Social networks have replaced job boards and companies looking for skilled, savvy employees now have a plethora of options for recruitment online. Recruiting through social networks allows unprecedented reach in terms of potential employees and amount of information available on each candidate, with the added bonus of being one of the most cost-effective recruitment tools around.

Watch the story of Larry the Bird:

For a minute and 49 seconds, Cohen beams endearingly into the camera and tells us all about NY based startup, SpeakLike, a fantastic new language translation Web service which cleverly translates messages, emails, blogs, RSS and Twitter feeds, in real time. Essentially, the product allows you to communicate with others in 30 different languages without having to use clumsy, copy-paste methods. Cohen explains how SpeakLike is really ideal for businesses that need to communicate with international customers, quickly and efficiently or for bloggers who have readers/followers from all over the world. Find out more about SpeakLike in the video below:

Being an investor in Twitter, Fred’s talk touched on what he initially saw in Twitter before investing, what he thinks will happen next with Twitter as far as monetization, and what will eventually happen to Google as social media, like Twitter, Facebook, blogging and blog commenting grow at an imminently fast pace.

He delved specifically into 3 major points on what he thinks will be Twitter’s business model, while writing off immediately the usual ideas of charging people for its use and posting banner ads.

While only a bit of spatter was spent on his other investments such as Boxee and blog comment service, Disqus, he did manage to share with us his general investment thesis as well as enlighten us with his theories on how the “internet disrupts industries” and also entertain us with terms such as “social media ninja.” Hear all about it below:

Applications will be accepted until midnight, Wednesday June 24, 2009. On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 10 finalists will be chosen then later presented their award at the David Inter-Continental Hotel, Tel Aviv on July 13, 2009 during the event.

To find out more details, visit the TWS2009 website.

Good luck to you all!

Facebook, as we all may know was born in Chris’ early dorm room days at Harvard. But what we may not know are the little details and steps that were taken before its creation. The video I captured at an NYU conference hall unveils all that we may have missed along the Facebook way.

The subject matter moves on to more recent events such as the development of Chris’ online community platform, MyBO (My Barack Obama), which played an essential role in helping connect Obama’s local supporters, and winning the presidential election. Chris explains how the use of technology made it easier and more efficient for campaigners to do the things they have already always done, and how the platform essentially just made it easier for people to give money to the campaign. Check out the video below to get the full picture.

Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 1

Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 2

Chris Hughes Speaks at Startup 09 Conference - Part 3

(Chris is now living in NY and spends time visiting students at different Universities to discuss their entrepreneurial ideas and to give them advice. He is said to be on the look out for young, fresh ideas…)

I want to give a great big thanks to Balora and Cnaan Aviv. Balora did all the beautiful UI and design for the site and Cnaan worked his programming magic. They both suffered a lot from me in the last few months due to my obsessiveness for everything to look/feel absolutely perfect so I want to give them both a special thanks for putting up with me and not screening my calls at 2am.

I hope that you guys like it and believe it captures the Blonde 2.0 spirit! All positive feedback write back as comments. All negative feedback please send to Balora and Cnaan. Thanks!

1) Consult your editor before “connecting” to or “friending” any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources. Openly “friending” sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex.

2) Let our coverage speak for itself, and don’t detail how an article was reported, written or edited.

3) Don’t discuss articles that haven’t been published, meetings you’ve attended or plan to attend with staff or sources, or interviews that you’ve conducted.

4) Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.

Contracted Dow Jones site writer, Peter Kafka, responded to these rules by basically stating that he didn’t “have a problem with the bulk of this stuff… big organizations like to spell this stuff out, for both management and legal reasons. Nature of the beast.” Glad you don’t mind Peter!

Image Credit: lis_glass

Apropo, did you see that Blonde 2.0 was also mentioned on CNN Money this week?

It has been almost 2 years since the premier of the original iPhone so advancement in this piece of magic is inevitable. While the next iPhone is rumored to keep its basic design and color option, it will be upgrading its features and hardware. Since the camera quality is not up to par with competing phones, this feature will be the first to get some attention. Same notion goes to the video department. We’re to expect a better lens, sensor, and autofocus as well as video recording. Speed, memory, increase in storage and the megapixel count increases for photography, is also a given.

While iPhone’s daddy, the “tablet” will miss this year’s WWDC, it’s rumored that the new Mac OS X operating system, Snow Leopard might be presented. It will supposedly feature flat dark scroll bars like those in iTunes and a minimalist window design with translucent black-glass headers. The new Macbooks will be updated with built-in 3G capabilities. What would be even better is we could swap out our iPhone SIMS and use it in the MacBook for connectivity on demand.

So, no major surprises are predicted this year. The iPhone will once again be the star, and the software will get its needed upgrade.

Image Credit: Macnerd93

WorldMate

But that was then when making mobile apps meant being pre-installed on a pre-sale phone. The world has moved on since the launch of the iPhone to a new world of online application stores. Now with after the SDK 3.0 and right before the expected launch of iPhone 3.0, WorldMate has come to the iPhone app store.

In many ways this is a huge validation of the iPhone platform, it’s one of the first dedicated for business applications of the kind that are huge in the BlackBerry world to make the platform jump to an appstore full of shall we say “less serious” applications (you can see more of this attitude in the latest WorldMate Max video embedded below).

It’s easy to see why they are coming to iPhone, the potential market is huge; there about 40 million business travelers in the US that take over 200 million trips totaling $200 billion in sales.  According to WorldMate these “road warriors” are continually jostled around with 30%+ of flights are delayed or cancelled, with meeting schedules change all the time, and because there’s a lot of stress trying to make split second decisions in unfamiliar environments with a lack of relevant information.  What’s more, these travelers spend on average $1000 per trip. WorldMate is the only service to that can help by effectively aggregating this disparate information.  But that is only half the battle.  WorldMate further distinguishes itself in that it can take this information and turn it into solutions.  For example, if your flight is delayed, WorldMate will let you know and then suggest all the alternative flights you can take instead to make it to your destination on time.

WorldMate in both its free and Gold versions have both shot to the top 20 apps in the travel category and it seems that not only is WorldMate ready for iPhone, iPhone is ready for WorldMate.

While Tim Berners-Lee made online shopping possible in 1990 after creating the first Web server and browser, it really only became popular by the mid 90’s when Amazon and Ebay took over. At this time, mail order catalogs were still hogging the main stream shop-from-home scene but after 10 years of marked improvements, people are finally throwing their Pottery Barn junk mail in the bin.

Providing a “secure checkout” became the first and most important issue to tackle for consumers and garb providers alike. Netscape introduced SSL encryption of the data that’s transferred online, which has now become essential for secure online shopping. Then the display of items was worked on. First the consumer only had one or two pics to get a sense of the product, which grew to a few photos from different angles, which grew to roll over zooming, then full 360 degree product viewing.

While most shopping sites like Jcrew and Net-A-Porter are resting here, some of the more innovative fashion stops are adding the option of video viewing on the product detail pages. Shopflick is a video-powered marketplace that offers an online shopping experience where you can actually watch video clips of the products and designer. Another large, British shopping site, ASOS, brilliantly gives you the option to view the item you’re looking at on a swift “catwalk” video. This obvsiously gives you a real opportunity to see how the piece of clothing moves as well as sits on the body (even though the body is that of a 6′ tall, size 2 model).

I’m guessing the other major sites might soon follow suit, as they should. I’m actually a little surprised they haven’t done so already. But whatever technology gives me in order to avoid stinky, overcrowed dressing rooms, shopping malls and parking lots, I will gladly take.

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?

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.

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

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.