FRIENDSTER TO SHUT DOWN MAY 31ST

by Tap Vann

NEW YORK – Friendster, the once dominant social network announced it’s shutting down on May 31st.

Users have until May 31 to export their data from the site, at which point Friendster will focus on “entertainment and fun.”

Many of you have probably already deleted your Friendster account or forgot that you even had one. But if there are some photographs or profile posts from 2003 that you’d like to preserve, Friendster has an exporter tool that will extract photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shoutouts, blogs, forums, and groups. You can download the data or post it to third-party sites like Flickr or Multiply, Friendster said.

“We are introducing a new and improved Friendster in the coming weeks that will be focused on entertainment and fun,” Friendster said on its forums. “There will be new features that will leverage on your online activities and will enable you to connect with friends or engage new friends with similar interests.”

As a result, your Friendster account will not be deleted on May 31, but the company will only save your list of friends and basic profile information. Everything else?  Gone.

Friendster had few specific details about what the revamped site will feature except to say that “our improved site is designed to create new profiles that allow you to connect differently with people and do things differently than other networking sites.” The new and improved Friendster “will complement your existing online presence in other social networking sites,” which likely means Facebook.

In December 2009, Friendster was sold to MOL Global, two months after Friendster and MOL teamed up for an online payments platform. But Friendster hasn’t really had a big impact on the world of U.S. social networking for some time, focusing most of its efforts in Asia. In January 2010, it partnered with Yahoo Southeast Asia, and launched a music and games portal in Asia in September.

Initially Friendster lost some ground to MySpace, but that site also recently gave up on the social-networking space in favor of music and entertainment. News Corp. is trying to rid itself of MySpaces, but so far, no buyers.

Facebook, meanwhile, has reportedly reached 600 million users worldwide and shows no signs of slowing down, hosting President Obama last week for a town hall on the economy and launching a Groupon competitor, Facebook Deals.

http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/32427/friendster-to-shut-down-may-31st?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Chrome just surpassed Firefox in the Philippines

I must be glad coz Chrome just  surpassed Firefox in terms of usage in the Philippines. However, I’ve been having problems using both of ’em. I just don’t know if it’s me or the browsers. LOL.  According to Yugatech.com “this ends the 3-year dominance of Firefox in the Philippines (in 2008, Firefox surpassed Internet Explorer to be the leading browser in the country).”  See below:

Willie Revillame announces leave from Willing Willie

 

After the suspension of TV commercials of Unilever Philippines, Mang Inasal, Procter & Gamble Philippines and Cebuana Lhuillier from TV5′s Willing Willie, TV host Willie Revillame announced (April 8 episode) that he would go on leave for 2 weeks.

Starting tomorrow, pre-taped episodes of the Willing Willie will be aired. Willie announced on air that they might still continue to bring hope to the poor even without the sponsors. He also lashed at showbiz personalities who criticized the Jan-Jan incident on Twitter like Jim Paredes, Aiza Seguerra, Agot Isidro, Tuesday Vargas, Lea Salonga, K Brosas, Bianca Gonzalez, and Mylene Dizon.

 

Source: mukamo.com

Philippines Online Coupon BusinesseS

I thought online coupon business “hype” will only spread in the US. However after multi-billion company Groupon turned down Google’s “merge” offer,  it penetrates the world of Asia like Philippines.  I was surprised when I heard it, but not that much though. I have been working for Groupon’s competitor named Adility. We don’t compete with ’em though coz we have a different approach. But that deserves another post ( maybe next week). However, since I know how this business works I envy the following companies below, who are able to start-up while this is hot. KUDOS!

All Deals Asia (Philippines) – compilation of active groupon deals (not exhaustive though)
Awesome.ph
Buyanihan
Cash Cash Pinoy
Clever Buy
Couppie
Crazy Deals
Cuponz
Daily Deals Asia (Manila)
Deal Dozen
Deal Grocer – has some great deals on higher ticket items (I love their clean simple interface.)
Dealspot
Discounts.ph
Ebay Kuponan
Ensogo
Groupon Philippines (Beeconomic) – run by the original Groupon
Local Roam
Metrodeal
Salamat.ph
Twangoo
Winila

Read more: http://manilareviews.com/2011/04/groupon-sites-travel.html#ixzz1Iy3aiv6N
Visit us on ManilaReviews.com

Google Quietly Preparing Chrome OS for Tablets

by Ben Parr

A series of changes to Google Chrome OS’s source code provide the clearest indication yet that the search giant is preparing its notebook OS for the tablet form factor.

Google has toyed with the idea of bringing Chrome OS to tablets; it even made mockups and concepts of a tablet running Chrome OS last year, and it’s had intentions to include touch for a while. Still, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated last year that Android was for touch and Chrome OS was for keyboards.

The line between Android and Chrome OS is about to be blurred though, according to CNET. It has uncovered several changes to the Chrome and Chrome OS source code that indicate work is being done on a tablet version. The changes include new references to a touch version of Chrome OS, references to tablet Chrome OS devices and a touch-optimized new tab page.

If Google really is preparing for the release of a tablet version of Chrome OS, what does that mean for its existing tablet OS, Android Honeycomb? The most prominent tablet running Honeycomb, the Motorola Xoom, has sold around 100,000 units, an OK start for a new device running a new OS but nothing compared with iPad 2 sales.

Is Google testing Chrome OS on tablets as an experiment, or does it plan to try a different strategy to compete with the iPad? One thing’s for sure: It won’t be long until we find out.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/google-chrome-os-tablet/

Why Users Are More Engaged With Social Media on Fridays

by Todd Wasserman

Rebecca Black‘s not the only one who thinks there’s something special about Friday. Two separate pieces of research out this week show that the end of the work week is the best time to get traction on status updates and tweets.

Analyzing more than 200 of its clients’ Facebook pages over a 14-day period, Buddy Media found that engagement on Thursdays and Fridays was 18% higher than the rest of the week, and that engagement was actually even better on Thursday than on Friday. Meanwhile, Twitter Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain — speaking at the Ad Age Digital conference earlier this week — said that Twitter users are more engaged with tweets on Fridays.

The reason is fairly obvious, says Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at the Altimeter Group: “People are heading into the weekend so they’re thinking about things besides work. They’re mentally checking out and transitioning to the weekend.”

Rick Liebling, director of digital strategy at Coyne PR, concurs: “It’s a matter of people finally pushing past the work week and coasting toward the weekend, picking their head up a bit to see what’s going on and what their friends are up to.”

However, Liebling adds that there might be another factor at work: There may be fewer posts overall on Fridays, which means a greater number of average click-throughs.

Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist at HubSpot, agrees with that assessment. “I call it ‘contra-competitive timing,’” Zarrella says. “As the overall activity seems to slow down from the hustle and bustle of the week, readers can give each tweet more attention because there are fewer other tweets fighting for it.”

Whatever the case, the fact that Thursdays and Fridays are the best days of the week for engagement isn’t yet common knowledge among marketers. As Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow also noted at the Ad Age Digital conference, most brands are similarly unaware that their status updates will get more pickup if they’re posted after work hours.

But Owyang says that what’s generally true may not be applicable to many marketers, anyway. For instance, “Friday may not be the best time for the B2B audience because they’re checking out mentally.” Similarly, Lazerow said that for movie companies, the weekend is the sweet spot, but for other media companies, Monday is the worst day of the week. “It’s the noisiest time to post,” Lazerow said.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/google-chrome-os-tablet/

STATEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF MASS COMMUNICATION ALUMNI, FACULTY, STAFF & STUDENTS ON TV5’s WILLING WILLIE

We, the concerned alumni of UP College of Mass Communication, faculty, staff and students, CONDEMN the continued exploitation and abuse of children on television, the continued apathy of sponsors and media owners, and the outright insensitivity of television in the guise of entertainment, their hosts, writers, producers.

We are not here to teach our children that it is perfectly fine to take advantage of, exploit, use and abuse them just to be able to earn, without sweat, money from someone who disgustingly brandishes cold cash and material things, to entice audience and viewers, to taunt and laugh at those willing to be taunted and laughed at. We are not here to ALLOW advertisers, sponsors, media owners, to use US, the public and citizens, to enrich themselves by coming out with TRASH television.

Media should be accountable to the public and its citizens, not to the owners and their stakeholders. Success is measured not by the profits it has earned but by serving the public interest – which is to promote active citizenship through information, education and social integration.

Television audiences are continually being shown a “vast wasteland” of programming, and commercial broadcasting is in effect squandering the public’s airwaves, and we want to put a stop to that. We are aware that the Market Model in Media is what prevails in broadcast television, where advertisers provide most revenues for the networks, where the bottom line is always profits and where they look at the audience as mere consumers who should buy the products of the advertisers, instead of citizens who should be given quality television. We want to put a stop to that.

We therefore urge TV5 management to re-think their position on entertainment television, to take the high road and choose quality content over crass commercialism, all at the expense of the public.

We call on the advertisers of this show to pull out their ads immediately.

We call on the public to BOYCOTT the products of the sponsors who refuse to pull out of this show. The temerity of the host to say that those advertisers who pull out will “suffer” is proof that his supposed apology was not genuine and was made only as PR damage control.

We call on the public to be more vigilant both as an audience and as a consumer.

We call on appropriate agencies concerned (KBP, MTRCB, PANA, ADBOARD, DSWD, CHR) to not only slap the guilty parties on their wrists, but to make sure that media ethics and rules are strictly implemented, especially towards the protection of our children.

We adhere to the College’s vision of a society that is egalitarian, participative, and progressive through the development of media that is: -Social responsible, critical, and vigilant; liberative and transformative; and Free and independent.

We will make noise and continue to make noise. ENOUGH is ENOUGH!

(Note: this statement was written by UPCMCAA President Gina D. Lumauig with the help of some officers of the board and members of the association, and that members of the CMC community are most welcome to sign this statement if they agree with the contents)

 

Facebook To Help Users Burned By Profile-To-Page Migration

by Christina Warren

Facebook now offers a potential solution for users who converted their profiles into pages, only to regret the decision after the fact.
As reported by Inside Facebook, Facebook has created an appeal form for users who want to reverse course on their profile-to-page migration.

As we discussed, the Facebook profile migration tool may leave users with some unintended consequences. Facebook temporarily disabled the tool last week, reportedly because of API strain.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/facebook-migration-appeal/

Musicians Get a New Daily Deals Site

by Brenna Ehrlich

We all know the cliche: Musicians are poor. They subsist on cereal and dreams. Well, indie musician platform Hello Music has decided to do something about the situation, offering users Hello Music Deals on a variety of musical products.

All one has to do to reap the benefits of these deals is register for the site, which is free to join (if you’re already a member, you can bypass this step). Among other tools that Hello Music offers, you will now find “Deals” at the top of the page.

Deals include savings on instruments, recording equipment, gear, accessories, etc. There will be up to four products featured daily, with deals lasting up to 48 hours (or until products sell out — a few of today’s already have). Discounts can climb up to 70% off.

This new service fits nicely within a growing trend when it comes to music and deals sites. RCRD LBL is primed to launch its deals service, in conjunction with TopSpin Media; Sony recently launched PopMarket, a deals site for collectors; and GroopEase, a savings site for indie, digital music, launched this week.

 

http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/hello-music-deals/