Yelp

I've been thinking for a while about how I'd like to introduce this beautiful and addicting service to you, my adoring readers. True, I have probably already sent you an invitation to join. True, I've most likely already yapped my head off about it to you in person. Still, my blog shows no sign of my love for yelp, so here it goes.

Yelp is basically a social networking sight centered around user's reviews on different products/services/restaurants etc. I know, do we really need another social networking site? My life is already so involved with facebook, should I even do this to myself? A good friend recently told me how amazing the site is. Real locals review their faves from cafes to pet grooming facilities. I like the social networking aspect (obvi), furthermore I love hearing what unbiased individuals have to say about this and that. Looking for somewhere to go out to eat tonight consumed a good hour of my time today because I got so involved in reading reviews about every kind of restaurant I could possibly imagine! I also heard that there are many yelp events where restaurants and bars will give members a free taste of whatever they're trying to promote- I'm soooooo into this! So please, go sign up and friend request me.

Your awesomeness guru,
the technocrat

money money money!

"But what developers are really excited about is a chance to earn some money. MySpace plans to announce a plan Tuesday that lets developers attach ads, sponsorships and product sales to their applications and keep all the revenue those ads generate. " -Forbes

Finally. We're making money from these social networking sites! But wait- how is MySpace benefiting financially from this situation? I see, "Social networks love widgets because they help boost traffic and ad revenue on their sites." Well with MySpace it's easy because they're flooded with advertisements. Facebook is much more modest in their advertising, in the US anyway. I wonder if this openSocial project really will make a difference in the social networking world. I guess we just need to sit back and wait. The trouble with web 2.0 stuff is that in a bigger sense, it's never been done before. This is a whole new realm and companies are using trail and error to see what works and what doesn't. It is a dangeous business method I would imagine, trying things out like that. If something fails it could ruin the name of a company or service. Let's see how it goes...

Well hello, Google

Well well well, here I am with my foot in my mouth. Shilton of Christmas past says Google missed out on quite an opportunity with facebook, I believe I was mad Google couldn't "man up". Seems as though google let facebook slip between it's gargantuan fingers because it was working on an even bigger project. They're going to make a universal standard, OpenSocial, will be used on social networking sites such as Orkut, LinkedIn, hi5, friendster, Plaxo, and Ning (edit 5/11/07: myspace too!). They're trying to pull software developers away from writing programs that will only work on facebook. Seems as though the little guys are teaming up against mighty facebook. I wonder if this will affect the popularity of facebook. The NYT article does doubt the productivity of this move,

Developers may not see the advantage to writing programs that run across such remarkably different networks as, for example, LinkedIn, which caters to business professionals, and hi5, which is popular in Central America. For Google, the effort could breathe new life into Orkut, which is popular in Brazil and other countries, but not in the United States

True, as a US college student I haven't been too persuaded to join any social networking site besides facebook, myspace and linkedin.. though I know of quite a few people who still use friendster from pre-facebook times. Even in Australia (where I've been studying for the past semester) I've only run into people who use facebook and myspace, though they are almost american when it comes to that kind of thing. Nevertheless, the possibilities are quite vast here- google, you amaze me. As soon as I think you've gotten yourself into trouble you show me that you're still on your game. Good on ya. As the picture shows, I still love you google, we just hit a rough patch, consider it our first fight. *kisses*

What's next for facebook?

But Facebook, like Apple and Google, has so far been successful in crafting its image so that even many industry insiders are continually convinced that something borderline revolutionary is in the works behind closed doors. The $15 billion valuation was, essentially, a sign of confidence in the shaky fact that Facebook's current advertising strategy is that it's developing an advertising strategy.

I too think that our beloved facebook is on the verge of something big. The buzz around the microsoft/facebook deal has propagated much anticipation of what facebook is planning; microsoft knows something that the rest of us don't. Some believe that it will be in the realm of advertising. I suppose there's not much else that the site can do to bring in huge revenues. I think that facebook should have used their application venture as a money maker, too bad that ship has sailed. If facebook charged the application writers a nominal fee their profits would increase exponentially. Thus far facebook users have experienced a luxury that myspace users have not- an advertisement free experience. This will soon change, but as I said in my last post, targeting advertising is the wave of the future, and what better place to really see it flourish than in a social networking site. People post such personal information, ads towards their personal interests would be of unmeasurable use to advertisers. That is the problem with most ads, they're not personal enough. Google has a good thing going with their adwords, placing non offensive (not tacky flash banner ads or banner ads in general) ads on the sides of pages that coincide with keywords from the site. If a powerhouse like microsoft can work with the genius of facebook to effectively harness targeted advertising I think it can be good for everyone. On the otherhand, mess it up and facebook will lose a lot of users. If facebook gets to be anything like the over-commercialized myspace, users will go running to other networking sites.

Social Networking

How did social networking sites come to be? I suppose it would be the next logical step after the boom of reality TV started by the Real World. I remember even when I was very young, being interested in the daily lives of normal people. At a time when unbelievable feats could be constructed with special effects, young people would rather watch someone in an almost god-like way than be dazzled. Reality tv was soon adopted by all walks of life, especially with the popularity in shows like Big Brother right down to Top Chef and the Amazing Race.

Then one day a man by the name of Mark Zuckerberg came around with a novel idea- to make reality internet. I tried to think of why I really liked facebook, what made it something that I wasn't joining but truly enjoying. The conclusion that I have come to is that it is simply a good way to keep in touch. Email was a good way to keep in touch, but facebook allows people to stay in touch to a large number of people, effortlessly. My 565 friends on facebook can see me though all my journeys in Australia and all I have to do is post a few photos now and then. The best part is staying in contact with people who would otherwise fall between the cracks. "In Hollywood it's not what you know, it's who you know" and you never know when Timmy from middle school is going to be your tie to your next dream job. Personally I think facebook and the social networking sites are good, but could be better. The reason why I wanted to join facebook over myspace was because at the time it was only for college students. Somehow that made it safer in my eyes. Now anyone can join and everyone does. I wish that there was a social networking site for adults (or anyone above.. say 18 years old) that was as secure as facebook was when they still checked email addresses to the universities.

I also fear for the people who get too wrapped up in these fake lives and forget that there's a real one going on. I was reading recently about the anti-social networking movement to try to get people to realize that there's more out there. Second life is a program that I don't even understand yet. I read an article about it maybe 6 months ago and I downloaded the program and tried to understand it. Second life is another world where people buy and sell fake property and objects with real money. Some can make a living off the site alone. I understand that the properties can be amazing and everything but how are real people getting so into this? Is it just so close to reality that people would rather live in second life that in the real world? In this life there's too much going on around us to get wrapped up in a video game- that's all it is. I would much rather be out enjoying my life than entrenched in a fake one. If this is what social networking is leading us to then I'm not so sure I want to be apart of it. Like the photo says, get a first life.