Once upon a Myspace time, I tried searching for a few band profiles inside the Myspace network. I didn’t get the exact spelling and spacing right, and ended up on a total search maze. What a disaster! From there on out, I would actually leave Myspace, go back to Google and search there for a Myspace profile. Strange and sad thing is, Myspace search is actually “powered by Google.” Perhaps Myspace has made improvements in this area by now, but I wouldn’t know because I will probably never try again. A year or so later when Facebook features started trumping Myspace, so did its profile search. Facebook currently maintains a dominant position when it comes to people search. However, when the search involves anything outside of people, Facebook search is known to be one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Now after the fairly recent arrival of Google profiles, the fight for the most effective profile aggregator begins.

Google has already begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages, so if you couldn’t find a reason to create your own Google profile a month or so ago, perhaps this will spur the urge. After all, most of us want to be found on a Google search, right? Google also claims to offer greater control over exactly what people find when they search for your name. So, I think it’s safe to say that Google is most likely looking to compete with Facebook and Linkedin for searches on names, locations and employment, and if Google will add the tool to link to friends profiles, they will have pretty much created a basic social network. Not bad, but can they really compete with the well established social network kings? Uh hum, Twitter?

Last year around election time, Google teamed up with Twitter to create a live moving mapplet of everyone’s political tweets. Recently, Google added a tip in your Google profile editor, that you should use Twitter to promote your Google profile. Now, there are rumors now that Twitter and Google are in serious talks. What does this mean for Google? If Google can maneuver its way into a Twitter collaboration that could beat Facebook, would that churn out a new winner?

Social gaming has become huge in the last year, reason being that playing games is naturally a social activity. Social gaming basically combines the best of the gaming portals with the social network platform. What’s so great about this idea, is that the social tools offered, enable casual gamers to play in a much more fun, interesting and competitive environment. It not only allows friends to share their scores with one another, it creates a fun way for people to interact, create and receive feedback.

While more and more gaming sites are hopping on this trend, XPO Games is one trend hopper who’s doing it right.

XPOGames describe themselves as a fully-featured social network for both casual gamers and game developers. Gamers can join the fun; play original casual games and use the featured socializing tools to meet new people and share their experiences, while developers can submit and expose their originally created games and monetize them. XPO Games launched in 2007 by Daniel Yaron and Hagay Nave when they realized the void and solitude one can experience on other casual gaming websites. “The games were there, but the community and social tools weren’t!” says Daniel Yaron. They decided to go beyond the portal functionality by including features such as the ability to like games, create profiles, friend other users, send them messages, post on walls, utilize the live scoring system and news feed, and win trophies. In addition to all this, the XPO Games platform allows developers to ask users for feedback on which games to create.

Gaming just makes more sense when you play against your buddies. Daniel and Hagay have realized this and have taken it to the next level.

XPO Games is still in private Beta and we’ve got  invites for all Blonde 2.0 readers! Get yours here.

Most people find their favorite social networking spots for their personal needs quite easily. The socialites go to Facebook, the business networkers go to LinkedIn, but the search for the musicians perfect, online home is becoming just a little bit harder these days.

While Myspace was once the hottest place for bands to settle, promote their music and even create a name and fan base for themselves, it is slowly becoming more and more difficult, simply because the real people (ie: the fans) are finding a new home for themselves on Facebook. That’s not to say Myspace has completely diminished. Although it is quickly becoming less and less active by many, it still provides the best tools and features for musicians such as the capability of uploading mp3′s to a respectable and prominent music player, posting tour schedules and creating personalized band banners/logos by customizing your profile page.

So while everyone is shifting over to Facebook, bands obviously feel the need to follow. But the problem is, Facebook is not shifting with them, or even making the musicians needs much of a thought. Facebook does not yet offer personalized and user friendly features for bands apart from being able to create a “page” and gather “fans.” Sure you can upload a few mp3′s using iLike’s application but the process is clumsy and looks much less slick than Myspace’s music player. As Myspace continues to decline, there will be more and more homeless bands. Facebook could easily pick this one up and fill the in the gap, but will they?

Image credit: hellogeri

When ever I hear that one of my favorite directors is releasing a new film I usually head over to that film’s official website or read up a little on IMDb. This is the protocol for most people, I think. But this year, we will be seeing more and more directors choosing different, or rather, additional digital media routes to promote their babies.

Don’t get me wrong, the official website is a great way to create a buzz simply because it will contain the movie’s trailer. The trailer video naturally becomes viral, ultimately driving an effortless promotion for the studio. There are also some indie directors that regularly use extra methods such as cross-platform storytelling (allowing the story’s characters to live in other platforms before the film is released, giving a rounder life to the character, and ultimately helping to promote the movie) and also by simply enlisting  their online fans to help spread the word.

But now, one of the most respected film directors, Spike Jonze, will soon release his new film rendition of “Where the Wild Things Are,” and this time, in addition to the usual trailer site, Jonze has opened a film blog, called We Love You So.  His motive behind this was to chronicle the production’s final days and “shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality.” Perhaps this subject matter is nothing we couldn’t find on the movie’s website or in an interview, but lately Jonze has been blogging out of the box, and has invited us into his more personal thoughts and experiences, such as a time he nearly drowned as he attempted to film a cameo in Adaptation. These are the kinds of intimate details which will connect us to the director and perhaps act as a reminder later on, to see his film.

I’m going to take a leap here and predict that more star directors will follow in Jonze’s lead and we will start to see more and more official film blogs pop up.

Facebook has been adding a whole lot of new features lately. Although they haven’t quite filled the cups of each kind of social profiler (ie: musicians, career seekers, etc) but they have certainly risen to the 3/4 mark, and are getting closer by the day. (Yes, I’m recording exact measurements).

Yeah, yeah, last week, Facebook uploaded a new fresh alerts system. But most recently and more importantly, they’ve now added the ability to group your friends by creating lists. This is possible, so far, via the Facebook chat window and also the ‘create’ link on your homepage. The chat window’s new prompter makes the listing option hard to miss. This new feature makes sense because, and I’m sure we’ve all begun to notice, it’s not just your buddies you’re ‘facing’ anymore, it’s your mamma, your pappa and all your work mates too. So now you can feel free to put your embarrassing family members in a group of their own and pretend like you’re offline to them.

Presumably the idea behind this moves beyond snubbing and keeping organized. These slight ‘grouping’ motions may in future threaten the idea behind “professional” social networks such as LinkedIn and Xing. These subtle differences bring up new questions and new options. Will Facebook soon allow you to change your profile and how it looks for different groups of people? Could you have one “family friendly” profile, one ‘professional’ work profile and one fun profile for your friends?

You can already do this manually on a friend-by-friend basis; it’s not too much of a stretch to think that you soon will be able to do customize your profile by group. And then LinkedIn, Xing and the rest will have a major problem.

Image credit: Laughing Squid

The sweet, calming voice and gentle, nerdy humor of NPR radio is like home to me, like it is to a lot of people. I remember those comfy moments, driving around and listening to ‘All Things Considered.’ I’m guessing it’s the same way kids felt in the 50′s when their favorite radio personalities graced the airwaves.

NPR know how to tell a story, and tell it well, so it is no surprise that they are using their information-sharing savyness to penetrate online media, and are rising to the top doing it. They are one of the only news organizations that experienced a substantial growth in the last ten years as compared to their competitors who have seen a decline.

They are not afraid of digital media and this is what puts them ahead of the game. Here are 5 avenues NPR is taking to achieve success:

1) Facebook – NPR opened a Facebook page and has almost 400,000 fans. They also created an NPR podcast player application for facebook so you can listen to your favorite NPR stories right from your profile, as well as email favorites to your friends.

2) Twitter – Follow NPR news updates via twitter. You can choose to follow NPRNews, which has over 80,000 followers and/or NPRPolitics, which has approx. 700,000 followers.

3) iTunes – You can easily download their podcasts on iTunes. NPR update these 3 times a week and they are already getting about 1 million downloads per month. They also consistently appear on iTunes Top 10 list.

4) Blog – They have created a variety of separate blogs dedicated solely to subjects such as money, talk and news. These blogs are updated 3 times a week.

5) Open platform – Like a lot of online news sites, you can get by-the-hour updates on pretty much whatever you desire, whether it’s music, news, books, or science. But NPR introduced something new. They created an open platform, which enables their readers to create their own, personal podcasts and fool around with NPR content.

Kudos to NPR being ahead of the curve, there are a lot of other media companies that could learn from their example.

Image credit: Mr T in DC

The first time I saw Amazon’s Kindle I had to laugh a little. Its late 90’s, Packard Bell-like design left nothing to be desired and the thought of buying a separate gadget in addition to the cell phone and mp3 player (or just iPhone for the more privileged folks) just felt absurd. My bag is already getting too pudgy. But then Amazon released the Kindle DX yesterday, and something about it slowly started to appeal to me.

The main difference between the two Kindles appears to be size. If you’re sick of squinting and scrolling around the NY Times on your iPhone (or on Kindle the 1st), the Kindle DX relieves you of such. It’s 9.7″ reading frame (3.7” larger than its predecessor) is about the size of a real piece of notebook paper and it’s light 1/3 inch body frame is actually thinner than Apple’s MacBook Air (not to mention, a quarter of the price). Now, the Kindle is black and white print only (just like a newspaper), but in its defense, the makers claim that its special, E-ink screen reads like a real piece of paper, which in the end will not strain your already computer-zombiefied eyes. The text should be ultra clear and images sharp. The DX can hold more than twice as many books as the original “mini” one and it “reads for days without charging.”
 
So what do I like about it apart from those specs? I like the idea that if someone owns this, actually spent their money on this, they will probably feel slightly indebted to read more often, or at least I might, and at the risk of sounding like a parent, I do think it’s time for people to get back into reading again.

Due to be available this summer, you can pre-order your Kindle if you choose, but the real question I ask is; will you choose? Will this nerd alert really sell? I can picture the hustling, midtown New Yorkers cradling their kindle on the subway, but will it move further out from the large city and transport life? Amazon announced that big papers like NY Times are offering a reduced price on the Kindle in exchange for a long-term subscription for people who live in small town areas, where their paper editions are not available. Perhaps this will help solve that problem?

In advance of a panel discussion I’m taking part in today, I decided to survey my twitter and Facebook peeps to see what they had to say about twitter; here are some of the best answers.

If you could change/add one feature on twitter, what would it be?

Jim Woods: Threading conversations rather than having to use hashtags. That would make it easier to archive and feed specific discussions.

Raanan Avidor: better Following and Followers management

Pirocho Piro: Hashtag whatever you like without sacrificing your 140 char limit

Eyal Rofe: RT Button

Virginie De Bel-air: being able to click on a hashtag the same way you can click on a @name

@alphonseha: Have Twitter filter your tweets the way you want it a la FB. Rather than having to use the limited Tweetdeck functions

@YaelBeeri: see conversation threads (including multiple participants)

@cc_chapman: Threaded conversations. Pownce use to do this really well. Followed closely by Groups functionality.

@yuvals: The ability to search only in my friends’ tweets.

What would u say is the biggest misconception about twitter?

Kim Bayne: Myth: You should follow everyone who follows you. Not true. You can’t possible engage in meaningful conversations and relationships that way

Nikos Anagnostou: That one should reply to the question “What are you doing?”

@baratunde:  biggest twitter misconception: that it’s a bunch of people talking about what they had for lunch.

@saritamar: that it’s stupid, but that’s what people told me about Facebook 18 months ago.

@almondjoi: that celebs make best twits. Not true. Best tweets come from regular ppl who engage followers.

@gathrme: biggest misconception is that all Twitter users are narcissists talking about mundane personal stuff. BTW: Taking a shower now.

@eyalrofe: That it is a “conversation” platform. Twitter, in my opinion, is more like a “share the situation” platform.

@HilzFuld: Misconception? That you can use it like Facebook and be passive about it, that is why 80% try it and give up.

If a million people r following u & u are only following 3. Cool or fool?

Oren Magnezy:  Well, Let me quote Paris Hilton: “Look bored but never boring”.

Thomas J Hoehn: The ratio shouldn’t be too skewed one way or the other. Neither one to one, nor one to zero.

Itay Hazan: fool. fame hype. it attracts attention to figures that were made in the old media, and does not empower the people.

@deeped: Fool. Twitter is more to listen than to talk. Even in the digital world you still have to have two ears but only one mouth.

@didic: Cool if you’re engaged with your followers. Tool if you’re only broadcasting

@JoelyRighteous: I’d go with ‘Tool’

What’s the best revenue model for twitter?

Ahuvah: they should have a “pro” account like flickr – where you can tweet a specific amount per day or month but if you want to exceed that # you need to pay for a pro account. i’d pay.

Laurant Weill: Contextual advertising (from the one that doesnt like ad biz model!). They have the critical mass, hyperlinks, tracking and keywords history

Shay Rachmani: Free account is now limited to 70 chars, while 140 chars become paid service

Benjamin Chelli: the search tool could be a paying service => professional will have to pay to browse info

@h3lge: having no model is ’nuff. Bunch other companies build busmodels relying on twitters api. They’ll all pay twitter sooner or later.

@dotmad: Getting purchased by Google/FB.

@tzumi_monster: it should find me a girlfriend and charge a commission when I get married.

What’s the #1 thing you like most about Twitter?

@shiribiri: it’s easy and simple and quick (that can be counted as one thing, can’t it?)

@FireAphis: I like the most about Tweeter that I can write whatever I feel without any obligations on being relevant of comprehensible.

@WorldMate: @blonde20 You mean except you?

@Rafim: the fact that you never know what to expect when you send a twit. who is going to respond. what will he say. that’s great!

@HilzFuld: the surrounding industry and the endless possible ways to tweet

[Note: this is #3 in a series of posts about Web 2.0 apps that actually get used at Blonde 2.0, see the first post here and the second post here] 

As more and more social networkers populate the Web scene, more and more photo editing tools are popping up. Who doesn’t like to play around with their own precious image? What better way to do it than to use free tools available online. No downloading, no paying… all the tools are literally at your fingertips. Sure, we already have the basic means to crop, rotate and resize, but there’s something satisfying about taking it further and creating a work of art, so if you’re not a professional graphic designer, you basically don’t need to spend the absurd amount of money (or risk the illegal download) on Photoshop.   

While shuffling through the photo editing weeds I came up with a small list of gems. Most of these editing sites will offer such features as special effects, creative looking fonts, some kind of integration or application for your social profiles and my favorite: no registration.

Here are my five favorite photo editing sites:

Picnik

Picnik launched a couple of years ago and seems to be doing quite well. They offer a huge variety of enhancing tools such as special effects, creative looking fonts, shapes and frames. They’re known for their quick and user friendly interface. Their business model is a Premium upgrade account.   

Be Funky

Be Funky is for the those wannabe artists who like to draw but perhaps aren’t too successful at it. They claim that they provide the tools for anyone to achieve “photographically rich and artistic results from their digital images without the need for any technical knowledge.”  

Preloader

Preloader is fun because it’s specifically made for flickr users (that’s me). They integrated their application with flickr so all you need to do is log on to your flickr account through the Preloadr site. They offer tools to enhance your photos’ color, sharpness and contrast.

MagMyPic’s

I’ve seen some MagMyPic’s around and they’re pretty hilarious. If you fancy your photo on the cover of a magazine, this is by far the easiest way to do it. They’ve made the platform fool proof. All you need to do is upload your image, choose from a range of 33 magazine covers to plaster your face on and grab the code. Their business model seems to include the chance for the user to actually buy the printed cover. 

Splashup

What was once called Fauxto is now “Splashup.” This site is great for people who are already familiar with Photoshop. The most complex out of the bunch, they offer quick, flash-based, multi-layer tools. You can utilize Splashup from a variety of social platforms such as flickr, facebook and Picasso.