Self-described Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang has posted a 1,544-word monstrosity to explain the significance of MySpace and Facebook's new ad models. If you have time to read it, you're probably also adding friends on MySpace all day. If you have a real job, here are Owyang's insights in 100 words.
Tomorrow in New York, Facebook execs will pitch ad agencies on its SocialAds, which target users based on their activities on the site and place related ads in their news feeds. But today goes to MySpace. Or at least the next 5 minutes. Come on, 30 seconds? The News Corp.-owned social network will today formally launch "hyper targeting." Fifty advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Toyota, have already signed on to target some of MySpace's 100 million users based on the information they enter into their profiles.
Google's gang of also-ran social networks had their day in the sun. But then we rained on it with our charts, which showed that even in aggregate, without MySpace, the Google gang didn't amount to much in the U.S. Some of you protested. Well here's the good news. Today, the chart looks much better for the Google Gang versus Facebook. The bad news? Well, we may have rained on your day in the sun but you ... who are you again? Here's how the chart looks when Hitwise included some social networks you may have actually heard of, like Bebo and MySpace, Google's new OpenSocial partners.
Just as we predicted, MySpace has joined Google's OpenSocial movement. Another name to add to the anti-Facebook list? UK-heavy network Bebo. Now, at last, Google's open-standards initiative looks more substantive. For Google's also-ran early adopters, though, there's still a problem: They won't be able to tap into MySpace and Bebo's users to spread their apps virally.
A loyal reader and apparent Facebook enthusiast notes in his Facebook status, "so valleywag apparently has a bigger boner for FB than i do ... weird, huh?" I can only assume this comment comes in response to our chart yesterday showing Facebook's vast superiority to the gang of also-rans Google has rousted up to support OpenSocial. But here's the thing. No way do we have the biggest boner for Facebook. That prize goes to Alexa. Care to inspect for yourself?
Rumor is that MySpace is considering joining Google's OpenSocial initiative. An announcement could come as soon as today, a tipster tells my colleague Megan McCarthy. Yesterday, we threw a few pretty charts at you to explain why Google has to rope the News Corp.-owned social network into its posse if it hopes to rein in Facebook's popularity with application developers. So it isn't a surprise Google and MySpace are talking — especially considering the two companies already have a huge search deal. One wonders: Was this what Google dealmaker Megan Smith was bending MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe's ear about at Web 2.0 Summit? Let us know what they were really saying.
All the attention might be on Facebook's advertising aspirations, the Microsoft investment, and Google's OpenSocial initiative. But don't think Facebook has forgotten about MySpace, which still has a lock on the music market, thanks to bands which discovered the site as a way to connect with fans. One report has Facebook launching a long-rumored platform for musicians at the Ad:Tech conference.
Google couldn't get a piece of Facebook or its hot apps platform, so now it's building its own. Not that it would like people to call it Google's platform; it's trying to persuade people that this is an open platform. It's called OpenSocial, and it's supposed to force developers to reconsider writing apps solely in FBML, the Facebook platform's proprietary language. The idea is that Google will gather a gang of websites whose users combined, will offer an audience as large as Facebook's. It's a fine theory, but let's see the real numbers behind the Google Gang.
At $2.7 million per 30-second spot, TV advertising is far from dead, or in need of help from Google. In fact, Fox is likely to bring in more than $160 million in ad revenues during the Super Bowl. That's more than Facebook is projected to make this entire year. AdAge reports that 90 percent of the 30-second ad slots for Super Bowl XLII are sold out. Normally, a few spots are still available for gullible dotcoms at the runup to the event, but not this year. Demand from automakers and movie studios has driven the buying spree. This year, Fox is showing the Super Bowl in the U.S. and is doing extensive cross-promotion with fellow News Corp. subsidiary MySpace. On-air promotions will "urge" viewers to log onto MySpace, and advertisers will tie special offers to users who also view the ads online.
Newsweek confirms the earlier reports that MySpace founder Tom Anderson is lying about his age ... on MySpace. He'll turn 37 in two weeks, not the 33 that his profile suggests. Newsweek quotes one MySpace user: "Tom was my first friend. It's kind of messed up that he lied to me." Wait until someone tells him about all those "girls" who added him as a friend. [Newsweek]
Shawn Gold is out as MySpace's senior vice president of marketing and content, we keep hearing. It seems few at News Corp. or Fox Interactive Media will miss him, from the tart-tongued reports of his exit. Gold, previously an executive at AOL's Weblogs Inc., touted himself as MySpace's "chief marketing officer," a title he didn't hold. His pretensions to the C-suite, as well as a clash with MySpace's European marketing chief, Jamie Kantrowitz, may have cost him his job. And then there's the curious question of what, exactly he did at MySpace. On a social network, users ought to provide both the marketing and the content. True, bands have found MySpace to be a congenial environment to promote their tours and music. But MySpace's own efforts to market its video channels have proved more laughable than lucrative.
It's widely-known that each of Facebook's nearly 50 million active users are either procrastinating millennials in their cubicles, college students, or pedophiles. Now, reports indicate a third group has joined Facebook, MySpace and social networks: the Russian mob. "Facebook and MySpace are a goldmine of data for the bad guys," MessageLabs founder and chief security analyst Mark Sunner told Australian outlet, The Age. Sunner goes on to explain that by the bad guys, he means the "shady" Russian Business Network, which is not, as of yet, a News Corp. property. Worried? Contact MessageLabs, which for a small fee, will set you up with a far more secure network, according to MessageLabs. Someone should let the Russians know about this business.
Google's Sergey Brin is bummed. MySpace slackers-in-chief Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe probably couldn't taste their breakfast this morning either. It's the day after Microsoft and Facebook's announcement and while we know for the pair it was a salesman's win-win-win, somebody's got to be the lose-lose-loser. But cheer up, Google and MySpace, the verdict is in and it ain't you.
Tom Anderson may be old, but the ideas News Corp. is producing for MySpace seem older yet. In a partnership with Oberon, which builds games for other websites, MySpace will add free "casual" games in January. (Casual games, if you're not familiar with them, are the free games like Bejeweled. You know, the ones your mom stays up all night playing.) As of this morning, the Facebook platform features 738 games, including Poker as well as ripoffs of Risk and Scrabble. Google doesn't bother to tell us how many thousands of gaming widgets it's linked to through iGoogle. And does anyone remember a time before Yahoo Games? I hear that might even make money. (Photo by FredoAlvarez)
Is MySpace mascot Tom Anderson, the default friend added to everyone's profile on the social network, 32 years old, as his profile says? Or is he older — 36 or 37? TechCrunch's Michael Arrington says he's heard Anderson is actually 36 or 37. Which would hardly make Anderson the first person to lie about his age on MySpace, if true. Still, this rumor is doubly painful for MySpace and News Corp. First, it reminds people that his true age is just the least of the mysteries surrounding Anderson. And second, it points out MySpace's fatal flaw as a business. Unlike Facebook, which forces users to tie their online identities to real-life groups like colleges or workplaces, there's no reason for users — or advertisers — to trust anything in a MySpace profile.
"MySpace today announced the launch of an original scripted web series, Roommates, in collaboration with Iron Sink Media and sponsored by the 2008 Ford Focus.... Best known for the creation of the popular series 'Soup of the Day,' 'NoHoGirls,' 'WeHoGirls' and 'VanNuysGuys,' Iron Sink has a deep understanding of serial Web programming and production.... As part of the launch, the new 2008 Ford Focus will serve as a title series sponsor providing products which will be integrated into the storyline across multiple episodes....'Today's small car customer is more connected than ever, and the new Focus with SYNC allows them to seamlessly transition from their home or office into their car,' said John Zaremba Focus marketing manager. 'The My Space audience is youthful, on the go, and very social which is exactly like the customer who will be drawn to Focus and use SYNC.'" Did we just wake up in a movie about the future? (But filmed in the 90s?) [MySpace TV]
