October 7th, 2008 / No Comments » / by oddbits
Tokoni, a social network that provides a platform for people to share content ranging from their life stories to personal opinions on heated political issues, was formally launched this week. The network, which was founded by former eBay executive Mary Lou Song and former Skype president Alex Kazim, has been in beta since November 2007.
“We created Tokoni to fill the distinct need for an online community where individual stories of life’s experiences have a voice and are valued, and where the collective wisdom of the community is celebrated,” said Alex Kazim, co-founder and CEO of Tokoni. “The growth of social media has enabled people to control how they create, consume and share content and personal experiences online; however, participation in the social Web is still daunting to the mainstream. Tokoni makes sharing your own story easy.”
As part of the formal launch, Tokini is adding new features beyond its current stable of social network standards such as photo and video uploads, community forums, chat and blogs. Among the features being added are:
- Collections – like a personal “play list”, members can create a collection of their favorite Tokoni stories.
- Bubble Browser – a visual search tool that enables community members to view the multiple ways in which stories, users and categories are interconnected within the Tokoni Universe.
- Fan Pages – to follow story postings of favorite community members, users can become members of their fan club.
- Tokens – Tokoni members can give tokens to other members, sending an emotional response to an author. (This is somewhat like Karma on forums or the compliment feature on Yelp)
With less than four weeks until the presidential election in the USA, the site is likely to get a lot of traffic.
“This presidential election is about the voice of the people, and we aim to give everyone an opportunity to explore issues and points of view with greater understanding and appreciation,” added Mary Lou Song, co-founder and vice-president, Community.
Share / Blog / Twit / Post
Related posts
Posted in: News, Social Networks
Tags: eBay, Election, Launch, Skype, Tokini, Venture
October 7th, 2008 / No Comments » / by oddbits
Would you rather someone gave you a blessing or a date? Today, Bless You, a Facebook Application with over 200,000 users issued this statement:
Next week, Bless You’s name and functionality will be changed to SpeedDate. Data entered into the original app won’t be used anymore. Soon you’ll be able to try SpeedDate, the fastest way to meet new people, so stay tuned!
Sounds like Bless You -now SpeedDate- thinks there might be less interest in the Facebook Blessing and more interest in the Facebook Hookup.
With that in mind, here is a quick run down on Facebook matchmaking:
Are You Interested by SNAP Interactive has over 4 million monthly users and allows people to anonymously indicate their interest in potential dates.
Zoosk has over one million monthly users and focuses on matching up singles based on location.
Likeness Unrated, with just over one million users, matches people based on answers to questions on “mature topics” such as the seven deadly sins, vice and virtue.
There is an assortment of other dating applications on Facebook with less users. Some have a different focus, such as speed dating. A list of dating applications is available here.
Share / Blog / Twit / Post
Related posts
Posted in: News
Tags: Application, Date, Developer, Facebook, Match
October 3rd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Quick News
Dipity, a Friendfeed like social network aggregator that lets users view updates in a timeline, has been launched to the public. The network allows users to import their updates from services such as Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and their personal blogs to a single timeline.
In addition to seeing their own data, users can also view their friends’ updates through “one-click” imports from email address books and social networks like Twitter. Another feature enables users to create timelines based on keywords such as election or iPhone.
For anyone who appreciates a more graphical view of their various feeds, seeing them plotted on an expandable time line will be a great improvement over other aggregators. There are other views available within Dipity as well, such as a “flip book” style window that looks somewhat like the iTunes movie selector.
I found the timeline to be a bit slow on refresh and it took longer than I would have expected to import my Twitter contacts (I don’t have that many). This might have been because it is the first day the site is out to the general public. I advise those, who like the interface, to hang in there for a while before making a final judgment on performance.
I would like to see an easier way to interact with other users and comment on updates, however that does not seem to be this site’s purpose. To me, that begs the question: What will keep people coming back? This may come down to habit and personal preference, however the driving factor in my returning to any social network is typically the ability to engage in a dialogue with other members.
That being said, Dipity is the first service I’ve seen in a long time that truly represents something new and is not just a rehash or fresh coat of paint on an existing set of features.
Have you tried Dipity yet? What’s your impression?
Share / Blog / Twit / Post
Related posts
Posted in: News
Tags: Dipity, Flickr, Friendfeed, iPhone, Twitter, YouTube
October 3rd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Quick News
After one year in beta phase, itsmy.biz is launching its social advertising network in the mobile space. Itsmy.biz, with cell phone carriers in the US and Europe, allows customers to sponsor television shows that are streamed over mobile devices.
“The mobile phone is the only medium, that is always ON and with you and it has a wider reach than TV. Mobile social advertising is more personal than any other type of advertising: people can directly interact with brands and products. Whenever and wherever they are, commercial campaigns will reach them.” says Antonio Vince Staybl, CEO.
The itsmy.biz audience is broken into 54% male and 46% female with most watchers being between 16 and 42 years old.
The media enabled network focuses on three advertising formats: animated banners, content branding, and mobile television.
“For the first time a new media format combines all facets of conventional one-way media like radio, TV and newspaper in one device, for immediate response. Mobile and personal.” says David Mayerhofer, Creative Director itsmy.biz.
Share / Blog / Twit / Post
Related posts
Posted in: News
Tags: Advertising. Itsmybiz, Cell Phone, Media, Mobile
October 3rd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Quick News
Friendster, a leading social network with a large presence in the Americas and Asia, has announced support for both Facebook and OpenSocial platform standards. Yesterday, Friendster announced that it has deployed support for the Facebook platform as part of the Friendster Developer Program, which was launched in 2007. Under this program developers will be able to introduce programs originally written for Facebook to the Friendster network of over 80 million users. Friendster also supports OpenSocial APIs, a social networking standard used on sites such as Ning, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Plaxo.
“Friendster’s support of both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms is a big win for business and individual developers, as well as for Friendster users,” said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster. “For the developers that have invested resources in developing and launching a Facebook app, 
Friendster has now made it very easy for them to ‘port’ these applications to Friendster, enabling them to tap into Friendster’s 80 million users. For Web 2.0 companies that have developed apps using Facebook and OpenSocial APIs, they now have the flexibility to choose between approaches when launching applications on Friendster.”
Developers can get additional information, downloads and an API key at http://www.friendster.com/developer.
Share / Blog / Twit / Post
Related posts
Posted in: News, Social Networks
Tags: API, Developer, Facebook, Friendster, OpenSocial, Standards, Web 2.0
Ebay, Skype Execs Back Tokini, a Social Network with Active Political Community
