I was responding to one of my many application invites when I noticed something new in my invitation to Mob Wars: A new option labeled “Stop These Invites”.

It seems that with every upgrade and iteration, Facebook is moving to slowly optimize the user’s Application experience. A big part of this is eliminating these spam-like invites, but another big part is emphasizing Application quality. Facebook has been moving with that initiative by assigning each Application an invitation quality rating, which either increases or decreases based on how many people respond positively to the invitation. This allows Applications with legitimate content to proliferate faster, and thereby increase the overall quality of the popular Application pool.

Furthermore, with the upcoming profile upheaval, we’ll see less room for Applications. This is certainly going to encourage developers to increase the aesthetic and functional appeal of their Applications, because real-estate will be at a premium. This also means that fewer applications will have the chance to become popular, and developers with multiple failed Applications will have no reason to jump in and create “Kiss Me Part VII”.

Eventually, the new profile page will facilitate Applications in a more organized way, with tabs enabling users to have precise control over groups of applications they’d like to display. This way, the most popular applications will reside in a tab right beside Photos, and to stay there, they’ll need to be as useful and usable as Photos itself.

I paint a somewhat ideal picture, and there will be a lot of bumps before Applications can jump to that level, but I do believe that eventually, Facebook will enable intelligent and creative third-party developers to generate software that is truly useful to the whole of Facebook.

[Edit: It's off-topic, but great reading relating to the business of Social Networks as mentioned in Tim's previous post.  This one is about the Profitability of Asian Social Networks vs. Facebook. ]

Tags: Social Network by Neil
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According to the Newspaper Association of America and referenced over at Editor&Publisher and TechCrunch,  Newspaper revenues fell 9.4% to $42 billion in the past year compared to 2006 in the US.  For reference, online ad revenues grew 19% to $3.2 billion over 2006.  What does this signal?  Well, for starters, the looming US recession has and will continue to have a definite impact on advertising revenues, as one of the first things to be cut during tight times are marketing budgets.  But is there more to it?

It’s no secret that traditional print media like newspapers are falling on hard times.  Marketing executives are being given more options with where to spend their marketing dollars, and while I don’t believe that Internet ad revenues have totally lived up to their potential, innovations in the online space are arriving that will present credible options for said Marketing execs when they determine how to optimally allocate their ad budgets.

First of all, the static ad banner on the side of every web page is starting to be replaced with interactive and engaging multimedia.  Online video ads and flash-based multimedia are becoming more and more common, attracting the user’s attention and creating a much more solid impression over and above the typical static classmates.com banner you traditionally see.

But more importantly, online ads are beginning to take advantage of demographics and eventually will leverage individual user preferences, as I alluded to earlier this month, to provide much more relevant and contextual ads that are targeted to every individual.

Finally, combine these new contextual online ads with a solid metrics and reporting system that can track every user’s interaction with the ad, and you can create an objective sales presentation to the aforementioned Marketing executive, giving him or her direct insight into how each penny spent online translates into brand impressions/interactions, and eventually, sales.  This gives the online ad realm a tremendous advantage over traditional media, because the feedback reporting mechanisms can objectively indicate the success rate of an online marketing campaign .  A complete return-on-investment can be calculated along with with every reportable stat you can imagine, so that the Marketing exec can easily gauge how to optimally allocate their online marketing spending.

Newspaper and traditional media are a one-way street.  You can get indirect feedback based on general sales lift, but nothing near what can be done through online metrics.  This gives online advertising the advantage, and with innovations still to come to provide even more creative as well as socially relevant ads to users, it appears as though online advertising is destined for continued growth.

On another note – Duncan Riley at TechCrunch wrote an interesting post last November about the need for consolidation in the Newspaper industry to improve their chances of survival in the face of increased competition for advertising dollars.

Tags: Advertising, Facebook, Marketing by Tim McKillican
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Having seen an old friend’s news pass along my Facebook news feed today, I decided to find out more about what he was up to. Naturally, I Googled him.

I was surprised to find his LinkedIn profile as the first entry, with the second, indented entry related to his entry in the LinkedIn directory.  See the image to the left.

This spiked my curiousity, and I searched myself and found the same result.

I then searched for Michael Arrington (the famous TechCrunch blogger) and found that his LinkedIn was on the second page, and in fact was ahead of Facebook as well, although his Twitter actually appeared on the first page.

Does anyone have any insight into how/why LinkedIn is ranked so highly in Google searches?

Tags: Social Network by Neil
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Gary Vaynerchuk posted an interesting video blog raising the question of whether Twitter has the potential to become even bigger than Facebook. It’s definitely an interesting opinion that I’d recommend watching so I don’t want to paraphrase too much, but his main point is that with Twitter’s simplicity and update speed (nearly instantaneous compared to Facebook’s 15-minute News-Feed update), it has the power to potentially become the social tool of choice for being socially connected to the global social scene at any moment.

That Twitter is gaining massive hype lately is no lie – SXSW confirmed that it has become mainstream for the tech geeks. However, I’d argue Gary’s main point solely on the fact that the mass majority of Facebook users are not part of the uber-tech geek crowd that would leverage Twitter’s instantaeous connections and social dynamics. In this day and age, most users are content to logon to Facebook, check their messages, browse their friends’ profiles, view some pictures, and possibly check out some applications. It remains to be seen whether the mainstream Facebook user will see value in an app like Twitter. But as history has shown, the social web is evolving at light speed, so it will be interesting to see how the mainstream evolves with new social media applications.

Tags: Facebook, Social Network, Twitter by Tim McKillican
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A great interview with the founder of SocialThing!, one of two competing “lifestreaming” services. In short, services that collect and interact with information on all the different services available to you on the web.

Check it out here.

With recent moves by FriendFeed to open up its API, it’s clear that the application, developed by former Google programmers, is taking a direct shot to become an integral social tool for the web.  This threatens Facebook, MySpace and even the traditional concept of a social network.

Eventually, we may see a feed oriented web supplanted by either OpenID or perhaps a Google sign-in first.  Only time will tell how FF and Twitter progress.

Tags: Facebook, Google, MySpace, Social Network, Usability by Neil
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It seems that Microsoft is chasing after its own tail these days.  Only months after investing a healthy quarter billion into Facebook, their Spaces division is attempting to leverage its own friend network by introducing a friend-feed to display your Live Messenger friends’ latest actions (see screenshot).  Are they competing with Facebook?

With MySpace having jumped on the ‘friend-feed’ idea in their revamped profile and web applications such as FriendFeed and Twitter popping up, it’s quickly becoming apparent that the feed is the essential backbone of any good social network.  That must have been what Microsoft was thinking when they made this move, but the current incarnation is hardly providing me with enough relevant information to constitute a “social network” (see screenshot).  Most of my friends have never even set up their Live Spaces profile, even though it’s been around for years, and so I’m left with entries like

Judging by the latest Nielson ratings on Social Networks (see image), Live Spaces is about to lose its long hold on the fourth place.  I don’t see anything particularily wrong with the technology, but the botched release of Spaces and the consequent pillaging of the once simple-yet-effective MSN Messenger convince me that we won’t see users flocking to Spaces anytime soon.

Tags: Advertising, Applications, Facebook, Social Network by Neil
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Instead of diving into my usual rhetoric, I’m just going to tell you about my experience with Audible.com.  It’s not Facebook related, but if someone at Audible reads this, they can let somebody in their company know how not to launch their eventual social networking application.

8:30pm: I’m keen to get this fantastic audio book, recommended to me wholeheartedly by my girlfriend.  It’s like a Coles note for introductory Macroeconomics.  I want to burn it for our two-hour late-night drive.

8:45pm: After a Google search for “Audible.com free offer”, I find a 14-day free trial offer.  I sign up and am asked to download some software.

8:50pm: The installation asks me what device I use to play music.  I want to burn a CD, but I also use an iPod.  Their options have “iPod” and “I want to burn CDs” as separate options.  I’m not sure which one to pick so I pick the second one.

9:00pm: I install the software, and in addition to looking *vaguely similar* to iTunes (see screenshot below), it presents me with two empty databases: library and trash.

9:02pm:  After realizing there’s no way to actually download or buy anything from within the software, I head back to Audible.com, and find the audio book I like.  I check it out, and buy it.  The system recognizes I have a free trial, and I proceed to order and purchase the book at no cost.

9:10pm: I am forwarded to a download page, where strangely, all 20 chapters of the book are individually listed, with no button for download all.  I click download on the first link, and a pop-up appears: “You do not have the Audible.com download software.”  …  “Yes, I do” I mutter, feeling the way no usability designer ever hopes their users would.

9:15pm: I eventually find a link explaining I need to restart Mozilla for changes to take effect.  I do.  I still get the same error message.  I see a small checkbox indicating that I have to click the checkbox if my computer uses cookies and is not properly registering the software.  Finally, it downloads.

9:30pm: I have now downloaded my 20 chapters, one by one, and now want to burn it to a CD.  I launch the Audible software, drag and drop the files, and click “burn”.  Audible software indicates I must install Nero 7.

9:50pm: Nero 7 trial version is now on my computer (all 512 Mb worth).  I see an option for “burn Audible.com audiobook”.  I choose it and drag and drop the files in.  Nero asks me for my Audible username and password.  I enter them.  Nero smiles mischievously: “You can not burn these files.”

9:53pm: I head back to the Audible.com software, drag and drop the chapters into the software, and click “Burn using Nero 7″. I then received this notice.

10:00pm: We merrily start our trip, listening to Ricky Gervais podcasts and the Flight of the Conchords radio show.  I crash.

Tags: Marketing, Other, Usability by Neil
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I recently jumped on the insider bandwagon and installed FriendFeed (www.friendfeed.com).

My first thoughts:

The interface is absolutely simple.  It’s not necessarily elegant, but the cleanliness helps navigate this functionality-heavy site.  I’m sure it will get sleeker and Googler with time.

I can’t believe how many of these services I already had accounts to: Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, Google Reader, my Blog.  It felt really good to consolidate all the content into one place.

The seamless integration into Facebook is genius.  It points you to the Application without you knowing you’ve even left the site, then redirects you right back, before you know it, your Facebook is now hooked up to FriendFeed.

My second thoughts:

Every single activity I’ve ever done on any site is now completely visible to all my friends.  Wow, I completely don’t see the need for it at all.

Perhaps we really will move into utility based social networks.  Facebook for friendship and (see my last post) chat, LinkedIn for your profesional lives, and FriendFeed for finding good information and entertainment content.  I can see FriendFeed overlapping with Facebook, but I can also see this sort of model propagate and settle over the next few years.  I think the general consumer will enjoy it and slowly get used to having the multiple accounts and multiple points of usage.

Am I wrong?  Will all services assemble into one, with filters and options separating the network?  Facebook is trying to do it, with their recently announced privacy controls, they’re trying to be your work site and your private site.  I have my reservations about whether people will be able to sort out the complex controls.  I imagine people will try, and then just appreciate LinkedIn for what it is, a separate area where you can manage your ‘business’ side.

Tags: Applications, Google, Social Network by Neil
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Talking to users of Facebook of all demographics, I find that more and more young people use Facebook as their exclusive method of communication.  The archaic messaging system is at best awkward in comparison with GMail or even Hotmail, but the fact that it is embedded in the Social Graph proves its value to consumers.  Combined with the recent integration of Facebook mobile, the system provides an integrated way to ensure you have access to all your closest friends.

Well, Facebook is about to make another big move in a small way, by introducing Instant Messaging to Facebook.  As can be seen in the video, it will dock at the bottom of your browser as you use Facebook, and enable you to simply send instant messages to your online contacts.  It may be simplistic right now, but that’s always what has worked best for Facebook, and I can envision this becoming more and more popular, and eventually spreading out into an optional desktop application.  Video available courtesy of FaceReviews.com.

Tags: Advertising, Facebook, Marketing by Neil
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BusinessWeek posted an article that I think highlights the potential and uncertainty about this new social networking market. I regularly point clients and friends to it, and if you’re trying to explain this new market, I’d recommend you do too.

“Building a Brand with Widgets” by Rachael King

“It’s surpassing our expectations,” Peterzell says. A growing number of companies hope they’ll be wowed by widgets, too. Electronic Arts (ERTS), Viacom’s (VIA) Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Gap (GPS), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Hallmark, and Blockbuster (BBI) are among the businesses hoping to spread a marketing message or raise brand awareness through these modules of content used by millions of social network users to customize profiles or communicate with friends.

The article begins optimistically, but quickly points out that many campaigns have difficulty in standing out in an overcrowded widget market.  From my chats with Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook.com, a good strategy is to supplement any social media campaign with real advertising dollars.   Companies can take advantage of the many burgeoning banner networks, like RockYou or Slide, and implement a Cost-Per-Install advertising campaign for only a few thousand dollars.  The great aspect of a CPI campaign is that it only costs the advertiser money when banner-viewers click on the banner and subsequently install the application.  That way, the general branding that goes along with each banner view is in fact, free.

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Social Network by Neil
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