The Inquisitr » social networking

Next PlayStation 3 firmware update to include Facebook

Chris Greenhough — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:36:23 +0000

Sony has officially confirmed that Facebook will be integrated with the next major PlayStation 3 firmware update.

The company made the announcement on its PlayStation blog on the same day that Facebook arrived on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. I’m sure that’s just an unfortunate coincidence.

PlayStation 3 firmware update v3.10 will allow PS3 owners to link their PlayStation Network account to their Facebook account, meaning the console will automatically update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity, instantly embarrassing you if you play stuff like Haze.

Interestingly, developers will be able to add code to games that will publish additional game information to your News Feed.

No news on when this is arriving, but here’s a video:

[Via PlayStation Blog]

Xbox 360 getting Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM on November 17

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:43 +0000

The Xbox 360 dashboard update that will allow you access to Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM through your console goes live on Tuesday, November 17. That’s according to Marc Whitten, Xbox Live general manager. Here he is, doing some talking:

“We look at things like Facebook and Twitter as amazing social experiences, but also entertainment. We didn’t want to copy and paste from the PC. It’s going to be great for current users, but it’s also great for new users who can see who is on Facebook and get their first 30 friends on Live.”

Using Facebook on Microsoft’s console will allow gamers to convert their Facebook friends to Xbox 360 friends, a rather nifty Xbox 360-exclusive addition.

Yet, as VG247’s Stephany Nunneley points out, gamers may just be distracted by a few other trinkets on November 17. Check out what must be the strongest day of releases in some time:

Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
God of War Collection
Assassin’s Creed DS & PSP Bundle
LittleBigPlanet PSP
Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Tony Hawk: RIDE
Lego Indiana Jones 2

Just a bit good, eh?

[Via VG247]

Social media in a zombie apocalypse

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:44:20 +0000

Similar to the plot of Diary of the Dead, a College Humor post imagines that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, the spreading horror would be blowing up Twitter and Facebook.

Foursquare games Twitter, moves into local ads

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:02:05 +0000

Fledgling social networking site Foursquare has a new trick up its sleeve that may lure users from Twitter.

While Twitter has a strong foothold, a celebrity following and heavy media presence, Foursquare is poised to rapidly gain ground by connecting with local advertisers. Twitter is very organic, notorious for not having a business plan and lacking a clear way to check some cheddar. Clever Foursquare is strategically targeting local businesses in a bid to grow networks and get more users playing. The company recently hooked up with 8Coupons, which lacks the social nature of Foursquare- it will be interesting to see how that pans out. The competitive aspect is a draw as well- Robert Scoble posted about the addictive nature of getting points for doing the stuff you do normally, and becoming “mayor” of local bars and restaurants:

The game gives you points for doing various checkins. If you do a lot of checkins everyday you get more points. You also get badges (which are sort of like achievements on Xbox games) for doing various things. For instance, I checked in so much at the Half Moon Bay Ritz that I became the Mayor of that location. It’s a lot of fun and great bragging rights.

Yeah, still sounds lame, huh?

But I think this lame little location game is going to be bigger than Twitter.

Why? Because eventually businesses will learn that this is an even better way to engage with customers than Twitter is.

Why? Because when you know your customers location the way this game is going to let you know you can really do some wild offers.

He goes on to predict that it will be less than “400 days” before Oprah’s playing Foursquare.

Foursquare’s “for business” page highlights some examples of offers for users, with businesses often offering mayoral privileges like happy hour pricing or free beer. The reciprocal nature has an incredible amount of potential, because it really fires up users and businesses to connect as much as possible for maximum benefits and loyalty points- like a free coffee every so often at your local coffee shop. The more you use it, the more you get from it in terms of rewards on both sides of the equation. And the interface awards users with badges based on their socializing habits, some of which are city-specific. In NYC, there are badges like “Brooklyn 4 Life” after 25 checkins in BK, “Far Far Away” in the unlikely event anyone ventures above 59th Street and “I’m On A Boat,” which appears to be related to water proximity.

I have to admit to not using it much, though it seems to have a lot of promise. Long Island, full of bedroom communities to Manhattan, hasn’t been added to the network, so those of us who are city-local but telecommute have to watch from the sidelines for the time being. Which is a shame, because metro areas like this one have a lot of promise as far as venues go- but that also may change. When cash flowed into the start-up earlier this month, Foursquare announced plans to allow users to populate the venue listings. Where’s our “Amy Fisher” badge for too many trips to the Massapequa Mall?

The NFL social networking policy

Joshua Lobdell — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:33:33 +0000

Many people call the NFL the No Fun League, and that apparently is going to continue as the NFL today new rules for players and NFL officials concerning Social Networking. Many will say that the NFL is missing a golden opportunity to connect with new generations of NFL fans, and there may be a point to that. However the NFL doesn’t want to expose itself, employees, or players to potential lawsuits from Social Networking devices.

NFL players will continue to be allowed to use Social Networking sites and may even post on Twitter up to 90 minutes before a game. After the game players, coaches and Football operations personnel will have to follow standard NFL interview rules in their use of social networking sites.

All game officials and personnel working in the officiating department are banned for social networking sites. The NFL feels this is necessary to protect the integrity of the game. While these actions make the NFL seem to not understand the digital age in which we live. I don’t see how an official tweeting would ruin the integrity of the NFL game.

The league also extended its ban on play by play descriptions of games to cover all social networking platforms. Meaning Tweeters out there shouldn’t be tweeting play by play stuff about games in progress. The League is shutting off a very valuable marketing tool not only to itself but too its teams. It seems that having maybe one player, possibly a third string QB, or kicker tweeting about the game from the sidelines would be a popular feature for many existing NFL fans. Think about the new fans the NFL could draw in with such a tool.

Using Twitter and Facebook on Xbox Live is free (for people who pay)

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:58:45 +0000

Because social networking is what gets the kids hot under the collar nowadays, Microsoft revealed months ago that it would make Facebook and Twitter accessible on Xbox Live.

Which is great ‘n all, but would it be accessible to all Xbox Live users? Microsoft didn’t explain this during its original announcement in June. Today, however, it clarified things further to Joystiq, and – SURPRISE! – you’ll need to be a Gold member to use the new stuff. If you’re a lowly Silver peasant, you get a free trial of the new additions.

I’m a Gold member on Xbox Live myself, and I do like the service. With that said, my mind is boggled as to why Microsoft is making this a Gold subscriber exclusive – especially when the 360’s main competitor, the PS3, offers a totally free browser on which you can access Facebook, Twitter, and about a hojillion other sites. Brain … does not … compute.

Playing a Xbox 360 game over Xbox Live is a Gold subscriber privilege because that can be done nowhere else. Being able to surf and update Facebook and Twitter … that’s pretty much free everywhere.

[Via Joystiq]

Catholic Church claims using Facebook leads to suicide

Duncan Riley — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:02:54 +0000

The head of the Catholic Church in England is claiming that Facebook and other social networking sites are leading to teen suicide.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols claims that the rise of social networks means that teenagers aren’t developing real relationships (what he calls “transient relationships”) that could drive them to kill themselves

“Friendship is not a commodity, friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it’s right,” the ABC quoted him as saying. “I think there’s a worry that an excessive use, or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we’re losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together and building a community.”

The crux of his argument seems to be that teens are forgoing real world relationships for online ones. I don’t have the statistics to disprove him, and its likely that is some cases this may be true. The problem though with the line is that it’s a gross generalization that ignores both the good social networking offers, and the real underlying problems that are a cause of teen suicide.

Teens who find it difficult to make friends in real life don’t magically become suicidal due to Facebook; the problem is pre-existing. But many teens who may find it difficult to make friends in real life are able to connect online to others, to make new friends, and to actually gain some self worth. The internet allows them to connect to others like them, others who share their interests where they are unable to find people who do in their local community. For the Catholic Church to rally against this makes about as much sense as their stance on condoms and birth control; none. Indeed suggesting that teens who connect online don’t have real friendships is dangerous, and is far more likely to cause teen suicide than using Facebook or MySpace will.

Ning raises $15 million Series E on a $750 million valuation

Duncan Riley — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:41:36 +0000

White label social networking site Ning has raised $15 million Series E in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners on a book valuation of a neat $750 million.

Kara Swisher broke the news, reporting that Ning would use the money for further growth, although also quoted one of the VC’s saying that the round “was not a traditional fundraising effort, but more of an interest by Ning in adding a top VC to its investor pool and by Lightspeed in Ning’s hyper-growth.”

Ning has been highly successful, powering at a count late last year of over 750,000 social networks; Kara notes that Ning now claims to have 29.3 million registered users. The site is ranked 154 in Alexa and 208 according to Compete, putting it high up among the most popular sites online.

Some are questioning the valuation, but without knowing revenue it’s not a call I’d make. Instead the query is with the investment rate: $119 million over five rounds starting January 2007 is particularly high. Surely at the traffic Ning is pushing through, combined with a decent “premium” paid product offering they’d be profitable by now and the company wouldn’t need further investment. Ning is after all run by people who know how to make decent money from the beginning, unlike Facebook which has struggled for a long time.

Ning

MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:05:14 +0000

Abandon your MySpace account for Facebook? You might just be a racist.

At a keynote speech during New York’s Democracy forum at Lincoln Center, Danah Boyd spoke of the racial disparity and possible reasons for mass abandonment of MySpace for the “more cultured” and “less cheesy” social networking site Facebook. Boyd, a social media researcher for Microsoft and fellow of the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, stated:

“We might as well face an uncomfortable reality … what happened was modern day ‘white flight’.”

Boyd also observed that:

“The fact that digital migration is revealing the same social patterns as urban white flight should send warning signals to all of us. It should scare the hell out of us.”

Referring to MySpace as the “ghetto of the digital landscape,” Boyd indicated that MySpace users are more likely to be “brown or black” and espouse a different set of ideals in conflict with those espoused by the teens she surveyed over four years. She said that patterns in migration across social networking sites echoed those of a white exodus from cities in the past. Boyd also said that teens who use Facebook are more likely to condescend their MySpace-favoring peers.

“Any high school student who has a Facebook page will tell you MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious… like Peet’s is more cultured than Starbucks and jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop. And Macs are more cultured than PCs.”

Teens aren’t even the worst culprits when it comes to socio-economic social media judgment passing. The New York Observer cites a quote from Michael Wolff in an interview with BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine in December 2008:

“If you’re on MySpace now, you’re a [expletive] cretin. And you’re not only a [expletive] cretin, but you’re poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people.”

Boyd’s research indicated that the class divisions were likely to only worsen over time, as the media continues to portay MySpace as a seedy stomping ground for pedophiles and Facebook as a “utopian savior.” She contends:

“There’s a cultural wall between users. If there’s no way for people to communicate across the divide, you can never expect them to do so.”

[Image: Flickr]

Last.fm again denies snitching on us, CBS disses blogs

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:32:46 +0000

Sounding vaguely like a bunch of sleazy boyfriends, Last.fm & CBS want us to know that baby, they really, really didn’t have anything going on with the RIAA. And all that scrobbling, that was ours and it meant something and they would never, ever share it with someone who might sue us or our tweens for many thousands of dollars.

The debacle began when Universal Music Australia accidentally leaked tracks from the then-unreleased U2 album No Line on the Horizon. At the time, rumors flew across the blogosphere that the RIAA was demanding (and receiving) scrobbling data from Last.fm to grass up P2P hooligans (with questionable taste in old-dude rock.)

When allegations of data sharing between Last.fm, parent company CBS and the RIAA were first raised in February, denials were issued all around to anyone who would listen- infused with outrage that we would even suspect such a thing. True or not, it kind of reminded everyone that a lot of what we send out into the internet ether could land up somewhere, stick, and come back to bite us on the ass someday.

The story resurfaced this week after a blog previously accused of fabricating Last.fm stories went for a second round. In response, CBS issued yet another statement to Ars Technica yesterday denying any and all canoodling with the RIAA. And the RIAA backed up their alleged BFF CBS, as rep Cara Duckworth coyly told Ars that ”we’ve made no such request for this information.” (Hmmm… that’s kind of… vague.)

And charmingly, CBS had this to say to the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Blog:

…those who consult such blogs should be aware of the standard by which such postings are sourced and published.

Because we all know the best way to get bloggers to trust and believe you is to attack their credibility.

Why “Social” Works

Rob Diana — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:43:44 +0000

In the past few years, we have seen the explosion of “social”. Obviously, lots of people ask why. I feel that a lot of it boils down to simple human nature. People are social beings, regardless of their tendency towards introversion or extroversion. Introverts are social, just on a smaller scale, maybe even just one-on-one interactions. Everyone knows that extroverts are social, because everyone talks to them at some point during a party. On the internet, “social” is a little different. “Social” means the connections you make with friends and acquaintances on various sites on the internet. These sites could be social news like Digg, Mixx, etc. It could also be a social network like Facebook orLinkedIn. There are also lifestreaming and aggregation sites to combine your activity into one location.

Why has there been this explosion of all things social? Because social works. Obviously, this is a little light on detail, but that is also the reason I am writing a series of posts on the success of “social”. There are various reasons why social works, and social works for different reasons on different types of sites. What works for a social news site may not work for a social lifestreaming site.

Microsoft and the Business of the Social Media Web

Steven Hodson — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:20:38 +0000

Earlier today I wrote a post here about the introduction of the open source blogging platform called Oxite by Microsoft. Ya, I know people are having a real hard time comprehending using Microsoft and Open Source in the same sentence but miracles can happen. Anyway, this got me thinking about Microsoft, open source, social media and whether they can really make any in-roads with the software we use to build and use social media services.

The simple answer I think is – they won’t.

The full answer is a little more complex because while it may seem that there are different pieces of the puzzle to figure out they are really just distractions. After all Microsoft has been making a lot of really good moves along it’s traditional lines of developer involvement.

They have done things like make Visual Studio Express available for free which makes entry into designing services easy. They have embraced things like AJAX and Javascript from within those developer tools. Heck they have even made an Express version of Microsoft SQL so that we can have the desperately need database component to these services.

However all this is fine until it comes time to take those services live or to use platforms based on software built using Microsoft tools. It all comes down to one critical part of this equation – the database.

I would estimate that about 99% of all social media related services and apps are built on non-Microsoft platforms. Whether they be PHP, Django, Ruby on Rails or some other obscure language they are all dealing with databases and the most popular is MySQL.

It’s not that MySQL is better that Microsoft SQL Server; most heavy duty database people will argue over this, it is the fact that it is free. Microsoft SQL Server isn’t. Now this might not seem like much of a big deal to just the average user of Social Media services but for the developers and hosting companies running these services it is.

Ask anyone who has gone looking for even the simplest of hosting services. You have two choices. You can go with Linux based servers running MySQL for a certain price or you can go for servers running Windows for a slightly higher price and have to pay extra for the MS SQL Server access.

Granted the Windows servers are more expensive right off the bat because host (and developers) have all those Windows license to pay for. That kind of cost though gets spread out; but the cost of MS SQL Server is a per seat (per client). This means that hosting companies (or developers) have to pay for how many people will connect to the SQL database.

Sure Microsoft has made an Express version of SQL Server available for free but this like the dev tools is geared more for the hobbyist or; I believe, non-profits. It isn’t the same deal for development for money – even in social media where everything is suppose to be free.

I remember when social networking and social media were just starting to gain traction and hearing of terms like LAMP; which meant Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. With the installation of one single package you had all the tools you needed; for free, to get yourself up and running with a new service idea.

This wasn’t the case if you wanted to go with any of the Microsoft platforms. The big hold back though as far as I am concerned for any broad adoption of social media services built on Microsoft tools is the database. It’s expensive and sometime prohibitively so.

Let’s come a bit of a circle. Now we have Microsoft making some serious noises around things like cloud computing and blogging platforms. With Oxite being made open source it is an open invitation for bloggers; and developers, to seriously consider them as an alternative; but it won’t work.

Unless you are already an establish blogging network; or a solo blogger making good money, having to pay extra for Windows hosting is hard enough. Add on the extra cost hosting companies will charge for MS SQL access and well – it won’t work.

Now just imagine the cost that developers of social media services will incur both through the development phase of their project. Top that off with the running costs of all those connections to the database and it makes no sense; unless you have a lot of money behind you and a solid business plan for making money. Given that most social media projects are just a wing and a prayer it makes no sense.

So what can Microsoft do to change this?

Oxite and other moves that have made are a great start but if they really wanted to make this a game changer they need to set SQL Server free. I’m not suggesting that in all cases; after all it is one of their best cash cows and it powers a shitload of business. What I am saying is make a good rock solid version freely available to web hosts and developers. Not the Express version with its limitations but a version without any limitations.

I really think that if Microsoft was to do this they could really change the business of social media on the web.

What do you think?

Blog Community Widgets Need to Work Together

Rob Diana — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:14:11 +0000

Recently, we have seen the public release of Google FriendConnect and Facebook Connect. As a result of this, there is a massive land grab on all blogs. Which widget are you installing? Some people say you should install the Facebook widget because it basically opens things up to the whole social network. Others say that Google’s is easier to use and everyone uses at least one Google service.

As usual, I take a different look at things. First, I hate the widgets. I already have a MyBlogLog widget so that other bloggers can see what other bloggers are reading my blog. Does anyone remember that Yahoo owns MyBlogLog? Should we expect to see Yahoo marketing the MyBlogLog widget as their answer to the Google and Facebook offerings? If Yahoo was smart, yes, they would attack this point. The MyBlogLog widget is way cooler than anything that Google and Facebook have on the table. There is also the Blog Catalog widget which I have yet to install. Blog Catalog is another “blogger widget” in the same mold as the one from MyBlogLog.

A Safari Through China’s Social Web

Jonathan Gosier — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:00:05 +0000

So this weekend I’ve been exploring the Chinese social web from here in Uganda. With the aid of translate.google.com, a few Firefox translation extensions and my knowledge of PHP and HTML, I’ve managed to do pretty good. How does knowing a little code help? Well often at the bottom of these sites, you’ll find that they are actually coded using common english terms like ’settings’, ‘login’ and ‘pass’. Just knowing how to look, where to look and when to look saved me hours.

My experiment was to prove that despite the fact that I know ZERO Chinese, good UI and basic knowledge would still allow me to create accounts on some of the biggest Chinese social networks and successfully communicate. Not entirely hard but none of these sites have translations into any other language at all and a few of them use code that couldn’t be parsed by Google because it was called with iframes or Ajax, this definitely made things tricky. Still, things went smoothly, here are the sites I visited.

Read the rest of this post at App+frica.

Part post syndicated with permission of the site owner

No related posts.

Prove how uncool you are – be a Microsoft fan

Steven Hodson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:42:06 +0000

In a world of Web 2.0 and Googlemania there is almost one thing that seems to be universally accepted by everyone involved – Microsoft is uncool and evil. Plus, anyone who professes even the slightest bit of liking the company and its products is uncool and makes Homer look smart. This attitude has been around for a long time and I will be among the many that agree that Microsoft has made some serious mistakes in the past. Since the invasion of Google and their do no evil mantra the anti-Microsoft forces have had another company to gather around. After all Google was a great company full of idealistic people willing to take on the ultimate giant of the software world. So what wasn’t there to like – right?

Then along comes the whole Web 2.0 movement and its offspring; the social networks and the newer social media crew, and once again Microsoft becomes the object of ridicule. To these goody two shoes proponents of all that is goodness and light in our computing world Microsoft was old school, a monolithic leftover that needed to be put out of its misery ASAP. It doesn’t matter to these anti-MS hound dogs that much of what they are doing these days is nothing more than the re-invention; or re-working, of stuff that can be traced back to Microsoft or programs that were influenced by the company.

In this so-called new world of Web 2.0 and its spin-offs the idea that anyone would still be a fan of Microsoft or its products is cause for instant derision and howls of laughter. It doesn’t matter that this is a company that has a yearly R&D budget; currently at $7 Billion, that is more than most of these self-righteous upstart companies can hope to make with their everything for free business plans. It doesn’t matter that if it wasn’t for Microsoft the idea of personal computers; and fancy assed laptops, wouldn’t be where it is. Chances are we would still be in a mainframe world or mortgaging our homes to buy some Apple computer.

Nowhere is this better than thou attitude prevalent than on the web or more specifically social media as pointed out today by Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.com when she wrote

First of all, Microsoft does not have the right image in the web crowd to try and pretend it can offer the web population a social network that will become popular. It is simply not cool here to think Microsoft is cool in any way. I myself tend to think that there are some things in which Microsoft is pretty cool but every time I try to mention them, I get tons of criticism.

The latest example was when I tried to mention a few things about Google’s Chrome browser that were described by media people as innovative and introduced by Google into web browsing but were in fact present in other browsers – including Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 beta. As a result of even trying to compare I got dozens of angry comments insisting that even if Microsoft was ahead of Google introducing this or that thing into web browsing experience, Microsoft still was evil while Google was the best company in the world that should never be criticized at all.

While she was commenting more on the announcement of Microsoft launching the Windows Live as a social networking site; which Duncan wrote about here at The Inquisitr, her point about Microsoft not being cool is right on the money. I have been using Microsoft products for a very long time; through the good and the bad, and I have pretty well seen all of the negative attitude about the company. It has always been an easy target for people to shoot against through the years and now is no different.

Whether it was something as inanely stupid as using the ‘$’ in place of the letter ’s’ in the company name through to the admittedly brilliant Apple ads Microsoft has attracted much criticism. Even myself I have been among the first to slap the company around if I feel they have done something wrong but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a company that is constantly innovating across a wide spectrum of software fields.

It is only recently though that I believe that the company is truly beginning to turn the battleship around. Some pundits have suggested that it either won’t be able to or that it won’t be able to do it quick enough. The problem is that these people are trying to apply a different set of companies rules to Microsoft. Admittedly the company isn’t a startup that is capable of switching gears in mid-stride but don’t be stupid; or naive, to assume that a company like Microsoft can’t turn itself around. That would be a bet I really believe you would lose.

The fact is that it doesn’t matter if Microsoft is cool or not. Being cool doesn’t pay the shareholders their dividends; especially if you are just a startup looking only to be bought up as your payout. Microsoft is all about delivering software that works for anyone that wants to use it – not just a bunch small market geeks with a book of javascript by their keyboards.

When push comes to shove I have a great respect for Microsoft because in the end this is a company that has had an immense impact on our computing lives and to me that is cool. Under its new leadership Microsoft is turning the tables and proving many a pundit fanboy wrong and that I think is cool. Not having to count the so-called Monster of Redmond down for the count is in my opinion pretty cool.

So you keep on switching the letter ’s’ for ‘$’ and poking fun at what ever the company does and you can even call me uncool as you want but I couldn’t care less. I am looking forward to where Microsoft is going and I’ll bet we will be seeing a lot of surprises coming from Redmond for years to come.

Social Media Marketers Join Forces

JR — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:21:29 +0000

A new acquisition will form what’s being billed as the “world’s largest independent social media marketing” company.

Social Media Group has bought out Livingston Communications for an undisclosed amount. Both companies work to help businesses understand and maximize social networking from a marketing perspective.

“Now I get to do what I like, and pass the bills, HR matters and computer problems to [them],” Livingston CEO Geoff Livingston explains in his blog entitled “Top 10 Reasons Why I Sold Out.”

Livingston will become executive VP of SMG’s American operations, heading up the company’s Washington, D.C. offices. The newly merged organization will also keep its offices in Toronto and Calgary, Canada. The deal is expected to be finalized next month.

Trusera Brings Medicine to Social Networking

JR — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:12:55 +0000

A new health-centric social network wants to let you evaluate a medical procedure before you ever walk into a doctor’s office.

Trusera, just launched today, lets users share specific healthcare experiences for others’ benefits. The site also features member endorsements to give more weight to beneficial posts. The service centers around the theme of “The Power of Been There” and does not attempt to compete with services like the recently launched Google Health, which focus on personal health records rather than shared medical experiences.

Formed by a one-time Amazon exec, Trusera is already full of personal stories and insights. Search for “surgery,” for example, and you’ll find dozens of recollections — both positive and negative — about everything from knee replacements to breast cancer-related procedures.

The site requires you to fill out a short form to request a membership, but the services inside are free and ad-supported.

Social Network Bans Older Users

JR — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:52:46 +0000

A British social networking site has banned users over the age of 36 in an effort to keep kids safe from sex offenders. Uh, yeah.

Apparently, Faceparty believes that being any older than 36 means you pose a serious risk of trying to molest teens. I’m not sure why 36 is the magic number — I guess someone 35 is unlikely to have an interest in pre-teens, whereas someone 37 is inclined to start cybersexing up all the middle schoolers. Here’s how the site’s administrators explain it:

“We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which. We can only delete all to make the site safe and we apologise for that. However, we are following the law and you cannot think we are wrong for doing that.”

The law in question is the UK’s Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which could eventually require sex offenders to register their email addresses with the government. The law does not, however, say anything about imposing an age limit on social networking sites or any other kind of internet services.

By Faceparty’s logic, we probably also ought to prevent anyone older than 19 from going into convenience stores, because they might rob them. I understand that only a minority of older patrons are robbers, but we can’t possibly tell which.

Nice one, Faceparty. Nice.