(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Tameka Kee *)

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE United States (HSUS) has partnered with Makena Technologies to launch an interactive campaign at There.com. HSUS will use branded virtual and real world merchandise, as well as live events to raise awareness and funds in the fight against animal cruelty.

The effort is a departure from HSUS' typical marketing campaigns, which are geared toward the 50+ demographic. By establishing a presence in There.com, the organization is aiming squarely at the 20- to-30-year-old market.

There.com members can purchase HSUS merchandise for their avatars--and even acquire the corresponding real-life version at the HSUS storefront, connecting real merchandise to virtual sales.

"We are always looking for new ways to celebrate animals and confront cruelty; and working with There.com to take animal protection into the virtual world reaches a new audience with a message of compassion," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.

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(* Source: Max Zabramny *)

Design your own USB blank cassette just like the old mix tapes. All for around 40 bucks.

http://www.makeamixa.com/

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(* Source : Mike Shields *)

As news organizations slash budgets and scale back bureaus, CNN is expanding—except not in real life.

In the week of Nov. 5, the news giant is set to open a news-gathering outpost in Second Life. And unlike news service Reuters, which embedded a real reporter in the online virtual world last year, CNN will rely on Second Life "residents" to do all the legwork.

In the space, the network will create a variation of its i-Reports, the real-world vehicle through which average citizens contribute eyewitness reports. CNN will equip Second Life denizens with kits enabling them to transmit copy and photos. Visitors to Second Life will be able to get the latest news via kiosks scattered throughout the virtual community.

And the network will act as a sort of journalism school, offering guidance to avatar citizen journalists via weekly "news meetings" directed by CNN.com staffers. And top CNN personalities including Larry King will conduct virtual training sessions for budding cyber journalists.

Given that Second Life users tend to be highly passionate about the virtual space, CNN execs believe the community will embrace user-generated journalism—more than they would embrace simply repurposed content.

"We looked at what are people doing [in Second Life] that is meaningful to what we do," said Susan Grant, executive vp of CNN News Services. "I love that we don't have to take things from the real world and force them in."

As for whether the world of Second Life will generate news events worthy of reporting, i-Report producer Lila King is not concerned. After all, visitors to the online world include news-making personalities like Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who most recently had the public guessing whether he'd jump into the presidential race (he hasn't).

CNN's association with Second Life comes at a time when the digital phenomenon is awash in media hype but still far from cracking the mainstream. Its unique user base has hovered between 400,000 and 700,000 per month over the last year, according to Nielsen Online, and has twice fallen below the research firm's minimum reporting threshold.

More here 

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(* Source : Webware.com *)

Jessica Dolcourt says :

Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.

Today they announced a prize even grander the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.

Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shout out on the website instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."

In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.

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(* Source : Caroline McCarthy *)

On Monday, MTV Networks is set to unveil an initiative to connect its television, online, and mobile presences by helping music fans answer that crucial question--"Who the (expletive) sings that song?"

In other words, MTV Networks, the Viacom division that encompasses the MTV, VH1, and CMT brands as well as a host of other pop culture channels, is aiming to renew its focus on music by bringing lyrics to the forefront. This will begin rolling out in November and is expected to be complete by the middle of 2008.

On television, several of the networks' existing music-related programs will start to incorporate "lyrics and the artists' inspirations for their words" into their structure, and all three channels will air a new "Name That Tune" series, according to a release from MTV Networks.

Online, the networks' Web sites will feature lyrics search data from digital music database Gracenote, accompanied by multimedia artist information, trivia games, and a link to purchase the song in question--which will undoubtedly be tied into MTV Networks' Rhapsody-powered music store when that launches. And in the mobile space, curious music fans will be able to text-message inquiries (an artist's name, song name, or snippet of lyric) to a SMS code and receive a link to a mobile Web site containing data pertaining to the song and artist.

This is a potentially lucrative move for MTV Networks, which has not only struggled to bring its pop culture influence to the Web but has also fallen from some music fans' favor as its networks increasingly prioritize reality shows. Unlicensed lyrics sites are currently facing incipient copyright scrutiny--not to mention the fact that there's no such thing as a Google Lyrics Search.

Not yet, at least.

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(* Source : Timesonline *)

Nigel Kendall says :

The video games industry was told yesterday: “Television used to be accused of corrupting the youth of today. Now you are.”

David Mitchell, the TV comedian, was talking to 750 representatives of the industry at the 25th Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by public vote. In that quarter of a century, Mitchell observed, video games have gone from “being a few dots dancing around a TV screen to a full-on film that you are in”.

Generations of creative Britons who once dreamt of making films and cracking Hollywood are now just as likely to seek fame and fortune in the video games industry.

Tom Dowding, 25, is a graduate in computer science from Bristol University. He has been playing games since he was 10 and last year set up Mobile Pie, a developer of games for mobile phones. His efforts were rewarded at the Golden Joysticks with a prize of £2,500 and a work placement with Electronic Arts, one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Mr Dowding’s winning game is called Let It Grow.

“You install it on your mobile phone, then, using your phone camera, you nurture it and make it grow,” he said. “Then you post your growing flower on Facebook.” He has licensed the game to a distributor.

For many would-be developers, mobile phones offer a way of making games and minimising expense on programming. A leading game, such as the recent Halo 3, can cost $70 million (£34 million) to develop and a mobile game a fraction of that. The possible rewards are vast. Halo 3 outstripped many blockbuster films in the week that it went on the market, generating sales of $300 million.

Video games have quietly overtaken older entertainment forms such as films and popular music. According to the latest figures from Elspa, the industry body, game software sales in Britain for the first half of 2007 were £519 million, 17 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2006.

More here 

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(* Source : Timesonline *)

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

PanRaven has teamed up with Universal Mowtown Records to create a promotional story for Nelly, who’s getting ready to release his first album in 3 years, “Brass Knuckles.” You may remember that PanRaven is an online tool for creating stories, similar to scrap-booking services like ScrapBlog.

With this particular partnership, a story of Nelly’s filming of the video for his most recent Single “Wadsyaname” is being published on PanRaven’s website, as well as Nelly’s website and MySpace profile. PanRaven is also promoting the story through its Facebook application. The story contains exclusive, behind the scenes footage from the filming of a music video.

And in an effort to encourage users to virally spread this promotion, PanRaven and Universal are holding a contest. The person that spreads the promotion the furthest and widest across the web will win a trip to a future filming session of a Nelly video. The runner-up gets some autograhped merchandise. Not too shabby, as far as prizes go. Kanye West, 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen have all held similar promotions on MySpace in recent weeks.

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(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

MyItThings, which is a user-generated lifestyle magazine of sorts, will soon be offering a widget for your Wish List and Virtual Closet, which can be placed on other websites, blogs and social networking profiles, like MySpace and Facebook. A few of these widgets are holiday-themed, so MyItThings is taking advantage of the holiday season and letting you spread some Christmas cheer (i.e. your gift list).

The new widget is powered by Clearspring,so you know there are easy sharing options, including embed code for a variety of social networks and blogging platforms. Wishpot and Glimpse have similar wishlists and widget-sharing options as well.

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(* Source : Brian Hiatt *)

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Guitar Hero may well be this decade's biggest rock & roll phenomenon. Guitar Hero I and II have grossed $360 million since the first game came out in 2005 -- vastly more than any album released in the same period. And the games -- in which players re-create songs' guitar parts by pushing buttons that correspond to notes and chords while hitting a "strum bar" in rhythm -- have inspired kids by the millions to memorize the intricacies of "Free Bird" and "War Pigs." One measure of the games' clout: MTV purchased Harmonix for $175 million last year, and video-game giant Activision paid $99.9 million to acquire RedOctane, the company that owns the Guitar Hero name and manufactured the game's guitar- shaped controllers.

With MTV and Activision unwilling or unable to collaborate, the franchise's future has split in two: Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -- a straightforward sequel with a few twists, including a new "battle mode" -- hits stores October 28th, while Harmonix's Rock Band -- which adds drums and vocals to the formula -- comes out November 23rd. Analysts say that the market is big enough for both games to succeed (music games represent about eight percent of the U.S. video-game market, according to the research group NPD) -- so their near-simultaneous releases could become the music event of the year.

More here 

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(* Source : David Radd

Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."

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(* Source : Daksh Sharma *) 

One of the main topics here at Mashable has always been social networking. In the past several years, some networks have thrived, some vanished, while hundreds of new ones appeared. It has become a huge area to follow, and this article illustrates this well: a collection of over 350 social networking sites, all of which were covered in one way or another here at Mashable. We hope to have created an extensive and useful resource for anyone interested in social networking. Enjoy.

Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources.

Books

Americabookshelf.com - One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.

BooksConnect - A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.

BookCrossing.com - A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.

Bookhopper.co.uk - Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.

Bookins.com - Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.

BookMooch.com - An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.

Booksalescout.com - Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.

Bookswim.com - Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.

ConnectViaBooks - A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.

GoodReads - GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.

PaperBackSwap.com - Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.

Pazap.com - A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.

Read It Swap It - A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.

Revish - Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.

Shelfari - Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.

Socialbib - Book swapping network between students.

Business Networking & Professionals

AdvisorGarage - It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.

ArtBreak - ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.

Blogtronix - Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.

Commutal - Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.

CompanyLoop - An online co-working community for global businesses.

ConnectBeam - Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.

Decorati - An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.

DoMyStuff - A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.

Doostang - An invite only career community for professionals.

Fast Pitch - It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.

iKarma Inc. - iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.

ImageKind - ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.

Jambo - Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.

Jigsaw - An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.

Konnects - Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.

Lawyrs - A professional social networking community for lawyers.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.

mediabistro.com - mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.

Pairup.com - Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.

Ryze.com - A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.

Spoke.com - Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.

Visible Path - Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.

WebCrossing Neighbors - It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.

XING - XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.

Family

Amiglia - A family networking service enabling users to connect to family members by publishing and sharing family trees, photos etc.

CafeMom - CafeMom is a social networking site for mothers to connect and share thoughts with each other.

Cingo - Cingo users connect with each other to organize their family life.

CommonGate - A social networking platform that enables users to create their own social network for their friends, family or organization.

Family 2.0 - Family 2.0 helps you create your own family social network, you can add family members, send personalized emails and create event alerts.

Famiva - A premier social network to connect with family members and relatives in a secure environment.

Famster - A private secure social network for family members.

Geni.com - An exciting social networking site enabling members to create their family tree. Although it’s a relatively new site, it has grown tremendously fast, and has hundreds of thousands of users.

Genoom - Genoom creates a meeting place for its site users. They can create a family network by inviting their relatives and discover their past memories.

Kincafe - An ideal social network for families to connect with their beloved ones.

Kinzin - Kinzin is an online meeting place for families to share family events, photos, stories and recipes.

MayasMoM - A family networking site for parents.

Minti - A collaborative parenting site.

MomJunction - MomJunction allows mothers to find reliable answers to questions, create private spaces with friends and build communities.

MothersClick - MothersClick connects mothers in a neighborhood with each and provides parenting advice to them.

myfamily.com - An excellent way to connect with your family members.

OneGreatFamily.com - An online shared database with combined knowledge and data at a single place.

OurStory.com - OurStory enables users to share stories of their families with others.

Parentography - A social network offering advice and advice for families.

The Family Post - A sharing network for communication with family members.

Friends

43 Things - A tagging based social networking site. Users create accounts and list a number of goals or hopes and these are parsed based on similarity to goals of other users.

Amitize.com - Amitize is a worldwide friendship network.

aSmallWorld - aSmallWorld is a private online community designed for individuals who would like to connect, re-connect to share similar thoughts with each other.

Badoo.Com - Badoo is a dynamic multi-lingual social networking site with innovative photo and video features that allows its users worldwide to gain an instant mass audience and interact both locally and globally.

Bebo - Bebo is a hugely popular site (especially in the UK), and similar in philosophy to MySpace. It allows users to communicate with their friends in multiple ways including blogging, sending messages and posting pictures.

Eons - An online gathering place for the elderly; most of the users are over the age of 50 years.

Facebook.com - Facebook is a social networking phenomenon connection people with their friends, family and other users with similar interests.

Faceparty - A UK based community social networking website. It started for youngsters but has now risen to popularity among all age groups.

Flingr - Flingr allows users to connect with all categories of friends – colleagues, college mates and school buddies.

Friendster - It is a popular global social network for finding new friends and developing friendships as well as searching old friends.

hi5 - Hi5 is a prominent social networking service in India with over 40 million users. However, Hi5 has recently experienced an upsurge beyond India and has shown increasing popularity in EU too.

Lovento - Lovento allows you to discover news friends and also find information about latest events.

Multiply.com - Multiply is a social networking website providing easy way to share digital media which includes photos, videos and music.

Mycool - Mycool enables members to find and share their interests with special groups.

MySpace.com - MySpace is an interactive social networking website consisting of personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. It’s currently the biggest social networking site out there, and while it might not be the most advanced one, the users seem to love its simplicity.

NetFriendships.com - A comprehensive social networking site enabling users to make new online friends and discover old ones.

Netlog - A social community of more than 20 million young Europeans.

Orkut - Orkut is a social networking service owned by Google. It enables users to meet new friends and create communities.

Passado - Passado is Europe’s no.1 re-union website connecting members with friends from school to workplace.

Piczo - Piczo offers safe social networking environment to youngster around the world. Piczo users can design their personal website with photos, videos etc. and share it with their friends.

Plazes - A social networking website for connecting with local users.

Pownce.com - Pownce is a mix of social networking and microblogging. It enables users to send messages, files, events and links with each other.

ProfileHeaven.com - A UK based social networking site for teenagers.

reunion.com - A leading online service for discovering old friends, classmates and family members.

Vox.com - Vox is a social blogging service where users share their ideas, photos, videos with family and friends.

Xanga - Xanga is one of the biggest social networking platforms with features of sharing photos, photos and videos.

XuQa - An online college social networking site with poker gaming features.

Hobbies & Interests

ActionProfiles.com - It is social networking community for sports and action. The features of the website are profiles of users with photographs and videos, reviews of products and job discussion boards.

Arts community - Arts community provides a dynamic community experience by providing extensive listing of exhibitions, events and openings.

BeGreen - BeGreen is a community that aims to generate environmental awareness for users.

beRecruited - beRecruited is a dedicated online community for sportpersons and coaches.

BottleTalk - BottleTalk is a wine lover’s community making it easy for members to share their drinking experiences.

CarGurus - An automobile community website enabling users to post car reviews, photos and share opinions.

Change - Change is a nonprofit social networking website that connects like minded users and allows them to exchange information.

ChangingThePresent - A nonprofit fund raising community with membership of over 400 nonprofits.

ChickAdvisor - ChickAdvisor is a sharing community for women users.

CircleUp - CircleUp is one of the best community website connecting users to groups, clubs for knowledge sharing, information exchange.

Coastr - Coastr connects beer lovers with each other.

ColShare - ColShare is a community for people who have hobby of collecting items like coins, stamps etc.

coRank - A rating community for users to share interesting information on internet.

DailyStrength - A huge community of over 500 groups dealing with health issues and various medical challenges.

Dundoo - Dundoo enables users to create image collages out of social networking profile. A big amount of ads on the site somewhat diminishes the overall impression.

Flixster - Flixster is a community for movie lovers.

FuelEmpire - FuelEmpire brings automobile enthusiasts together at one place.

GirlSense - A community for girls to promote their fashion designs & creations.

Greenvoice - An online networking platform for people who are conscious about the environment, who want to inform each other on environmental issues and create a difference.

iYomu - iYomu is an adult social networking website and it allows users to search for site members who have similar interests or for business needs.

Motortopia - Motortopia is community for automobile lovers. It consists of passionate lovers of bikes, planes, cars and boats etc.

MyCatSpace - MyCatSpace is a community for lovers of cats passionate to share experiences of their cats with others.

MyDogSpace - MyDogSpace users can share their dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.

Uniteddogs - A social networking website for dog owners. The dog owners can creae profiles of their dogs, create blogs and share their thoughts.

vSocial - vSocial is a video based social networking platform allowing content owners, site operators to deliver the message online with video.

Language

15+ Language Communities

Media (Photo, Video & Audio)

25+ Video Sharing Services

30+ Photo Sharing Services

20+ Music Sharing Services

Buzdeo - Buzdeo provides secure video sharing service with friends and family.

Fotki - A photo sharing service enabling users to connect with friends.

Fotolog - A big online photo sharing community.

Music

Asoboo - Asoboo is a sharing network for cultural artists from around the world.

BandChemistry - A network for musicians uniting music bands all over.

BandWagon - BandWagon is a music community website for music fans to manage their web pages, profiles, videos and music.

CrackSpace - A common place for fans of hip-hop music.

Moob - A dedicated community of hip-hop fans.

MOG - An online community powering site members to discover music and music lovers.

Mobile

CrackBerry - A community dedicated to BlackBerry users.

Dodgeball - A New York based service facilitating social interactions through mobile phones.

Friendstribe.com - A mobile phone based social networking site.

GotZapp - A mobile social network for sharing images, audio and graphics with your friends’ mobile phones.

Groovr - An ultimate mobile social networking site for staying connected with friends. It is compatible with iPhone.

Jaiku - Jaiku is essentially a microblogging service with an SMS gateway, very similar to Twitter. They’ve recently been acquired by Google.

Loopt - Loopt is a cool mobile based friend locator website. It uses GPS to show its users the location of friends by updating maps on mobile handset.

Mixxer - Mixxer enables users to content on their mobile with site members.

Mobango - A mobile community service powering users to search for user generated music content, videos and other data.

Mozes - Mozes enables members to connect & socialize with each other through mobile phones.

Partysync - Partysync helps users to interact with people using mobiles.

Peepsnation - Peepsnation allows users with similar interests to connect with each other on location basis.

Rabble - A location based social networking service for mobile phone users.

Socialight - Socialight is a mobile based social networking site where users share their travel experiences with other mobile users.

Wattpad - A mobile phone social networking platform allowing users to discover, read and share their stories with each others.

Shopping

18 Sites for Social Shopping and Deals

3LUXE - A community generated product research site.

AgentB - A common place to find out the best shopping deals on internet.

bringsome.com - A global goods delivery platform enabling community members to assist each other with access to best items from across the world.

boxedup.com - Boxedup.com users add their favorite products to their list and share it with others.

CoWorkersAds - An online marketplace listing allowing site members to discover and sell items among coworkers community.

iliketotallyloveit.com - A user generated marketplace where users submit cool products.

MyItThings.com - A user generated magazine for shopping.

MyStore.com - A social market place for buyers and sellers.

Productwiki.com - ProductWiki is a common place for users to share information about consumer products.

RedFlagDeals.com - RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most popular shopping community which offers huge discounts to site users.

Sale Grab - SaleGrab is a social shopping site for best sales and discount deals.

Shoppero - Shoppero offers profit sharing to site users for writing product reviews.

Smashing Darling - A collaborative market place connecting buyers and sellers at one place.

Social BookMarking

50+ Social Bookmarking Sites

Students

AlumWire - AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.

B4Class - A social network for high school and college students.

Campusbug - A college student social networking website.

CampusRank - CampusRank members select and rate their old school friends and group them into various categories.

College.com - An online community for college students.

CollegeMedium.com - A student classifieds website for buying and selling items, jobs search etc.

College Tonight - A great place to meet fellow college students and alumni.

DormItem.com - A local classifieds listings for schools in various cities.

Graduates.com - A social networking site assisting graduate school students to stay in touch post completion of course.

Half.com - A leading student market place for buying and selling textbooks at discounted prices.

iHipo - An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.

LocalSchools - A networking site connecting students with local US colleges and universities.

Pazap.com - A student trading site for buying and selling on-campus books with other students.

Quizilla - Quizilla is a social network for young teens.

RateMyProfessor.com - RateMyProfessor connects students aspiring to study similar courses by assisting each other.

Student.com - Student.com is a big online community for college students, high school students and teens with around 1,000,000 members.

Studentbid.com - Studentbid.com is a student market place for sales and purchase of items without any fees.

StudentSN.com - A social network allowing users to create home pages with contact information, personal information and photo albums.

Uloop.com - Uloop allows students to trade textbooks, promote community events and do host of other activities.

Travel & Locals

Amicoz.com - Amicoz is slightly different from conventional social networking sites; it doesn’t have some of the common features found on socnets. It is dedicated to assist users in sharing their travel experiences, nothing more, nothing less.

Citizenbay - Citizenbay is a user community for discovering local information.

CityTherapy - CityTherapy is an easy way to find and share places of interest (restaurant, bars) in Europe.

CouchSurfing - A global travel network connecting travelers with local communities.

fatdoor.com - A fun and an interactive way to connect with the folks from your neighborhood online.

Going.com - A fun way to interact with people locally.

iloho - An online travel community with similarity to social bookmarking services like digg.

MatchActivity - A site connecting people on the basis of their activities. Users can find things to do and join people in their area.

Matador - A travel based social network with an integrated blogging service.

myTripbook.com - myTripbook.com is a place for people who want to share their travel experiences through photos, videos and blogging with others.

OurFaves - OurFaves is a community of urban savvy folks who enjoy the Toronto city and find out cool places to hang out at.

Outside.in - A nice way to explore local communities to keep track with neighborhood news.

Rummble - Rummble enables users to discover as well as share places of interest in your neighborhood.

TravBuddy - TravBuddy is a cool site for sharing travel experiences, finding new travel friends or reading travel reviews of fellow friends.

Travellerspoint - An international meeting point for worldwide travelers.

TravelTogether - A travel based social networking service enabling users to share travel plans, travel deals and experiences.

tribe.net - Tribe.net is one of the easiest ways to connect with people for finding a restaurant, a killer apartment, a gentle dentist or a hiking friend.

TripUp - A travel community site for finding travel information and planning for trips.

Triporama- Triporama provides an easy way to plan and collaborate on group trips.

VibeAgent - VibeAgent is a site about hotel reviews, travel meta-search and social networking.

WAYN - A social networking website uniting world wide travelers.

WeExplore - WeExplore provides an online platform for volunteers and travelers from all over the globe.

Wikitravel - Wikitravel is dedicated project for creating a trusted, up-to-date travel guide. It has over 16,641 travel destination guides maintained and written by Wikitravellers from around the world.

Zoodango - Zoodango is a website enabling users to connect with urban professionals either online or face-to-face at local venues.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

MySpace is set to launch a new casual games area on the site early next year, reports The Wall Street Journal. The games will be provided by Oberon Media, a company that specializes in developing private label gaming sites for major Internet brands including Yahoo and Microsoft.

Overall, it’s not an unexpected move from MySpace, who has arranged similar deals with other companies to power different sections of the site, such as Simply Hired for MySpace Jobs.

With other recently launched sections including News, Sports, and Weather, it’s clear that MySpace is taking a very 90s approach to development, looking to turn its social network into a portal in hopes of keeping people on the site as long as possible. However, the completely stagnant News area and poor integration of other new features raises some questions as to whether this strategy has any chance of working.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

"People have been ignoring the fact that there are 12 other virtual worlds out there that have hundreds of thousands of visitors," says Jonathan Nelson, special adviser to Omnicom CEO John Wren. "My bet is this stuff is here to stay." Omnicom recently took a significant stake in Millions of Us, and the Wall Street Journal story gives a fair amount of time to Millions of Us projects. The main point, and one that  developers like Millions of Us have been touting for a while now, is that virtual worlds are prime for advertising, but Second Life isn't the only or even the best option out there. Based on Comscore figures for the month of September, Second Life ranked at the bottom of 12 worlds in numbers of unique visitors. And, yes, the number (235,000 for last month) is drawn from users accessing the software for the world, not just visiting the website. Even the rapidly declining Millsberry.com--down 17% from last year, but still at #5--saw 2.5 million unique users.  Webkinz led the pack with 6 million unique users. [via WSJ.com]

Posted by brian tiong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Newsweek *)

Brian Braiker says :

Photo illustration: Newsweek.com; photos: istockphoto.com

 

Fighting for members, MySpace tries to outcool Facebook

Do you Facebook or MySpace? Increasingly, membership in one social network does not necessarily rule out the appeal of belonging to the other. Of course, each company wants you visit their site more often than the other (if not exclusively)—all the more reason to differentiate. To that end, MySpace, the 800-pound News Corp.—owned gorilla, made three major announcements this week—two of which served to underscore a deepening fundamental difference in philosophy from its closest rival, Facebook. "MySpace is Hollywood and Facebook is Silicon Valley," says David Card, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research. Or you could put it this way: MySpace is glam; Facebook is geek. Not that there's anything wrong with either.

MySpace announced Tuesday that it has forged a splashy licensing agreement with Sony BMG—the world's second largest label—for access to streaming videos, music and other content. The partnership calls for the social-networking giant and the music studio to share advertising revenue. And in a bid to conquer the social-networking world beyond U.S. borders, MySpace will soon be offering its 110 million active monthly users free voice chats via a new partnership with Skype (220 million strong, mostly outside of the States). In a new service called MySpace IM with Skype, the Internet phone company will enhance the MySpace instant messaging service with new free VoIP capabilities starting November. (The companies will split the revenue, but specifics of the arrangement were not disclosed.)

These moves stand in direct contrast to Facebook, which instead of teaming with major media players to build services for its network of 47 million active users, allows third-party developers to build applications. A staggering 6,000 applications have been built for Facebook just this year. "We are not a media company," Mark Zuckerberg, the wunderkind brains behind Facebook, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week. Analysts are inclined to agree. "I think there's a core philosophical difference, but [it's] the same revenue engine at the end," says Jupiter's Card. That engine, of course, is advertising. But with its Skype and Sony BMG announcements, original programming and hosting concert tours, MySpace seems to be morphing into an entertainment portal where everyone is in your extended network (and a potential audience member).

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Neumann *)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Creating a successful advertising model for virtual worlds should be easy. There are more potential ad forms, but, until recently, the market was not diverse enough to encourage the adoption of meaningful standards. Once ROI standards have been established, media buyers, marketers, and brand managers will have more persuasive arguments for continued or increased brand involvement in the medium.

One of the great promises of virtual worlds is contextual ad delivery. In most virtual worlds, advertisers will have access to almost every detail about your avatar and have the ability to scrape and save chat data. Since most people’s avatars are well removed from their true identities, privacy concerns are reduced.  An obvious example of this would be to serve ads for virtual goods based on keywords in your chat. Another might be to serve ads based on one’s in-world physical interactions and activates. Ad models for real-world goods are still being worked out, but even these lines are becoming blurred.

The potential for contextual ad delivery in virtual worlds is huge, but there are still many unanswered questions. How should ads in Virtual Worlds be sold? How should ad value be measured? The CPM model works well in 2D, but in 3D its accuracy is diminished. Some interesting ideas under discussion are CPA (cost per action) and duration of engagement models. These models better reflect the nature of avatar-based interaction. It makes sense that the amount of time an avatar spends engaging a brand is a good reflection of ROI.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jim Bachalo *)

For all of you out there that love slideshare.  Here's another... 

Built in Flash and Flex, another web2.0 application for creating quality presentations.

You can sign up for the private beta here: http://www.sliderocket.com/index.html

Some of the buzz: http://www.sliderocket.com/buzz.html

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Chris Anderson *)

Tim O'Reilly has posted a very interesting analysis on the "Long Tail of Facebook applications" (chart from the report shown). He notes that it's very top-heavy, with the top 84 apps of the 5,000 analyzed having 87% of the traffic. People have rightly pointed out that this is just the opposite of Long Tail theory, which would argue for a "fat tail", with the top 100 having, say, only a bit more than half the market.

Which, in turn, raises the question as to why not. Facebook does all the usual things to help people discover new apps, including search, categories, rankings by users, activity and even newest. And one presumes that the the missing tool of finability--recommendations--are addressed by the built-in social network effect of seeing what your friends are using, which amounts to a sort of playlist sharing.

So it's not obvious why the bottom 4,916 apps are faring so poorly. I can only think of two possibilities:

1. The social networking on Facebook is too powerful. This is the tyranny of network effects, where viral success is the only kind and popularity snowballs into an avalanche or goes nowhere at all. That sort of herd behavior is usually a sign of an immature market.
2. Most apps are total crap. That, in turn, may say something about the whole idea of Facebook as a platform. But I'll leave that discussion for another day.
3. [UPDATE]: As Neil points out in the comments, there is limited screen real estate on your page for apps, so you really can't take advantage of unlimited choice. In a sense, this is a case of limited "shelf space".

Posted by brian tiong at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : David Fischman *)

 Years after the Napster revolution liberated music, industry labels are still hot on fighting the war on piracy. Earlier this month, the association representing big players like Capitol Records and Sony BMG hailed their first victory ever on the legal front, a $222,000 penalty against a Minnesota woman found guilty of illegally sharing music online. But few, if any, believe this isolated win will alter the decisively linear trend of those swapping tunes on the web. At this point, people see the content issue as settled: free music is their right. If the establishment standing in their way has any knowledge of history, they’d work to find new ways to engage “the people” in order to stay relevant—or perhaps more importantly, employed.

This past week at CMJ, musicians, managers (and those aspiring to be) filled rooms at NYU’s Kimmel Center to hear industry advice on how new bands can “make it” in these changing times. One panel, “Music Business Primer: Marketing and Promotion”, had a message for the music industry—you’re not going to win this one, recognize that free music is the future and just work to control it. The panelists suggested that bands should consider releasing free downloads as a way to build community around their music. The MuseBox’s George Davis described the new revenue model well: “It’s all about tickets and t-shirts.”

Prince has been working this model with much success. The artist, who escaped his contract with Warner Music in 1994, had the music industry in a huff when he gave his most recent album away with a British newspaper. A digital music pioneer, Prince also lent early support to P2P and was one of the first to sell music directly from his website. Now Madonna is following suit by leaving Warner Music and signing with Live Nation for a $120 million 10-year deal. As she explained, “The paradigm in the music business has shifted.” While the deal will require Madonna to produce three more albums, the real focus is clearly on expanded touring and merchandise that Madonna, as her own brand, can sell to fans. The Live Nation deal includes all-things-Madonna, including everything from her website to DVDs, music-related TV and film projects, and corporate sponsorships. For someone who is a walking commodity, perhaps this is the best way to go.

But free music can actually make money again. Bands and labels should stop working outside the trend and, instead, ride the digital wave by directly engaging fans.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

 

Following on from my previous round-up of 50 virtual worlds, below are fifteen virtual worlds currently in development.

	Adventure Rock bbc.co.uk/cbbc/adventurerock/ Larian Studios / BBC Virtual world for children ETA: Fall 2007
	Flowplay http://www.flowplay.com/ Flowplay Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Meet-Me http://www.co-core.com/ Co-core Virtual rendering of Tokyo ETA: Fall 2007
	Novoking http://www.novoking.com/ Novoking Chinese 3D avatar environment ETA: Fall 2007
	Pirates of the Caribbean Online http://apps.pirates.go.com/pirates/ Disney MMOG based on Disney IP ETA: Fall 2007
	Planet Cazmo http://www.planetcazmo.com/ Pileated Pictures Browser-based teen world ETA: Fall 2007
	Twinity http://www.twinity.com/ Metaversum Virtual/real life mashup ETA: Fall 2007
	Whirled www.threerings.net/whirled/ Three Rings Design Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Zoodaloo http://www.zoodaloo.com/ Zoodaloo Virtual world for kids ETA: Fall 2007
	PlayStation Home http://www.homebetatrial.com/ Sony PlayStation virtual community ETA: Spring 2008
	Spore http://www.spore.com/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Will Wright's god game ETA: Spring 2008
	Uworld http://www.uonenet.com/ UOneNet Chinese virtual community ETA: Spring 2008
	Lego Universe http://universe.lego.com/ NetDevil / Lego MMOG utilising Lego IP ETA: Fall 2008
	Infinity: The Quest for Earth http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/ Flavien Brebion Space-based MMORPG ETA: 2008
	Adellion http://www.adellion.com/ HonourBound Ltd. Medieval MMORPG ETA: Unknown

Posted by brian tiong at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Chris Anderson *)

Chris Anderson commenting on the music industry from his blog "The Long Tail". 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

A great round up by Dan... 

If you relied solely on the mainstream media for your knowledge of online trends (more fool you), you'd be forgiven for thinking there was only one virtual world. Second Life has hoovered up huge swathes of column inches and airtime over the past 12 months (see earlier post on the Second Life media frenzy) with only the occasional nod to World of Warcraft or Habbo Hotel.

However, there's much more to virtual worlds than Second Life. Immersive online environments are a huge growth area, as demonstrated by the below round-up of 50 virtual worlds, ranked by approximate user numbers (with a few, for which I couldn't source viable user data, tacked on the end). It's worth stating that the approximate user figures are just that: approximate. Gleaned from a wide range of different sources, they are mostly self-reported and cover a multitude of differing definitions. I've tried to reconcile the figures wherever possible to try and reflect number of active users rather than number of avatars or visitors to the website, although many will still be way off base.

In terms of trends, the kids market appears to be a significant growth area and that's without including avatar chat sites (e.g. IMVU, Zwinktopia) or the growing legion of pet/doll sites (e.g. NeoPets, GoPets, MyePets, Be-Bratz, Stardoll).

	World of Warcraft http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ Blizzard Entertainment Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 9m
	Habbo Hotel http://www.habbo.com/ Sulake Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 7.5m
	Nicktropolis http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/ Nickelodeon Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 5.1m
	Runescape http://www.runescape.com/ Jagex Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 5m
	Club Penguin http://www.clubpenguin.com/ New Horizon Interactive / Disney Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Knight Online http://www.knightonlineworld.com/ MGame Corporation / Noah System Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Barbie Girls http://www.barbiegirls.com/ Mattel Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Coke Studios http://www.mycoke.com/ Studiocom / The Coca-Cola Company Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Gaia Online http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia Interactive Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 3.5m
	MapleStory http://www.maplestory.com/ Wizet / Nexon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 3m
	Dofus http://www.dofus.com/ Ankama Games Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 3m
	Guild Wars http://www.guildwars.com/ NCsoft Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 2m
	Whyville http://www.whyville.net/ Numedeon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 1.7m
	Second Life http://secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.5m
	Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom http://vmk.disney.go.com/ Sulake Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1.4m
	Disney's Toontown http://play.toontown.com/ Disney Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.2m
	Mokitown http://www.mobile-kids.net/ Neue Digitale / Daimler Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 1.1m
	Lineage / Lineage II http://www.lineage.com/ NCsoft Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	There http://www.there.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	BOTS http://bots.acclaim.com/ Acclaim Games Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	Webkinz World http://www.webkinz.com/ Ganz Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	AlphaWorld http://www.activeworlds.com/ Active Worlds Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 900,000
	Entropia Universe http://www.entropiauniverse.com/ MindArk Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Virtual MTV http://www.vmtv.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Virtual World of Kaneva http://www.kaneva.com/ Kaneva Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Final Fantasy XI: Online http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/ Square Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	EverQuest / EverQuest II http://everquest.station.sony.com/ Sony Online Entertainment Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Faketown http://www.faketown.com/ Identity Play Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Dubit http://www.dubitchat.com/ Dubit Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Cybertown http://www.cybertown.com/ Integrated Virtual Networks Launched: 1995 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Playdo http://beta.playdo.com/ Playdo Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 400,000
	Eve Online http://www.eve-online.com/ CCP Games Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates http://www.puzzlepirates.com/ Three Rings Design / Ubisoft Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar http://www.lotro.com/ Turbine, Inc. Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Star Wars Galaxies http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/ LucasArts Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	City of Heroes / City of Villains http://uk.cityofheroes.com/ Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 180,000
	vSide http://www.vside.com/ Doppelganger Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 150,000
	Ultima Online http://www.uo.com/ Electronic Arts Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 135,000
	Dark Age of Camelot http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/ Mythic Entertainment / Electronic Arts Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 125,000
	The Sims Online http://www.ea.com/official/thesims/thesimsonline/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 100,000
	Xivio http://www.xivio.com/ Xivio Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 22,000
	citypixel http://www.citypixel.com/ citypixel Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 20,000
	Teen Second Life http://teen.secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 5,000
	Westward Journey II / Fantasy Westward Journey http://corp.163.com/eng/games/westward_journey.html NetEase Launched: 2002 / 2004 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Scions of Fate (Yulgang) http://fate.netgame.com/ KRGsoft Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Legend of Mir II / Legend of Mir III http://www.legendofmir.net/ WeMade Entertainment / ActozSoft Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: ??
	MU Online http://globalmuonline.com/ Webzen / K2 Network Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: ??
	HiPiHi http://www.hipihi.com/index_english.html HiPiHi Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: ??
	GalaXseeds http://www.galaxseeds.com/ Frima Studios / Corus Entertainment Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Virtual Ibiza http://www.virtualibiza.com/ Lightmaker Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: ??

Posted by brian tiong at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)

In a presentation at last week’s Web 2.0 conference, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker did her annual data dump, quantifying the Web’s growth in dozens of ways. (You can watch a video of the presentation here, although it frustratingly does not show the actual slides, which you can find here). One data point in particular really stood out for me. In 2003, the combined market capitalization of China’s publicly traded Internet companies was $5 billion. Today, it is $50 billion.

Of course, it’s not just Chinese Internet stocks that are going gangbusters. Floyd Norris at the NYT points out that, of the top 20 most valuable companies in the whole world as measured by market cap, 41 percent are Chinese, surpassing the 38 percent represented by American companies. Contrast that to 1999 when U.S. companies represented 77 percent of the top 20. And in 1989, it was Japan that dominated with 73 percent of the list. Maybe the China bubble won’t pop until China hits at least 70 percent and a Chinese Internet company is on the list. Or maybe it will deflate over time as more Chinese stocks become available to investors, who are currently fighting over a limited supply of shares.

(The Chinese companies on the list today include Petrochina (which has a larger market cap than GE), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (which is more valuable than Microsoft), China Petroleum, China Life, and China Construction. The only Chinese technology company on the list is China Mobile. Google doesn’t even rank in the top 20.)

Posted by brian tiong at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

If hype was the only indicator of marketshare in social networking, Facebook would be the winner by a mile, and yet for all the talk of Facebook’s greatness, MySpace remains the most popular social networking destination.

The social networking market so far has seen something that defies conventional economic thinking. Instead of users choosing one service or the other they often choose both. Until now.

New figures released by HitWise show that in Australia at least, MySpace is now losing market share as the Facebook juggernaut continues. Traffic to MySpace in Australia has dropped 5% as Facebook has tripled its traffic in the 10 weeks to October 13, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Some may suggest that the Facebook platform is providing a superior social networking offering that is driving a switch; this in part is valid however it ignores two other factors. First is the direction of MySpace: it’s hard to grow traffic when you’re already at the top, so traffic options are static or down. MySpace is adopting an open platform that will provide additional services for their members, but in the mean time not much new happening on MySpace; boredom with MySpace would naturally result in declining traffic. The second factor is the amazing word of mouth Facebook currently has. The platform is irrelevant when anyone and everyone is talking Facebook at the moment, and not just within tech circles. I’ve had old school friends I haven’t seen in 20 years ping me on Facebook, and a majority of my friends list would now consist of non-tech related friends. Facebook comes up in conversations all the time when I’m talking to people outside of the tech community: it has become the next YouTube in terms of popular awareness.

The switch stats are so far only applicable to Australia, but it wouldn’t be surprising if this is the start of a trend, particularly in English speaking countries. There is only so much the broader market can take in terms of multi-using social networking sites. As more people get onto Facebook it becomes more likely that people will use Facebook as their first, and perhaps only choice in online social networking.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Nielsen has released its latest numbers for top social networking sites for the month of September. Not surprisingly, MySpace is still on top, with a 24% increase since September, 2006, while Facebook sidled up again in the number 2 spot, still gaining on MySpace with a 133% increase. This rate of increase is higher for both MySpace and Facebook, which were at 23% and 117% for the month of August, 2007.

The rest of the top 10 social networking sites remained about the same, with AOL Hometown and People Connection being the only networks to see a decline in traffic since last year. AOL’s troubles are reflected in its massive layoffs and drastic changes being made at the company as it shifts into an ad-supported model.

A recent study by Nielsen shows in interesting correlation for users that have profiles on both MySpace and Facebook, indicating that these users will spend more time on each site, than those with profiles on either one or the other. In other Nielsen news, the company has recently launched two new features, Nielsen Online and Mobile, for additional metrics tools.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Sean P. Aune *)

A new application for Facebook is merging the social network with that other king of time killing, Second Life.

Called Second Life Link, the new app allows you to display your avatar on your profile, and also indicate when you’re on and off line in the virtual world. If your friends also have the app installed, you’ll be able to see each other’s avatars. The new application also allows you to share your favorite locations in the popular virtual world. This will allow them to teleport to your location easily when you’re online, or allow them to see your home, even when you’re not there.

With the popular CBS show, CSI:New York, having an episode revolve around a murder in Second Life this week, and encouraging viewers to check out the virtual murder, there are sure to be lots of new players this week. Seems like a perfect time for a Facebook app to me with so many new people getting introduced to the online world through mainstream media.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Minic Rivera *)

AudioStreet.net recorded approximately 300,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,000,000 song plays year to date. MixStreet.net recorded approximately 230,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,600,000 year to date. A song play occurs when a user of either AudioStreet or MixStreet listens to one of the thousands of songs artists have placed on the sites.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Dennis Bouchand *)

Posted by brian tiong at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : 901am *)

Leo Blanco says :

Posted by brian tiong at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Emarketer *)

Kids and marketers enter pixellated space.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Catherine Holahan *)

Move over, MySpace. Online players from media giant Viacom to auctioneer eBay are adding networking features for their users

Who needs Facebook? Web users who want to find community with like-minded people no longer have to sign up with traditional social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, or Facebook. They can build ties with friends and family on the sites they're using every day.

A broad array of online players, from major media companies like Viacom (VIA) to e-commerce providers such as eBay (EBAY), are adding networking features to their online destinations, letting users create detailed Web identities, connect with people over common interests, share content, and, above all, socialize. "Our audience loves to connect through shared passions, whether it is the music that they love or the causes they believe in," says Christina Norman, president of Viacom-owned MTV, which on Sept. 20 announced the creation of think.MTV.com, a network that encourages youth activism.

In some cases, such as with Yahoo's (YHOO) long-rumored "Y! Mash," which began invitation-only testing this month, and Playboy Enterprises' (PLA) newly launched PlayboyU, companies have created full-fledged MySpace competitors. Like News Corp.'s (NWS) leading social network, these sites revolve around keeping in touch with friends, making new contacts, and carving out a personalized Web space. In other cases, such as with MTV's site and StreetCred.com, a social network for hip-hop fans, the new sites are focused on developing communities around niche content or interests (BusinessWeek, 3/14/07).

More here  

Posted by brian tiong at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Nick Gonzales *)

However, free doesn’t seem cheap enough. Despite the potentially free download, over 240,000 users got the album from peer to peer BitTorrent networks on the first day of release, according to Forbes. Since then, the album was downloaded about 100,000 more times each day, totaling more than 500,000. By comparison, Radiohead pushed 1.2 million sales of the album through their site, including pre-orders. File sharing networks are expected to surpass legal downloads in the coming days.

While the numbers may seem drastic, it’s really more a tale of how late to the game the music industry has been. Piracy networks have been growing over the past couple of years, despite the industry’s declared “war” on illegal file sharing. The networks have grown into easy-to-use distribution methods for digital music — even easier than what Radiohead offered. Users could easily grab “In Rainbows” while downloading music from other artists. Radiohead couldn’t be as compelling by only offering their own music and requiring users to take the time to set up an account.

But Radiohead doesn’t have that much to be sad about. The band gets to keep all the proceeds of their digital experiment and has distributed about six times more albums than their last release, which sold 300,000. That seemed to be enough to get EMI thinking harder about changing. Forbes obtained a email form EMI’s chairman saying “The industry, rather than embracing digitalization and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, has stuck its head in the sand. Radiohead’s actions are a wake-up call which we should all welcome and respond to with creativity and energy.” So it seems there’s still hope yet that those legal war chests will be put to use on some innovations.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Karl Greensberg *)

The 10-week site allows users to play a variety of online games and view film content. The site dangles a chance to win prizes, including a new Mercedes-Benz filled with treasure, with winners to be announced on "Entertainment Tonight" before the film opens.

Mercedes' C-Class sedan is also featured in a chase scene in the film.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Riley Bane *)

When Video Games Live first premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in ’05 to an eager audience of 11,000 people, that’s when the music, video gaming, and entertainment industries took notice that this could be a lucrative trend. The brainchild of composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, at the time the concept was to create an amazing show using the soundtracks of popular videogames played by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Video Games Live has clearly grown in the last couple of years. This month, they’ve announced a tour of so many sold-out shows around the country, that they’re adding an additional 25 stops, including the UK.

“Our goal of building Video Games Live as a worldwide brand is becoming a reality,” said Marc Geiger, Senior Executive Vice-President of Touring for the William-Morris Agency. “Tommy & Jack have created a very special and unique event experience that is not only a hit with gamers but also speaks to a general mainstream global audience as well.”

The shows include top orchestras, solo performers, special fx, exclusive video game footage, synchronized light shows, electronic percussionists, and interactive segments from various games. This tour features music from Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Myst, Sonic, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others.

While the tour is of course unique, what’s important to note is that video gaming has crossed-over into other aspects of entertainment. As noted in our North American and European Youth Culture Studies, just as brands are discovering the importance of product-placement in video games, and fashion designers are discovering inspiration from subcultures such as Cosplay, so too are musicians and the industry of music seeing the power of music in video games to attract a large consumer marketplace outside of gamers themselves.

Next week, as the new version of E3 trade show featuring new releases, platforms, and ideas from the world’s top video gaming brands infiltrate Los Angeles, you can bet that Video Games Live will be a popular example of just how the industry can attract new sources of revenue within the complicated industry of entertainment.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Yinka Agedoke says :

 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, the digital music service, said on Tuesday it plans to attract more customers by moving to a Web-based platform allowing users to play their music from any computer without having to download any additional software.

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(* Source : Rachel Konrad *)

SAN FRANCISCO - News Corp.'s MySpace will offer members of its popular social network free Internet phone calls with a new feature based on eBay Inc.'s Skype service, the companies announced Tuesday.

Users with a Skype account will be able to click a single button in their MySpace profile to call the computer or telephone of another member, so they could reach people in their network even when they're not online. The service will be available in 20 countries starting in November.

MySpace, the largest social-networking site with 110 million members, will share revenue from the deal with Skype, which allows customers to place long-distance calls using their computers. Skype, the Luxembourg-based division of eBay, has 220 million registered users.

Standard PC-to-PC phone calls will be free, but users must pay for "premium" options such as their own personal phone number, voice mail, call forwarding, and the ability to make calls from a computer to land lines or cell phones.

Executives would not disclose other financial terms of the deal, which comes as both companies strive to expand membership amid growing competition.

One of MySpace's biggest rivals is fast-growing Facebook.com, which has more than 47 million active users — including at least 200,000 new registrations per day since January.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Reuters *)

 Yinka Adegoke says :

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp's MySpace has reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to stream music videos from its artists, who include Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : NYTimes *)

Louise Story says :

Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Joggers in the Nike Running Club in Manhattan last month. Nike is spending more of its advertising dollars on services for consumers like workout advice, online communities and races.

Since April, Mr. Saenz, 53, has been running with a Nike+, a small sensor in his running shoes that tracks his progress on an Apple iPod he carries. After each run near his home in Louisville, Ky., he docks the iPod into his computer and posts details of his run on the Nike+ Web site. There, he has made friends with other runners around the world who post running routes, meet up in the real world and encourage one another on the site.

Nike’s famous swoosh is there all along. For Nike, this is advertising.

“It’s a very different way to connect with consumers,” says Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management. “People are coming into it on average three times a week. So we’re not having to go to them.”

The success of Nike+ is bad news for the traditional media companies that have long made money from Nike’s television commercials and glossy magazine ads.

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Mr. Edwards says he tells many media executives. “We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

Mr. Edwards may be more blunt than most. But many large marketers are taking huge chunks of money out of their budgets for traditional media and using the funds to develop new, more direct interactions with consumers — not only on the Internet, but also through in-person events.

Adventurous companies like Nike have been experimenting with these alternatives since the 1990s. But now, even the most conventional marketers are making these alternatives a permanent — and ever bigger — part of their advertising budgets.

Last year, Johnson & Johnson decided to boycott the so-called upfronts, an annual event when advertisers get together with television executives to negotiate for commercial time. In August, General Motors said that 2008 would be the last year for its longtime sponsorship of the Olympics. In May, A. G. Lafley, the chief executive of Procter & Gamble, told financial analysts that the company would spend less on traditional media and more on its Web site, in-store advertising and promotional events.

“If you step back and look at our mix across most of the major brands,” Mr. Lafley said, “it is clearly shifting.”

More here 

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(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

Avatar creator Meez is back in the news this week, but there are dozens more avatar creation tools gunning for this market. Today we attempt an overview of that market: please add more suggestions in the comment section.

Weblin- Create an avatar and use it as your virtual self within web pages in real-time, interacting with other Weblin users who share the same interests.

Meez.com- Create a 3D animated avatar for export directly to most web profiles, blogs, etc.

Second Life- Use this extremely popular virtual world to do just about anything, but first, you have to create your avatar. Here, avatars can be customized almost entirely, with plenty of room to create a most accurate likeness of yourself.

Mypictr- Use any image and resize, crop, customize, and export it to many other web 2.0 social networking sites and profiles, like Facebook, and Digg.

Gizmoz- Create, animate, and share photorealistic, great looking avatars, and even video clips featuring them. The animation and overall look of the avatar is sourced from a real picture, actually ending up almost like a personal CGI generator.

Mii Editor- Create your own “Mii”, the avatars characteristic of the Nintendo Wii.

Simpsons Avatar Maker- “Simpsonize yourself” by creating an avatar in the classic style of the Simpsons.

Gickr- Instantaneously create an animate gif file by either uploading your own pictures, or sourcing from Flickr.

Gravatar- Create an 80×80 pixel avatar by uploading an image which is then associated with your email address, appearing on Gravatar enabled websites and blogs without additional effort.

IMVU- Create and dress up your personal avatar which can then be used in their virtual chat-rooms or with their visual messenger client.

fix8- Create, animate, and dress up your avatar primarily through interfacing with your webcam in order to capture real movement and look.

Zwinky- Customize your personal cartoon avatar and share it across the web.

Digibody’s Caricature Maker- Use the components of a caricature to create your unique caricature avatar.

Faketown- A pixel-art, avatar based, MMORPG, similar to second life, but much less realistically.

DoppelMe- Simply assemble an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image for use anywhere.

SitePal- A pay-based 3D, animated avatar creation service aimed towards business looking to create a personal presence on their website.

Gaia- Another avatar-based MMORPG, this one, anime-styled.

imbee- The social network for young people includes an avatar creator featuring images of animals from the National Geographic Kids library.

Myrl- A social network based on avatars in the “metaverse”, supposedly using avatars to connect with the web by virtue of collaboration. Close to it’s beta launch, this definitely looks like something to keep an eye out for.

Kaneva- Yet another avatar-based virtual world, Kaneva looks like a valid Second Life alternative.

Blogscoped- Chat with others in this virtual, visual, chatroom, which makes efficient use of user avatars. While it may not appear to be that “web 2.0″ it uses PHP, MySQL, Ajax, and the Google API, which effectively categorize it as so.

MojiKan- A somewhat odd MMORPG for customizable 3D pet avatars.

Frenzoo- Customize and use one of their well-designed avatars in chats as well as a variety of other environments.

Clickbeurs (Dutch)- Create an avatar and apply for a job through virtually chatting with potential employers, a somewhat odd idea.

Mr. Picassohead- Create stunning, Picasso-like paintings which are easily transformed into avatars.

Whyrobbierocks- Create a “stereotypical” avatar for use on various social networking sites, IMs, etc.

Weeworld- Interact with some quite uniquely designed avatars in a virtual world primarily based on chats and mini-games.

Voki- Create an avatar, record your voice, and share. A possible alternative to something like Sitepal, but geared more towards a less-business-oriented audience.

Honorable Mention

While all of the sites (except for a couple, added for their significantly customizable avatars and creation engines) above are primarily based upon the principle of avatar creation and customization, I’d like to quickly mention the importance of your “avatar”, or probably more aptly named character in many popular MMORPGs. The likes of which are probably most easily recognized in games like World of Warcraft.

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Webcam avatar community fix8 has raised $3 million in a series a round of funding from Vickers Venture Group, which is a Singapore-based private equity firm. We first covered fix8 here.

You may remember that fix8 lets you create animated avatars with your webcam by reading your expressions and gestures. There are loads of tools that you can play around with, including fix8’s wide selection of avatars, and other accessories like voice manipulation, graphics and editing tools. These clips can then be embedded in your website or social networking profile, or use it for your instant messaging client like AOL, MSN, Skype or Yahoo Messenger.

fix8 has recently teamed up with Pringo for distribution purposes, Stickam , also Shanghai Media Group to create AuditionsTV, which makes interactive tv audiences able to participate during live or taped programs. Coming up, fix8 will be offering a mobile solution, which will surely extend the ways in which its avatar creation tool can be used for communicative purposes. See here for more avatar creation sites.

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(* Source : Rachel Konrad *)

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Your favorite pants are fraying? You may soon be able to order replacements directly from the factory where they were made, according to the chief scientist of an ambitious Chinese Internet project.

China's government is building a vast virtual world dubbed Beijing Cyber Recreation District, which founders say will help the manufacturing superpower evolve into an e-commerce juggernaut.

Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world. But every "Made in China" label eventually could include a Web site where customers could order more — and Chinese factories would produce custom-made goods and send them directly to consumers' homes, mused Chi Tau Robert Lai, chief scientist of the virtual world.

The 3D world is supposed to be the online counterpart to the China Recreation District, a theme park, mall and playground being built in a former steel plant in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Some Chinese-language Web sites of the CRD are already up, but most of it — including the first direct links to manufacturers — won't come until the second half of next year at the earliest, Lai said.

In addition to connecting factories with people outside China, the project will allow businesses outside China to tap the nation's burgeoning middle class, he said.

"This makes you have to think of China in a different way," Lai said Thursday evening at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo in San Jose. "We are stepping back and trying to blend the human and the computer to touch everything associated with people's lives."

More here 

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(* Source : Reuters *)

David Ward says :

Reuters Photo: Anthony Zuiker

SAN JOSE, California (Hollywood Reporter) - "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker dropped some clues to an upcoming Second Life integration with his CBS series in his address here Wednesday at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.

Zuiker was part of a Hollywood contingent at the event, signaling the mainstream entertainment business' growing investments in the space.

In his keynote speech, he declared that the future of television "will be TV, online, mobile and games."

Zuiker appeared more than willing to be a pioneer in bringing Hollywood to virtual worlds, announcing that a two-part "CSI: NY" -- the first installment airing October 24 and the second February 6 -- will have Gary Sinise's character go into Second Life to chase a killer's avatar.

"And here's the great thing," he added. "CBS is willing to commit to two 30-second spots that night to tell 16 million people that we're having a 'CSI: NY' virtual world . . . that will be up forever."

Zuiker stressed that the "CSI: NY" virtual world in Second Life will be geared for the "CSI" fan rather than the early adopter, with shorter download times and an avatar of Zuiker to walk visitors through the virtual Manhattan.

In addition to casual games for beginners like "Facial Reconstruction," there also will be content for advanced visitors, including the blog game "Murder by Zuiker," where Zuiker will evaluate entries by people trying to solve a crime based on the evidence found in a crime scene in Second Life.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion.com *)

Posted by Leigh Alexander :

Looking at market penetration, Mitham opined, "I think it’s pretty fair to say that virtual growth to date has been heavily based on word of mouth and viral marketing.” Moreover, Mitham expects the trend to continue, calling on the example of companies like BMW opening Second Life islands to widespread media coverage as a driver of Second Life population growth.

Finding New Markets, Developing Existing Ones

One can't rely purely on PR for advertising, Mitham added, stating that he hopes to see traditional marketing to start happening. "We’re seeing children actively adopting Club Penguin, Whyville, Habbo... as they eventually grow out of it, they will be looking for new worlds to grow into. There’s a huge market already there, waiting to happen."

The market is developing globally, too, Mitham said, noting that European countries are also actively embracing virtual worlds. Though typically Russia and South America are slower to adapt, Mitham noted, these are large growth areas that will begin adopting virtual worlds more in the future.

"We don't see much for 'silver surfers,'" Mitham added, noting that older users are also a prime growth area. Similarly, he expects corporate adoption to broaden, as companies like IBM encourage their employees to move into virtual worlds for corporate uses, and educational institutes are using virtual worlds in the classroom for the set aged 8 to 15.

Engaging New Users

It's a matter of product development, he said -- developing new products for marketplaces that already exist. Mitham also noted that better user interfaces and new user orientation will assist in driving more widespread adoption, as will other avenues of access like web-based remote viewers.

Diversification is the other key avenue, Mitham noted -- bringing new products into untapped markets, as with category-centric "vertical worlds". One example Mitham raised is Football Superstars, a virtual world currently in development for people who play football and soccer. Half the world is for playing football, the other half is for living the life of a footballer.

Beyond this, there are platform-centric virtual worlds, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home, which will be used as a convergence tool for gamers. "The reason for going in isn’t the new technology; people are going in for a specific reason,," Mitham said.

Additionally, Mitham said that avatars that can cross worlds -- the interoperability work IBM is currently involved in -- will be "a really good driving factor for getting more people engaged in virtual worlds."

Mitham offered some projections on growth in virtual worlds he believes will take place between the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. He anticipates growth of registered accounts in Second Life to increase from 10 million to 20 million, 1 million to 7 million for There, .6 to 3 million for Kaneva, from zero to 10 million for the Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, an increase from 3 million to 10 million for Whyville, and from 15 million to 30 million for Club Penguin.

More here 

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

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(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Google Earth has integrated YouTube, allowing you to view videos from specified locations around the world. A new “YouTube” button in Google Earth places icons on a map to show you where the videos are located. Upon zooming in, you will see more videos for the location of interest. The YouTube videos are plotted according to geotags that YouTube users have placed on their content.

This is a really clever integration between Google products. Versus the Street View feature of Google Maps where the company is sending camera crews around the globe, all of the content here is user-generated. In other Google Maps developments, the company has also added community maps to find things like places to eat, events, and activities, also submitted by users.

Could Google Maps be turning into one of the major social initiatives at Google? Between integrating YouTube videos, user-generated local maps, and potential presence features from the recently acquired Jaiku, it seems like there might be something brewing here.

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(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

Gigya is creating an updated version of its online widget tracking service that will allow developers and web publishers to define and track any type of activity within widgets. Used in conjunction with Gigya’s Wildfire, developers can track widget performance in a more extensive manner, from its initial installation on a user’s page, to the clicking of a link within a widget and the viewing of a widget’s video.

This will, of course, enable you to better lay out your widget strategy, see how widgets are being used across platforms and social networks, and more easily respond to the market. In setting all of this up for your Gigya widgets, you can even choose your own name for various actions, so you’re tracking widgets in a way that makes the most sense for you and your distribution purposes.

Gigya’s Wildfire tool was launched in recent weeks to let developers create applications for use on Facebook. With MySpace and other networks getting ready to open their platforms as well, tracking tools for widgets and applications will become more important, especially as metrics move to become more inclusive of widget distribution, which is when advertising potential comes into play as well.

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Music Gifts is a pretty cool Facebook app launched by MediaMouth. It lets you find music, listen to it, create custom lists and mixes and share all of this with Facebook friends.

But it also is a gifting application, too. And not a fluff gift that’s really just a graphic that sits on your profile. While those are cool (and very addictive), Music Gifts takes gifting a step further and lets you purchase music for your friends. They can get the music in digital or physical format, which will be sent to their home address.

MediaMouth has distribution and retail deals with EMI, Universal, and several indie labels as well, and digital copies of music are sold DRM-free. As with all other music applications currently residing on Facebook, many are wondering if the social network’s rumored mp3 store will have any affect on their existience or success.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Marketing Vox.com *)

MyePets: So cute it's sickening

Tween marketing has undergone a bit of a golden age online in 2007, thanks to sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz which rely heavily on interactivity to keep kids coming back.

According to Advertising Age, interactive tween sites are now taking a page out of the Webkinz handbook, whereby kids purchase an offline item to either join or enhance the online experience.

To proliferate its virtual world, Webkinz relied on word-of-mouth to get youngsters buying stuffed animals that came with codes that "activated" a virtual pet online.

Mattel's Barbie Girls site will soon offer 5.5 million users the option of buying an MP3-player/flash drive that unlocks additional features on the site, where girls spend an average of 30 minutes a session.

Meanwhile, MGA Entertainment introduced Be-Bratz, a line of dolls "sold with a pet pink mouse and flash drive" that hooks users up to a virtual world online.

MyePets.com, another MGA project, has a business model slightly closer in type to Webkinz, where kids "rescue" homeless pets from the store (a la Pound Puppies, a series of despondent stuffed animals from the '80s) in exchange for access to the site.

Though it may seem the market for tween-focused virtual worlds is getting overcrowded, interactive sites now largely come stock alongside major toy launches.

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(* Source : Techcrunch *)

Duncan Riley says :

Since reporting Monday that Nine Inch Nails had dumped its record label and was to offer future albums direct to the public, Oasis and Jamiroquai have also joined the move away from the record industry, but the biggest announcement of all is news today that Madonna has dumped the record industry.

According to reports, Madonna has signed a $120million deal with L.A. based concert promotion firm Live Nation to distribute three studio albums, promote concert tours, sell merchandise and license Madonna’s name.

Whilst the deal differs from Nine Inch Nails in that Madonna is not offering direct-to-public albums, Live Nation isn’t a record company. The deal shows that even for a world famous act, a record company is no longer required in the days of digital downloads and P2P music sharing.

The only real question now is how fast will the music industry model come tumbling down. When Radiohead led the way in offering their music directly to fans many predicted that the move was the beginning of the end; Madonna may well be the tipping point from where we will now see a flood of recording artists dumping record labels and where todays model will shortly become a footnote in Wikipedia.

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(* Source : Stefanie Olsen *)

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

There.com has partnered with CosmoGIRL to bring its brand into the virtual world. This will be a “physical” virtual location where users can come to a dance party, fashion shows, spa makeovers, play in photo booths, shop for clothing and accessories, and visit live events held by CosmoGIRL. The extension of branding in this way is a good format for the publication to use, considering the growing popularity of web-based virtual worlds and the niche audience of teen girls that are found on There.com.

This could prove to be a better alternative for branding than Second Life, which has a broader user base. It could also prove to be a good distribution channel for other brands looking to market to teen girls in a virtual manner, as they can offer digital goods to be doled out via CosmoGIRL without the necessity of launching a full-fledged virtual marketing effort on their own. It will be interesting to see if a virtual venue of this nature could do better than an online network like Flip, which hasn’t met company expectations for growth. CosmoGIRL’s virtual playland opens up at There.com on November 20, 2007.

In other virtual world news, SceneCaster has recently signed on Turbo Squid for the provision of 3D objects to be used in its graphic creations, and Multiverse has signed a similar deal with Google 3D Warehouse.

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(* Source : Scott Hillis *)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Linden Labs, the operator of the Second Life virtual world, said on Tuesday they will work on ways to eventually let people use the a single online persona in different online services.

Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Bands Jamiroquai and Oasis may be following Radiohead’s lead to let fans download new music from the band’s latest album for free, if they visit the site for the radio station XFM. With no contracts to labels, Jamiroquai and Oasis could be considering this move, which often gains a good amount of traction from the fans and spurs the viral growth of their content.

The success of Radiohead’s promotion is cited as the cause for people to pre-order the band’s box set, which costs about $80 and includes vinyl records, a CD and artwork. The hope is to make money on the peripherals, which still come at a premium. That means Radiohead is looking to make money from concert ticket sales, and other merchandise. We’ve already seen Throwdown’s opinion on the matter. And while the concept of giving away something for free isn’t new, it does look to be gaining steam.

[via the telegraph]

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(* Source : Techcrunch *)

 Mark Hendrickson says :

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Daniel Terdiman *)

Get ready for online games set in your favorite Google Earth locations.

Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.

The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.

If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.

"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.

"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."

For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.

He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.

Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.

Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.

Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.

But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.

More here 

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(* Source : Fred Cavazza *)

Virtual universes are hype, that’s a sure bet. With very strong media coverage for universes like Second Life or World of Warcraft, announcers and users are discovering new spaces for playing, communicating, entertaining and even working which are in complete rupture with 2D spaces they already know.

Complete rupture? No, not exactly since most of these universes are evolution from existing services (chats, social networks, maps…). All these virtual universes bring some oxygen to sometimes unappealing concepts by providing new possibilities. But with new opportunities comes a lot of covetousness and build a very competitive environment inside which the most media covered are not the most interesting.

Did you know it?

• There are more than 150 millions of Neopets‘ users which have already created more than 217 millions of accounts (you can count again, that’s more than MySpace)
• KartRider and QQ are social platforms which generated nearly $100M in quarterly earnings (it’s quarterly earnings, not annual turnover)
• There was $1 Billion Invested in Virtual Worlds in the Last Year (again, it’s $1 billion, not $1 million)

Do these figures astonish you? Well… so they did to me! But they are real.

Four main fields

Comparing all these universes won’t make any sense. First of all because they are very different and then because they target very different audience. But if you REALLY need a comparison, then you can have a look at these two (partial) comparison charts: Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart, Casual Immersive Worlds and Virtual Worlds Platforms and User Numbers.

Let me introduce you to these universes by using a map where I positioned most of them. All of these are not vast virtual world like Second Life, but they all share common characteristics: avatars, virtual currency and virtual places where avatars can meet, chat, play and interact.

This map is divided in 4 main fields:

• Social, with universe revolving around community building
• Games, with universes relying on online games
• Entertainment, where music, videos and films related content
• Business, where selling or exchanging goods is the main motivator for users and with enterprise applications (virtual training, serious games…)

Please not that these fields overlap themselves:

A wide typology of uages

You can find on this map various groups which are related to specific usage:

• 2.5 & 3D Chats, which are an evolution to instant messaging services but with a much stronger immersion (IMVU, Taatu, Citypixel, Faketown…)
• Avatar-centric, where avatars are at the center of interactions and functionalities (Neopets, Club Penguin, Stardoll, Virtual MTV…)
• Social Platforms, universes which inherits from social networks and sharing platforms while adding some avatar management and online games (Habbo, Cyworld, QQ, Gaia, Playdo…)
• Branded Universes, which propose a total immersion inside the brand’s graphical universe and products range (Barbie Girls, Pepsi Town, MyCoke, ToonTown, T-Works, Home…)
• Virtual Worlds, where users experience nearly total freedom of action (Second Life, HiPiHi, There, Entropia Universe…)
• MOG, online gaming platforms relying on casual games for developing sociabilization (KartRider, PuzzlePirates, MapleStory…)
• MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games which requires a stronger social involvement (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Dofus, RuneScape, Lineage II…)
• Online Sport Games, based on collective or individual sports (Football Superstars, Online Soccer Manager, Fishing Champ, Ultimate Baseball Online…)
• Adult Games, money games targeted at adults (PKR, Cameo Casino…)
• Virtual Sex, 3D dating spaces (Red Light Center, Virtual Ibiza, Naughty America…)
• Virtual City Guides, which are natural evolutions of local and mapping services (Google Earth, UpNext…)
• Serious Games, which are deploy inside enterprise to build 3D collaborative spaces, virtual training classes and augmented meeting rooms (Innov8, MPK20, Quaq…)
• World Generators, which allows 3D world creation (Active Worlds, Multiverse, Metaplace…)

Obviously, all these universes are not at the same maturity level: some are approaching the final stage of their life cycle (like Everquest), some others are crossing a turbulence area (Yankee Group Says Hype of Second Life Far Outweighs Its Ability to Impact Mainstream Interactivity), others are growing very fast (Gaia Online) and some are repositioning themselves (like IMVU which is morphing into a social network and Entropia Universe which will try to compete with video games).

A nearly saturated market?

With more than 150 active or soon-to-be-launched virtual universes, accept some numerous take over and disappearances. In this profusion, which universe is the right one? Its’ a hard guess since only two audience niches are sharply targeted: teen and adults (Virtual Worlds Are Trendy Spot for Kids and Teens).

It took 10 years to structure the internet media landscape and provide announcers with reliable communication tools (adwords, adsens…) and measure tools. How long will it takes with the virtual universes media landscape? Who will master advertising inside these new territories / markets? Is co-creation a reality? So many questions… which will find answers in the next months. Stay tuned.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Emarketer *)

Jay Sampson has been in the online space since 1996. He was the sixth hire for MSN, and joined Massive after Microsoft acquired the company in May 2006.

Having spoken with in-game advertising firm IGA Partners, eMarketer asked Mr. Samspon for his thoughts on the same subjects.

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(* Businessweek *)

Olga Kharif says :

IAC/InterActiveCorp's gaming foray could revolutionize online games and hurt console makers—if it succeeds

Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) is entering yet another arena. The Web conglomerate, owner of businesses such as Ticketmaster.com and the dating site Match.com, announced Sept. 18 that it has acquired a majority interest in GarageGames.com, a game publisher and provider of programming tools for indie game developers.

The acquisition, which will lay the foundation of a new division focused on Web-based gaming, marks the latest and biggest move in IAC's bid to become a major player in that market. In the past few months, IAC has snared several video gaming executives from rivals, including Nicholas Lehman from Viacom (VIA). "We think this is an untapped $2 billion market today growing to $5 billion in three years," says Shana Fisher, IAC's senior vice-president of strategy and mergers and acquisitions. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime market opportunity, we think. And we are investing appropriately."

Viacom's Big Bet

While the acquisition's terms were not disclosed, BernsteinResearch (AB) estimates it will cost IAC between $80 million and $100 million. InterActive also says it hopes to announce a collaboration with a major gaming studio in the next week.

At first glance, IAC is arriving rather late to Web gaming, which is already the third most popular online activity after e-mail and chat, according to the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. In May, the number of unique visitors to gaming sites reached almost 217 million worldwide, a jump of 17% from a year earlier, according to traffic data tracked by comScore (SCOR). The sector attracted 28% of the total worldwide online population in May and recorded an average of nine visits per visitor.

As such, a wide array of media and Internet titans have already been staking out the positions to claim a piece of a market that, according to DFC Intelligence, is expected to swell from revenue of $3.4 billion in 2005 to more than $13 billion in 2011. Viacom's MTV Networks alone expects to dump $500 million into gaming in the next two years. Meanwhile, portals led by Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft's (MSFT) MSN have built up their offers to lure online players. Microsoft also offers owners of its Xbox gaming console an online portal called Xbox LIVE Arcade where they can play games, including GarageGames' own Marble Blast Ultima, where players navigate marbles through moving platforms. Similarly, the Cartoon Network (VIA) has been working to adapt its games for online play with Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii consoles.

More here 

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( Press Release via Virtual World News *)

TORONTO , ON – October 7, 2007 – SceneCaster today announced the release of the first immersive 3D Web application for Facebook - where anyone can create, transform and explore interactive 3D scenes and share them with their friends – all within Facebook. The application is available at: http://apps.facebook.com/scenecaster.

SceneCaster extends the rich visual experience of 3D on the Web to all Facebook users including consumers, creative professionals, and social media enthusiasts. Bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds, SceneCaster also connects the Facebook 3D experience to eCommerce sites such as eBay and Amazon, product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers and to other rich media social networks such as Flickr.

SceneCaster is breaking new ground in 3D Web applications as the first 3D immersive experience that is built to leverage the "social graph" of Facebook. The Facebook economy is growing every day that could see it achieve 200 million users next year up from over 40 million today. SceneCaster delivers new conversation opportunities to all Facebook users while also providing an innovative revenue model simultaneously with each Facebook profile.

"Facebook facilitates better communication and an easier way to share & discover meaningful content," said Rodney Rumford, Editor of FaceReviews.com, a leading Facebook application review, rating and consulting service based in Solana Beach, CA. "SceneCaster in Facebook makes communications with my real world friends much richer and efficient. SceneCaster's great 3D immersive experience is revolutionary in concept and execution to sharing and discovering the 3D Web." Rodney's review of the SceneCaster Facebook app can be found at http://facereviews.com/2007/10 /04/facebook-3d-rooms-with-scenecaster

SceneCaster was first beta launched on September 25 th at DEMOfall '07, the technology industry's leading conference for innovative and disruptive technologies. Industry media and pundits have praised SceneCaster's debut with over 250,000 pages of reviews and comments residing on the Web today.

"SceneCaster's mission is to mainstream the 3D Web by lowering the barriers to adoption for the largest possible audience," said Mark Zohar, SceneCaster founder. "We've built it from the ground up by combining the very best the Web has to offer today – search, eCommerce and Facebook – with a rich, immersive 3D experience that is accessible within a standard Web browser."

About SceneCaster

SceneCaster is a 3D Web community where anyone can visualize their ideas, share them, and make them real. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds by connecting the 3D Web experience to online storefronts, product catalogs from leading brands and retailers, social networks, and consumers' dreams. SceneCaster is a brand initiative of View22 Technology Inc., a leading provider of 3D Web commerce and media solutions used by Global 2000 companies. For more information please visit www.scenecaster.com.

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(* Source : Olga Kharif *)

Seizing on Orkut's momentum in Asia and Latin America, Google moves to revamp its social networking site and take aim at Facebook and MySpace

If it's not about MySpace and Facebook, then the breathless buzz that surrounds online social networking often gravitates to names such as Bebo and CyWorld. Then there's Orkut. Though early to market, the Google-owned social network hasn't seemed to gain traction anywhere but Brazil. But that laggard status may be fading, thanks to a traffic surge in Asia. And now Google (GOOG) appears determined to eliminate its weakness in social networking, an Achilles' heel that detracts from its dominance in Web search and online ads.

Though MySpace still gets four times as much traffic globally, Orkut recently pushed past the News Corp. (NWS) subsidiary in the Asia Pacific region. Orkut's following in that market, which includes China and Japan, has nearly tripled, to roughly 11 million visitors a month, over the past year, according to the consultancy comScore (SCOR). MySpace, by contrast, has been drawing between 9 million and 10 million visitors in recent months.

Meanwhile, Orkut's usage in Latin America has continued to climb: In August, it received 12.4 million unique visitors from that region, double the Latin American traffic of MySpace and Facebook combined. "Now everybody's got Orkut, even people who don't have their own computer," says 15-year-old Ian Quinonez Gaspar, who lives in São Paulo, Brazil, and has more than 700 friends links.

Web Site Makeover

But that's where the high-fives end for Orkut. Beyond Asia and Latin America, which account for nearly all of Orkut's 24.6 million monthly users, the site's traffic remains simply anemic—totaling just 600,000 in North America and about 1.2 million in Europe, and not growing very fast.

Still, while it's unclear whether its overseas momentum is the inspiration, Google is starting to throw more resources behind social networking. The company recently gave Orkut's site a makeover so it looks more Google-like. It's also launched the site in more languages, including Hindi and Bengali (Orkut is particularly popular in India and Bangladesh). At the same time, Google has been incorporating more social networking features into Gmail and its online Calendar service. "The property has long been neglected. But now Google has recognized the social networking phenomenon is very profound and powerful," says Greg Sterling, the founding principal at consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence.

The next big step, expected in November, will be to open Orkut's software code to outside programmers, a plan first disclosed by Michael Arrington on his TechCrunch blog. BusinessWeek.com has learned that third-party developers based in India have been told that the code, known to developers as an Application Programming Interface (API), would be made available around Nov. 5. While Google declined to confirm or deny these reports, the company did confirm earlier this year it was considering opening up Orkut's code (BusinessWeek, 2/13/07).

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Jason Fry *)

New Efforts Try to Make It Easy

Last week Starbucks began testing a new service letting those with iTunes on their laptop, or carrying an iPhone, identify and download songs playing in the ubiquitous coffee bars.

In recent weeks we've heard Apple tout its new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. We've seen Microsoft show off improvements to its Zune music player, talk up the player's ability to share music, and unveil Zune Social, a new community site. Cellular-service providers such as Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless (a Verizon/Vodafone joint venture) and AT&T continue to sell songs over the air and experiment with various music-related offerings. And what about services that recommend and stream music, from Pandora to Rhapsody?

There's a flurry of activity around a common theme: making digital music truly mobile, instead of contained in music players that get topped up at desktop PCs. But what will be the effect of this newfound musical mobility? Could it mark a substantive change in the digital-music experience? Or will wireless buying and sharing remain mere offshoots of the familiar PC/MP3 player ecosystem?

Currently, both buying and sharing are largely restricted to the PC. Music players with wireless capabilities – such as Sandisk's Sansa Connect -- are fairly new. Meanwhile, the cellular-service providers' efforts have largely been stillborn -- because until fairly recently they wanted to charge as much as $2.50 for a download, despite the fact that iTunes had made $1 a de facto standard. Why the high prices? A number of reasons, from the record industry's desperation for an alternative to the iTunes model to infrastructure costs that cut into already razor-thin margins on downloads. Wireless carriers were stuck with a bad choice between a low-margin business or a low-volume one.

The carriers have accepted 99-cent downloads and tried to escape the low-margin trap by expanding their musical offerings to include access to streaming music, ringtones and ringbacks, music videos, the ability to "sideload" digital music from PCs to phones and even services that "listen" to snippets of music and identify the song.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Rafat Ali *)

Facebook is working on an artist platform to be launched later this year, which in essence is supposed to be better than what MySpace allows with its platform, according to multiple sources I have spoken to since this morning after a slightly off-the-mark rumor came out earlier. The platform will allows bands and labels to create artists pages, and allow various widgets to be embedded for music promotion, organizing events, etc. Among those widgets would be iLike, the most popular app inside Facebook, but will also include iTunes widgets for sampling (to being with), and eventually buying music through Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - News). The service will still have the utilitarian sensibilities of the Facebook platform, the sources stress, rather than the more chaotic and flashy platform that MySpace has.

For now, this squarely takes on MySpace, not iTunes as the rumors said this morning. Facebook will have an actual deal with Apple, though it is conceivable down the line it could start selling music through the artists' platform.

Whether users will gravitate towards Facebook from an already thriving and deep music community on MySpace is what remains to be seen.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Businessweek *)

Olga Kharif and Nandini Lakshman say : 

The social networking majors are aggressively pursuing the region's growing online audience, as earlier arrivals Friendster and Orkut defend their turf

A year ago, Shruti Narayan, a 13-year-old who lives in India, began using Google's (GOOG) social networking site, Orkut, to keep tabs on schoolmates. But a few months ago, Narayan made the jump to Facebook because "it has more features and interaction like quizzes and TV shows," she says.

Narayan's network-hopping reflects the colossal scrum among the world's biggest social networks for the hearts and mouse clicks of millions of people in India, China, and elsewhere in Asia. The landgrab has taken on added urgency lately, as leading social networks MySpace and Facebook converge on the region to battle established homegrown networks and foreign sites, especially Orkut and Friendster.

'Financially Intriguing' Market

Until recently, countries such as China and India held scant interest for the U.S.'s social networking heavyweights thanks to low rates of Internet usage and a dearth of advertiser dollars. Facebook and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace instead concentrated on the U.S., which according to eMarketer accounts for 73% of social networking's worldwide revenue of $1.23 billion. They left Asia to U.S. laggards Friendster and Orkut, and to local sites such as CyWorld. Of Orkut's 25.2 million active users, about 43% are in the Asia Pacific region, according to Web traffic tracker comScore (SCOR). Friendster has become the largest social network in the region, according to comScore, with 35 million Asia Pacific users, out of 50 million worldwide.

That dominance is now under threat, just as the Asia Pacific market starts to bloom. In China, 230 million people are using the Internet, more than in the U.S., according to consultancy IDC. "Imagine that all these markets, over the next five years, double their penetration," says Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC. "Then, for the future, the most important market is Asia Pacific. Once it develops more, it's going to become financially more intriguing than the U.S."

Especially when it comes to advertisers. A recent Synovate AsiaBUS study, commissioned by Microsoft (MSFT), found that social networks in Asia Pacific attract the coveted 15- to 34-year-old demographic and that about 15% of the region's users are top managers and business owners. "Each and every month, more and more advertisers are coming to us and paying us more money," says David Jones, Friendster's vice-president of marketing. Like other social networking sites, Friendster doesn't disclose revenue figures.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says :

"The game industry may have created the idea of online entertainment, but the days of orcs and elves ruling the online space is drawing to a close," said Christopher Sherman, Executive director of the upcoming Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo taking place October 10-11 at the San Jose Convention Center. The show is attracting big wigs from across the entertainment industry.

"There will always be a place for platforms that just want to allow users to play a game together, but now interaction is key. Community is key," said Sherman who jumped from the game industry to the virtual worlds industry late last year. "The content revolves around and facilitates the community. Treating the online environment like less of a game and more of community or virtual world is key. Major media companies are now looking at anything they do as online entertainment - with a virtual world tied to it."

Case in point: Raph Koster, the former Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment, recently took the wraps off of his stealth startup Areae with the announcement of Metaplace. Metaplace is designed to provide an easy-to-use interface allowing users to create virtual worlds that can run anywhere and do anything.

Said Sherman of the announcement, "Whether or not Metaplace is successful, the wake-up call for the game industry has been issued."

Virtual worlds like Kaneva strive to provide activities for their users, including games. Developers like Trilogy Studios, who created a Virtual MTV environment, have a background in next-generation console games like Medal of Honor and The Chronicles of Riddick. It shows in their products. MTV's Virtual Pimp My Ride lets users build experience points while socializing.

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(* Source : PSFK *)

Alisson  Mooney says :

Kids are consumers (virtually)! That was the message on the “New School” panel at the YPulse Tween Mashup on Friday. Speakers from Stardoll, WhyVille, and Cartoon Doll Emporium all recounted that young users of their virtual worlds wanted brands brought into their online environments.

Mattias Mikshe, CEO of Stardoll, said that users were begging for real world brands (“everything from Gap to Gucci.”) This is what led them to create “StarPlaza,” an in-world mall stocked with virtual brands (they now have 9). LVMH-owned Sephora and DKNY just became the first real world brand to set up shop there (featuring the same items as the stores). Cartoon Doll Emporium, a similar “paper doll” site, is also working with offline brands.

The virtual world meets social network WhyVille has 3,000 different lines of clothing—by 3,000 different girls. CEO Jim Bower says they want to have a Whyville store with the designs from 12 year olds. But kids in WhyVille aren’t immune to brand fever: one group of kids actually created M&Ms costumes for their avatars. Over in WeeWorld, users “consistently asking for brands to better express themselves,” says Marketing and Editorial Director, Maura Welch. “By choosing to wear the assets,” she says “the users are endorsing the brands to their friends.” According to the site’s latest food and drink survey, users’ WeeMees (avatars) were jonesing for some Sprite, Gatorade and Cheerios. As it is, they can already pimp themselves out in Armani sunglasses while they pop Skittles.

According to Mikshe, the kids can “distinguish between being marketed to and adding value.” Or maybe the marketing has just done its job. The demand is there for the brand names, creating a pull rather than a push scenario. And now that these brands can provide utility online, they are becoming more and more integrated into the lives of young consumers.

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(* Source : MediaPost.com *)

Laurie Petersen says :

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.'S NEW Products Group has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to build and test virtual world extensions of its entertainment properties.

Each Turner Web community and corresponding virtual space inside Kaneva will contain video players for video streaming of select Turner network content.

"Our exploration with Kaneva of virtual worlds is yet another example of Turner staying at the forefront of consumer technology trends," said Blake Lewin, vice president for TBS Inc.'s New Products Group. "Through this opportunity, we hope to leverage the Kaneva platform to explore how users interact with our brands in a virtual world."

The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva's technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva.

"Turner is an ideal flagship media partner for Kaneva," said Christopher Klaus, founder and CEO of Kaneva. "Turner's high-quality programming and credibility is synergistic with our unique focus on delivering entertainment to the masses inside a virtual world. As a result of this partnership, we will provide entirely new ways for audiences to watch, participate and interact around their favorite TV programming."

Kaneva, which is Latin for "canvas," is a virtual entertainment world that unifies the 2D Web with a 3D experience. It integrates social networking, shared media and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D virtual world. Kaneva enables its members to hang out with their friends online and in 3D, share entertainment, express creativity and passions, and establish meaningful connections with others.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Release *)

Jemima Kiss says :

Them again: Last.fm's latest project to support new music is a site called nowformaband.last.fm, which shows unsigned bands how to use free web tools to produce and distribute their music.

Inspired by the 1976 punk-zine Sideburns, the initiative is part-inspired by Last.fm's hype chart, which picks out bands and trends from users' listening habits before they hit the mainstream.

The site introduces users to Luna Free, which offers a free digital audio workshop tool, the distributon service Tunecore and - of course - Last.fm, as a promotional tool.

Co-founder Martin Stiksel said the company wants to help new music find a wider audience (as well as encouraging take-up of its own site, of course): "There's a lot of talk about all these things in the media but not much action in the real world - so we're going to show new bands how".

Posted by brian tiong at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source : Emarketer *)

Paul Verna says :

Since the beginning of the digital music revolution, artists have taken the lead on innovative ways to deliver music directly to their fans.

Some, like Prince, have given away front-line product free. Others, like Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette, have offered up Web-only exclusives, also free.

Then there have been the famous holdouts: Metallica, which joined the fight to shut down Napster, and the Beatles, who, despite years of rumors to the contrary, are still conspicuously absent from iTunes and the rest of the legal Web.

Now comes Radiohead with potentially the most ground-breaking move of all: putting its new album, "In Rainbows," out there for fans to pay what they want.

This museum model of a "suggested donation" is entirely untested, and the industry will be watching closely to see how the experiment plays out.

That said, it is important to keep in mind that this is a niche play from a band that already has a huge, loyal audience, not to mention ownership of its own masters. Whether fans pay for this album will have little bearing on the decisions of rank-and-file artists who don't have Radiohead's clout.

Nor is this move likely to affect the labels' digital strategies. Even if the gambit is wildly successful, it will not change the fact that the industry is staring down the barrel of free-falling CD sales and insufficient digital volume to make up the slack.

Still, it will be interesting to see what happens with "In Rainbows." Some of Radiohead's legions may actually pony up some serious dough, if nothing else to reward the band for not treating its fans as if they were criminals.

While most fans will probably help themselves to the album gratis, inevitably there will be a few crackpots who will pay obscene sums for it, maybe for the attention, or maybe just because they have money to burn and can't help themselves.

It will take only a few of those to give Radiohead a much bigger and more immediate payday than it would have ever gotten from Capitol, its former label.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Billboard.com *)

Michael Paoletta says : 

Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is adding flair to a new ad campaign for Doritos Collisions, Billboard has learned. In a TV spot that debuts Sept. 17, Elliott is seen working on a new track and then pausing to snack on Doritos Collisions chips. Inspired by the two different-tasting chips in the same bag, Elliott has an epiphany: her song needs two different musical styles. So, she immediately injects her hip-hop track with a little bit of country twang.

The multi-platform campaign was created by the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners agency. According to Rudy Wilson, brand manager of Doritos, the campaign's multi-million dollar media buy is the brand's biggest advertising spend of the year, outside of its Super Bowl ad buy.

Elliott's manager, Mona Scott of Violator Management, says the campaign offered her client the perfect creative outlet. "The whole idea of the mash-up is so prevalent and popular in music today," Scott says. "It's so Missy. And the fact that the campaign takes place in a studio means that Missy remains in her element, which makes the whole thing authentic."

But Scott acknowledges there was another important element that helped cinch the deal: "The TV portion is fine," she explains, "but the Internet element provides us with a great back-end." A link takes fans to Elliott's Web site, where they learn more about the artist and her forthcoming, new album (tentatively titled "The Countdown"), due in December from The Gold Mind/Atlantic Records. "We see this as a great way to further maximize Missy the artist and the new album," Scott adds.

Wilson calls the online experience "a bold, intensive experience for our consumers." Visitors logging on to snackstrongproductions.com will be encouraged to create their own mash-ups (or "collisions"), using Elliott's track as the foundation. Completed mixes can be posted and shared in a "gallery" on the site. Five winners -- with prizes still to be determined -- will be selected.

More here 

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(* Source : New York Times *)

David Itzkoff says :

Visitors to the Sundance Channel area of the Web site Second Life can watch full-length feature films in a virtual screening room

IF you can find him, Vincent Tibbett is precisely the sort of well-connected cultural liaison any emerging filmmaker should want to know. An employee of the Sundance Channel, he is as easily recognizable for his shaggy haircut and assertively casual attire as he is for the crowds of aspiring artists who follow him around, hoping to chat him up about cinematic trends, get him to evaluate their movies or simply score his e-mail address.

But if Mr. Tibbett seems a bit harder to pin down for a lunch date than the average in-demand tastemaker, that’s because he doesn’t exist on our plane of reality. He is an electronic avatar found only in Second Life, the popular online virtual community.

Just six months old, Mr. Tibbett is one experiment in the Sundance Channel’s larger exploration of Internet-based virtual reality, a sort of canary down the mine shaft of a new technology that may or may not take hold among mainstream audiences.

And he is not alone. In the last year broadcast networks, cable channels and television content providers have all set up camp in virtual communities, where they hope that viewers who have forsaken television for computer screens might rediscover their programming online. Some outlets, like Showtime and Sundance, are establishing themselves in existing worlds; others, like MTV, are creating their own. Either way, if the wildest dreams of some very excited technology developers come true, virtual reality might finally be the medium that unites the passive experience of watching television with the interactive potential of the Web.

If that happens, the television industry — which has not been particularly speedy in adapting to the Internet revolution — sees an opportunity not only to recover lost ground from online competitors but also to take a lead, and in so doing create an entirely new environment in which to influence and sell to its audience.

“You want to be in this because you know, as a content provider, that this is where the future is going,” said Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive. “I don’t look at it as science fiction. I look at it as the future of communication.”

For decades ambitious programmers and designers have sought to establish virtual worlds like the one put forth in Neal Stephenson’s influential 1992 novel, “Snow Crash,” which imagines computer users interacting in a simulated three-dimensional world called the Metaverse. But only in recent years, as graphics-accelerator cards and broadband Internet connections have grown more affordable and ubiquitous, has it become possible even to approximate such an experience.

IN Second Life (secondlife.com), visitors to the Sundance Channel area can watch full-length feature films in a three-dimensional screening room or take part in an environmental forum; fans of Showtime’s drama “The L Word” can meet the avatars of the show’s stars and design their own floats for a virtual gay pride parade. In MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach (at vmtv.com) inhabitants can shop at digital versions of Emporio Optic and Laguna Surf and Sport or, at the click of a mouse, arrive in a virtual version of “The Hills,” where they can then join the party at an electronic replica of the Los Angeles nightclub Area.

More here 

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(* Source : THe Guardian *)

Owen Gibson says :

• Band bypass record labels to get release out quickly

• Internet experiment lets fans put a price on art

Their music has long been praised for blurring boundaries and breaking moulds. Now Radiohead are hoping to establish a new model for the struggling record industry by inviting music buyers to decide how much they want to pay for their new album.

To their biggest fans, eagerly awaiting their first studio album for four years, it is near priceless. Those who believe Radiohead long ago descended into self-indulgence may only risk pennies. But thanks to this ground-breaking experiment, the band will bypass record labels altogether and will be able to put a fiscal value on the public's appreciation of their art.

 The release was announced with a short message from guitarist Jonny Greenwood on the band's website, revealing that the new album, In Rainbows, would be available to download from October 10. Orders started rolling in yesterday, with customers able decide how much to pay - from nothing (plus a 45p administration charge) upwards.

Radiohead's "honesty box" experiment will be closely watched by other artists, their record labels and management companies.

In Rainbows is the most high-profile attempt yet to restructure the economics of a music industry struggling with the effects of digital piracy. Despite a booming live scene, CD sales are less profitable than ever thanks to increased competition and piracy.

With the role of the internet in helping new acts from Arctic Monkeys to Enter Shikari rise to prominence already well documented, more established artists are attempting to revolutionise the way music is sold.

Prince caused uproar among music retailers by giving his latest album away with the Mail on Sunday and yesterday the Charlatans said they would give their new single and album away for nothing through the radio station Xfm.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

Earlier this week, we took a look at a research report published by market researcher eMarketer about kids, teens, 'tweens and virtual worlds that found that 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007 -- and eMarketer expects that number to rise to 34 percent in 2008, and to 53 percent by 2011.

Worlds in Motion spoke to eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson about her findings. "I think what’s attractive about virtual worlds for kids and teens is that they exist at a 'sweet spot' between online games, which are very popular with younger kids, 'tweens and boys, and social networks, which are very popular with teens, particularly girls," she explains. "I think that virtual worlds combine aspects of both of those things."

Zeroing in on major factors in online social worlds, she elaborated. "There are a lot of games, there's the opportunity to meet friends, interact socially, learn about other people and express your interests. So I think those are the two driving factors." Real-time interaction also plays a big role, she says. "[It's a] very immersive experience. You don’t just 'poke' somebody like on Facebook -- you can actually, physically, poke somebody. What that means is that there’s that much more real-time interaction, no latency, no making a post on someone’s wall and waiting for them to respond. It’s all occurring in real time."

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(* Source : AP *)

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, "meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan's answer to "Second Life." Or so its creators hope.

Japanese are so well-behaved and conformist, he says, they would prefer a more predictable and secure virtual environment over the free-spirited anything-goes of "Second Life," created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab.

In "meet-me," players' avatars, or computer-generated alter-egos, are rounder and softer, more like the cuddly characters of "Pokemon" than the angular and relatively realistic avatars of "Second Life."

The sun rises and sets in "meet-me" on Tokyo time. And avatars must ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's; they can't jump from place to place as they can in "Second Life."

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(* Source : Virtual World News.com *)

CVSherman says :

Xivio, a Flash-based virtual world with a Web-based social network,  announced that it had introduced a content rating system based on user votes on the TV-MA rating system. When photos, music, videos and journals are uploaded, they are immediately rated TV-MA until the staff or community votes them into a lower rating. "We've tested it out in house, and it works very well," said President/CEO David Wisotzky. "After hearing a lot of the stuff going on with Myspace, you know protecting the kids and how other programs don't allow kids to upload content, we figured that it's the digital age and someone should make that safe to do. It seemed like nobody had been stepping up."

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(* Source : Kris Graft *)

A new study from Yankee Group finds that the hype surrounding Second Life is considerably bigger than the virtual world's real-life relevance.

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(* Source : David Fishman *)

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(* Source : Caleb Booker *)

We started off in Skype voice chat, but then he met me in Second Life at the same time. Using tools his company haven't even named yet, he was able to broadcast video of our avatars meeting through Skype. (Click the picture for full-size.) They still consider it technology in the pre-alpha stage, and won't feel like it's ready for consumers until they have it running in much higher detail. Even at the low resolution, being "in" Second Life through Skype and, in addition, seeing myself through multiple camera angles at once was a pretty impressive experience.

This was, of course, just the beginning. He switched from Second Life to a custom environment they had built with the Unreal 2 engine and again, streamed it right through Skype. The great part about using an engine like this one was that they were able to import high-detail AutoCAD files and make them look extremely realistic. Soon I was watching a high-quality alien avatar from Mars Attacks! exploring the environment in real-time. Below is a video of the world he had walked me through that they apparently built over the course of a few days.

Recently Rigby showcased the technology at the Copper/Cobre Conference. All of the other presenters went up and showed PowerPoint presentations. Rather than show a series of AutoCAD sketches, he plugged his laptop into the projector and walked the crowd through a 3D rendering. A copper smelter in the U.S. retained him to create a "virtual furnace" that not only showed the schematics in high resolution, but had walls lined with photographs of how everything is supposed to look as you assemble the machine. Not only that, but you can actually enter the furnace itself and (through color coding) see how everything is supposed to fit together.

Even though his company has already been retained by a few engineering firms for more work, Rigby sees more applications for high-resolution custom worlds. He's currently in touch with several galleries in London to create scale models of the buildings with high resolution art renderings inside. People could download them for a token fee (maybe five dollars) and collect them over time as the gallery updates itself with new exhibits. Also, since "Unreal 2" is a server-based platform, you could walk around these little worlds with your friends.

MellaniuM has only been experimenting with the possibilities since September of last year and has already shown some great innovations. If they keep up this pace they'll be the ones to watch in the future.

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Beijing-based virtual worlds developer UOneNet plans to launch a new virtual world called “uWorld in” 1Q 2008, according to redlinechina.com. uWorld is a  3D virtual community that allows users to live, interact, and conduct business together. Users of uWorld will be able to purchase virtual real estate, start businesses, create social circles, and make and sell virtual items. Alpha testing for uWorld will begin in December 2007, says the article. The founder of UOneNet, Eric Ye, was a former software architect at IBM and has a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern California (USC). The company has been focusing on building a reliable backend, including its own proprietary technology called UniG, which is being used to build uWorld, the article says. UOneNet plans to design the virtual world to appeal to Chinese users by adding more in-game tutorials and content creation tools. Currently, UOneNet is operating with a mixture of angel and venture funding and has 60 employees total, according to redlinechina.com.

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