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

Skype And Facebook To Announce Partnership

MASHABLE - Sep 29 - Facebook and Skype are working on a deal that would integrate Facebook Connect with Skype accounts. Once you connect Skype with Facebook, you’ll be able to SMS, chat with or call your Facebook friends directly from Skype. You should also be able to log in to Skype with your Facebook credentials. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Five Months In, 2 Million Websites Using Facebook’s New Social Plugins

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 29 - Facebook CTO Bret Taylor announced that 2M websites have added the “Like” button and Facebook’s other new social plug-ins, which were launched five months ago. Aside from the Like Button, Facebook’s other social plugins include an activity feed that displays your friends’ activity, a widget with recommended articles, and the Facepile, which shows you photos of your friends who also use the site you’re browsing. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Twitter Passes MySpace To Become Third Most Trafficked Social Network

READ WRITE WEB - Sep 28 - Twitter has surpassed former social networking giant MySpace in unique visitors according to ComsCore. Twitter.com had ~96M unique visitors last month, up 76% from the same period last year. MySpace dropped 17% to 95M unique visitors, while Facebook easily sat in the lead with 598M unique visitors, up 54% from last year. The number two spot is occupied by Microsoft's Windows Live Profile, with 140M unique visitors. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

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Facebook Founder To Announce $100 Million Donation

CNN - Sep 24 - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Friday to announce that he is donating $100M toward improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey. Zuckerberg's donation will be the first installment from a foundation financed by Zuckerberg and focused on bettering education. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

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Mark Zuckerberg On The “Facebook Phone”

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 23 - Over the weekend I wrote an article about Facebook’s mobile plans, particularly that they are working on a branded mobile phone. Facebook said the story was innacurate. Here is what Mark Zuckerberg said about the "Facebook Phone": "Our whole strategy is not to build any specific device or integration or anything like that. Because we’re not trying to compete with Apple or the Droid. Our role is to be a platform for making all of these apps more social, and it’s kind of an extension of what we see happening on the web, with the exception of mobile, which I think will be even more important than the web in a few years – maybe even sooner." FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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200 Million People Are Playing Facebook Games Monthly

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 22 - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that games are one of the primary reasons some people visit Facebook, confirming that 2/5 of its userbase is using the site for social gaming. The top ten games on Facebook have more than 12M users each. But Zuckerberg says it’s complicated, “While they’re in the top five things that people like, they’re also in the top five things that people hate.” FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook Has Quietly Implemented A De-Facto Follow Feature

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 21 - A few days ago, Facebook made what seemed to be a small tweak to its Friend Requests area. Facebook changed the way friend rejections work. Previously, you could either Confirm or Ignore a request. Now, Ignore has been replaced by “Not Now”. This new option takes some of the pressure of you having to reject people as it instead moves them into a state of limbo, where they’re neither accepted nor rejected. When someone requests to be your friend on Facebook, this automatically subscribes them to all of your public posts in their News Feed. You see these posts until this person rejects you. So with this new Not Now button, and the removal of the simple rejection mechanism, Facebook has basically created a de-facto follow feature. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook Is Secretly Building A Phone

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 19 - Facebook is building a mobile phone. It was a little less than a year ago that we broke the news that Google was working on a phone of its own – which was eventually revealed as the Nexus One. Specifically, Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook Places Goes Live In The UK

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 17 - Facebook’s geo-locational service Facebook Places is now working in the UK. This is Facebook Places first full on launch in a European country after having launched in Japan last week. Users have previously reporting the ability to check in from places like Canada and even Paris due to a wifi glitch. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook Job Search App Gets $6M In Funding

MASHABLE - Sep 16 - BranchOut caters to the professionally oriented Facebook user. This relatively new app transforms Facebook into your personal career center. You can search through your friends by company to see which social connections can help you professionally. The startup, which just launched in July, has raised $6M Series A from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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“Google Me” Social Network To Challenge Facebook

ARS TECHNICA - Sep 15 - Google is planning to add more social networking features to its services this fall. According to CEO Eric Schmidt, accessing Facebook's contact list data is critical to the success of Google's plans, though Facebook isn't likely to share it openly. Google purchased video sharing site YouTube a few years ago and is planning social networking features for that site, as well as many others. FULL ARTICLE @ ARS TECHNICA

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Facebook Places Launches In Japan

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 14 - Facebook’s geo-location feature Places is being rolled out now in Japan. Users will be able to access the Japanese version of Facebook Places via the Facebook iPhone app, or through the smartphone browser. Japan appears to be first country outside of the U.S. to receive Facebook Places integration, although it appears that it is being tested in the U.K. and Canada. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Zuckerberg Has The Blues Over Upcoming Film Portrayal

USA TODAY - Sep 13 - Mark Zuckerberg wants people to know that he's not a selfish and insecure jerk -- which is how he'll be portrayed in the upcoming movie about the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. Zuckerberg says he doesn't plan to see the drama written by Aaron Sorkin, who created the TV hit The West Wing. When Vargas pressed Zuckerberg to discuss how it might affect his public image "he responded coolly: "I know the real story". FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

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Travel Industry Uses Facebook And Twitter To Reach Customers

USA TODAY - Sep 12 - Hotels, airlines and other segments of the multibillion-dollar travel industry are aggressively tapping into social media, ramping up their use of online sites such as Facebook and Twitter to build loyalty to their brands. Airlines are maintaining a presence on YouTube and offering deals through social-mapping networks such as Loopt. Hotels are promoting their properties through bloggers. As of August, Delta passengers can buy tickets on Delta's Facebook page. Southwest has three staffers dedicated to monitoring and responding to queries made through social-media channels. Marriott is launching its Marriott Courtyard Facebook page.....United, for instance, has "twares," fare specials offered exclusively through Twitter. In July, AirTran introduced its "Facebook Friday Fares," which give its Facebook fans unique deals. FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS

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Google Losing Ground As Users Spend More Time On Facebook And Yahoo

READ WRITE WEB - Sep 9 - Americans spent more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google for the first time in August, and Yahoo edged out the search giant in monthly traffic, according to comScore. Users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook in August, 39.8 billion minutes on Google, and 37.7 billion on Yahoo. Yahoo beat out Google in monthly traffic, with 179M unique visitors to Google's 178.8M. Microsoft came in third with 165.3M. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

Mark Brooks: And YouTube? I just put money into Google stocks. YouTube will be making a profit soon. And Android? I'm betting they're the tortoise to Apple's hare. I also put money into Apple stocks mind you. I'm bullish on Apple TV.

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Incendiary! Facebook Movie Script

SNW - Sep 9 - In the opening of this movie, Zuckerburg gets ditched by his girlfriend who shares with him. 'Listen. You're going to go through life thinking girls don't like you because you're a tech geek. And I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an a*^hole.' The movie looks entertaining, and bad news for Facebook. Having worked for Friendster in 2003, and seen Facebook steal MySpace and Friendster's thunder. He may be an a*^ole, but he knows how to make a brilliant social network. - Mark Brooks

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Zynga Uses Credits Exclusively On Most Facebook Games

BUSINESS WEEK - Sep 8 - Zynga Game Network agreed to use the Facebook Credits payment system exclusively on most of its games on Facebook, tightening a partnership the companies formed in May. Facebook will get a 30% cut of virtual-goods purchases in Zynga’s games, such as “FarmVille,” “Mafia Wars” and “Cafe World.” FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

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Twitter And Facebook To Face Ad Watchdog Scrutiny

SILLICON - Sep 1 - All marketing material on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook is to be regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for the first time. Non-paid-for promotional material will have to comply with ASA guidelines relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of childen from March next year.  The regulatory changes mean that most non-paid-for online ads - including viral videos and games - will be subject to the same regulations as paid-for online ads for the first time. FULL ARTICLE @ SILLICON

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