There is no question that the new Facebook platform is going to have a massive impact on the market. A FB app and integration is going to become an essential part to any social site and startup, just like the rage of widgets was middle of last year. With only days under its belt, we’ve already seen one massive success with iLike’s music service. Despite all of this I do think that there will be challenges for developers and entrepreneurs ahead: Overcrowding With massive popularity, the Facebook platform is going to get flooded with new applications. It won’t be long until...

Articles such as this one, “Pitfalls Ahead for Social Networks?” from InternetNews can get me really riled up sometimes. There are still a lot of critics of social networks. It might be different people, but it is always the same arguments. They are trying to answer new problems with old solutions. How well does that work? Valid concerns? Yes. Unsolvable Problems? Absolutely not. When search came along in the late 90’s everyone wondered how they were going to monetize it. They tried to fit old solutions to a new problem by turning them into portals. Then….the google...

Social Networks are often criticized as having a hard time at being profitable. Most are supporting themselves in one of two ways, traditional online advertising, or a subscription model. But I wanted to briefly take a look at some other ways that social networks are trying to increase their revenue streams. Virtual Gifts The next largest monetization method taking form behind advertising and subscriptions are virtual gifts. With the massive success of virtual gifts in foreign markets (i.e. Cyworld) a lot of US properties have started experimenting. Most notably Facebook recently launched their...