Ahh yes college students, now you can not only spend hours on facebook, you can read about it too! Yup, the senior engineer of Facebook from 2005-2006 has published a book that is available online now.
The book seems pretty interesting and the thing I liked most was that they offered a special price for those that are students or unemployed. (only $9). It has a few parts with a brief history of facebook and his observations of how to build a successful social network and where they see this going in the future.
Now for some fun facts from the first 12 pages that they gave for a preview of the book:
It is the most successful, privately held social network.
Visitors of Facebook spend more time on it than on any other site.
---haha I totally believe it. As they say "it has become an essential part of college life."
Seriously. Making fun of kids drawings is awesome.
and if this guy wrote a blog I know I wouldn't be the only one to read it. Even if people posted weird looking babies or bad kid haircuts I'd read that too (in my defense, I would have been included in both of those topics so I don't feel bad saying that)
Let's face it, kid's drawings suck. ESPECIALLY that annoying girl who was the "next Picasso" a few years ago. She was on "The View" or something and her paintings were awful and had overdramatic titles. I think she should be the first entry on this blog I'm proposing haha.
YouTube no friend to copyright violators
Yup, if you get sued because of material that infringes on copyright, YouTube (well now,it's part of Google so I guess them too) won't defend you at all. Now, granted that this is in their terms of service, user agreement, blah blah it seems somewhat ridiculous that a company that was just purchased in the billions is not going to defend those that made it worth that much.
Most people go on YouTube to watch work that would be deemed as infringement. That was the whole appeal of the site. You don't have to pay for a music video, you don't have to wait until SNL repeats the one skit years later on E!, and you don't have to live in a weird neighborhood where leprechaun sitings are the norm.
It's understandable that they can't take on such a risk but at the same time, if they get rid of all the copyrighted material, what will be left?? I'm definitely not going to pay a dollar everytime I want to see something which is probably what it would come down to. Though I might just for that leprechaun news story. But that's it.
Since I'm a totaly layout/design nerd and my sister knowing this reccomended Tabblo.com to me. It's sort of ahodepodge between photosharing, layout, and blogging all in one.
You can integrate your flickr account with it which is cool and it allows for collaborative layouts. This is really perfect for those people who are really into scrapbooking etc. (never got into it but I guess I can see it's appeal). This is definitely more interactive though and it's neat that you can design a whole album for a theme and your friends can all design a page or something like that. So yeah, I like.
EU 'threat' to internet freedom
Currently, the European Union is considering new legislation that could put new restrictions on the content of popular broadcasting outlets including YouTube. However, as of yet, it seems that any proposal of such legislation will not pass since many believe that it will stifle "would-be entrepeneurs" and the ever evolving technology would be extremely hard to regulate through specific statutes.
The article also points out that many aspects of the Internet have already begun self regulation. For example, the Internet Content Rating Association and even google searches can be filtered to only show more "appropriate" results.
There are also proposals to restrict e-commerce but many are critical since it would simply push business abroad -- something that no government would like I'm sure.
Either way, it seems that the opposing view has a lot more convincing arguments on this matter. But the article did get me thinking about the 1st amendment and its role in the Internet. The Internet is a place for free expression and with that comes some material that is indecent to some and perfectly fine to others. If the FCC gets involved with online activities here in the States, I think it would be a very detrimental development. If parents are concerned about what their children view online, they should take matters into their own hands and install parental controls and more importantly, restrict online time to an appropriate amount. How about making the kid play a sport so he doesn't become a part of the obesity statistic? In any case, there are obvious cases when the 1st amendment is taken too far as in the case of child pornography, but otherwise the Internet should remain a sanctuary for unfiltered thought in my opinion.
You now have a home for all your sports needs! (so you can spare uninterested parties from talking about everything from how so and so's pitcher is soo much better than the rivals' or how you're definitely gonna win your fantasy sports league)
There are many examples of this new trend but one I looked into was Sportsmates.com. SportsMates holds itself as "an environment where fans of all cultures, languages, and geographical locations can share their passion for sports with likeminded fans."
Announced in July, the site is still in beta but it seems to have some interesting aspects. For one, they've combined many things together in this site such as social networking, message boards, blogs, and an email system. The design leaves something to be desired but perhaps they will debut a flashier layout once they've worked the basic kinks of their system out.
Other sports social networking examples are popping up including many sports teams creating their own websites where fans can mingle, vent, and cheer. From what I can tell from the random new members they show on the home page, SportsMates is lacking in the female department which is to be expected. But, I'm sure those that join will get more than their share of messages. This might even become the new hot spot for single women (since they often frequent sports bars with little to no interest or knowledge in the area).
Yahoo has recently been in talks to buy out Facebook like it did recently with flickr. It seems that there a trend in these huge companies overtaking small start-ups which in many ways isn't a bad thing. More resources, better reliability, competent support--all things that typically come with a larger operation (I'm using typical in a very liberal sense--more like should).
However, there are a lot of sad things that come with such a change. I work for a start-up right now, PBase.com, and it would be great temporary news if a huge check came but at the same time, it would be sad to see a homegrown business turn completely cold and corporate (I don't care if they would have casual Friday and not have cubicles - I still find most offices to be very creepy with horrible flourescent lighting.)
I hope that if Facebook is bought by Yahoo!, they ensure that they keep a very young staff on board. Nothing is worse than an older person trying to "be like the kids." (i.e. - Oprah saying "you go girl" though she could get away with it more than say Barbara Walters). In any case, Facebook probably won't change too much and if it does it might be for the better (like, maybe getting rid of the news feed that no one wanted or wants???)
So Yahoo!, you have a gold opportunity to make people happier by giving yourself less work. Basically, I'm saying that there's not many reasons (well maybe money...) not to buy Facebook right now.
YouTube cuts three content deals
Instead of fighting against the growing cultural phenomenon known as YouTube, three more record labels, following Warner's lead, have moved toward promotion of their artists via hosting of copyrighted materials such as music videos on the popular video sharing site.
Today, Universal Music Group, Song BMG Entertainment, and CBS announced that artists' music and videos will be included in their original form on YouTube. Each has negotiated a different contract with different means of dealing with compensation. Sony utilizing streaming ad revenue while CBS has chosen to upload its own media content and either remove or put streaming ads next to unauthorized material that is up on the site now.
The most disturbing contract seems to be Universal's. It has been made clear yet if there will be a charge to see or listen to content from those artists. However, if that is the case, it will certainly be detrimental to Universal. If I can see other artists' videos for free with an ad, I'll always do that instead of dealing with the hassle of typing in my credit card number.
In fact, if they choose that path, I wouldn't be surprised if many of their artists will be very upset about it. With MTV playing maybe 5 videos a day, YouTube and other online video sharing websites have become the new means of finding out about new artists and their visual interpretations of their music.
In other news, Google has bought YouTube for the "low price" of 1.65 billion in Google stock. So it seems, the Google monster grows.
FashMatch Social Fasion Site in Beta
Ok. Sounds pretty good...
The site has an extensive array of retailers linked to the site where you can create an outfit and share your match with the other users of the site. It took me a little bit of time to figure out exactly how to do it and I think some of the controls on the site aren't really as intuitive as they could be.
I can definitely see how this site could become addicting for those especially proud of their fashion tastes. You can choose to publish the outfits you make and other users can vote for them giving you a cyber - "oooh. I love you outfit!" type of gratification.
Only drawback: I created an outfit I could never actually afford. But it's still fun to see what my closet would consist of it say, I win the lottery.
"Mommy Myspace" to be launched
MothersClick, a new website to be launched in a little less than 2 weeks (October 17th), is targeted as a "myspace for moms." Sounds like a good idea especially for younger more techie type moms who want to socialize like their kids do. However, what about Mr. Mom aka Dad? I'm guessing he's not allowed...
I tend to think that a parents social networking site would have been a smarter plan. I mean, obviously, the parents would tend to socialize with the same sex but hey, what about single parents? It could be a slightly less creepy way of meeting other single parents? Not gonna lie, that would be pretty cute.
In any case, discussion about strollers, baby food, and teenage angst will soon find its home off the sidelines of the soccer field. (a stereotype, I know--but hey, it does have some truth to it). Let's just hope good old Dad finds a website for himself one of these days too.
