October 2007 Web 2.0 Update: Microsoft Beats Google In Facebook Deal, and more
Hopefully you had a great week. Today we will be starting off a new meme here in Connected Internet. Every month, we will be posting a Web 2.0 Update, in which we’ll be updating you regarding the latest and greatest in the Web 2.0 scene.
Naturally, we will be focusing on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, FlickR and those alike as well as on other popular web applications and services Connected Internet readers use. Unlike websites that specialize in Web 2.0 entrepreneurial topics, we are not going to get too technical nor go deep into business models here, but try to focus on analyzing the news from our standpoint as social network members.
Microsoft beats Google in Facebook deal
On Wednesday, Facebook announced that Microsoft has agreed to buy 1.6% of Facebook for $240 Million. In plain words, that means that Facebook’s value is around $15 billion!. In return, Microsoft will become the exclusive advertising partner of Facebook inside and outside the USA until 2011. This deal is important for two basic reasons: (a) Microsoft offer to Facebook was preferred over Google’s, which seems to be a better fit for Facebook in terms of company culture and values (b) Microsoft’s investment in Facebook reinforces the premise of Online Advertising as a valid money making model.
Imeem - the fast growing social network in the US
It’s pretty obvious that MySpace is the most busiest social network, followed by Facebook. What surprised me a bit this week, is that according to a comScore research, the fastest growing social network website in the US is not Facebook but Social playlist website Imeem. The latter has experienced a 1590% traffic grow (to 3.239M unique visitors per year) since September 2006 (Facebook made a 129% growth in the aforementioned period).
Friendster to open up dev platform
Social networking pioneer Friendster announced that it will launch a program that will allow developers to develop add-on widgets and applications (similar to those in Facebook) for Friendster. That’s good news for Friendster users as it will allow for easier customization and personalization of their profiles. This follows last week’s announcement on the upcoming MySpace developer platform, which is exciting news for MySpacers.
GMail now supports IMAP
Until today Gmail allowed you to download your email using POP to desktop email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. That said, syncronization between the desktop client and GMail web interface was an issue. IMAP is good news, as it allows for fully syncronization between GMail and other email clients and mobile devices (iPhone is supported). That means that if your read, delete or change your GMail correspondence on Outlook, it will show up accordingly while you access it via the web.
That’s it for today, comments are welcome. Have a great weekend!
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Comment by Everton on 26 October 2007:
ROFL
I’ve been so busy this week I didn’t even know MCST had won the Facebook deal. I’m only up to around Tues in Google Reader
Comment by Mark on 26 October 2007:
I missed that announcement as well about MCST & Facebook