The Top 25 most visited websites in the world

Posted on December 4, 2007 by marc meyer

Now before you start disputing these, these figures are according to Alexa. But beyond that, what trend do you see here? 2 things are painfully obvious. Ok 3, now it’s your turn to tell me what they are. Tell me what jumps out at you?

LifeRemix

Posted on December 4, 2007 by marc meyer

I came across this site the other day and I just had to share it with our readers. LifeRemix. Here is a quote from the about page:

LifeRemix is basically a band of bloggers who enrich people’s lives through blogging. The blogs are hand-selected, and each one is incredible. They have excellent writers, and their content is quite unique.

With the constant swelling of the blogosphere, good writing can be hard to find. We’re trying to act as a filter so only the best writing is showcased, while at the same time learning a thing or two

Bookmark and visit it from time to time and see what you think.

Facebook does a Faceplant

Posted on December 3, 2007 by marc meyer

Facebook announced in a statement posted on its website that it had made some changes to its Beacon online ad-system. The changes came after more than 50,000 users signed a petition, complaining that Beacon was too intrusive and too confusing to opt out of.

“According to PC World, a Computer Associates researcher claims that Beacon, when installed on participating sites, is sending data about users’ activity back to Facebook, even when a user is logged out of Facebook – despite Facebook’s claims to the contrary.”

Beacon is an advertising platform that tracks Facebook’s member transactions on third-party partner sites and transforms them into product/service endorsements. Beacon is a major part of the Facebook Ads platform that Facebook introduced with much fanfare several weeks ago. Beacon tracks certain activities of Facebook users on more than 40 participating Web sites, including those of Blockbuster and Fandango, and reports those activities to the users’ set of Facebook friends, unless told not to do so.

Since then, Users’ data on their activities at those participant websites has been flowing back to Facebook automatically without the option to block that information from being transmitted. Nice.

Users are able to opt out but only on case-by-case basis, which means that they must opt-out for each of the more than 44 participant websites. That’s right, 44. As a consequence, Facebook users are going ballistic. Facebook had to adjust Beacon to make it work more implicit and user friendly; and to make it easier to nix a broadcast message and opt out of having activities tracked on specific Web sites.

“Users must click on ‘OK’ in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site,” the statement reads.”

Also, Facebook’s Beacon now offers to the users clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.

But Facebook didn’t go all the way to providing a general opt-out option for the entire Beacon program, as some had hoped. Expect the fallout to continue as Facebook scrambles to figure out how to play with the big boys before being black balled. If they don’t do some major damage repair and assure users that they are not abusing their data, folks will be leaving quicker than kids at a party that the cops show up at.

Nokia gets in the game..of social networks that is..

Posted on December 3, 2007 by marc meyer

How tired is this blurb? “The website encourages users to congregate to exchange opinions, photos and links on fashion, gadgets, music, style, movies and cool hangouts, with vistors able to create their profiles.”

How many social networks can you attach it to? I guess Nokia thought that one more to the mix wouldn’t be too intrusive and thus… the world’s leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks has launched a new social networking site, www.cool.nseries.com, touting it as China’s first online meeting point for the brand’s core twentysomething demographic, who are invited to post, discuss and argue about what’s cool or not…

Why is this a major development? because Nokia is melding Hand held devices/phones with social networks.

Here is the skinny:

Viral videos have been created to promote the site, produced by One Production and shot by Beijing director Wuershan. The videos feature MC Farmer, a real-life farmer who offers his take on the origins of hip-hop.

The videos have been uploaded to various video-sharing sites, including YouTube, Tudou and 6.cn, and have already generated significant interest online to the extent that it has taken on a virtual life of its own, attracting more than 900,000 views in its first week.

The campaign, from independent agency Eight Partnership, had launched virally just one week ago and has spread around China ‘s biggest video sites including 56.com, sina.com, YouTube China and has even made its way onto Chinese TV network Jiangsu.

The official launch of Ncool does not kick off until early December, but already a number of plans are in place to capitalize on the viral campaign’s popularity.

A key element on the site will be the ‘Battle for cool’, challenging users to compete and vote to rank coolness. The topic for battle is chosen each month by well-known personalities. Further engagement will be driven by exclusive one-to-one video interviews with the celebrities.

The website has been extended into a WAP portal, allowing users to upload cool findings directly from their mobile phones, as well as preview the monthly winners. It is this aspect that has the most potential in my opinion. The ability for this demographic to actively engage their devices with the social network will be the aspect with the most potential and upside. A key element however, will be intuitiveness and ease of use.

Overall, The site is designed to promote Nokia’s N-series range of phones, and there will be an exclusive NSeries user section on the WAP site to reward existing Nokia phone holders.

To that end, Nokia hopes to extend the viral community aspects and inclinations of the 20 something demo to the extent they will find a depth of involvement with their peer group as it pertains to their Nseries phones, like no other social network.

Why is this important? Because Nokia is melding social networks with their phones. And they are launching with what seems to work best. Viral Marketing. The problem is, what happens when the viral marketing buzz is over with MC Farmer? I have repeatedly seen numbers drop off significantly after a viral marketing campaign but… I believe Nokia will be looking at who is left standing after the campaign and then concentrating on retaining those individuals. To that end Nokia has mentioned that it will follow this campaign with other marketing campaigns to leverage the spike in attention.

I think it’s important for not only heftier social networks to take note of this, but also the smaller more niche based networks who are ven more dependent on their core users. Why? Becauseall of them will need to determine what and how they can create relevance and value to the core users as they attempt to mesh mobile devices with their networks. The larger networks can cut deals, but the smaller networks are going to need help. Nokia had the advantage of building the social network around their N series of devices. Other social networks do not have that advantage and it might ultimately be their undoing.