Social Networking Watch

90% of Facebook Apps Have Unnecessary Access To Private Data

DARK READING -- Jan 31 -- University of Virginia researchers have discovered that 90.7% of Facebook's most popular applications have access to users' private data. A third-party Facebook "widget" or application requires full user privileges to a user's account, including name, address, friends' profiles, and photos. Adrienne Felt, a fourth-year computer science major at UVA, is developing an application that lets Facebook users run these widgets while keeping their private data private. FULL ARTICLE @ DARK READING

Meebo Turns Chat Rooms Into A Web Service

TECH CRUNCH -- Jan 31 -- Web-based IM and chat room provider Meebo is releasing full-fledged APIs for its Meebo Rooms that will allow Websites to embed chat functionality in an automated fashion. There are more than 200,000 Meebo Rooms, attracting millions of visitors a month. In addition to the APIs, the company is also announcing the Meebo Network, which will serve ads inside Meebo Rooms across the Web. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Growing Up in Social Networks

Panel Discussion With:

Zachary Suchin (CEO) College Tonight
Steve Rogers (EVP Business Development) Industrious Kid / Imbee.com
Tim Glenn (Director, Interactive Planning and Development) Alloy Media + Marketing
Sean Ryan (CEO) Meez
Mark Brooks (Editor) Social Networking Watch

MySpace To Help Youth Land A Job

THE AGE -- Jan 31 -- MySpace has joined up with CareerOne to create MySpace Jobs. Careerone hopes its move into MySpace will help young adults and school leavers looking to get a start in the job market. FULL ARTICLE @ THE AGE

Bebo Users Get To Share Their Experiences

PR WEB -- Jan 31 -- Bebo users can now share their favourite places from around the world with their friend's network, both online and on their mobile phones. By adding a Rummble Bebo application to their award-winning software platform, Beboers can add a little application which shows a map on their profile and shows their friends not only which countries they have visited but what they recommend in those countries. Rummble is a location based content discovery tool, with comprehensive online and mobile platform; we help users find recommended content for a location more easily, whether at home or on the move. Rummble is described to users: "Like a travel guide that all your friends and all their friends, write personally for you". FULL ARTICLE @ E MEDIA WIRE

MySpace Wins Myspace.co.uk Domain

I4U NEWS -- Jan 30 -- MySpace has won its litigation to get the UK domain name myspace.co.uk transferred to it. The interesting fact here is that the myspace.co.uk domain was registered six-years before MySpace was founded. Courts in the UK turned the domain name over to MySpace due to the fact that the parked myspace.co.uk domain led to a page that advertised for social networking sites. FULL ARTICLE @ I4U NEWS

Wall Street Journal Online Launches SeenThis?

PRIME NEWSWIRE -- Jan 30 -- The Wall Street Journal Online launched SeenThis?, a social convergence application that brings users' social networks onto the pages of WSJ.com. WSJ.com users can now see what WSJ.com articles are most popular with their friends and groups from leading social networking sites, without having to leave the site. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY

The State of the Social Networking Industry

Presented by Mark Brooks, Publisher Social Networking Watch

The OpenSocial Social Networking Initiative

Panel Discussion With:

Patrick Chanezon (API Evangelist) Google.com
Michael Jones (CEO) Userplane
Derek Gordon (VP Marketing) Engage

MySpace Readies Developer Platform

PC WORLD -- Jan 30 -- MySpace will let programmers pre-register for its developer platform program, which will open for business next week. Developers will be able to sign up on the site to receive information about the MySpace Developer Platform, announced in October. The developer site will become fully operational and feature documentation and API tools to build and test applications for MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD