Unfortunately I recently got really sick and basically couldn’t function for around 5 days. A lot has happened in the past week in the social networking space so to get caught up I have listed of a few of the most notable things. Myspace Careers - Myspace in conjunction with SimplyHired, has launched Myspace Careers; a section of myspace dedicated to finding a job. This is a great move for SimplyHired as it will drive massive amounts of traffic through their listings, however, I don’t think it adds that much value to Myspace. It is just throwing one more feature...

Last week I posted an interview I did with Peter Pezaris, CEO of SN site Multiply.com. Before and after our discussion I poked around Multiply.com for awhile to check out its features. I personally believe that Mutliply is one of the better general social networks right now. Its interface is clean and easy to use and the site is full of content sharing features. I would agree with Peter, when he says that out of all the general social networks (Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc) that Multiply has the best media sharing applications. Peter and his crew have done a great job in building a social networking...

Take stock picking and investment advice, throw in a social networking base and you have an extremely useful community. This is one of the best social networking niches I have seen yet, not only for its topic but for the profitability potential. Currently there are two players that I know of, SocialPicks.com and FeelingBullish.com. Both are in private alpha but coming along nicely. Between the two, I think SocialPicks is the clear winner for right now. Their design is very clean and appealing, and the navigation was relatively simple to use. You are able...

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Multiply.com CEO, Peter Pezaris, about Multiply and his opinions about the hot social networking scene. Peter founded SN site Multply.com back in November 2003, and launched their first version of the site in March 2004. At the time of our conversation Multiply’s user base had just passed 2.4 million members with 2.5 million close in their site. While I wasn’t able to obtain any specifics regarding their growth rate, Peter did say that it took them a quarter of the time to go from 1 million to 2 million users then...

Hold on to your hats people. The Social Networking space is heating up even more with the recent announcement that Bebo has raised $15 Million in venture capital. This money should help their growth strategy in non - US markets. Bebo has over 20 million members and has a much higher growth rate in the UK then Myspace. This goes to show that there is still room in the Social Networking scene even with Myspace and Facebook. [tags]Social Networking, Bebo, Venture Capital, Myspace, Facebook, Brian Balfour[/tags]

In an effort to further monetize their site, Facebook has now added the ability for a member to use a photo in their flyer announcement. Flyers are tiny skyscraper ads that are targeted to specific schools. By adding photos, Facebook hopes to encourage people not to use the flyer feature strictly for advertising things as group meetings, student concerts, and fundraising activities but also spend money on personal announcements such as birthday wishes, congratulations, etc. Image via Okdork.com Photos can be added from your photo albums or profile pictures. In addition...

There is one site that is taking advantage of the recent announcement by congress that they are thinking about banning social networking sites. Essembly, an SN site for those interested in politics, has been placing ads such as the one to the right on SN sites such as Facebook and Myspace. The ads lead to a poll page that ultimately lead to their membership register page. This tatic is genius in my mind. I rarely click on ads, but this one caught my attention which lead me straight to their sign up page. I’m working on trying to get some numbers to see how...

As reported by Techcrunch, Friendster is rumored to be building a web chat client to integrate into their social networking platform. It is common knowledge that Friendster was the first well known SN to popularize the friend of a friend system. Ever since their early days they have been really struggling, losing a lot of members to Myspace and Facebook. I don’t know why Friendster is building a web chat client. It doesn’t seem to add any value to their social networking service. There are a ton of IM clients that dominate the market. The behavior...

With all the press on 60 minutes and in Newsweek about the “dangers” of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, it was only a matter of time before the government jumped into the crowd. ZDnet reports that there is a proposed bill to ban access to popular social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook from grade school computers. “When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social networking sites, we have reason to be concerned…” The bill is suppose to support child safety. While I think...

This is the second part in a two part series in which I am exploring the past, present, and future of social networking. The first part is posted here. This post will venture into what I believe to be the future of social networking. Period Four – Social Networking Goes Mobile I believe that we have started to transition into this phase but aren’t fully there yet. Early adopters, such as Dodgeball.com, have pioneered the way into the mobile social networking scene. Facebook and Myspace have also recently added mobile features to...