This is an article found, relating to my previous post at mashable.com:
"If you think LinkedIn is for kids and Facebook is for grandkids, perhaps you should consider Financial Times’ new social network, aimed at top level execs who can afford 1700 pounds (3,340 dollars) per year, because that’s how much (at the very least) membership costs.
The details about the network itself are sparse; it’s being described as a forum with a ‘user-friendly, simple, efficient and secure system’ for online networking. I’m guessing that the high price point will mostly relate to the exclusivity of the club and much less to the actual technical and other accomplishments offered within the network (see bottom of this article for proof). However, it’s partially redeemed with the fact that membership in the forum includes free attendance to one of Financial Times‘ Global Conferences and Events, as well as a 20% discount on other events in the series, as well as 12-month subscription to the newspaper itself. Not bad, but 3,3k bucks? Ouch. "
Original Link: http://mashable.com/2008/02/25/financial-times-social-network-executives/
Monday, 25 February 2008
Financial Times launches social network with £1,700 membership fee
With most platforms available free to its users, and even business users, it would be very interesting to see why Financial Times have launched its own private social networking site, strictly for the rich as it seems with a £1,700 membership fee.
Article by journalism.co.uk:
“The Financial Times has launched a social network for executives in the digital, new media and mobile industries.
Subscribers to the Telecoms, Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum, which costs £1,700-a-year before VAT to join, will have access to podcasts from FT conferences and be given a 12-month premium subscription to FT.com.
Today's launch shows the FT's development of subscription-based services to provide revenue as opposed to online advertising, Rona Fairhead, CEO of the Financial Times Group, told delegates at the FT's digital media and broadcasting conference.The forum is the first in a series of online networks to be launched by the paper with similar projects targeted at the property and luxury goods sectors planned for later this year.”
Original Link: http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/531090.php
Article by journalism.co.uk:
“The Financial Times has launched a social network for executives in the digital, new media and mobile industries.
Subscribers to the Telecoms, Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum, which costs £1,700-a-year before VAT to join, will have access to podcasts from FT conferences and be given a 12-month premium subscription to FT.com.
Today's launch shows the FT's development of subscription-based services to provide revenue as opposed to online advertising, Rona Fairhead, CEO of the Financial Times Group, told delegates at the FT's digital media and broadcasting conference.The forum is the first in a series of online networks to be launched by the paper with similar projects targeted at the property and luxury goods sectors planned for later this year.”
Original Link: http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/531090.php
Thursday, 21 February 2008
You Tube slams Google into submission
This is a very strange article, as how can Google be possibly in completion with YouTube, when Google own YouTube? Surely they should be happy about its new found popularity and they snapped the site up when they had the chance...
Found at functionpix.com
"Functionpix is the world's fastest growing independent freelance news and pictures organisation and the only organisation of it's kind to donate profits to charity with the sale of every itemYouTube has overtaken Google in the popularity stakes following data released on Alexa.com the world’s web ranking specialists.Alexa.com ranks websites according to their visitor traffic, Web 2.0 video sharing site Youtube.com has now overtaken Google.com as the world's second most visited website.
PRWeb cofirm that after noticing a massive spike in popularity and traffic at video sharing sites such as Youtube.com starting early last year, internet marketer and website traffic expert Kevin Riley decided to see for himself if online video had more than just entertainment value. "
Original Link: http://functionpix.com/index.php/article/You_Tube_slams_Google_into_submission/1704/
Monday, 11 February 2008
US Internet advertising worth $25.5 bln in 2007: IDC
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-REod22HljrOHzkIR-EDx9fe8og
"WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Internet ad spending rose 27 percent last year to 25.5 billion dollars, research firm IDC said Monday in a report that showed Google losing market share for the first time in two years.
The survey showed a 28 percent gain in the fourth quarter alone to 7.3 billion dollars, IDC said.
IDC also found that Google's net US market share declined for the first time in two years due to slower growth in domestic fourth-quarter sales.
The market leader's net US Internet advertising market share was down 0.5 percentage points to 23.7 percent last quarter.
Google's estimated net US Internet advertising sales excluding the cost of payments to partners in their networks grew by a little more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter, but its year-on-year growth rate in the quarter before had been 50 percent, IDC said.
"If a merger between Microsoft's new media business and Yahoo would come to pass, the combined entity would have a net US advertising market share of about 17 percent based on our fourth-quarter data," says Karsten Weide, program director for IDC.
"It would not quite bring Microsoft-Yahoo to where Google is in online advertising in the US, but it would give them a much better fighting chance than if they went it alone."
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Developers in garages seek Facebook acceptance
I have been reading a lot of Web magazines and online articles and I have been coming across this new (-to me, anyway) term "Facebook Garages" looks like a bunch of Facebook developers get to gather and talk about their ideas on applications that they have built for the popular platform.
Found at theage.com:
"To some, Facebook is a frivolous social forum, but Californian Lee Lorenzen regards it as "the lowest-cost customer acquisition vehicle on the planet".
A partner with Altura Ventures, Mr Lorenzen appeared via video at last month's Facebook Developers Garage meeting in Sydney. He told the gathering of Web 2.0 entrepreneurs that it took him nine years and "a lot of money" as CEO at Shop.com to get 500,000 registered users.
But then Facebook application iLike, from developer Rockyou, added 600,000 users in eight hours.
'Nine years versus eight hours - we knew there was something going on that was special inside the Facebook environment," Mr Lorenzen says. "This begs the question: which is more valuable - a user like those we had at Shop.com who came onto the site and registered, put in their email address and password and Shop.com was then able to talk to them from the website, or a Facebook user who primarily adds your application because a friend of theirs invites them? "If you break it down, there are a lot of steps required for a website registration compared to the one or two clicks required to install a Facebook app.'"
Original Source Link: http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/developers-in-garages-seek-facebook-acceptance/2008/02/04/1202090321339.html
Microsoft Bid Adds to Yahoo!'s Heaping Plate
Taken from The Street website:
http://www.thestreet.com/s/microsoft-bid-adds-to-yahoos-heaping-plate/newsanalysis/techstockupdate/10402183.html?puc=_googlen?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo!(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) already had its hands full when Microsoft(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) moved in for the kill.
The Internet giant now finds itself in an even more precarious position as it tries to hang on to its remaining talent and push the company forward.
Microsoft's $44.6 billion proposal to acquire the Internet giant came shortly after Yahoo! Chief Executive Jerry Yang announced he would be slashing 1,000 jobs amid a dismal outlook for 2008.
"To the extent that there's additional uncertainty with regard to the company's future, it will only create more challenges," says Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown, whose firm makes a market in both Yahoo! and its rival Google(GOOG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
Yahoo!'s shares have so far benefited from Microsoft's $44.6 billion proposal to acquire the Internet giant. The stock has jumped as much as 53% since last Friday, when Microsoft publicly revealed its desire to merge the two companies, despite being privately rebuffed by Yahoo! since 2006. Meanwhile, Microsoft's shares have dipped 7%."
http://www.thestreet.com/s/microsoft-bid-adds-to-yahoos-heaping-plate/newsanalysis/techstockupdate/10402183.html?puc=_googlen?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo!(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) already had its hands full when Microsoft(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) moved in for the kill.
The Internet giant now finds itself in an even more precarious position as it tries to hang on to its remaining talent and push the company forward.
Microsoft's $44.6 billion proposal to acquire the Internet giant came shortly after Yahoo! Chief Executive Jerry Yang announced he would be slashing 1,000 jobs amid a dismal outlook for 2008.
"To the extent that there's additional uncertainty with regard to the company's future, it will only create more challenges," says Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown, whose firm makes a market in both Yahoo! and its rival Google(GOOG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
Yahoo!'s shares have so far benefited from Microsoft's $44.6 billion proposal to acquire the Internet giant. The stock has jumped as much as 53% since last Friday, when Microsoft publicly revealed its desire to merge the two companies, despite being privately rebuffed by Yahoo! since 2006. Meanwhile, Microsoft's shares have dipped 7%."
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Microsoft's Yahoo bid aims at Web
It makes an unsolicited $44.6-billion offer for the struggling titan in a battle with Google for online supremacy.
"Acknowledging it can't beat Internet juggernaut Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. on Friday lashed its online fortunes to another Web also-ran with an unsolicited $44.6-billion bid for Yahoo Inc.
Microsoft and Yahoo, two of the world's most powerful technology companies, have each spent billions of dollars over the last half-decade trying to catch up to Google in the lucrative search-engine advertising business but still find themselves as far behind as ever.
When Yahoo's stock plunged to a four-year low this week, Microsoft pounced. It had been rebuffed by Yahoo before, but Friday's $31-a-share offer amounted to 62% more than the company's market value, and this time Microsoft publicly announced its intentions. Yahoo said it would consider the offer. "
Friday, 1 February 2008
Web 2.0 'neglecting good design'
I'm a little confused over this artical I was under the impression that web 2.0 was all about the user and the lastest W3c Standards... but here's an artical debating that point:
From BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
"Hype about Web 2.0 is making web firms neglect the basics of good design, web usability guru Jakob Nielsen has said.
He warned that the rush to make webpages more dynamic often meant users were badly served.
He said sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the "glossy but useless" sites at the height of the dotcom boom.
User tests
Describing Web 2.0 as the "latest fashion", Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.
Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.
Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.
"They should get the basics right first," he said. "Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right.""
From BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
"Hype about Web 2.0 is making web firms neglect the basics of good design, web usability guru Jakob Nielsen has said.
He warned that the rush to make webpages more dynamic often meant users were badly served.
He said sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the "glossy but useless" sites at the height of the dotcom boom.
User tests
Describing Web 2.0 as the "latest fashion", Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.
Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.
Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.
"They should get the basics right first," he said. "Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right.""
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