social networks

Several weeks ago, BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine shared a term in one of his predictions for 2009 that was intriguing because of how it describes a growing phenomenon in media today … the rise of the shadow media. The shadow media are the professional journalists, writers, editors and thought leaders who have been displaced either by choice or necessity as part of the upheaval that traditional media has been going through over the past few years.

The mobile revolution is merging with the social-networking revolution as MySpace partners with mobile video company RipCode on a new streaming-video service. MySpace announced its latest foray on Wednesday.

MySpace Mobile will let members view videos from mobile devices. With the announcement, MySpace becomes the first social-networking portal to launch video streaming for mobile. YouTube offers a similar service.

Facebook is walking a fine line again by rolling out Facebook Connect, a feature the company first talked about in May. Facebook Connect allows one log-in to easily share content across other social networks and Web sites.

The convenience of no longer having to type in profile information on multiple Web sites may be valuable to users, but at what risk to users' privacy? The popular social-networking site said the new feature will let a user connect a Facebook account with a Web site, using a trusted authentication process.

A Brazil-based startup says it has a solution for users of multiple social networks like Facebook, MySpace and others who want to access the Web sites on one portal. Power.com, which has backing from veteran technology investors, has been operating in stealth mode for users in India and Brazil, but now wants to woo U.S.-based users.

The admission by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg -- that the social network's optimum revenue model remains a mystery four years after its launch -- has raised some eyebrows. Despite claiming that it will double its revenue to between $300m and $350m this year, the question remains as to when, if ever, Facebook will turn a profit.

The 2008 contest for the White House may go down in history as the first social media election. How else to explain the unprecedented role the Web played in this year's Presidential contest, an influence scarcely imaginable just four years ago? In 2004 many social networking sites were just getting off the blocks. YouTube, for example, was introduced early the following year. And microblogging sites like Twitter wouldn't emerge until the 2008 Presidential campaign was getting under way.

Salesforce.com continued developing as "the enterprise cloud computing company" Monday with announcements that it is extending its Force.com platform to Facebook and Amazon Web Services.

The announcements are part of a series of recent moves that include the unveiling this week of Force.com Sites, enabling businesses to utilize the Force.com platform and applications in the creation of public Web sites.

'Social Meet CRM'

Last week I had the chance to participate in a BarCamp event in Paris organized by the Ogilvy team in France. I did a short presentation on social media for brands and then we broke out into two groups to talk specifically about microblogging and its business impact, as well as how to measure ROI for social media.

If you visit the Web sites or look at the ads from the major wireless carriers, smart phones aimed at both consumers and businesses are front and center.

What was once a niche aimed at road warriors, sales types and techies is rapidly going mainstream. There's a very good chance that if you can afford it a smart phone is in your future.

Software giant Oracle has built what it hopes will be a new home for corporate worker bees.

Dubbed Beehive and introduced at Oracle's recent user conference in San Francisco, the new software aims to let employees team up through electronic workspaces as well as calendar, instant messaging and e-mail tools.

Beehive is part of a broader push by Oracle into the hot area of employee collaboration, also called Enterprise 2.0.