Every few weeks, the blogosphere likes to regurgitate information that it previously discussed a few weeks ago. This is the case with the most recent post by Saul Hansell in which he discusses Yahoo and Google’s intention to turn their email services and start pages into social networks. While this is could be a big announcement, much of it has been previously covered in the press. The real news here is that Yahoo is going to follow in Google’s footsteps into the social networking space via similar tactics that Google will utilize in their Open Social project.

According to Marshall Kirkpatrick, “In the future, Yahoo! mail will include a feed of info about your friends’ activities, just like Facebook.” Google plans on offering a similar feed that they will build using Google Reader technology. At least that’s what Mike Arrington posted when he broke the news about OpenSocial plans. The duplication of the Facebook newsfeed by all the large players shows how large an impact Facebook had within the industry.

This sudden shift by the industry to become more social is why I set up this blog in the first place. It appears that Yahoo! is about to enter the fold as well and all of this occurs outside of their failed Yahoo Mash project. Brad Garlinghouse’s peanut butter manifesto seems to be getting smeared all over the place and Yahoo has returned to an unfocused media behemoth. No wonder their quarterly earnings continue to disappoint analysts. The only question that I have now is whether or not Google is going to be thrown off track by their OpenSocial initiative.

As I posted on AllFacebook last week, OpenSocial is currently 3 XML schemas and a few JavaScript libraries so I don’t think they have dedicated too many resources to implementing OpenSocial. If we start seeing a significant shift in resources I would start to become concerned for Google as well. I think they know better though. While the big players shouldn’t invest too heavily in social, I obviously think that social is the way of the web. Some investment is necessary but unfortunately no monetization model has been proven effective yet. Facebook hopes to prove their new Social Ads system is the answer. We’ll see how it pans out.

In the mean time, Yahoo! and Google will continue to invest in making the web a better place for socially connecting. Some of this connecting will take place via email. I guess some things never change! I’m not quite sure how I feel about using my email for the center of my social network but maybe my feelings will change once it launches. Will you want your email to be the center of your social network?

Today, Userplane announced their support of the Open Social API. This is massive! This means that no matter what social network you are using you will be able to communicate with other userplane and AIM users from within the social network. This is a significant announcement. The one thing that Userplane should be concerned about is that the majority of social networks have yet to develop their platform and won’t be launching until next year.

As a result other competitors can announce their intent to support Open Social but it won’t mean anything until the new platforms launch. This is also a sign of each of the social network functions expanding into individual verticals. Want music on your social network? Go to iLike. Want chat? Go to Userplane. Want users to create photo slideshows? Contact Slide. Alternatively, we may see some of the large social networks acquire each of the leaders in each of these smaller verticals.

Yesterday on AllFacebook, I discussed the potential of Facebook acquiring iLike and Flixster. While I think it’s currently unlikely, it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise there will be an enviroment in which each of the vertical leaders are competing with each other. Do you think MySpace or Facebook will end up acquiring the leaders or will we see more competition within each social network vertical?

Today, Bebo announced Open Media, “a radical new vision for social media and entertainment that gives media companies free and open access to Bebo’s 40 million users worldwide and the Bebo community free and open access to thousands of hours of premium entertainment content from some of the world’s best known media brands.” These brands include “CBS, MTV Networks, BBC, Turner, ESPN, Yahoo!, Next New Networks, Crackle and more.” As I posted this morning, Compete.com published statistics stating that Bebo had 2.83 million active users last month.

This new partnership by Bebo emphasized the continuing trend of social networks merging with mainstream media. This trend began when News Corp. aquired MySpace over two years ago. MySpace has been focusing on launching exclusive shows and Bebo has been doing the same. While it appears that Bebo and MySpace have been the primary players in this space, Facebook has been signaling their intent to enter the space as well with the launch of their new Pages service.

While Facebook just entered the media space, the Open Media service is Bebo’s entrance into the viral distribution space. According to the press release, Open Media “allows users to store and curate within their personal profiles their favorite music and video content; and virally distribute that content throughout their ‘friends network’ and the wider Bebo community.” This viral distribution comes from Bebo’s alternative newsfeed feature that is displayed on a user’s personalize homepage.

As more people spend time on social networks, look for them to build similar patterns as television networks. Myspace, Facebook and a third network (Orkut or Bebo) will end up being the primary distributors of content (similar to NBC, FOX, CBS and ABC). The smaller social networks including Hi5, Friendster and LinkedIn will become the equivalent of cable access channels.

Over the past few days, a number of articles have been written that state the risk of using social networks. According to one article yesterday, “one in four users of social networking sites leaves themselves open to crime by revealing personal details.” Today the BBC published broader security risks for users. According to Get Safe Online, “eight million people leave home wireless networks unprotected against intruders. And more than half of the over-65s polled use a single password for every website they visit, the group said.”

So what are the real risks posed by using social networks? Identity fraud is probably the biggest risk. Protecting yourself is pretty straight-forward. Don’t publish your address or phone number. After checking my Facebook profile it appears that I’m at risk as well. Apparently a combination of contact details and birth dates are sufficient for identity fraudsters to compromise your identity. If you choose to publish your personally identifiable information make sure that the majority of the information is private to users outside of your friends.

Additionally, it’s a good idea to switch up your passwords for each site you use. This prevents fraudsters from creating complete havoc for you. Imagine all of your accounts being compromised simultaneously. Online banking, social networks, email and more are all at risk when you use the same password across networks. Have you ever had any of your accounts compromised?

Yesterday, Compete.com release statistics about user overlap statistics among the top social networks. The findings were interesting. According to the results, 20 percent of MySpace users are Facebook users while the majority of Facebook users (64 percent) are also MySpace users. So does this graph mean anything or is it just a bunch of numbers?

With a little deeper analysis an interesting picture is revealed. According to the most recent statistics, here are the estimated user bases of the top 5 social networks:

• Myspace - 200+ million
• Orkut - 67 million
• Facebook - 52 million
• Friendster - 50 million
• Bebo - 40 million

Compete.com has calculated the following number of active users in October for each of the same social networks:

• MySpace - 65.21 million
• Facebook - 24.26 million
• Bebo - 2.83 million
• Friendster -1.346 million
• Orkut - .481 million

I have a feeling that some of these numbers (especially Orkut) are a little skewed given that the majority of Compete.com users are U.S. based. Aside from Orkut, I think most of these numbers are accurate. So what can we derive from these numbers? There is significant overlap across all the social networks. Approximately one third of Bebo users logged into Facebook last month. Additionally, a large number of MySpace users appear to be shifting over to Facebook. This was highlighted when Rupert Murdoch acknowledged earlier this year that a large number of his users were moving to Facebook.

So the ultimately conclusion: there is overlap. Aside from that it is difficult to derive anything given the lack of historical data in these charts. Many of the social networks are competing for a similar user base. Additionally, there is significant growth potential outside of the United States. Aside from that, there is not much to be derived from these stats. Compete.com provides yet another excellent piece of linkbait!

Google has officially announced their Android mobile operating system and is looking to change the mobile industry forever. Engaget has posted a number of videos that provide an overview of the new system. I have included one of those videos below. One of the key components of this new operating system is the ability of applications to communicate with each other. Want to build an app that can integrate with a user’s call history? Go for it!

Previously, I had thought up an application that would automatically update your contact’s information in outlook with the last time you spoke with them. If you went too long without touching base, you would receive an automated reminder to contact them to keep in touch. Google is definitely ramping up with the announcement of their SDK as they solidify their partnerships with the 33 launch partners that they announced. If Google is successful with integrating Gmail, Google Maps and their other applications into the majority of handsets, they will now have access to the vast majority of data that users provide via their mobile handsets.

So how will this all impact the social web? Look for social networks like Facebook, MySpace and other competitors to rapidly integrate with the new adroid operating system. Additionally, sites like Twitter and the Loic LeMeur’s upcoming Seesmic (video version of Twitter), will be able to create applications that integrate directly into your phone. Want to know what your friends and family are up to? Simply scroll to the applications that let you see their status updates and videos of what they are doing. Ultimately, this will be a revolution is communications.

One of the largest challenges in building mobile applications has been the lack of resources due to battery power. This has forced application developers to reduce as much processing as possible and has limited the robustness (is that a word?) of applications. Thanks to recent innovations in battery technology, those restrictions will soon be a thing of the past. It appears that this new android operating system will eventually transform the way we communicate. Go take a look at the Android SDK if you are interested in building applications for the new platform.

On Friday, Duncan Riley posted about a new service being provided by the receipt tracking website, Shoeboxed. Following shopping at e-commerce sites across the web, you can share with your friends what you have purchased. The service suggests that “if you got it, flaunt it.” Without the social shopping features, Shoebox provides a highly useful tool for tracking all of your purchases and storing images of the receipts as well as each of the items that you have purchased.

As the website states, “At Shoeboxed, we’re making it socially acceptable to strut your stuff. Show off everything you’ve been buying and browse through other people’s stuff. Then let out your inner Mean Girl and go nuts with our stereotyping feature. Using the mouse is almost as easy as real-life stereotyping!” I don’t know about you but I have been dying to let out my inner mean girl. From that statement you can tell what demographic they are targeting.

Personally, I would love to be able to track all my receipts but I’m not sure that I have the time to scan every receipt. Maybe this is a tool that would be more useful for those with personal assistants. Would you use shoeboxed?

Welcome to The Social Times. We are spending an increasing about of time communicating via the web and I want to document the shift. The Social Times is more than just a blog. Our events, mixers and conferences take place all around the country, with an online presence linking all physical events back to the website. We update our site daily with breaking news and videos, and serve as a hub linking our users to all types of media pertaining to the social web.

The Social Times will be hosting events across the country to help connect those involved in the social web community. We are ramping up fast and have goals to expand into other cities on a regular basis over the coming months. We cannot do this without your support! If you are looking to get involved and host events in your city, please email us at contact [at] socialtimes [dot] com.

Additionally, we will be launching tools in the next couple days to help users stay connected. Keep checking back and we will be sure to make an announcement when those services launch. Also, if you would rather not come back to the site multiple times a day or even multiple times a week, we will be releasing a weekly newsletter that helps keep you informed about what is taking place across the social web. We will also help to notify you what upcoming events are taking place near you.

Finally, I am pleased to announce the official Social Times Launch Event. We will be providing demo opportunities for local companies in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The event is taking place December 13th in downtown D.C. If you would like to sponsor and/or demo at the event, please email us at contact [at] socialtimes [dot] com. Our current sponsors and demos that we have lined up are:

• Wine Library TV
• Freewebs
• Hungry Machine LLC
• Qloud
• Razoo
• Clearspring
• Why Go Solo

I hope to see you there! If you aren’t going to be able to make it to the event, keep up to date with what’s taking place by subscribing to our RSS feed and registering for The Social Times newsletter. You can also view all upcoming events at The Social Times events page.

There have been rumors that Facebook is preparing to release a Chinese version of their site. Much of this was based on the purchase of the Facebook.cn domain. While that doesn’t really mean much, Facebook has clearly stated their intention to support multiple languages on the site. Given the rapid international growth of the site, it is no wonder that they would like to conver the site into other languages as soon as possible.

According to the Social Networking Weblog, Friendster has just released both traditional Chinese and simiplified Chinese versions of their site. Given the massive growth of the online population in China (and that they have the largest population of countries in the world), this is a great move by Friendster. Look for all of the competing social networks to create a Chinese version in the near future.

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese social networking space will evolve over the coming months. Xiaonei.com had created a Facebook clone and was eventually acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive, a Chinese Internet consortium.  I am curious to see how well Friendster, Facebook, MySpace and other social networks will be able to compete.

I have been working on a way to integrate social networking into the Social Times website. I have looked at a lot of options one of which was enabling users to create wordpress accounts and leverage the blogging platform to enable users to interact with each other. Soon after my exploration began a few days ago I came upon a new site: BuddyPress. According to the Buddy Press website, “BuddyPress will completely transform a vanilla installation of Wordpress MU into a fully functional social network platform.”

This is awesome and I will definitely try this out. The screenshots are impressive. There are currently profile, messaging and image features. I have attached images of the new features to this post. One of the goals of Social Times is to enable anybody to write posts that will be displayed under local categories. For example the D.C. community can post unlimited articles to the D.C. Social Times blog. If any of the local articles are news worthy or are interesting in general, they will end up on the main Social Times blog.

I cannot wait for the new Buddy Press plugins are released. This new feature supports the concept of multiple niche social networks across the web. While sites like Ning attempt to cater to this, the reality is that websites will continue to exist as standalone entities. As such, the new Buddy Press plugins will enable users to communicate within any blog that they find interesting. This will truly be a revolution for wordpress sites and I’m excited for the day it is released. Check out more about the new plugins at the Buddy Press website.

BuddyPress Profile

BuddyPress Message

BuddyPress Photos