Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Pakistan Court Lifts Ban On Facebook

TECH CRUNCH - May 31 - On Monday, a Pakistani court ordered authorities to restore access to Facebook after company officials reportedly apologized for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents. The Lahore High Court imposed the nationwide ban almost two weeks ago amid outrage over the page, which encouraged users to post drawings of Muhammad, as many Muslims consider depictions of Islam’s Prophet to be blasphemous. Pakistani authorities had also blocked access to YouTube for containing “un-Islamic content”, but this ban was at least partially lifted last week. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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More People LinkedIn Than Tweeting

SF CHRONICLE - May 29 - The number of profiles on LinkedIn has grown by 300% since 2008. And while Americans are far more aware of Twitter than they are of LinkedIn, ~8% have LinkedIn profiles, compared with 7% who say they are tweeters, according to Edison Research. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

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Twitter: 15 Billion Tweets And Counting

MASHABLE - May 29 - Twitter has surpassed 15 billion tweets less than three months after it broke the 10 billion count. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Thanks To Our Sponsors

The Top Viral Video Ad Campaign, Updated May 27, 2010

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Source: VisibleMeasures.com

Microsoft Launches Project Emporia, Twitter Tool

EWEEK - May 28 - Microsoft announced the alpha preview of a social-networking initiative, Project Emporia, being developed through its FUSE Labs. The app gives users the ability to browse information on Twitter most relevant to their needs, and refine their experience through a “like/dislike” recommender system. In October 2009, Microsoft announced the creation of FUSE Labs to explore “social connectivity, real-time experiences and rich media” software and services in both a business and consumer context. FULL ARTICLE @ EWEEK

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Online Privacy: Your Life Is An Open Book

ABC NEWS - May 28 - For a $2.95 one-year subscription on Spokeo.com, anyone can find your name, age, ethnicity, marital status, religion, politics, address, home phone number, mobile phone number, e-mail address, social networking profiles, photos, videos and blogs. The website uses an algorithm to search public databases. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's office released a consumer alert about Spokeo on May 7. The reason we singled out Spokeo is we received numerous inquiries from consumers," Arkansas Deputy Attorney General Jim DePriest told ABC News, although he made clear that Spokeo is one of many sites that aggregate personal information. "Consumers are a little taken aback that this information is available in one place, and they feel that their privacy has been invaded, so we are responding to those fears." FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS

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Google Names Facebook Most Visited Site

PC WORLD - May 28 - Google has publicly released a list of the top 1000 websites in the world, ranking Facebook as the leading Web property by unique users. According to Google's AdPlanner stats, Facebook scores more than 540M unique visitors per month, reaching 35.2% of the Internet population. Facebook also has the most page views per month, 570 billion views, ahead of other properties like Craigslist (#49) with 14 billion views. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD

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Facebook Launches Android SDK

TECH CRUNCH - May 27 - Facebook is releasing its first official SDK for Android, offering developers on Google’s mobile OS an easy way to tie their Android native apps to Facebook Platform. As AllFacebook noted last week, this SDK is actually more advanced than the iPhone SDK because it features Facebook’s Graph API, which was unveiled at its f8 developer conference last month. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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AdMob Is Now Part Of Google

MASHABLE - May 28 - More than six months ago, Google announced that it was acquiring AdMob for $750M. However, a prolonged review by the FTC delayed the acquisition. Just last month, it seemed likely that the FTC would challenge the Google-AdMob deal. Google says that it will quickly integrate the teams and AdMob’s technology in order to keep competitive in mobile advertising. Google believes that mobile search, websites and apps are already key ways people access information. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Facebook Acquires Private Content-Sharing Startup Sharegrove

MASHABLE - May 26 - Facebook added another acquisition to its belt today: Sharegrove, a small service that provides private online spaces where family and close friends can share content in real-time. Sharegrove uses Facebook Connect to knit together a cross between e-mail, group chat and Facebook wall-type postings. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Mobile-gaming Revenue To Hit $11.4 Billion In 2014

CNET NEWS - May 26 - Research firm Gartner predicted that worldwide mobile-game revenue will grow 19%, reaching $5.6 billion in 2010 with an expectation to more than double to $11.4 billion in 2014. Gartner estimates that 70-80 % of all mobile consumer apps downloaded are mobile games and that 60-70 % of these downloaded games are free (often trial versions.) The firm expects this trend to continue for the next two to three years. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

Facebook: Friend Or Foe?

THE AGE - May 27 - Though there have always been concerns about Facebook's position on privacy, the current wave of anger began about a month ago when the company revealed plans to make users' private information available to advertisers through a new app, Connections. More than 15,000 people worldwide have vowed to terminate their accounts on May 31 as signatories to the first organised ''quit Facebook day''. While that's very small beans compared with the site's more than 400M users, the perception that Facebook cannot be trusted could seriously damage the company if concerns are left unchecked. Look at the fate of MySpace to see how quickly an online success story can fray when its users cease to trust or believe in it. Connections is anew app that allows users to link to other users in virtual communities of interest simply by clicking on the ever-present ''like'' button. But it also turns those communities into target markets for external parties. Crucially, it allows that linking to happen without users' knowledge, and even when users ''like'' something on a site outside Facebook. Zuckerberg has spoken of Facebook's position on privacy being a matter of principle. In January, he told readwriteweb.com journalist Marshall Kirkpatrick that privacy had become largely irrelevant, particularly to Facebook's users. FULL ARTICLE @ THE AGE

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Zynga Continues To Expand Beyond Facebook

TECH CRUNCH - May 26 - Zynga has announced that it has forged a deal with Yahoo to feature its games throughout Yahoo’s network. Yahoo says that games and/or updates will be available through many of its properties, including the Yahoo Games portal, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Messenger. Games will be deployed in the US first, followed by a global rollout. All of this comes just a week after Zynga agreed to enter into a five-year partnership with Facebook. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Yahoo Acquires "Asian Foursquare"

TECH CRUNCH - May 24 - Yahoo has had a busy day. Not only did they announce a new cross-branding deal with Nokia, and struck a partnership with Match.com, but they apparently made an acquisition too. It’s an Asian location-based service called Koprol. Yahoo had been in discussions to buy Foursquare. That purchase would have likely cost Yahoo north of $100M. The terms of this deal were not disclosed, but you can be sure Yahoo got Koprol for far less than that. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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CEO Of Yahoo Tells Mike Arrington To F*&off At His TechCrunch Disrupt Conference

SNW - May 25 - I just love gritty, characterful people who speak their mind. This video is quite hilarious and completely out of control. Carol Bartz gave Mike Arrington a lambasting at TechCrunch Disrupt and told him to F*&off!  Unfortunately, this kind of forthrightness, while perhaps in some form of context at the conference, will now go viral and polarize executives and investors.  Some will laugh and agree. Others will not forgive her loss of control. How long do you think Carol will remain as CEO of Yahoo? Your comments please.

Twitter To Prohibit Any Third Party To Advertise In-Stream

TECH CRUNCH - May 24 - Twitter will not be allowing any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API. The changes will be reflected in an updated set of Terms & Conditions, which is due to be released ‘shortly’. This is not so good news for Twitter-focused advertising startups like Ad.ly and Twad.ly. Here are the reasons Twitter says it decided not to allow third-parties to advertise in the stream: First, third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created. Secondly, the basis for building a lasting advertising network that benefits users should be innovation, not near-term monetization. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Zynga And 7-Eleven Strike Branding Deal

TECH CRUNCH - May 23 - Zynga has had a busy week. The social gaming giant struck a five-year partnership with Facebook, acquired Chinese social gaming company XPD Media and opened an office in Beijing. And today, Zynga is announcing its first retail and product partnership. 7-Eleven has partnered with Zynga to offer FarmVille, Mafia Wars-and YoVille-branded items on many of the convenience store’s products, including on Slurpee and Big Gulp cups in its 7,000 stores. In total there will be more than 30 branded items in store, ranging from cups, bottles water, a signature ice cream and more. Consumers will be able to connect back to the social games by using their product redemption codes for limited edition 7-Eleven goods within FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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