Author Archive for Blake Archive Page 0
Two Roads Diverged: A Deeper Look at MySpace Media Initiatives and the Evolution of Social Media
3 Comments Published by Blake Robinson April 11th, 2008 in Branding, Facebook, MySpace, social media, social networks.It’s been 24 hours since News Corp announced an international distribution arrangement with MySpaceTV and ShineReveille that would make shows like “Quarterlife” and “Roommates” available to wider audiences, perhaps producing localized versions for some areas. It’s also been about a week since an even bigger bombshell was dropped with the announcement of MySpace Music partnerships [...]
About that official Scrabble app
3 Comments Published by Blake Robinson April 9th, 2008 in Branding, business, Facebook, Facebook controversy, Facebook Software.My first piece for FaceReviews was a positive review of Scrabulous, the immensely successful, Scrabble-inspired Facebook app. The implementation I said, was well-done and, barring a few acceptable bugs, the overall experience was excellent. Not surprisingly, the Calcutta-based brothers responsible soon became entangled in legal woes at the hands of Hasbro and Mattel (who each [...]
Facebook chat client launches in some networks
0 Comments Published by Blake Robinson April 7th, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook Chat, Facebook privacy.Image courtesy of Inside Facebook On Sunday, Facebook made available an implementation of its new chat function. The roll-out has been positively received by those who have it, but most networks are not yet supported — New York not being one of them. While I clearly haven’t been able to try the new service, from [...]
Facebook poaching more Googlers
0 Comments Published by Blake Robinson April 4th, 2008 in business, Facebook acquisitions.And this time it was a guy who did a lot of poaching while at Google — poaching of eggs that is. That’s right, Google executive chef Josef Desimone will now be preparing healthier meals to Facebook’s 20-somethings. The move comes as an obvious one to those close to the matter. Desimone and Sheryl Sandberg [...]
MySpace partners with Sony/BMG, Universal and Warner to form MySpace Music
1 Comment Published by Blake Robinson April 3rd, 2008 in business, MySpace.By now we’ve had a few examples of bonafide music hits from MySpace (see Lily Allen, for one), but until now the implementation on the site has been somewhat whimsical. With a new partnership between three of the major labels, MySpace Music is set to offer digital downloads, ad-supported music and video streaming. Additionally, a [...]
What’s the Point? Facebook Name Analyzer Edition
2 Comments Published by Blake Robinson April 2nd, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook Applications.Rating: It’s seldom that I have an opportunity to write about an application as completely and utterly useless as the Facebook Name Analyzer. So devoid of worth is this thing, that I briefly considered not writing about it, but then I considered, why would someone make a terrible app if they weren’t searching for some [...]
Wired Science app gets it right — big time
1 Comment Published by Blake Robinson March 31st, 2008 in Branding, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Applications, facebook Business, Facebook Marketing.Rating: First of all, Wired Science is awesome. It’s like Nova combined with Mr. Wizard and rolled into one product that manages to stay informative and amusing. I’m really completely thrilled by the show, but there’s more. Wired Science recently unveiled its own Facebook app and it’s a winner. The app combines the offbeat nature [...]
Nexus Facebook Friend Graphing
0 Comments Published by Blake Robinson March 28th, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook acquisitions.Rating: Sure it doesn’t do much, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t the coolest looking Facebook app I’ve seen this week. Nexus is simple in premise, yet completely elegant in execution — that said, it probably wasn’t the simplest of apps to develop. Essentially the app, which exists primarily outside of Faceboo, creates a [...]
Facebook introduces you to ‘People You May Know’
0 Comments Published by Blake Robinson March 27th, 2008 in Facebook Applications, Facebook News, Facebook updates.Rating: Facebook quietly launched a new feature that connects you with people you may know. It was a soft launch, but the implementation is pretty effective. It can be found in the Friend Finder section of the service. Like the similar feature popularized by FriendFeed, Facebook draws on mutual connections between friends. It’s fairly accurate [...]
Indiana bans sex offenders from social media
0 Comments Published by Blake Robinson March 26th, 2008 in Facebook, social media, social networks.Lawmakers in Indiana have recently pushed a bill through its General Assembly that will outright prohibit convicted sex offenders from using social networks, IM and chat rooms. Additionally, the convicts will be required to register their email addresses every year and to alert the state within 72 hours of changing it. The penalty for non-compliance [...]
