Good CES Connected TV Summary from The New York Times

I thought that this article captured the major CES announcements very well:

• LG Electronics and VIZIO and Netflix;
• LG, Samsung, Sony, and VIZIO all demonstrating the Yahoo! Widget Channel;
• Intel says that both Samsung and Toshiba will launch products with the CE 3100 SoC and the Widget Channel framework; and
• MySpace is launching a TV widget.

Few people would pay to use social networking sites

Over 70% of social networking users would stop using a site

Few U.S. consumers are willing to pay a monthly fee to use social networking sites, according to Digital Media Habits II, a new survey from market research firm Parks Associates. This online survey of Internet users found 72% of social networking users would stop using a site if required to pay a $2 monthly fee. Likewise, nearly 40% would stop if a site contains too many advertisements.

These findings present a challenge to the companies competing in the social networking space. Parks Associates found 80% of broadband users ages 18-25 use these sites on a monthly basis; however, monetizing these users is proving to be difficult, with even category leaders such as MySpace struggling to turn big profits.

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Survey Finds Social Networking Users Have Little Loyalty

Network-hopping, widgets & links connect, cross-pollinate the social networking market

MySpace users are chronically unfaithful, according to Parks Associates' "Web 2.0 & the New Net," a new report that focuses on the social networking market. Nearly 40% percent of MySpace users keep profiles on other social networking sites such as Friendster and Facebook. Loyalty among the smaller social networking sites is even lower, with more than 50% of all users actively maintaining multiple profiles.

These trends highlight a peculiar aspect of the market for social networking services. Nearly half of all social networkers regularly use more than one site; one in six use three or more. The result is an increasingly interlinked environment tied together by links, widgets, and the users themselves. "MySpace is a growing ecosystem and one that ironically now extends beyond MySpace itself," said John Barrett, the lead author of the report, "Web 2.0 & the New Net."

In Barrett's view, this environment creates fertile ground for new social networking sites and application providers. "A handful of users are all it takes to connect new services to the MySpace-centered environment. From there it can begin to spread virally, assuming of course that it offers something people want."