Disney Acquires Kids' Social Network, Togetherville

Togetherville, a social network for for families to create safe online neighborhoods for their children under 10 years old, has confirmed that it was purchased by Disney according to Mashable.com. It sets itself apart from other social networks for children by facilitating parent-child interactions.

Togetherville mimics adult social networks in a kid-appropriate way. Each neighborhood is built around each specific child and remains closed to outsiders. Kids have their own profile pages, complete with their photos. In Togetherville, kids can

• play games and brainteasers
• watch videos
• create artwork
• send and receive gifts
• update their status with pre-screened text phrases, called "quips," such as "Who is going to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid?" and "Aced the test. Oh yeah!!"
• send "safe" messages to friends
• and comment on or "Heart" their friends' activities.

All achieved with active participation from friends and family. You and your child build the neighborhood by creating an account on Togetherville.com. You sign in with your Facebook login - no need to create a new username or password. Togetherville automatically finds your Facebook friends and their children who already have Togetherville, and you easily build your child's neighborhood from there. You can "allow" specific friends to become part of your child's neighborhood or invite others in who may not already have Togetherville accounts.

Parks Associates hosts "Social Gaming" Webcast - FEB 24

Join Parks Associates on Thursday, February 24th at 1 PM CENTRAL for the webcast, SOCIAL GAMING, and examine the current state of the social gaming industry and its business models.

Parks Associates research finds:
-- More than 200 million people play games on Facebook every month
-- 64% of U.S. broadband households with an Internet-connectable game console have it hooked to the Internet, a major increase from 2007, when only 25% had their next-gen console connected
-- PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have higher connectivity rates among the current generation of consoles, showing the power of multimedia offerings and popular game franchises in getting gamers online

Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst, Parks Associates will feature analysis and forecasts from examining:
-- How are social gaming publishers monetizing their popular games?
-- Are these companies at the mercy of social networks, or are they capable of developing brand loyalty?
-- Are open platforms, free distribution, and low development costs creating low entry barriers to this market?

Click here for registration information.

Facebook's 'Sponsored Stories' Turns Your News Feed Activity Into Ads

Facebook is rolling out a new advertising format called Sponsored Stories, which allows advertisers to prioritize content from the News Feed by turning your Facebook activity into promoted content.

Sponsored Stories are seen only by your friends that would normally see your stories in their News Feeds. However, according to the product's help page , there is no op-out option for Sponsored Stories.

Already, similarities are being drawn between Sponsored Stories and Twitter's Promoted Tweets, which presented advertisements in the form of content for the site. But Facebook's approach goes a step further by turning the activities of its users into revenue for the site.

Facebook hopes that these Sponsored Stories (aka "word-of-mouth recommendations") will engage users more than the site's targeted ads. "Seeing that a friend has checked in at Starbucks is a much more compelling reason to visit than a standard advertisement telling a user to go get a coffee," Inside Facebook writes.

For the complete article, please click here.

What's In Store for Technology in 2011

It has been a big year in personal technology, from the debut and early success of Apple's iPad, to the rise and continuous improvement of Google's Android smart phone platform, to the continued surge in social services led by Facebook and Twitter.

Apple: Coming off a highly successful 2010, in which it introduced a new category of portable computer—the multitouch tablet—and sold millions of the product, Apple will have to withstand an onslaught of competitors by wowing consumers again with the second version of the iPad. At the same time, it will have to make a widely expected transition for the iPhone from a single carrier in the U.S., AT&T, to a second, likely Verizon

Google: The search giant, also riding high, is now in so many product areas it competes with nearly everyone. In its core search business, it must focus on fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Microsoft's Bing by giving consumers more attractive, actionable results.

Microsoft: The software giant still generates strong consumer loyalty with its older products, like Windows and Office and Xbox, all of which have had updates in the past year or two. But it faces big challenges in two hot areas: smart phones and tablets. Its new Windows Phone 7 platform has some nice design features, but also some missing capabilities that need to be addressed.

RIM: The BlackBerry maker had a good 2010 in some ways, though sales were propped up by two-for-one giveaways, and consumer surveys show enthusiasm fading for the iconic smart phone. The company has an answer: a new software platform called QNX, but is vague on when that will show up on the BlackBerry. For 2011, RIM's big move will be a new QNX-based tablet, the PlayBook, which looks speedy and highly attractive in the limited demos RIM has provided.

HP: The technology behemoth's laptops and printers have proved popular with consumers. But it hasn't had any real presence in smart-phones, tablets or consumer cloud services. To solve the problems, in 2010 HP bought innovative but struggling Palm, whose smart-phone operating system, webOS, and phones, the Pre and Pixi, got good reviews but sold poorly and didn't attract many third-party apps.

Facebook and Twitter: The twin leaders in social networking were red-hot in 2010, attracting vast numbers of users. They have huge opportunities for further success, but face challenges. Smaller services, like social-coupon company Groupon, continue to emerge with new social and community ideas consumers like.

For the complete article, please click here.

Using 'Likes' for Gift Ideas

Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Etsy Inc., a site that sells handmade and vintage goods, are making gift recommendations for individuals by tapping into the trove of comments and preferences collected by social-networking giant Facebook Inc.

The social-shopping efforts are all in an experimental phase, but the goal is to change how consumers discover and choose products—and increasing their likelihood to click on the buy button.
The latest retail efforts focus on using Facebook's platform—where outside sites can tap into Facebook user information with their permission. Since last holiday season, more than half of the top 25 retail sites have integrated with Facebook's platform, the company says.

eBay Inc. launched "Group Gifts," which allows users to split the cost of a present with their Facebook friends by logging into eBay with their Facebook credentials.

For Facebook, the goal is to expand its reach on the Web and make its networks more useful. Facebook says it gives retailers some ground rules about how they can use its data—no spamming, for instance.

For the complete article, please click here.

Nearly one-fifth of active gamers in the U.S. spend money on virtual items

The gaming business is undergoing a major shift away from subscription models as virtual items become a larger part of its economy, reaching almost $6 billion worldwide in microtransaction revenues by 2015, according to international research firm Parks Associates.

Gamers are investing real money in virtual items in Farmville, World of Warcraft, and other online games, to the point they are filing lawsuits to establish ‘ownership’ of these virtual goods. The enormous player base, availability on multiple devices, and the introduction of instruments such as Facebook Credits contribute to growing revenues.

The Parks Associates’ new report Online Gaming: Global Outlook finds 19% of active gamers in the U.S. spend money on in-game virtual items. In contrast, subscribers to premium online game services decreased from 35% in 2008 to 28% in 2010. Publishers of social games, like Zynga, have seen revenues explode as larger percentages of their customers opt to pay for virtual items. The same trend is visible for massively multiplayer online games, where companies such as Nexon America have managed to reach millions of dollars in revenues from microtransactions.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to justify subscription fees. Thanks to social games and free-to-play MMOs, both casual and hardcore players have the option of playing quality games online for free. The virtual-items model that has proven so successful in Asia is finally generating significant revenues in North America.

Facebook developers exiled for selling user IDs to brokers

Facebook is taking action against developers who flouted company rules by selling unique user IDs to a data broker.The unnamed developers, which numbered fewer than 12, won't have access to Facebook communication channels for six months, Facebook platform engineer Mike Vernal said on Friday. They also will be required to submit their data practices to a third-party auditor to confirm they comply with Facebook policies.

The action comes after the WSJ caught Facebook transmitting the user IDs of those playing some of the site's most popular games to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. The disclosure came even as Facebook's terms of service promised that personally identifiable information would never be sold to advertisers or data brokers.

The allegations are now part of a federal lawsuit filed against Zynga, developer of some of the social network's most popular apps. The complaint claims Zynga collected and shared the IDs of 218 million users. Zynga has said the complaint is without merit. A similar lawsuit has been filed against Facebook.

The user IDs by themselves don't reveal personal information, but when combined with other information, they could jeopardize user privacy, critics contend. Facebook recently introduced plans to encrypt user IDs to prevent inadvertent sharing. So-called parameter encryption could make it harder for data brokers, intelligence agencies and other snoops to track the activities of Facebook users.

For the complete article, please click here.

Smartphone replacing Remote Controls?

The standard TV remote control, lost so many times beneath sofa cushions, may soon be lost to history. Many people are now switching to their smart phones as substitutes to their remote controls.

TV viewing habits are changing as more Internet and on-demand content — YouTube videos, streaming movies, shopping sites, Facebook photos — flows directly onto big screens. Navigating all of that demands more action from the viewer, including a fair amount of typing, which current remotes cannot handle.

There have already been successful attempts to use smartphones as remotes. Sonos, which makes Internet-connected stereos, offers a free iPhone application that replicates every feature of its own $349 touch-screen remote control. Over half of Sonos customers now use the app, which links to the stereo over a Wi-Fi network.

Several television manufacturers, like Mitsubishi and Samsung, are following suit with smartphone remotes, and phone apps are part of both Apple and Google’s TV offerings.

Technology giants like Apple and Google, along with a wave of Silicon Valley start-ups, have a vision for the future that would make channel-surfing seem quaint. Soon, they believe, viewers will choose from vast pools of video without distinguishing between TV broadcasts and content streamed over the Internet.

For the complete article, please click here.

Reprise SNL's Bad Idea Jeans Commercial with this One: GM's OnStar to read texts, Facebook status updates

Remember that Saturday Night Live skit "Bad Idea Jeans"? Let's add this concept: USA TODAY reports that General Motors could soon be offering drivers something they probably didn't know they wanted: The ability to have their cars read their text messages aloud and to dictate Facebook status updates through the car.

Verizon allows TV viewers to Tweet

Here it comes. Just a few weeks after introducting Twitter and Facebook access on its Widgets Bazaar, Verizon has added enhancements to allow subscribers to use their onscreen keyboard to send Tweets and the ability for subscribers to update their Facebook status with personalized messages.

Netflix with a Facebook application

From Reuters: Netflix Inc is the latest media company to integrate with social networking website Facebook, whose huge community of young, tech-savvy users could help drive growth of the online DVD rental service's subscriber base.

Starting on Tuesday, Netflix users can use Facebook Connect -- software that links individual Facebook pages to third-party Web sites -- to share their ratings of Netflix rentals with their Facebook friends, the companies said in a statement.