Posts Tagged ‘MySpace’

MySpaceID Getting A Much Needed Upgrade

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

MySpace announced a sneak peak at their soon to be launched upgrade to MySpaceID at DEMO 2009. I’ve fussed with MySpaceID and have several gripes. The product isn’t complete and was not as ambitious as Facebook Connect.

Here’s the list:

Needlessly complicated = The oAuth process could be made significantly easier if MySpace provided an ID library. The only server side customizations needed by the publisher are a secret key and a callback url to receive the user after authorization is complete. Developers currently have to program more than necessary and I have a feeling it’s slowing adoption.

MySpaceID doesn’t support single sign-on = MySpaceID is simply an implementation of oAuth, which makes it a secure way to release a user’s profile information to another site. This is great if you’re importing your info to a new site, but not good if you’re actually trying to use MySpace profiles as your user accounts. MySpace doesn’t automatically log a user into your site.

Needlessly complicated authorization process = MySpace lost momentum with developers because they didn’t open their system fast enough. Consequently when publishers can’t make an attractive profit, they move on to other platforms. As Facebook closes, MySpace should open its platform to all developers and give aid to key developers.

No standard profile image sizes = It may seem like an small issue, but the lack of standard image sizes means you can’t reliably show a user’s profile picture in your templates.

No way to publish back into MySpace = Facebook Connect provides a potentially viral channel to help spread interest in a site, MySpace doesn’t let this happen.

Here’s a preview of the sign on screen:directed_id_popup

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

MySpace’s Google Ad Deal Ends Next Year

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

MySpace’s Google ad deal is set to expire next year. The service is getting a lot more serious about monetization, with any future deal nearing the $900 million mark out of sight.

When News Corp. (NWS) first inked the Google deal in 2006, the pact was a huge shot in the arm for the company because it guaranteed that Murdoch would earn back the $600 million he’d spent on the site–and that was just for a small slice of its ad inventory. But in retrospect, it’s clear that the agreement was a one-time only affair. If MySpace does get another Google deal next year, it will be at much lower terms. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

Barclays analyst Douglas Anmuth, who spent the weekend poking through Google’s 10-K filing, finds yet more evidence that Google (GOOG) has no intention of paying through the nose again. In 2007, he notes, Google spent $1.7 billion on guaranteed deals like the MySpace arrangement. Last year that number dropped to $1 billion. (Click chart to enlarge.)

via MySpace’s Google Gravy Train Set to Stop Next Year | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

F8, It’s Coming

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Great video on F8 posted by Venturebeat.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

Aug 15th OpenSocial OpenThread: Discussions and Drinks

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

SocialMedia is holding our first OpenSocial developer event called “OpenThread” on August 15th, 5pm - 8pm at SocialMedia’s SF office. The event will feature an hour and a half of discussion on developing on OpenSocial (short tutorial, developer panel, hosting discussion) followed by an “OpenBar”.

We’re limiting this to 150 developers due to space constraints, so we require all developers to sign up ahead of time. It’s a great event to network and learn more about if you’re missing out on OpenSocial.

Itinerary:

5:00 - 5:30 Sign In
5:30 - 5:45 Introduction and Brief History of MySpace / OpenSocial
5:45 - 6:00 Tutorial on building your first app (Hello World!) - MySpace demo
6:00 - 6:45 Panel with MySpace and other OpenSocial developers (How did you start?, What are the pros and cons?) - Linus Liang (CLZ Concepts), David King (Lil Green Patch), Kenneth Walton (Klicknation)
6:45 - 7:00 Application Hosting
7:00 - 8:00 Open Bar

Please RSVP by filling out the form below. Check this page for any updates about the program. Also, join the FB MySpace App developer group, specifically intended for cross platform devs.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

Have You Thought About MySpace?

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

For many of you, and even me, it seems like when we talk about social applications, we’re talking about the Facebook platform. Facebook has been around the longest and done a great job rolling out new features. However, MySpace is growing into a great complementary platform, with the added advantage that it’s an OpenSocial container. MySpace can currently monetize at the same rates as majority of Facebook inventory, as those with apps on both platforms already know.

Since cross development time is expensive for small groups of developers, we’ll be putting together some more resources on how to develop as well as user’s experiences over the next couple of months.

Moreover, as the web continues to “digest” social networking, there will be many more platforms where developers can create a living from applications. We’ll keep you posted.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

Seth Goldstein IAB Keynote: ‘Social Media’ Is Killing Internet Advertising

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

SocialMedia Network’s CEO, Seth Goldstein, made a rather audacious statement at the IAB Social Media conference today: “Social Media is killing internet advertising”.

While it seems an odd conclusion coming from the eponymic advertising company, it’s true. Since the birth of online advertising, traditional modes of advertising have lost their effectiveness online as users have become less interested in branded content and more interested in each other.

On display was a graph showing just how profound this decline can be:




(note: I have a feeling that some of the change can be explained by the profound increase of page views diluting CTRs)

In response to this problem, Seth proposed that advertising needs to shift from a “shouting” model (one big ad on a content site), to a quieter form of advertising that speaks to users, alluding to a new advertising product to be launched by Social Media Networks in the Fall.



You can see more press on the keynote below:
Seth Goldstein: Beacon Set Industry Back
Exec: Ad industry must think small to tap social sites
Social Network CPMs: A Penny Arcade

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments

Google Friend Connect: Social Networking For The Long Tail

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Last night I was able to stop by the latest Google Campfire around Friend Connect. Despite everyone knowing the news, there was a great showing of bloggers and companies (Joyent, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Hi5) there to see a demo of Friend Connect.

Friend Connect is a collection of standards meant to make low traffic sites more social by harnessing existing social networking user bases. Google’s set of widgets let web developers quickly drop in code for widgets like sign-ups, comments, or really any other application on Open Social. Mussie Shore, a Google Product Manager, showed off what Google cooked up:



The system borrows bits and pieces I’ve seen already. The user login features were distinctly MyBlogLog, although now they supported all OpenID providers. The commenting widgets reminded me of JS-Kit, but now had identities attached to them. They both make a lot more sense together. All in all, if this was a stand alone startup, I’d be enthusiastic. However, it’s Google.

The series of data portability announcements from MySpace, Facebook, and Google are no accident. While Facebook, with its large, robust, base of user accounts has a head start in bringing its network to some of the largest sites on the internet. Google, on the other hand, took a strategy of going after the “long tail” of websites out there. Their “cut-n-paste” social networking solution is designed for even the most inexperienced webmasters, like that of Ingird Michaelson’s fan page.

Given this strategy, the uptake is likely to be slow. Facebook is mainly concerned with integrating into around 100 websites, whereas Google has to reach orders of magnitude more webmasters in order to have the same user base. Google will likely push the value added not only by Friend Connect, but also the value added by its growing library of applications. iLike has a compelling music widget, and Google Friend Connect is the only way you can get it.

Justin Smith has more notes on the speech.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments