TechScape

Relationships, eh? When they start, it's about establishing a connection and getting on well. But at some point, they always become more about money. Which is an only slightly contrived way of introducing Weblo, a new virtual world where the networking is more financial than social.Members can buy and sell property and virtual domain names, as well as become the online publicity manager for a celebrity of their choice. All this based on real-world assets too, from buildings to celebs, while the domain names are the sames as ones owned out on the 'real' Web.

Confused? Founder Rocky Mirza says the service is already a roaring success, having launched last week. I asked him what Weblo is aiming to do, why he thinks it'll be a success, and whether there are legal issues around creating and selling virtual versions of real-world places and celebrities.

When researching my post last week on mobile social networking, I canvassed several industry bigwigs to get their views on how well the likes of MySpace and Bebo would translate to mobile. Helpfully, Gmail chose to file the response from Angel Gambino, VP of commercial strategy and digital media at MTV Networks UK & Ireland, in the spam folder. It's not as if she mentioned viagra or offered to transfer a huge sum of money from a deposed dicator into my account either.Anyway, her answers are interesting, so I wanted to put them up. MTV recently launched its own user-generated service, MTV Flux, so the company has a direct interest in the evolution of social networking, including its transition to mobile. Read on to see what Angel had to say.

How well will sites like MySpace, Bebo etc transfer to mobile?

Social networking is primarily about communicating, so social networking translates well to mobile. Communication is still the primary use of mobile handsets. Mobile is also a highly personal screen, so the personalisation and self-expression common to many social networking sites is a natural fit with mobile as well. Whether these brands can maintain their current growth or can translate their growth trajectory in mobile is an entirely different matter.

The simplicity of Bebo is a great driver of its success. However, people who use Bebo are very young. Our research indicates that audiences of their demographic prefer free services. Bebo is free for now, but unless they are effective at working with mobile network operators and aggregators to create better bundled lower tariff services this demographic may not be as attracted to Bebo on mobile as it may be viewed as too expensive.

Okay, so this is up there with bears being catholic and popes defecating in the woods, as far as surprises go, but it's still good to have some figures backing up the widely-held assumption.

Mobile research firm M:Metrics says 70% of 13-17 year-olds are "engaging in social networking or otherwise creating content" using their mobile phones. Their definition includes photo messaging, video messaging, instant messaging, chat, dating and user-generated content

That said, the fact that this data doesn't include what many people consider to be true social networking – MySpace, Bebo etc – leaves room for speculation. MySpace has launched a limited mobile service in the US, and is negotiating with mobile operators over here in Europe, but it's yet to be seen whether teens (or indeed anyone else) will heavily use these services on mobile, and if so, what they'll want to do with them.

Web 2.0 isn't just about groovy startups, y'know. The firms who rode the internet boom the first time around are coming out with their own attempts to keep pace with the user-generated content phenomenon.Services like Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces and Yahoo 360 combine blogging, social networking, and tight integration with these companies' other web tools. Mecca Ibrahim is in charge of Yahoo 360 in Europe, overseeing its launch in Germany, France and the UK, with Spain and Italy planned for next year.

"It's very hard to say whether it's more of a social networking product, a blogging product, or just a place to collect things that are important to you," she says. "We do see it as a central place within Yahoo where people can publish what's important to them, and share it with their friends and the wider community if they want to do that."

True mobile 2.0 is here at last, or so say Juice Wireless. The authors of JuiceCaster 4.0 claim that their baby is the first application which will allow users to create and share rich media between mobile phones and the internet, Mobile Marketing Magazine reports. In addition to the expected shared and accessible content, JuiceCaster 4.0 will allow real-time distribution of pictures and videos.

Media can be created using either mobile phones or computers, and can then be shared with a range of devices, and is compatible with the majority of cameraphones available in the UK, the US, Finland, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain.

Juicecaster 4.0 is free via the JuiceCaster website, and registration includes a MediaBox, an internet storage device which automatically stores pictures and videos taken with your chosen mobile device. Furthering the whole community social-networking web 2.0 ethos is the MediaBox's shareability: content is easily shared with Xanga, MySpace, Friendster, and Blogger, among other sites. Similar to YouTube, the JuiceCaster MediaBox also features channels for other users to subscribe to; channel content can be displayed on mobile phones, iPods, and computers.

Mobile social networking on both sides of the pond is dominated by MySpace and Windows Live Spaces, new research from Telephia has found. Brits uploading mobile phone content onto the web are most likely to use MySpace, Windows Live Spaces, and YouTube, while in America YouTube is replaced with the college students' favourite, Facebook.

Telephia's statistics, reported by Mobile Marketing Magazine, shows that 21% of British mobile social networkers are devoted to MySpace, 18% are enamoured with Windows Live Spaces, 9% are dedicated YouTubers, and a further 9% love Bebo. While PCs are still used to upload media onto the internet, Telephia points to the recent rise in mobile social networking as a sign that 2007 will be the year in which the medium begins to benefit from its staggering growth potential.

The majority of mobile social networkers are in their teens and early twenties, with twice as many UK mobile social networkers coming from the 15-17 age group as from the population as a whole.

In the US MySpace has effectively cornered the market in mobile social networking in the 15-17 market, with 69% of that age group using it as their primary host of photos and videos. Mobile social networkers as a whole also prefer to use MySpace, which was the top choice of 32% of mobile social networkers. Facebook has a 13% share, and Windows Live Spaces 11%.

Hurrah for January, the time when experts everywhere can make their predictions for the year ahead, safe in the knowledge that in 12 months time, they'll have been forgotten, ready for the next round of futuregazing.

Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecoms industry group has just unveiled its predictions for 2007. The most relevant (to this blog at least) are:

The evolution of social networking. Including improvements in identification, and making it quicker and easier for services to remove copyrighted material quickly. I'm wondering if 2007 could also some lawsuits being flung around in this area, likely aimed at the few user-generated content services that are actually making money.

Many people believe 2007 will be the year when social networks and video-sharing sites start to splinter into niche services aimed at specific demographic groups, split by age, gender, nationality or interests.

Early evidence comes with the launch of DayZ Loop, which claims to be an "online infotainment television network" aimed at teenage girls (specifically, 13 to 17 year-olds). The site's aiming to attract users with a mix of video content, social networking, workshops and editorial content.

Yesterday, I wrote about the launch of DayZ Loop, an online TV network aimed at teenage girls. I had a couple of questions: one about how advertising would work on the community, and also over whether its focus on 'infotainment' would appeal to a wide base of users.

Renee Steiger, creator of strategic alliances at the company, got in touch today with some more info on both of those. Let's start with the latter point.

"Believe it or not, our teen girl members - as well as some other recent market studies - show that girls get tired of the 'in your face' aspect of some other sites," she says. "Also, they often feel uncomfortable with being approached by strangers who may have ulterior motives."

While us Brits wait for Tony Blair to pack his bags at some point this year, the US is gearing up for its next presidential election in 2008. Hillary Clinton's in, choosing to launch her campaign via (what else) an online video message.

But a new site, U4Prez, is promising to let anyone run for president with their own virtual online campaign. Which makes it a MySpace for bedroom politicos. Launching officially on February 1st, it lets users post profiles, sound off on hot issues, and campaign to win support from other users. Although won't they all be trying to become virtual president themselves?

Like many web users, I'm happy with a clear separation between my MySpace and LinkedIn profiles.

One's for personal stuff (i.e. signing up as many unknown indie bands as friends as possible in the hope that one of them will get big and make me look like a supertalent spotter), and the other is for business contacts.

I'm not sure I'd want the two worlds to come together. However, this appears to be the thinking behind Esociallife, a new networking site that's launching next month, and aims to combine "both social and business interactions".

I'm not sure how much of this is news, and how much is a cheeky attempt to get some publicity before Valentine's Day.

But DateMyPet has been plugging its cyberflirting features, which allow users to send each other virtual kisses, and rate each others' pets on the grounds of their attractiveness (hence the picture: sorry, I couldn't resist).

I dunno, I suppose it is a handy social networking community for the sort of people who'd judge potential life partners by the colour of their Shitzu. Insert your own Dr Gillian McKeith joke here.

It stands for Your Success Network, and is billing itself as "a networking site where you can do more than stalk your Ex". Because that's what people use MySpace for, presumably. Forget all that music rubbish.

Sorry, not to be cynical. YSN is the work of motivational gurus Jennifer Kushell and Scott M. Kaufman, who you may know from their book 'Secrets of the Young & Successful: How To Get Everything You Want Without Waiting A Lifetime'.

MySpace hasn't yet signed any operator deals here in the UK, and until it does, we can only speculate about how it'll work, and whether we'll have to pay for it. Over in the US, they have rolled out with Helio and Cingular.

Darla Mack has a review of Cingular's MySpace application, which quickly turns into a list of ways you can access MySpace from your phone without paying the $2.99 monthly subscription charge for the official app. Interesting stuff though: I'd not heard of T9space before, for example.

MailSting, which launches today, is billing itself as a 'communications and content portal', which offers a mix of email, file sharing, social networking and blogging features, with a strong mobile angle.

Initially free, users get 100MB of email space, 100MB of storage for media files, and their own SMS/MMS mobile inbox. The service claims to work with PDAs and PSPs, as well as mobile phones.

Security firm ScanSafe claims that Web 2.0 sites are increasingly being targeted by malware authors, because of their growing popularity and reliance on the browser.

The company says it saw an increase in the number of attacks specifically on the browser, and claims that "up to" one in 600 pages on social networking sites contain malware. Of course, that "up to" could mean the real figure is, say, one in 60,000 pages – they're leaving their options open there.

No, not doggers. At least, I hope not. Instead, Outdoorzy is a social networking site for mountain bikers, rock climbers, hikers and anybody else who hates being cooped up indoors.

It has all the usual social networking features, like profiles etc, but also has a bunch of features specific to the outdoor lifestyle, like trip reports and gear reviews. The nearest equivalent I can think of is Everytrail – which throws in GPS features – although presumably if outdoor retailers started to include more community features in their sites, they'd compete too.

Aren't athletes too busy taking undetectable super-drugs and roasting glamour models to get into online social networking?

Maybe that's just the professional ones. SportsGist, a new site, says it's encouraging athletes to get in touch with each other via videos, photos and blogs.

The site's aimed at athletes of all levels, and has apparently been signing up around 3,000 new members a week since going live late last year. That said, the niche service faces plenty of sporty competition.

After months of speculation – one rumour suggested MySpace was demanding a seven-figure upfront fee from mobile operators to partner with it – the social networking site has signed an exclusive deal with Vodafone in Europe.

It involves a MySpace Mobile app being preloaded on the operator's handsets (you'll be able to download it over the air too), giving access to profiles, friends, blogs and messaging. It's launching first in the UK.

But hang on. Without wishing to be rude, what's this exclusivity about? A globally popular social networking community, available online to all internet users regardless of their ISP, is now only going to be available on mobile in Europe to Vodafone subscribers? Surely that's a rubbish idea? Even if it does follow MySpace's strategy in the US, where it kicked off with Helio.
Maybe Vodafone paid MySpace a ton of cash to make it worth their while, and it's unclear how long this exclusivity period lasts. But the idea of restricting any social networking service to a single operator just seems counterproductive.

Can user-generated content work on the telly? Facebook hopes so. The social network has teamed up with video-sharing service Ziddio to allow its users to upload, view, share and rate videos about their own lives.

The vids will then be used as material for a TV show called Facebook Diaries, which is being produced by R.J. Cutler, who's scooped Oscar nominations and Emmy awards in the past. It'll have 10 half-hour episodes which will air on Comcast's network (it owns Ziddio).

Will this content work on the small screen? Well, given the choice between most new British sitcoms, or a bunch of user-generated videos, I'm with Facebook. The contest kicks off in March.

Well, it's not strictly a startup. Viadeo started life in France, as a social networking service for businesses, but it's only recently opened a dedicated UK office to drive membership over here.

The obvious comparisons are with LinkedIn and Xing, although as UK country manager Peter Cunningham told me, Viadeo thinks there's more to its service than a pure address book and recruiting tool. It's certainly grown fast.

"It started off as a private online business tool for 200 French companies, and just mushroomed from there," he says. "Since they made it public and open two years ago, it's grown to over one million members, with 50 staff working to run it."

Seeing as one of the main subjects for Techscape is Web 2.0 going mobile, we were bound to prick up our ears at LaNetro Zed's announcement that, yes, it's taking Web 2.0 mobile.

The company runs the Club Zed mobile subscription service here in the UK, which has traditionally involved users paying £3 a week for unlimited games, ringtone and wallpaper downloads. However, LaNetro Zed has now introduced user generated content, social networking and communication features into the mix.

I caught up with president and CEO Javier Perez Dolset to find out more. "We're trying to fully integrate the mobile device as a new machine to have full access to the internet, and everything Web 2.0 can offer," he says.

You can’t swing a cat at 3GSM this year without hitting 17 mobile social networking companies, all claiming to be the next MySpace, and all claiming to be unique. Time will tell. Cerkle is one of the more interesting examples however, offering a social networking service that works from your PC and your mobile phone.

“Our belief is that social networking is evolving, and people are resolving themselves down into smaller groups,” says Paul Cox of Roundpoint, the company behind Cerkle.

“If you look at the statistics, most people use social networking more to contact people they already know and arrange to do things. They’re not going out and looking for new friends. So we’re not really trying to do the MySpace thing, as we don’t think that’s what people want in the mobile environment. And besides, you can’t deal with 700 friends on your mobile. You can deal with 10...”

When 3 launched its X-Series service, the buzz was all about putting the big Web 2.0 sites on your phone. Conspicuous by their absence were any deals with social networking providers however.

That's starting to change, indirectly. 3 has signed a deal with Intercasting, a social networking "gateway provider", to make it easier for the operator's subscribers to access social networking sites including LiveJournal, Xanga, Vox and BlackPlanet.

A single interface will provide access to all the sites, to make it easy for users. It's good, but it's still not MySpace, Bebo, Facebook...

Another firm I was pleased to catch up with at 3GSM was Clicmobile. The company builds cross-platform communities with social networking and user-generated content elements for clients.

As an example, Clicmobile powers Yootribe, a French social networking service aimed at a “young and playful” audience.

The online part includes profiles, videos, music and links to friends, but from day one it’s also had mobile elements, including text alerts and invitations, and location-based features letting users track friends who are nearby.