Internet Marketing and Social Media Consultants

Facebook and their meteoric rise to the lofty realm of social network kingpins have decided to opt-out of Google’s Friend Connect, a program that would allow users from different social networks to aggregate their info on different sites across the web.

Facebook users are expressing anger, and the problem was stated quite thoughtfully by Techcrunch’s Steve Gillmor: “If Facebook insists on freezing our data as a condition of using their service, the company is essentially recommending we go elsewhere.”
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comScore is reporting that Yahoo Buzz is now receiving more traffic than Digg, and that their traffic is more diverse and thus more attractive to advertisers.

Digg is still doing fine, and much of the success of Yahoo Buzz can be linked to the massive amount of traffic that Yahoo brings in. All Yahoo launches get that added momentum of being promoted by the traffic giant that is Yahoo.com. A lot of Yahoo Buzz’ traffic is probably casual (the most buzzed story right now has about 100 votes, compared to Digg’s 4000+), but it’s traffic nonetheless.

Digg’s metrics give credence to its reputation as attracting young male geeks. While Digg users are 60% male, Yahoo Buzz attracts slightly more females than males. Digg users also have a reputation of not clicking on any ads. The added attraction of possibly being featured on the front page of Yahoo is also drawing attention from publishers.
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Robert Scoble and others are reporting that Twitter broke the story of the recent Chinese earthquake faster than even the United States Geological Survey.

Scoble, noted Twitter fiend and earthquake news follower, received tweets reporting the quake from Beijing as it was happening. Not only did he relay in the information before virtually any other source, but it was faster than the automatic reporting on the USGS site.
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Facebook is going to announce agreements with the attorneys general of 49 states (don’t mess with Texas) regarding protecting young people from Internet predators.

Facebook is calling it the “Key Principles Of Social Networking Safety,” and it will focus on cooperating with law enforcement, introducing technology to protect children, and providing additional safety measures for all the teeming masses on Facebook.

Some of the initiatives agreed to by Facebook include eliminating links to porn sites, restricting searches by adults of members under 18, weeding out sex offenders, and restricting advertisements for adult products, like booze and cigarettes, to members who are of age.
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Christian video sharing site GodTube has garnered $30 million in funding from hedge-funders GLG Partners, who value to the year-old religious site at a whopping $150 million. Not bad for a site that started out with a $300 script.

The niche video site exploded in growth last summer, but has leveled out since then and really hasn’t done much more growing. However, with a big infusion of cash, they should be able to update their site and target more of the massive Christian community and add to the estimated 2 million visitors the site receives each month.
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