developers or “social media experts,” but rather that rare breed of people who have demonstrable experience leading users down the path to internet nirvana. Google has the engineering talent and ability to scale the G+ service (more valuable than people understand, right now, I think). But does Google have the product people? Google’s technical infrastructure will allow them to do things that other social sites could not do—in fact, they’re already doing that. They need product visionaries who can understand that. Though I love G+, some parts of G+ are really a mess right now, and two that are incredibly important at this stage are in need of much work: onboarding & photos.

5) There must be one ring to rule them all. One leader making decisions. Maybe that person is already in place at Google; I don’t know the internal hierarchies within the company. But the leader himself, and every employee must understand who this is. Making a website is similar to making a movie—hundreds of people work on it, one person makes the final decision, and they make them every minute of the day. I use the LOTR analogy because there may be 12 extremely important product people (point #4). But someone needs to make the decisions. And to further that analogy, if the ring goes bad, the Hobbits need to throw the ring in Mt. Doom and find a new leader. OK maybe this analogy doesn’t work, but you get the point. All the opinions and analysis will paralyze anyone who is not up to the task. That person has got to bring it all together and make decisions based on his gut and understanding of the overall company’s mission. No that leader won’t always get it right, but the clarity achieved and time saved is crucial. The Internet moves at lightning speed. If you mess up, a resolute leader can iterate and fix. This is worthy of its own dissertation (read Randall Stross on this point about Steve Jobs/Apple vs. Google right here).

You learn a lot when you mess up. I messed up a lot, so these are just a few of the things I learned. By the way, these lessons aren’t just for Google.  They also can be applied to any startup, so good luck everyone. I’m hoping to see you all make your mark on this world.

Crunchbase

GOOGLE+

Product:
GOOGLE+

Website:
http://plus.google.com

Company

<a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/google" onclick="Google

A Google project headed by Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, Google+ is designed to be the social extension of Google.

Its features focus on making online sharing easy for…

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What can you use the application for?


Bebo is a social network that allows users to interact and share media online. The user can create their own customizable profile and post videos and photos for the Bebo community. Just like other social networks, Bebo allows users to post updates and send messages to keep friends, family and others on their contact list “in the loop.” The application has also added some online games that can be played with others through the site. The homepage features an ever-changing user activity feed so newcomers can see what’s going on within the Bebo community. The site also offers users a dating area for single users who are interested in connecting and possibly starting a dating relationship.

What is the history and popularity of the application?


Bebo was founded in 2005 by Michael Birch and Xochi Birch as an alternative to MySpace, one of the first social networking websites. The site was acquired by AOL on March the 13th, 2008 for $850m. AOL sold Bebo.com to private equity group Criterion Capital Partners in 2010 for less than $10m.

What are the differences to other apps?


Social networks are found everywhere on the web. It is difficult to make a product that is completely original. Bebo stands out because it combines all the standard social networking elements along with a few extras. Users can play online games together through Bebo and possibly meet a potential date through the site’s dating page.

How does the application look and feel to use?


Bebo welcomes users with a dark header and red and white background. The faded color scheme gives the site a somewhat charming feel. The user can find a handful of light grey links that run across the top of the page, inside the dark header. The website includes a number of advertisements as well, and these are not always kept out of the way however they can be ignored for the most part.

How does the registration process work?


A new user can join the Bebo community by clicking one of the buttons provided on the homepage. Near the center, the user can find a blue button to sign in with a Facebook account and a gold button to sign in with an AOL account. Users who prefer to create a new account can click the dark blue “Join Bebo for Free” button to the left. The registration form asks the user to provide a full name, email address, password, gender, date of birth and security code. A check box is also available under the date of birth drop down boxes that allows the user to hide their age from their public profile.

What does it cost to use the application?


Bebo works much like other social networks and offers free access to all users. The site includes advertisements, which inevitably help offset operational costs. Charging a fee would deter new users from signing up, and social networks like Bebo need more people to thrive.

Who would you recommend the application to?


Bebo is another social networking option for users who love to socialize. The website also provides users with fun online games to play together and dating tools to help singles connect with others.

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Twitter just crossed another huge milestone. People are now sending 200 million tweets per day across the service. This is up from 65 million tweets per day a year ago, or about 200 percent growth in a year. Last March, Twitter reported 140 million tweets per day last March. Way back in January, 2009 people were only sending 2 million tweets per day.

Well, “people” is perhaps a generous term. Twitter is filled with automated bots Tweeting out, as well as feeds from publishers. It is not clear how many of those 200 million Tweets a day are automated versus individually hand-crafted. And a small percentage of power users (maybe 20,000 total) reportedly account for half of all Tweets with links, for example, (although this is based on a study that only looked at data through March, 2010 and may now be outdated).

But other data suggests that Twitter’s audience keeps on growing. ComScore estimates that Twitter.com alone attracted 139 million unique visitors worldwide in May, 2011, a 54 percent annual increase. On a worldwide basis, Twitter is bigger than MySpace. In the U.S., however, traffic is up only 12.5 percent to Twitter.com, which attracted an estimated 27 million unique visitors in May, 2011.

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On Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of other social sites, normal consumers often choose to keep tabs on the brands they love.

In fact, many brands have highly optimized their marketing and PR strategies to accommodate that behavior, even going to far as to do one-to-one CRM (that’s customer or consumer relationship management) through avenues such as Facebook and Twitter.

As social CRM specialists Get Satisfaction found, many consumers who follow brands online are only in it for the perks. Around 40% of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users in a recent study said they followed brands to get access to discounts and special deals.

SEE ALSO: The Biggest Brands on Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Another common response in the same survey indicated that many consumers will follow a brand if they are current customers. And creating interesting, entertaining content online is another great way for brands to earn followers and fans on social services.

Check out this infographic from Get Satisfaction and design shop Column Five for more details on why and how ordinary folks follow brands online.

Click image to see full-size version.

[source: Get Satisfaction blog]

Top image courtesy of iStockphoto user Ridofranz.

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Craiglist is one of the most useful and yet one of the ugliest tools on the Internet. And its bare-bones, basic feature set is both a blessing and a curse.

So, how to ease the pain of using Craigslist while keeping its simplicity and utility? Allow us to introduce you to Craigslist Helper.

This handy browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari) lets you preview text and thumbnails from your Craigslist search results. You can also bookmark listings and even make your own notes on them.

For example, if you’re househunting, you might use the app to see images of your new pad options without having 30 tabs open; then, you’d be able to prioritize them and even keep track of conversations with potential landlords, all without leaving Craigslist.

Other features include:

• Alerts when new listings that match your search appear
• Multiple searches by geographical area, or even a whole-site search
• Hide ads
• Filter by keyword; for example, choose not to see listings with “freeway”
• Map popups to show locations
• Phone number highlighting

Here’s an example screenshot showing housing listings within 350 miles of San Francisco:

As the extensions’ mysterious developer writes on Quora, “My guess is, [Craigslist doesn't] innovate simply because they can afford not to — at least until a Facebook to their MySpace comes along.” And until another classifieds startup successfully challenges Craigslist — and believe us, a few of them are trying — apps like Craigslist Helper will have to do.

Will you be trying Craigslist Helper next time you have to do a classifieds search?

More About: browser extension, craigslist, craigslist helper

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Craiglist is one of the most useful and yet one of the ugliest tools on the Internet. And its bare-bones, basic feature set is both a blessing and a curse.

So, how to ease the pain of using Craigslist while keeping its simplicity and utility? Allow us to introduce you to Craigslist Helper.

This handy browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari) lets you preview text and thumbnails from your Craigslist search results. You can also bookmark listings and even make your own notes on them.

For example, if you’re househunting, you might use the app to see images of your new pad options without having 30 tabs open; then, you’d be able to prioritize them and even keep track of conversations with potential landlords, all without leaving Craigslist.

Other features include:

• Alerts when new listings that match your search appear
• Multiple searches by geographical area, or even a whole-site search
• Hide ads
• Filter by keyword; for example, choose not to see listings with “freeway”
• Map popups to show locations
• Phone number highlighting

Here’s an example screenshot showing housing listings within 350 miles of San Francisco:

As the extensions’ mysterious developer writes on Quora, “My guess is, [Craigslist doesn't] innovate simply because they can afford not to — at least until a Facebook to their MySpace comes along.” And until another classifieds startup successfully challenges Craigslist — and believe us, a few of them are trying — apps like Craigslist Helper will have to do.

Will you be trying Craigslist Helper next time you have to do a classifieds search?

More About: browser extension, craigslist, craigslist helper

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

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President Barack Obama famously used social media to his benefit during the presidential campaign by distributing his message of “hope,” and gaining supporters, through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other social sites. To this day he remains one of the most followed individuals on Twitter with more than 7 million followers.

Continuing with his streak of being in touch with technology, President Obama had dinner with the most notable CEOs of Silicon Valley back in February to discuss important topics such as education, research, and jobs. Then to much surprise Michelle Obama said on the “Today” Show that the Obama girls would not be having Facebook accounts, “I’m not a big fan of young kids having Facebook. It’s not something they need, it’s not necessary right now.” This came as a shock because many believed that the President, that embraced social media, should be teaching his children to be smart and responsible digital citizens.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting in Washington with Univision, Obama spoke with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos detailing the gadgets he owns and uses regularly, including an iPad that he has tethered to his Blackberry. The conversation with Ramos went as follows:

Ramos: Not long ago I was having a conversation with my son. He’s only 12 years old, and he couldn’t believe that I grew up in a world where there were no cell phones, no Internet, no computers. (Laughter.) So do you have your BlackBerry with you, or do you have an iPhone? What do you have?
Obama: You know, I took my BlackBerry off for this show, because I didn’t want it going off, and that would be really embarrassing. But usually I carry a BlackBerry around.
Ramos: Do you have an iPad?
Obama: I do have an iPad.
Ramos: Your own [a] computer?
Obama: I’ve got my own computer.
Ramos: Very well. (Laughter.)
Obama: I mean, Jorge, I’m the President of the United States. You think I’ve got a — (laughter and applause) — you think I’ve got to go borrow somebody’s computer? (Laughter.) Hey, man, can I borrow your computer? (Laughter.) How about you? You’ve got one?

This interview with Obama comes after he admitted last May during a commencement speech at Hampton University that he did not know how to use an Apple iPad, iPod, or other gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360. He said that these devices are a “distraction” and “a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment.”

This just goes to show that the iPad is definitely more than simply an entertainment device, and that we can rest easy knowing that our President doesn’t have to borrow someone else’s computer.

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Design customization has developed a bad reputation recently, with MySpace being the main target of criticism. However, just because some of MySpace’s pages may be seizure-inducing, it doesn’t mean that social media sites should abandon design customization. By giving users a moderate amount of control over page design without allowing them to disrupt the core interface, a site can provide a better overall user experience.

This issue is particularly important because more companies and individuals are spreading their online presence from their own domains onto social media sites. This migration makes the customization decisions by sites like Twitter and Facebook increasing important in shaping our online experience.

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Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and lovers from coast to coast are getting ready. Here’s an infographic built using data from 400 Facebook and MySpace users that might give you insight into love in America, circa 2011.

It’s a good thing we posted this infographic today, because 36% of you plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend, probably tonight. Have fun!

Buried in the data are some interesting anomalies, too. For instance, notice that 16% of the single people have their current relationship status on Facebook as “dating,” “engaged” or “married.” On the other hand, 0% of the married respondents called themselves “single.” Good move, fellow married people — you know what’s good for you.

Infographic created for Mashable by Lab 42

More About: Facebook Status, infographic, love, trending, valentine’s day

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If virtual crops and apartment buildings just aren’t your bag — and you’re itching for some sweet, digital romance — you’re in luck, because video game developer 3G Studios has acquired the rights to the TV series, The Dating Game.

According to a release, 3G, along with Sony Pictures Consumer Products, will be launching the game early this year on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Twitter and Friendster (yes, it still exists — it was sold to MOL Global in 2009).

There’s not much info yet about what this game will look like, but you can sign up for the beta (in comic sans!) to get in on the action. Apparently, the game is similar to the original show, in which three contestants answer questions to win a “date” with the man or woman in question. One also gets an in-game, customizable avatar.

Given the popularity of social gaming (Facebook game CityVille just reached 100 million monthly active users) and the growing importance of Facebook in the dating realm, this game could have the potential to be a hit. Or incredibly awkward. Either one.

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MySpace has officially announced that it will be reducing its staff by 47%, confirming rumors that have been surrounding the site since late last month.

A statement from CEO Mike Jones indicates that approximately 500 employees will be affected by the layoffs, which will take place across all divisions globally.

“With our recent relaunch as an entertainment destination for Gen Y, we introduced a much tighter focus, a significantly streamlined product and an updated technology platform,” Jones says in the statement.

It now seems that MySpace has a few strategies in store. On an international level, the company will be entering local partnerships in the UK, Germany and Australia to manage advertising sales and content. In addition, MySpace will also team up with .Fox (pronounced “dot-fox”) Networks, which it has partnered with in other international territories. Details concerning Germany and Australia have yet to be released.

MySpace — originally a social network along the lines of Facebook — first announced plans to revamp its image back in October, when it said it would become more of an entertainment hub, instead of being a place for friends to congregate online. Since then, the site has taken on a new look, while also introducing programs like Hijacks, which gives celebrities the chance to “take over” the site for certain intervals. Additional rumors concerning MySpace say that the site is still suffering from declining traffic and revenue — and that it may even be sold some time this year.

Meanwhile, according to Jones’s statement, the “new” MySpace is trending positively and the site is seeing an uptick in returning and new users. Jones says more than 3.3 million new profiles have been created since the revamped site rolled out, and that there was a 4% rise in mobile uses between November and December, bringing the number up to a total of 22 million.

“Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability,” Jones says, adding that the decisions had nothing to do with the performance of the newer MySpace. “The new organizational structure will enable us to move more nimbly, develop products more quickly, and attain more flexibility on the financial side.”

More About: layoffs, myspace, social networking

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While it’s hard to imagine that half of MySpace’s workforce contributed absolutely nothing, and it’s extra suspicious that Jones made his announcement at a time when the Verizon/iPhone hoopla was distracting everyone, the CEO did try to indicate that MySpace is in good shape now.

Jones explained in a statement, "Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability.  These changes were purely driven by issues related to our legacy business and in no way reflect the performance of the new MySpace."

He later added, "[T]he new MySpace is trending positively and the good news is we have already seen an uptick in returning and new users.  Since the worldwide rollout of the new MySpace, there have been more than 3.3m new profiles created."

The layoffs will make running MySpace a less expensive proposition for News Corp., in any event, and if News Corp. attempts to sell the property (as some rumors have indicated), they also could help convince potential buyers to step forward.

Good luck to the affected individuals.

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There’s an interesting thread happening on reddit right now, sparked by this post by a soon-to-be-terminated Myspace employee:

For better or worse I am a Myspace employee. Today, Myspace will be laying off 60% of the staff. This comes as no surprise to us or anyone who is vaguely familiar with the recent lack of success of Myspace. I work in the Beverly Hills HQ. So…ask away…I’ll do my best to keep this up to date.

There are a lot of frivolous questions attached to the post, but the most valuable question asks, “What are the reasons for the failure of MySpace in your opinion?” The first, and most obvious answer: “[T]he primary failure of Myspace was usability.”

Check out the thread on reddit for the full discussion, but here are some highlights:

About the author(s)

Managing Editor, UX Magazine

Jonathan is a tech-focused jack of all trades and the managing editor of UX Magazine. He is also the author of the recent book Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software, published by O’Reilly Media. From 2005 to 2009, Jonathan helped found EffectiveUI, a leading UX strategy, design, and development agency focused on rich Internet, desktop, and mobile systems. Jonathan has built on this experience and the knowledge he gained in the field of UX through writing the book to turn his focus to UX Magazine.

Jonathan is on Twitter @first_day.

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Last night I watched CNBC’s "Facebook Obsession"  and it made me think… am I being duped? Is Facebook really as evil as they seem to think?

Is Facebook evil? Tell us what you think. 

Social media, for  me, started with MySpace, when  my daughter went to college in 2002. She asked me to join this cool new Internet program to keep in touch with her.

I joined and learned some things that I didn’t really want to know and wondered "Why would she say that online?" She knew I could see her comments!

Maybe she thought I wouldn’t be looking, but hey I’m a super geek and she knew it.

I was a little embarrassed, but when I told her to remember that I could see what she was posting, she didn’t seem to care. From that point on, I didn’t pay too much attention to what she was doing. I didn’t dare!

Alcoholics Anonymous made the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr famous:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

It’s a hard lesson to learn, but I knew I had to figure it out if I was ever going have a good relationship with my little girl, so I tried to open my mind. It was hard for me.

I was totally focused on my business, but one day, she told me about a new website called Facebook, so I signed on to see what it was all about. I didn’t realize that I had just joined the vehicle that would change the way the world communicates, but it was a lesson that I quickly learned.

Myspace isn’t even a competitor now!

If you want to be hear my opinions on travel, dieting, dating, politics and practically anything else I have to say, please "Friend" me on Facebook. (Adults only please.)

I caught the computer bug in 1982 when I bought my first computer, a Commodore 64. Flash forward. I joined AOL in 1992. I’ve had my original e-mail address of wigmon@aol.com since 1995. My kids are all geeks too.

Let’s just say I’ve seen it all, and I’m a little disturbed by the CNBC portrayal of Facebook. Facebook has revolutionized personal, family and business communication! Facebook was the vehicle that united my relatives around the world. I communicate now daily with relatives and friends in England, South Africa and Australia. I’ve reconnected with high school friends. I keep in touch with my kids, brothers, sisters, grandkids, nieces, nephews and business contacts. Best of all, we’re all "Friends!" If you want to know what’s going on in the world of Wiggill, you need to be on Facebook.

Now, I worked for a major international corporation for 25 years and we were taught a simple principle: never say anything in public that you’d be embarrassed to see on the front page of your local newspaper.

That’s an adult lesson that people who were portrayed on CNBC haven’t learned. Don’t blame Facebook if you say stupid things online.

Yes the CEO of Facebook.com did and said some stupid things too. He was a kid! Facebook was worth millions when he was just 19 years old! I’m sure he wishes he could do some things differently, but he doesn’t make excuses and I’m sure he’ll find his way.

The teacher that got fired for calling parents idiots…is an idiot. She caused her own problem but doesn’t want to take responsibility for what she said!

My Mom taught me a life lesson when I was very young. "If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!"

Facebook didn’t put those bad words in her mouth or force her to write them!

They have private messages if you want to say something private! If you’re afraid someone might be offended by something you want to say… don’t say it, but don’t blame the messenger if people see it.

Blame yourself!

As far as privacy goes, the company has adjusted its policy repeatedly, including after the huge uproar following the launch of its social plugins and Open Graph initiative last April.

More discussion about CNBC’s Facebook doc on the WebProNews Facebook page. 

Does Facebook have privacy problems, or do people just need to be more responsible? Share your thoughts.

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There’s not much more to tell at this point.  Jessica E. Vascellaro and Russell Adams just wrote, "One person familiar with the matter said the site could lay off between a third and a half of its roughly 1,100 employees.  Another person said the moves could be announced as soon as this month."

Harsh as that may sound, the layoffs would arguably represent a less drastic measure than other possibilities, as well.  Consider that, less than two months ago, News Corp.’s COO said MySpace’s losses "are not acceptable or sustainable."  Talk of a sale resulted, but no potential buyers came forward.

Talk of a shutdown began to circulate, too, with not many people coming to MySpace’s defense.

Credit for first reporting the likelihood of another major round of layoffs at MySpace goes to Liz Gannes, in any event.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the situation.

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People who sign up for FriendBurst are given the chance to customize their profiles as minutely as they want, in order to give others a good understanding of who they are, and what they are expecting from those they begin interacting with.

Of course, groups, blogs and forums can be created by just anybody in order to make for an even suppler context in which to get to know each other.

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Remember the big third-party-apps-are-leaking-data-to-advertisers scare in October?  MySpace responded to it by making some promises, and a post on the MSC Page’s Blog stated yesterday, "Today, I am happy to say that Myspace has fully implemented the new changes to address these issues."

One step involved encrypting MySpace User IDs.  MySpace – along with all its developers – will now use anonymous identifiers, too.

Then the post made clear, "We have no tolerance for data brokers.  Accordingly, going forward, any developer found transferring Myspace user data, including user IDs, to a data broker will be punished with immediate suspension and a minimum 6-month moratorium on their apps."

These changes may help lure a few privacy-conscious individuals back to MySpace, or at least stem the flow of departing users a little bit.

They may also help MySpace avoid legal scrutiny if any more privacy crises occur, although we all have our fingers crossed that won’t be the case.

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Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

New Facebook Features Exposed in Accidental Update

Facebook accidentally went live with a handful of prototype features Thursday, including a site-wide yet short-lived overhaul of Pages. Roughly 45 minutes after the mistaken update, Facebook disabled the site, reverted back to its previous state and then tweeted apologetically about the downtime.

MySpace Launches Fan Management Tools for Bands

MySpace announced Thursday that bands now have access to a handful of tools that they can use to track analytics (both on MySpace and on other social media sites) and organize and contact their fans.

Newspapers & Magazines Come to Kindle’s Android App

Amazon announced Friday morning that users of the Kindle app for Android can now buy, read and sync more than 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines in full color on their devices. Issues are automatically delivered as they are released.

Further News

• Foursquare announced via Twitter Thursday that the next version of its popular iPhone app will hit the App Store next week.
• Sony is set to launch free iPhone and Android apps for Playstation in the very near future, likely in early 2011.
• News Corp.’s forthcoming iPad-only newspaper, The Daily is set to launch in mid-January, according to AllThingsD.
• Google Maps 5.0 — the new version of the app that was recently demoed at the Le Web Conference as well as D: Dive into Mobile conference — is now available for download in the Android Market.
• Video site Vevo has released an app for the iPad.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

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First came:

Then a shift to blue:

Slogans like "A Please For Friends" and "A Place For Music" have come and gone and come again.

Sometimes the logo went from a rectangle to round:

Just a few weeks ago, with much fanfare, "space" was replaced by a… space

But yesterday, perhaps to make sure the media didn’t get confused, a press release announcing a new MySpace Mobile site was headlined with the space inserted back into the logo:

Now, just in case they need a few more logos, MySpace has created Logo a Gogo, where users can create their own variations for possible publication.

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As the last 12 months have shown us-what with BP’s environmental disaster and a variety of online scandals-the damage that a disgruntled client or audience can do can’t be measured in income alone but can easily swell to ridiculous proportions.

Don’t fret; there is action you can take. While BP’s strategy of bidding on its own name for online ads triggered a new wave of controversy, small online businesses can protect their names in hundreds of ways without fearing backlash.

The8 steps we’ll talk about here aren’t the only ways to protect your reputation online, but they can form a fantastic foundation for PR.

1. Own Your Name, and Register All Variations

Cyber-squatters spend their entire lives hoarding domain names that should belong to other people.

They dig through popular YouTube videos to find upcoming pop stars, sift through newspapers to capitalize on current events and buy up hundreds of domain names daily to cash in when a few of them generate demand.

Protect yourself from their greed by owning all major variations of your domain name, including the standard top-level domains (.com, .net and .org) and the exotic ones (like .me). Store a small single-page website on each domain to ensure that it’s indexed, spidered and highly ranked.

2. Control First-Page Results With 2.0 Websites and Social Networks

Never underestimate the damage that a Facebook, MySpace or Friendster page can do to your business.

From rejected job applications to endless personal grievances, there are thousands of very public cases in which a social media profile has caused grief for a company. Protect your social media pages from being highjacked.

Start by registering your name on popular services, even if you don’t plan to use them. That should be enough to put off most vultures and disgruntled ex-clients. Should a public dispute arise, having control over search results through your social media profiles will help you push unwanted attacks out of sight.

3. Prepare a Crisis Strategy in Case You Draw Controversy

Even the US Air Force has an official social media response protocol. Do you? The marketing value of social media is disputed-with good reason: social media blunders can destroy a business.

Few things can reign in a controversy online. You’ll have to decide whether to try to stop, ignore or manage the controversy in your attempt to bounce back.

With a crisis strategy prepared, you can take charge when things go wrong. Using traditional PR materials, prepare a strategy so that you are in a position to judge how to respond to social media criticism.

4. Decide What’s Important, and Reach Out to Influencers

Some complaints are inconsequential; they come from people with ample time, limited experience and a thirst for drama. It’s the reality of doing business online; some people out there will, for no reason, attempt to ruin your business over trivialities.

Learn when and how to respond to these boors. If the idea of responding to outright trollish criticism doesn’t appeal to you, then let it die naturally.

If things swell out of proportion, then reach out for help-preferably to someone who has a reasonable amount of influence online.

5. Let It Slide Sometimes

Everyone makes mistakes, especially in business. If you missed a deadline, messed up a project or severed ties with a client and are now dealing with the aftermath in public, try to look at the situation from a stranger’s perspective.

These things can seem more important than they are, especially when you think your reputation is at stake.

Take scale into account; your problems will very likely fade uneventfully. Forget your worries and reach out to anyone who has been affected. Offering to mend fences is often the best way to preempt further complaints.

6. Develop a Procedure for Dealing With Frustrating Clients and Problematic Projects

Business writer Tim Ferriss says that ignoring frustrating clients is better than altering your routine. Others recommend billing them at a higher rate to make up for the trouble they cause.

Every freelancer has had to deal with a client who didn’t mesh with their method or schedule. The experience is never nice.

Set up a fairly strict procedure for dealing with problematic clients, rather than letting them go or charging them more. Certain clients will never be happy with what you deliver, regardless of its merit. Limit their ability to impede your business by implementing a set strategy of your own devising.

7. Have an Outlet Ready

Some criticism is difficult or impossible to ignore. Don’t post a comment on their blog or reach out to them by email; rather, craft a reply on your turf, whether it’s your blog, YouTube channel or something else. The most common option is a blog post.

Here’s why using your own blog makes sense: when you respond on someone else’s website, they control how your message is viewed. They can hide it, edit it or parade it around the blogosphere to increase their visibility.

Store any content that you create to clear the air on your own website, both for security and PR reasons.

8. Exercise Caution

Responding to criticism isn’t easy. BP’s advertising blunder cost it the support of online communities. Tucker Max’s post-movie explanations cost him more fans than they saved.

With online coverage swinging so easily either way, making your response to criticism clear, simple and fact-based is important.

The goal isn’t to win over people who don’t like you-there will always be negative people online, and they’ll troll you for no apparent reason. The goal is to assure your target audience that things are okay. Look for signs of discontent, and deal with them clearly and directly.

Written exclusively for WDD by Mathew Carpenter. He is an 18-year-old business owner and entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. Mathew is currently working on Sofa Moolah, a website that teaches you how to make money online. Follow Mathew on Twitter: @matcarpenter. Follow Sofa Moolah on Twitter: @sofamoolah.

How do you protect your reputation online? If you encountered these situations before, how did you handle them? Please let us know below…

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SoundCloud, an audio platform favored by many a musician, has added a “Record” feature that should appeal to bands, as well as those who favor Instagram-like shareability.

The new feature launches today on SoundCloud’s online platform, as well as in its updated, free iPhone app [iTunes link]. We haven’t had a chance to play around with the in-browser experience, as it wasn’t available at the time of this writing, but SoundCloud gave us a peek at the app, and we have to say that it’s pretty slick.

When you open the app, you’re greeted with a hard-to-miss, red “Record” button. Simply push said button to record your newest jam, podcast or senseless ranting, then click “Save.” The app then makes it extremely easy to add a picture to your recording — either taken on the spot with your phone’s camera or from your library — and add a location via geo-location (which is actually super accurate).

You can then upload the track to your account, which syncs with the browser for in-the-cloud storage. You can see a track I made with Mashable’s Editor-in-Chief Adam Ostrow below.

Upon trying this app out, I was instantly struck by how useful it could be to journalists and other professionals who do a lot of interviews. One can record interviews with one’s phone, and then store them all in one place, neatly marked with photos and locations (you can make tracks private to keep them from the masses as well).

For more casual users — say someone keen on doing an audio diary or something of the sort — sharing options will definitely be key. After recording and uploading a track, you can also share it on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and with friends.

You can also check out and comment on tracks uploaded by people you’re following on SoundCloud. Check out the video below for a more detailed look at the app.

SoundCloud for iPhone from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

Usability was key in the making of this app, according to SoundCloud co-founder Alexander Ljung. “We want to create something that’s similar to Instagram, but for sound,” he says. “This year we’ve had really tremendous growth. We just passed over 2 million different sound creators on the site, and we’ve been really strong within professional music. But what we’ve seen now is that people start using it for casual sound creation and that’s helped our growth quite a bit, so now we want to make it even easier for anyone.”

Since its inception back in 2008, SoundCloud has been a destination for musicians and music lovers, teaming up with The Hype Machine and integrating with Creative Commons. SoundCloud users are also privy to 100 third-party applications for mobile, desktop and the web (created on its open platform), which make it easy for musicians to both make, promote and polish their music.

While we imagine that the “Record” feature will be attractive to the more casual user, we can also see bands taking advantage of it in conjunction with the site’s suite of applications.

Image of courtesy of Flickr, bredgur

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Your interests are ascertained by the likes you’ve shared on your Facebook stream from clicking Like buttons across the web. Read on to find how you can get personalized entertainment content recommendations from MySpace, courtesy of Facebook.

Overview

After the introduction of Facebook’s Like button, it’s now almost everywhere online from blogs to online shops. Users have started clicking the Like buttons to share great online destinations they’ve discovered with their friends and family. MySpace aims to tap into this aspect of the social graph to be a breath of fresh of air to its revamped brand image.

In just a single click, all your likes and interests from your Facebook profile are ported over to MySpace. Making use of this data about you, MySpace populates your stream immediately with entertaining content that you are already in love with. You have total control over your stream and can also fine tune it to pick up recommendations and up & coming MySpace trending topics. You can also interact with people with similar interests when it comes all entertainment verticals like music, celebrities, TV, and movies.

This new feature is already live for all MySpace users across the globe.

MySpace is also planning to add Facebook Like buttons across the social network, just like other sites & blogs do, so you can share what you’ve discovered with your friends over at Facebook.

How it Works

Initiating the Facebook Connection

Mashup with Facebook is not turned on by default and you can choose to opt-in to the feature if you really want to get recommendations based on your interests. The setup is really simple and works just like any other web app or Facebook app that uses OAuth.

MySpace Requesting Permission

Don’t worry, you won’t have to give out your Facebook login credentials to MySpace. While at MySpace, just click on the button that says Facebook and allow it access your social information.

Pulling Facebook Information

After a few clicks, based on the data pulled from your Facebook profile, a similar but basic profile will be created at MySpace.

Recommendations

You will be shown a page that briefly lets you know of the celebrities and entertainment verticals based on your Likes and a whole bunch of thumbnails (interests) to choose. If you select the thumbnails that match your interests, relevant content will begin showing up in your stream.

Customizing Your Interests

Facebook “likes” and “interests” are matched to relevant MySpace topic pages, profiles, video programming and more. Your MySpace stream is actually filled with so much content that it may be off-putting for some. Twitter-like trending topics show up on the left side of the stream along with the usual social networking features like photos, visitors to your page etc.
There’s also an option to see all the updates coming in to the stream in real-time.

What Happens to Your Personal Information?

MySpace Profile

As I mentioned before, MySpace isn’t privy to your Facebook login credentials but they do get almost all of your profile information (name, email, gender, birth date, picture), as well as your “Likes” and interests (movies, music, celebs, video etc). Other than that they don’t have access to any other information from your social graph.

Now, based on this Facebook data, they’ve setup a MySpace account for you. I’m not sure if that’s going to be of any use as all my friends are on Facebook and half of them have never even typed MySpace.com in a browser. Once an account is setup, it is subject to the Terms and Conditions of MySpace and if you are a privacy hawk, I suggest you to take a look into it.

Also, all your actions at MySpace are not monitored by Facebook and if you want, can sync your accounts to share content from MySpace to your Facebook stream.

Share Your Thoughts!

Do you like Mashup with Facebook? Is it a desperate attempt from an ailing social network to get some traffic? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section. Thanks!

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Watch out, Google: U.S. traffic to Facebook has risen by a whopping 55% in the last year, according to data sent to us by comScore.

In October 2009, Facebook had 97.37 million unique U.S. visitors. In October 2010 though, the world’s largest network garnered a whopping 151.13 million U.S. uniques. That’s a growth rate of 55.2% year-over-year.

Let’s think about just how far Facebook has come in the course of a year. October 2009 was the height of the Facebook vs. Twitter war, where the former began to emulate the latter’s features in an effort to grind Twitter into dust (remember Facebook Lite?). And while Facebook’s 300 million users and 97.37 million monthly U.S. visitors were impressive, it still didn’t beat YouTube’s 100.69 million U.S. uniques.

Today Facebook has more than 500 million members and is the second most-visited website in the world, trailing only Google and its 173.3 million U.S. uniques. It has annihilated MySpace and outpaced Twitter’s growth (30% year-over-year). Facebook is no longer concerned with Twitter and has instead set its sights on battling Google. And none of these stats account for Facebook’s massively popular mobile apps.

This year will go down as the year of Facebook, and for very good reason. Open Graph and Instant Personalization have cemented the company’s role as the web’s most important platform, and a series of high profile product releases have turned it into one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Can Facebook keep it up in 2011, though? Or will another company emerge as the new darling of the web? Let us know what you think.

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What can you use the application for?


Path provides users with another way to network socially with friends and family. The application helps users build a path to others through their social network. Users can be themselves and share information about their lives, what they are doing, and more. Users can also add photographs and put the people they know and places they have been in context. Through Path, users can stay informed and keep friends and family up to date on what is going on in their life.

What is the history and popularity of the application?


Path was created by Dave Morin and Dustin Mierau. Before founding Path, Morin was Senior Platform Manager for Facebook and Mierau was the co creator of Master. Path was created to help users form an intimate social network where they can share information and updates. Users can tailor their network to include whomever they like. Today, Path provides a service very similar to many other social networking websites however with an air of maturity. The application isn’t just another way to find three hundred friends; it’s a way to connect with others in a clutter free environment.

What are the differences to other applications?


In general, Path does not offer a service that any other social networking website doesn’t already offer. However, the key characteristic of Path is in the setting. The website is clutter free and gives off an air of sophistication and maturity. One of the biggest problems some adults have with using sites like MySpace and Facebook involve the large numbers of young people who are usually the focus of this type of site. Although things are slowly evolving, Path starts off with an unintimidating environment that gives users control without all the annoyances that are present on other social networking sites.

How does the application look and feel to use?


The look of Path seems to help set the tone for what it does. Users are greeted with a red and white color scheme featuring a gentle fabric texture. The curled Path logo compliments the design well. Even the homepage is kept minimal, with the logo, a few navigational links, and a demo video that seems to share a lot about what Path does without a single narration. Path tools are also easy to use and mobile device friendly so users can share images or receive instant messages from friends and family.

How does the registration process work?


The registration link for Path is not readily apparent to a new user visiting the homepage for the first time. The user must scroll the entire way down the page to find a sentence of text under the “How Do I Start My Path?” header. Users are advised that Path can be downloaded through the Apple Store. Users who wish to get Path online can click the red “here” link at the end of the second sentence. The registration form asks for a first and last name, email address, phone number, password, gender, and phone type.

What does it cost to use the application?


Path welcomes users with a free account. Anyone can create a personal social network and share images for free. Users can also tag others, which encourage new members to join and become a part of Path. Even though the features available are not much different from MySpace or Facebook, they are well made and organized. Path seems to focus on a more mature audience and entices them to participate with a free account.

Who would you recommend the application to?


Anyone who enjoys connecting with friends and family but dislikes the atmosphere of popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook can really enjoy Path. The features are easy t use and allow users to tag photos and put the people they know in context.

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Facebook and MySpace are set to make an unprecedented join announcement tomorrow, according to an invite sent to Mashable.

“Please join us for an invitation-only announcement by Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace, and Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, Facebook,” states the invite. The announcement is set to take place tomorrow, November 18, at 12:00 PM PT via webcast.

Our best clue as to what the two companies will announce is that Facebook’s VP for Platform Marketing will be making the joint announcement on behalf of Facebook. If we had to guess, we’d say the announcement will be related to MySpace using the Facebook Platform or Facebook Connect.

MySpace’s recent overhaul of their entire site and UI places the company directly in the entertainment vertical and out of direct competition with Facebook. Now that the company is focusing on content, Facebook Connect or platform integration make sense as a way to increase distribution.

Let us know what you think Facebook and MySpace might announce in the comments.

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What can you use the application for?


For many years, designers have been searching for ways to simplify the creation of websites. These marketable tools help the average user, with little or no design experience, create a simple website. While this works, for some it’s still too involved to bother with. ShortText is arguably the simplest way to put something online. The user can enter text into ShortText then generate a URL. The URL can be shared so others can find it online and access the information. Simple options, such as user comments, are also available to enhance the functionality of this basic tool.

What is the history and popularity of the application?


ShortText was founded in March of 2006. It was created to give users another way to add something to the internet. A website is a great way to share information with others, however not everyone has the skill or desire to create a site. Others turn to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. While these are relatively easy to use, they may be too much commitment for someone just passing along a small bit of information. ShortText gives users a way to create a small website without the commitment of creating an account or monitoring a profile.

What are the differences to other applications?


ShortText is unique in its simplicity. It offers a very basic service that it seems many others have overlooked. Most sites require a registration which comes with a profile to manage. ShortText eliminates that by allowing user to visit the site, enter text and generate a URL in a matter of seconds. The process is quick and painless as well as effective. The user can share the URL with as many people as they like.

How does the application look and feel to use?


ShortText is a simple website that offers a basic service. The look of the site sticks with that theme by keeping it easy. There is plenty of open space and the user is given all the basic tools needed to add text and get a URL. An advertisement stretches across the bottom of the browser, but this is very low key and does not intrude on the user’s experience.

How does the registration process work?


ShortText is dedicated to simplifying the process of putting something online for others to see. Even though the tool includes a private viewing option, there is no registration form. Anyone can stop by the site, add text and get a URL without creating an account. At this time, there is no account creation process offered for users. The free short URL will remain as long as at least one visitor checks it out within a year. The only exception to the no registration format is for users who wish to purchase their domain.

What does it cost to use the application?


ShortText offers a service that is free for all visitors. There is no registration process for free URL generation. Anyone can visit the site and get their URL. The site even shows past recent URLs for quick access, although no details are given as far as how far back the site will save history. The site is entirely free unless the user wishes to purchase their URL. The only cost associated with ShortText is the price of the domain. ShortText charges about $2 per URL, as long as the URL is available.

Who would you recommend the application to?


Users who have little time and no desire to mess around with a website creator or social networking profile can appreciate ShortText. The site is easy to use and free for casual visitors. Even when purchasing a URL, the price is extremely affordable.

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In the last couple of years – it seems like forever, really – the tech world has been fixed on finding how much the biggest social network, Facebook, is worth.

Right now, if you trust the valuations at SecondMarket – an online marketplace for trading with otherwise illiquid assets – Facebook is currently worth around 41 billion dollars, Businessweek has learned from a source familiar with the matter.

Back in 2007, Facebook was said to be worth $15 billion; its valuation “dropped” to a “meager” 3.7 billion at recession’s peak, but it rose unstoppably ever since.

In September, the Financial Times said Facebook was worth $33 billion, which meant it was bigger than eBay, a publicly traded company that was then valued at $32 billion. Now, with a $41 billion “valuation” Facebook is once again edging over eBay, which is currently valued at $39.3 billion.

Of course, all these numbers and valuations that are thrown around Facebook have one thing in common – they’re not real. Yes, Facebook is one of the hottest technology companies around, and yes, lately it’s been showing solid business results. But the current “valuation” is less concerned with the business side of things – eBay’s revenue, for example, is expected to top $9 billion this year – and more with expectations, which start somewhere at Facebook further expanding its huge user base and increasing ad sales, and end at over one billion users and world dominance.

Unrealistic? Who knows. Risky? Definitely: one only needs to look back at MySpace and how quickly it fell from a social networking powerhouse to a has-been. You can trust the current Facebook valuations on SecondMarket, and if you’re feeling really bullish about social networking and Facebook’s future, feel free to raise the bar even higher. But have in mind that only after Facebook goes through with an IPO, the market will determine its value. Until then, its valuations are mostly speculation.

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We’ve pulled together 10 kick ass Adobe AIR apps you should definitely try if you haven’t already. Take a look!

TweetDeck

1. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is one of the most popular Twitter clients around and with good reason; it’s feature rich, a pleasure to use and cross-platform thanks to Adobe AIR. The AIR app also has Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Foursquare integration, among many other amazing features.

Price: Free

Seesmic

2. Seesmic Desktop

Seesmic Desktop is another competing and powerful desktop Twitter client sporting an easy to use interface and lots of great features. Seesmic also developed Twhirl, a once popular Twitter client taking advantage of Adobe AIR and my first favorite Twitter client.

Price: Free
AppStorm Review: Become a Social Network Ninja with Seesmic

Splashup

3. Splashup Light

If you need image editing capabilities that don’t extend too far into the advanced areas, Splashup may just be your go-to app. It’s a very lightweight yet more than capable photo editor that can take on most users’ lightweight editing tasks. If you need more, you can also try out the full Splashup app.

Price: Free
Related Roundup: The Top 8 Free Online Image Editors

SlideRocket Player

4. SlideRocket Player

If you deal with presentations, SlideRocket is a must-try web app. SlideRocket takes presentations to the next level and eliminates the need for less flexible, more expensive software. The SlideRocket Player AIR app is the perfect compliment to an already amazing web app and service.

Price: Free / $24+ per month
First Review: SlideRocket: Desktop-like Online Presentations?
Second Review: Power Your Presentations with the New SlideRocket

Doit.im

5. doit.im

If you’re not already using a task management app, Doit.im is a great one to try out. With access on pretty much every platform (web, desktop and mobile), you’ll have quick and easy access to your tasks at all times. The AIR app uses a fresh and clean interface and is a breeze to use.

Price: Free
Review: Efficient Task Management with Doit.im

Klok 2 Pro

6. Klok 2 Pro

Keeping track of your time and the way you use it is vital if you want to be more productive and, especially for freelancers, minimize the amount of time you work for free. Although the app isn’t free, it definitely has a great selection of features and a nice interface to visualize how and when your time is being used.

Price: $15.99, trial available
Related Roundup: 50 Air Apps and Browser Addons for Web Designers and Developers

iPlotz

7. iPlotz

Need to create mockups or wireframes? Definitely give iPlotz a try as it will most likely be just the solution you were looking for. iPlotz makes it easy to wireframe your ideas whether you’re on Windows, Mac or Linux and includes a plethora of features to help you get the job done such as project and task management.

Price: $75, trial available
Related Roundup: 101 Apps for Your Web App Startup Toolbox

EarthBrowser

8. EarthBrowser

Although Google Maps and other online mapping software is quite amazing, EarthBrowser offers some features to take things to the next level. EarthBrowser offers features like real-time weather conditions and forecasts, live natural disaster updates and animations and a whole lot more.

Price: $29.95, trial available

Polaris

9. Polaris

If you run a website, there’s a strong chance you’re a Google Analytics user and you probably check on your site’s stats pretty frequently. Polaris is an AIR app that gives you a sexy and easy to understand interface for your Google Analytics stats, which also makes it super easy to keep an eye on your stats all the time and instantly.

Price: Free

Yammer Desktop

10. Yammer Desktop

This is Yammer’s own desktop client, which makes it super easy to stay up on current happenings within your company or organization. If you’re not familiar with Yammer, it’s basically Twitter but for companies or organizations.

Price: Free

Care to share?

Although these are some great AIR apps, we’d love to hear about your favorites so leave us a comment below. Thanks!

Awesome User Submissions

Project ROME

11. Project ROME

From Adobe, Project ROME is an “all-in-one content creation and publishing” app for a variety of uses. To better understand some of the things Project ROME can do, you’ll want to watch their video trailer. Submitted by Will Moyer. Thanks!

Price: Free

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So what new features and improvements does VP Factory bring to the table now? HTML5 players, modules for ads and analytics and more. Read on for more info. and to see why you should give this app a shot.

Manage, Publish and Embed Videos with VP Factory

VP Factory Review

If you missed our first review of VP Factory, be sure to give it a read for our first look at this great app – Manage, Publish and Embed Videos with VP Factory.

VP Factory was among our 10 favorite HTML5 video players as well, so if you’re looking for HTML5 embedding capabilities, VP Factory is an app you should definitely be checking out.

New Features

Our last review gave VP Factory an 8/10 rating and mentioned a few areas we felt could be improved, namely pricing plan options and more customization options were the areas we felt were lacking. Has the VP Factory team come through with their new features and improvements? Let’s find out.

Several of these features are still in beta and may not be available to all users just yet.

Pricing

To start, VP Factory now has offers 30,000 player views, social sharing, 500 MB of storage and 1 GB of bandwidth for the Free plan. This is a huge improvement since our first review, having increased player views by three times (from 10K to 30K), enabling social sharing and now offering video hosting space and bandwidth which wasn’t offered before unless a paid plan was selected.

Pricing

With VP Factory, even the free plan is ad free! In addition to that, no credit card is required for signup.

Social sharing enables you to share to Twitter, Facebook and Myspace from the video player, of course in addition to the regular embedding options. If you need more features and capabilities, $9 per month is a pretty good deal considering everything VP Factory enables you to do, all under one roof. If you need more, custom options are available as well.

External Playlists

While the regular video player is quite fantastic, sites that are heavy on videos and video playlists will probably want to take advantage of the new external playlists. This is a feature that would

External Playlists

External playlists are created using PHP and accessing VP Factory’s API. The code is pretty straight forward (example) although it will be important for VP Factory to further refine this into a more user friendly way to be used that doesn’t necessarily require knowledge of PHP or JavaScript. As the feature is still technically in beta, I would imagine this feature will be further refined into the main app for users to display and customize their external playlists.

Ads and Analytics Module

If you need to take your videos to the commercial level, you’ll likely want to get the Ads and Analytics modules. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to directly test these modules at the time of writing this review, but once I do I’ll be sure to update this post with screenshots and further details.

The Ads and Analytics modules offer a whole host of features that’ll help you get the most from your ads and videos.

Analytics Module
Graphical view by day, week, month for:

• Total Views
• Visitors
• Viewer Location
• Average Time
• Percent Completed
• Interest Zones
• Devices
• Unique Visitors

Ads Module
Ads formats:

• Image
• Text
• Image + text
• SWF
• Video
• RSS

Configure Ad by:

• Position
• Timing: Custom (Start- Duration), PreRoll, MidRoll, PostRoll
• Opacity

While the ads modules is certainly focused towards ads within your videos, you could also use it in other ways such as adding comments within a video.

HTML5 Player

Although the lower plans don’t offer the HTML5 video player, it is available if you need it. For those that need iPhone, iPad or Android compatibility, you can get the HTML5 module with a promo code. The HTML5 module is still technically in beta-testing but it will progressively become available to more users.

HTML5 Module

Once the HTML5 module is activated, your players will auto-detect your visitor’s device and play the appropriate video.

If you upload a video to VP Factory that isn’t already HTML5 ready, you can choose to encode the video for iPhone/iPad playback. The video will be encoded to mp4 and ogv.

Encode for iPhone/iPad

If you want all your videos to be iPhone/iPad capable, simply visit your account settings page and select Encode for “Make all my videos iPhone/iPad compatible”.

Final Thoughts

VP Factory is as easy as ever to use and really takes a lot of the work out of managing your video collection while enabling you to create custom video player skins, playlists and more. I really don’t know of any other web app that offers anything similar, let alone anything capable of competing with what VP Factory is offering.

The bumped up Free plan is much more enticing to those getting started and those who want to give VP Factory a test run. In fact, with these new improvements and features, I’ll be setting up a few of my clients with VP Factory to make things a little easier.

While the HTML5, Ads and Analytics modules are still technically in beta-testing, they’re very promising. As HTML5 is a big draw right now though, I’d love to see it rolled out across all price plans once it leaves beta. This will definitely help those in search of a quality HTML5 video player to choose VP Factory.

If you haven’t read our initial review of VP Factory, be sure to give that a look and let us know what you think of the web app via comment below.

Our last rating was 8/10 and I definitely think VP Factory deserves a 9/10 with these new improvements and features. Once the features leave beta, depending on their ease of use and full implementation, this app may well be deserving of a 10/10 rating.

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iPhone and iPad development studio Taptivate is about to release its latest app for the iPhone and iPod touch, “Friends.” Friends is an app that is designed to streamline the way you keep up with your friends, family members and colleagues across social networks.

Taptivate is no stranger to creating apps that plug into social networks — some of its other apps include Formspring client Spring and the official Digg iPhone app — but Friends is unique in that it takes in data from multiple social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

The Taptivate team provided us with a beta build of Friends, giving us a chance to take a look at the app to see what it’s all about.

Check out this promo video to get a feel for the app:

The app automatically organizes your iPhone contacts with Facebook. This is convenient because it offers you easy access to all your Facebook contacts, while also merging their information with any related address book entries.

Unfortunately, at this point, the app doesn’t equally consolidate LinkedIn and Twitter contacts — but you can still find them and get various info on those friends. You can also view streams of either all your contacts from assorted networks and individual streams, or you can pick and choose groups of contacts you want to keep up with and follow.

Friends also makes it easy to sort content by type — photos, videos and posts. The app also works with photo attachment services to make previewing images and videos easy and you can also directly visit a URL and view it without leaving the app. You can even view “Places” to see recent checkins from your friends, alongside a Google map. Friends supports Instapaper, and you can choose a “Read Later” option for links or posts you find interesting.

The app can also be used to update your status across your social networks. You can selectively update or post to every network you are signed onto. Each network section acts as its own little app of sorts. When viewing a tweet, you can retweet, reply or favorite. When viewing a Facebook status message, you can “like,” comment or view comments.

The app is still in development, but we think it shows tons of promise. The interface is gorgeous, the app is easy to figure out, and the grouping options make sense. We also appreciate that Friends doesn’t corrupt your own address book on the iPhone or iPod touch. And you can even make calls with the app, which is pretty handy.

These days, social mobile apps are a dime a dozen. Finding the right mix of an app that can consolidate multiple channels, while also making the management of those streams easier, is a pretty tough task. From what we’ve seen, Friends is up to the challenge.

Gallery

Check out these screenshots to see Friends in action.

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How do you manage your social networks on your mobile device? Let us know.

More About: facebook, friends, iphone apps, linkedin, taptivate, twitter

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A large round (or two) of layoffs is one possibility.  A sale or even shutdown of MySpace doesn’t seem to be out of the question, either.  News Corp. COO Chase Carey made the situation sound quite serious.

As reported by the AFP, News Corp. COO Chase Carey told investors late yesterday, "We’ve been clear that Myspace has been a problem."

Then Carey continued, "The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable.  Our current management did not create these losses but they know we have to address them."

Finally, in terms of setting a timeframe for whatever move News Corp. will make, the COO hinted, "I think it is something we look to judge in quarters, not in years."

It’s hard to imagine MySpace could just go dark; to people of a certain age, it feels like the site’s been around forever, and it still has lots more users than many other networks.  At the same time, MySpace has clearly lost the numbers game to Facebook, and the site’s reputation/image has had better days.

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Social networking sites are undoubtedly the most popular websites nowadays and are growing extremely rapidly.  With this growth come new and exciting opportunities for the marketing and promotion of your online business.

For those not familiar with social networking, some of the top sites are Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  Now is it ringing a bell?  There are so many ways that you can get creative in order to take advantage of social networking as a marketing strategy.  You can use these services to connect on  a personal level with your clients and customers in order to help you figure out your promotional campaigns.

Regardless of what kind of business you operate and what products or services you sell, there is most likely a way you can use social networking sites to promote your business.

With the advent of new websites and services come new marketing and business strategies and brand new ways of looking at things entirely.

Sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter create online communities of users that come together in order to discuss, comment on, share stories/articles/videos/pictures/etc.  Sites like Facebook have become ways for people to not only connect to their friends, family and colleagues but ways for businesses to create pages in which users can “Like” your business.  They can write on your wall, comment on your pictures and start discussions regarding your products.  You can gain insights into the psyches and personal lives of your customers in ways you never could before.

Twitter is a fast growing micro-blogging site that has recently been taking the social media world by storm.  With Twitter there are even a multitude of separate applications that will help manage promotions and work as online business directories.

Groups are common to mostly all social networking sites.  If you join groups that are related to your business then you can easily reach your target demographic.

Social networking and social media marketing are two huge arenas to help market your online business.  These types of services let you achieve a one-on-one relationship with your customer base in ways that were never possible with selling online before.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Social Networking Sites Are a Fantastic Means of Marketing Your Online Business

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Upload your pictures, choose the FX and publish your slideshow on MySpace or any other website that allows flash.
(MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Blogger, hi5, TypePad, Friendster, Ect.)

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The Conan O’Brien social media onslaught continues as the comedian prepares to debut his new show on TBS on November 8. The latest: letting fans vote for the show’s first guest using Twitter.

It’s not completely open-ended; fans can vote from one of 12 choices, ranging from Lady Gaga to Pope Benedict to Tom from MySpace (a somewhat dated reference we might add). Those votes are then pushed to people’s Twitter accounts with the #ConansFirstGuest hashtag, with a leaderboard keeping track of who has the most votes and which Twitter users voted for them.

There is one major caveat to all this; there’s no guarantee that the person who comes in first will actually show up. Writing on the Team Coco blog, staffer Aaron Bleyaert says, “None of these people have actually been booked on our show … We’re kind of hoping that, if someone on this poll starts getting a lot of votes, these folks will actually feel a bit guilty and will agree to be our first guest.”

That seems a lot more likely for some of the options than for others, though it will be interesting to see if celeb-obsessed fans rally behind their favorite stars (i.e. – Gaga and Bieber) to push one on top of the other and ultimately put a lot of pressure on that person to do the show.

Conan — who became somewhat of an Internet hero in the wake of losing his gig as host of The Tonight Show — also recently launched a Foursquare promotion and an accompanying blimp (pictured above).

More About: conan, conan o’brien, television, tv, twitter

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Blogsessive recommends WP WebHost for quality WordPress blog hosting!

I love blogging. I really do. And what’s not to love about it, whatever the reasons behind it. No matter if people pick up blogging as a way to share their opinions with the world, get a side buck or simply keep a public or private journal, the end result is just the same. Those that invest time and passion in their blogging activities, those that stick to it through better or worse, I believe that those are becoming better human beings, reaching a higher state of humanity through blogging.

We have learned to love human contact once again

Remember the days without computers and internet? Remember the days when kids were getting together, playing in the streets, constantly looking for adventures in the urban jungle? Remember how everyone from child to teenager and adult was looking to group up, find new friends? That was the time before mIRC, IMs, Counter Strike, World of Warcraft, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. With time, we grew close to fewer friends. We learned to keep the close ones closer and draw a clear separation line between friends and casual contacts.

Not anymore. With blogging, we’re getting back on track. We know that networking is that Ace card a blogger has hidden in his sleeve. And not just simple networking. We have learned that without sustained contact – developing real relations whenever possible through meet-ups, online or offline – there is no point in trying. Blogging gave us back that big circle of friends. We reach out in hope to be reached back.

We have learned to care more

While we do our daily networking and social media routines we show appreciation to those around us. You might think that linking to a post we enjoyed reading or retweeting someone’s tweet or article it’s nothing more than that, but you’d be wrong. It’s that feeling inside that pushes us to do a good thing for the ones sharing all this amazing content with us, and why not pushing it out there for all of our friends to discover it. If that ain’t caring – in our little virtual world – I don’t know what else is.

We’ve rediscovered our selflessness

Most times, just the fact that we put useful content out there for others to discover it’s a sign of us getting rid of our selfish habits. But there’s more to it. We have discovered that without giving away and not asking for something in return our own virtual universe would not expand. We give away eBooks, designs, apps, you name it. And yes, we HOPE it will open the gates to a whole new audience, new relationships and generally an increased awareness. But that is only HOPE. We’re not asking nor begging for anything in return, and that’s how I know we’ve reached a good level of selflessness.

Therefore, you should keep blogging. You should undoubtedly continue to put great resources out there, in any form: content, files, applications, you name it. Why? Because you’ll simply be blogging your way to a higher state of humanity!

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Twitter’s number of monthly unique visitors finally surpassed that of MySpace in August. Though it ranked third among social networking sites, Twitter ranked #50 in the list of top 50 properties overall. The numbers were crunched by the marketing research firm comScore.

Twitter’s lead over MySpace was marginal — 96 million versus 95 million — but the trend over time paints a prettier picture of the microblogging service. Between August 2009 and August 2010, Twitter grew 76% while MySpace dropped 17%.

It’s apples and oranges, though. Twitter is now a social publishing and news discussion platform more than anything, and MySpace is attempting to position itself as a destination for young people to discover new music, movies and games. Both appeal to brands that want to reach new people, but they’re very different tools for very different kinds of brands.

Both sites look quite small next to Facebook, which reached 598 million monthly uniques in the same month. It grew 54% over the past year. The second most popular social network, Windows Live, managed 140 million uniques, putting it closer to Twitter than to Facebook.

Twitter has been moving quickly to capitalize on this growth. First it announced a new version of the front page that will make it easier to access photos, videos and other information without using other websites or programs. Many of Twitter’s users rarely visit the website at all; they instead use desktop software or third-party interfaces on other websites to access their tweets. For that reason, Twitter’s actual reach might be higher than the numbers from comScore imply. A revamped website could lead people to use Twitter.com instead of whatever they’re using right now however, increasing the number of unique visitors the site receives now and in the future.

Twitter already cashed in on its numerous users with Promoted Tweets, and now it will reach out to businesses with the “Promoted Accounts” system, which allows companies to buy visibility among their target market’s “Who to Follow” suggestions.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

More About: ComScore, microblogging, myspace, pageviews, social media, social networking, traffic, twitter, unique visitors, Uniques, visitors, web

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