Zoto, the photo-sharing service, will launch version 3.0 tomorrow, while telling its free users to upgrade to paid accounts or leave. The major upgrade has been in development since October and a live preview has been available since then. The new st...
The social networking news keeps tumbling into our inbox... Filqz Funded - It's late to the video market, with a name that no one can spell and an interface that only a mother could love. Nonetheless, Fliqz has raised $2.5M in Series B funding from M...
I gotta say: I called this one (well, nearly). We've been talking extensively about the potential for a MySpace Store, and a potential deal between MySpace and eBay that would presumably involve posting eBay widgets to MySpace pages, similar to Snoca...
Ted Stevens and other US politicians may want to block MySpace in schools and libraries, but blocking social sites isn't just a US phenomenon. In an amusing story that's buzzing around the Australian newspapers today (and a few US outlets), the Austr...
eSnips, the sprawling media-sharing platform, just announced the release of music players to post tracks to social networks - these come with a selection of nicely designed skins. They're promoting them as a way for independent artists to distribute ...
MySpace Retail - Another good reason to open a MySpace store: the latest stats out of Hitwise show that the UK fashion retailer Topshop is driving a noticeable amount of traffic from MySpace. Maybe they should roll out some widgets, too. Yedda Funded...
Jaiku, a “social phonebook†that we previewed back in August 2006, has left beta and launched officially. The Finnish startup provided a service for Nokia S60 phones that did one thing very well - displaying your availability status ("presence") and ...
This MySpace economy is seemingly limitless. Today it emerged that RedPoint Ventures Associate Fouad ElNaggar is raising funds for Entertonement, a company he founded while he was at UCLA business school. Entertonement is defining an interesting new ...
If you're aged 17-25, Facebook is the place to be. 69% of US females in that age group say Facebook is their favorite site, while 38% favor MySpace and 22% like YouTube best. College-aged guys also prefer Facebook (56%), while YouTube comes in second...
Three more social services have been funded and a familiar podcasting company has been acquired today. First up, CD-swapping site LaLa, which seemed a few years late to the game, has raised $5.7 million in Series B funding from Bain Capital Ventures ...
It may be another video-sharing site with an odd name, but Zooppa's concept has merit at least. The site, which launched officially today, is a venue for user-generated advertising. The site stages contests sponsored by big name brands, and users upl...
Will Reuters' next venture into social software receive a warmer reception than the opening of an office in Second Life, which some saw as buzzworthy but pointless? We'll find out soon, because Reuters has stated its intention to build a financial so...
We said this was coming a few weeks ago (see YouTube-BBC), but now the deal is sealed: the BBC is putting some of its content on YouTube. But what's surprising is that the BBC has put some very high quality content out there: this isn't just archival...
Schtuff.com - Wiki maker PBWiki just announced that it has acquired Schtuff.com, a wiki host. At first glance it looks like an inconsequential site, but PBWiki claims it has 1 million users. The acquisition was made using earnings, not the company's ...
Dada.net, a social network that's seen tremendous growth over the last two months if the traffic graphs are to be believed (seems to resolve to Dada Mobile), just launched a service that pays users a share of the ad revenue. Dada claims to have 7 mil...
GreatGamesExperiment, which launches in public beta today, is a social network for games. The aim, says creator creator Jeff Tunnell, is to provide a hub of great games - just as content producers can upload their clips to YouTube to get more eyeball...
I like Nearbie. Not because it's a particularly outstanding new social network - it's very similar to many social sites built around people, photos and events - but because it creates a new paradigm for thinking about social networks. Launched offici...
You gotta love the way founders always say the company is staying independent - and even hoping for an eventual IPO - at a time when tech IPOs are still rare and companies are getting acquired all over the place. Like Bebo CEO Michael Birch, who says...
I don't get it. The NYTimes reports in Saturday's edition on Cisco's purchase of social networking provider FiveAcross, and adds that they're buying the tattered remains of Tribe.net, the San Francisco-based social network that fell out of favor and ...
Other startups may betting on one great widget for success, but market leaders RockYou and Slide are diversifying rapidly. Today, for instance, RockYou notified users of the launch of three new features: an animated Flash countdown timer, a corkboard...
Odeo $1M - Podcasting startup Odeo, which is up for sale, has reportedly received a $1 million offer. Based on their relatively healthy stats, I think they should be able to get more than that. (via TSB) MySpace Thief - On the surface, a funny story ...
I'm not hot on downloadable apps. I don't care how great they are: a download just creates a barrier for the user, and it's hard to think of many downloads that have taken off in recent years - Skype, StumbleUpon (an extension, so not really a full a...
I've really been trying hard to get to grips with these mashup services we've been reviewing lately - Teqlo, Yahoo Pipes et al, but they just seem so high level at the moment. Dapper is among those that's slowly winning me over: it has proven useful ...
We've seen many attempts to bring all your social networking accounts together, and every time I've tried to argue that there isn't much mainstream demand yet. That said, a super slick implementation that blows away the competition might just win me ...
I know we're supposed to be respectful of other cultures, but this is abhorrent to me: according to an email we got today, China has blocked LiveJournal to prevent bloggers from giving political commentary. We know this because the block coincides wi...
Patents 2.0 - Two "Web 2.0" developments merged today focused on the patent system. First up, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is piloting a voluntary scheme where companies accept comments and Digg-like voting on their patent applications. It's ...
We complained in the past that despite streaming 7 minutes of The Simpsons on MySpace, Fox wasn't allowing users to embed the player on their own pages. Likewise, Fox has fenced off all its TV content, putting it at myspace.com/fox and forcing users ...
There was no doubt that widgets would be big this year, but it's turning out to be an even larger trend than many of us expected. Clearspring Funding Today, for instance, co-founder Hooman Radfar tells us (and Red Herring gives detail) that Clearspri...
Mpire, a deal finding site that's generated a lot of buzz, will announce the launch tomorrow of Mpire Labs, a place to develop innovative new ideas similar to the ethos of the YouTube TestTube project (which itself is based on Google Labs). The first...
You just know the world has gone video mad when dogs get their own YouTube. More specifically, WorldWide Fido, which launched this weekend, is an online video dog show in which owners (or dogs that can work computers) upload clips in various categori...
