• November 2nd, 2007

    First OpenSocial Application Hacked Within 45 Minutes

    It didn’t take long for someone to hack the first OpenSocial application. In fact, it took just 45 minutes. A developer who goes by the alias “theharmonyguy” and describes himself as “just an amateur” claims to have compromised the RockYou OpenSocial application on Plaxo called emote (see the Plaxo blog for details on the application). Specifically, he claims to have… → Read More

    October 30th, 2007

    Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday

    Details emerged today on Google’s broad social networking ambitions, first reported here in late September, with a follow up earlier this week. The new project, called OpenSocial (URL will go live on Thursday), goes well beyond what we’ve previously reported. It is a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks (called… → Read More

    September 29th, 2007

    Facebook To Launch Friend Grouping. Competition Can Suck.

    So Facebook will finally allow users to group friends and control information flow based on friend type. For guys like Robert Scoble, who have 5,000 friends (the limit), this may be a way to finally sort through the real friends from the fans. It’s a much needed feature that people have been requesting for a long time. It also shows the steady maturity of Facebook from a college network to a… → Read More

    August 28th, 2007

    Slide Users Adding One Million New Widgets Daily: That's a Lot Of Widgets

    San Francisco based social network widget provider Slide has hit new highs, with reports that they are now serving over one million new widgets daily. Slide provides widget based photo slideshows that users can embed in a range of social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and Friendster. Slide has impeccable backing, being founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and funded by… → Read More

    August 16th, 2007

    Facebook Takes Action Against "Black Hat" Apps

    Some of the most popular Facebook applications are using highly questionable tactics to spread themselves virally. Users have noticed and complained, and Facebook took action today to put stop the most egregious behavior. There are two ways application developers are breaking the rules to get new users. The first: When a user looks at an application on his/her profile the application can show… → Read More

    July 27th, 2007

    How Much Is A Facebook User Worth? At Least $0.30

    People aren’t wasting any time trying to figure out how to monetize all those thousands of Facebook apps that have sprung up over the last couple of months. At least three advertising experiments have launched – the most promising, by far, is RockYou. fbExchange The first out the door was FBExchange, a copycat of the LinkExchange idea from the nineties. It was created by the 30Boxes… → Read More

    May 11th, 2007

    Slide Reveals Big Stats; Look Out For Newcomer Flektor

    The news earlier this week that MySpace is acquiring Photobucket for up to $300 million highlights the importance of the widget space in general, and photo/video sharing widgets in particular. Competitors like Slide and RockYou allow users to create photo slide shows with various effects and transitions, and then embed those slide shows onto MySpace pages and other profiles. These services are… → Read More

    March 5th, 2007

    More Information On RockYou Financing

    More details on the RockYou financing are leaking, although we still can’t get confirmation from the company or previous investors. A source close to the company says they raised $11 million in this second round at a $50 million post money valuation, most or all from European investor Partech. The company had previously raised $1.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture… → Read More

    March 3rd, 2007

    Big Round of Funding For RockYou

    We’re getting reports from multiple sources (but no confirmation from the company yet) that photo widget company RockYou has raised a big round of financing. The unconfirmed numbers are $10+ million at a $50+ million valuation, which is in line with what competitor Slide raised late last year. The company had previously raised $1.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture… → Read More

    February 4th, 2007

    SuperBowl Ads (Not Really) From Startups

    Today’s the day – SuperBowl XLI. Hundreds of millions of people around the world will eat junk food, drink beer, and watch the best television advertising all year interrupted periodically with a football game. Six startups (Meebo, Meez, Multiply, Plaxo, RockYou and Technorati) who can’t afford the $2.5 million plus for a thirty second spot during the game got together to produce… → Read More