Honda Advertises on Facebook Social Game
By Janet Tieu on Aug 31, 2010 at 6:07 AM
An advertising placement can be seen in the Facebook game, Car Town, where players will see a billboard of Honda’s latest sport hybrid car. In the game, players use virtual money to purchase, customize, and store vehicles in their own virtual garages. Users can drive their customized cars and compete in challenges for prizes. The Honda CR-Z coupe is on a billboard right outside the user’s garage – where they start each game.
Steven Center, VP of National Marketing Operations for American Honda, believes Car Town was appropriate for users to engage and experience Honda in a fun environment that isn’t overtly commercial. Jessica Fini, a spokesperson for Honda, said the promotion has also helped Car Town double its users in one week.
According to a study conducted by EMarketer Inc., it is expected that advertisers will spend $293 million in the social games in 2011, which is more than double of what they spent just last year.
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Facebook Alternatives: Diaspora and CollegeOnly
By Janet Tieu on Aug 28, 2010 at 6:33 AM
Since Facebook released its new privacy settings, people have posted fewer pictures and a lot of people have deactivated their accounts. Remember when Facebook was just for post-secondary students? Users could post whatever they liked without the possibility of having their parents or employers see their profile. Two social networks are stepping in and aim to create alternatives to Facebook. People want basic Facebook back.
Diaspora is an open source web service started by four NYU students. They and 2300 other individuals (who have donated to the site) are bonded by the notion that the user should control their own privacy rights. Diaspora allows users to have their own web sever within a larger network. This will let users own and control everything within their individual web server. Diaspora is set to launch September 15, 2010.
WiFi-itis, ChickRx, Facebook Places, and Vancouver-Based Group Coupon Site: Grooster
Aug 23, 2010
AJ is joined by Leila this week on the GetConnected Radio Show to talk about what's new in tech news:
- WiFi-itis: Fact or Fiction? - Carly Week, health reporter for the Globe & Mail, joins AJ and Leila to talk about how an Ontario school district has gotten many parents concerned about the health of their kids due to the school's WiFi network
- ChickRx - Stacey Borden and Meghan Muntean, co-founders of Web MD site, ChickRx, talk about their site
- Facebook Places - Richard Smith, SFU Communication Professor, talks about Facebook's new geo-location feature and the point of "checking in" at specific locations
- Grooster - Lesel Radage, founder of Grooster, talks about her discount group coupon site, Grooster
Facebook Places Makes "Checking-In" Mainstream
By Janet Tieu on Aug 19, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Facebook just launched its location-based social utility called Facebook Places (currently available in the U.S. only). Like other geo-location networks, users share their current locations with their peers. People wondered if location “check-ins” was just a trend but it seems to be building into mainstream for social networking.
With the largest social network making a location-based function available, Facebook Places will help Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and other geo-location networks continue to grow. By checking-in on other social sites, users have the option to share it on Facebook. Since Facebook Places does not offer badges or incentives, it may get users to start using Foursquare. Facebook Places says they are not here to put other sites out of business (and they probably could if they wanted to), but they’re working together to take this fad to the next level.
Facebook Places allow users to see if their friends are “checked-in” nearby. It also displays new places around the area that are relevant to you. Friends can tag each other and remove any unwanted tags made on their behalf. For those who do not want to take part with this new feature, users have the option to turn off being tagged in Facebook Places.
Lists, Camera, Facebook!
By Warren Frey on Aug 7, 2010 at 6:38 AM
You can create a world-shaking startup, gain 500 million users faster than any service in history, and rival Microsoft and Google for sheer power...but until they make a movie about you, you haven’t made it.
Facebook has hit the critical pop culture milestone of having its early days immortalized on film with the upcoming release of “The Social Network,” a thinly veiled retelling of the early days of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, his Harvard cohorts, and their push to create a college website that morphed into one of the biggest sites on the planet.
But is Facebook really worthy of Hollywood’s gaze? For one, while Mark Zuckerberg has shown a somewhat off-kilter view of privacy and user rights, he isn’t exactly a gripping persona on which to base a movie. In fact, very few personalities in Silicon Valley make for compelling viewing, with the exception of Steve Jobs, who does the job himself with his periodic keynote events, and was featured in “Pirates of Silicon Valley” more than a decade ago.
App Snapshot: Vonage App for Facebook
By Andy Baryer on Aug 5, 2010 at 10:30 AM
The Vonage App for Facebook can be used on your iPhone, iTouch, iPad, and any Android OS. The app lets you call any of your Facebook friends for free. See the video below on how it works.
Pros:
Google set to topple Facebook?
By Warren Frey on Jul 29, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Google does several things astoundingly well, including search hosting, email and online video via Youtube. But social networking, despite attempts like Orkut and Buzz, elude the internet giant. At the same time, Facebook has topped 500 million users, many of which probably consider the site to be THE internet for them.
Google isn't ceding the internet to Facebook just yet. Rumour has it they're working on a "Facebook killer", starting with approaching Facebook game titans like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom and getting them to come onto their as yet unnamed network. Previous rumours also indicated Google would call the service Google Me, though there's been no confirmation of the name.
In fact, Google CEO Eric Schmidt isn't about to confirm any plans for a Google social network, he even goes so far as to say that no one wants more of the same in the social space.
But given Google's reach, tools, and brainpower, it seems unlikely that the search giant won't roll out SOMETHING to take on Facebook. It just remains to be seen on what that maybe.
Girls, Gaming and Social Media Marketing
Jul 26, 2010
This week on GetConnected Radio:
- Women and Gaming - Mike and Leila speak with Brenda Gershkovitch, CEO of Vancouver-based games studio, Silicon Sisters, about women and girls in the gaming world.
- Social Media Marketing - Shane Gibson joins Mike and Leila on the show to talk about his new book "Sociable" and how to use social media to make money.
- Tech News - Facebook reaches half a billion users, Facebook killer Google Me, Samsung's new Bada OS, and the Samsung Galaxy Vibrant.
Enter this week's contest to win the last of four copies of Microsoft Office 2010 Professional!
This Week’s Top Tech Raves
By Leila Pejman on Jul 23, 2010 at 6:21 AM
Facebook Introduces Child Safety App in the UK
By Christian Montano on Jul 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM
Facebook has teamed up with CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) to introduce ClickCEOP, an application that can be installed on a Facebook profile that can help teens 13-18 fight cyber abuse and bullying.
Other sites, like Bebo, have similar buttons, but they differ from the ClickCEOP application because they are only able to report inappropriate links, whereas ClickCEOP gives the user the option of reporting another user of acting inappropriately towards them, and provides resources and advice on how to deal with potential threats on the internet.
ClickCEOP is an opt-in application that users must agree to use, and is only available in the UK at this moment. Sophy Silver, a representative from Facebook, says that the new app will integrate with both CEOP and Facebook's systems and will act as a viral awareness campaign, creating a safer environment for teens on the Internet.
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