This post was written by Jody Jonnson
America Online has rolled out a new version of its social-networking website Bebo in a bid to make it a central gathering point for people’s online lives. Bebo used technology from freshly-acquired Socialthing to give users easy access to pictures, status changes and other data routinely shared at communally-oriented websites. Bebo provides continuously updated local news feeds and lets users check Gmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail without leaving the social networking website. A “recommendation engine” delivers video, music, and games tailored to Bebo users’ tastes.
IBM’s new hub for collaborative development, Rational Team Concert, is due by the end of this month. Rational Team Concert would give the company’s Rational software development platform a social networking injection. Rational Team Concert attempts to let all participants in the development process, apart from developers, collaborate. When a developer sits down to work, for example, he can see all other project members that are logged in at the moment, regardless of their location. Developers, project managers, testers, compliance managers, and other team members can use instant messaging to communicate in real time.
Blogtronix has released BTX Enterprise, a next-generation secure and robust high performance Social Media platform that integrates collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation between business users, customers and partners. BTX Enterprise was built from the ground up and customized with specific components for three key markets – Financial, Enterprise, and Publishing. Unlike first generation networking solutions, BTX Enterprise is easy to use, scalable and can be delivered either on-demand or as software and includes rich features such as video blogging, podcasting, flash as well as a fully customizable interface. These applications range from corporate in-house collaboration to global user-created networks.
As per its announcements in November, Microsoft has kicked-off a series of changes in its Windows Live suite of software and services, with the addition of a bunch of social networking features. Keeping up its November declaration, Microsoft has added a cluster of social networking features – like e-mailing, instant messaging, image-storage and sharing, online collaboration, and calendaring – to its Windows Live service. The new Windows Live homepage has received a refreshing new look, laying special emphasis on profile, group, and photo-pages.
PEbuzz.com, the Internet’s first social networking Web site for people who love gadgets, has already attracted more than 1,000 members since its launch last month. At PEbuzz (“personal electronics buzz”), tech enthusiasts can join a social network where they can discuss their favorite consumer electronics devices, create personal Web pages, and share their user reviews with the world. While the Internet is full of tech sites and social networking sites, PEbuzz wants to offer a unique combination of the two – just like its slogan says: “Connecting people through technology.” Here, members meet like-minded people, learn about personal electronics they’re interested in, and share their own experiences.
Yaari has announced the release of Yaari 2.0. Yaari’s top priority for the new release was improving the site’s page load times. Yaari also introduced what it calls “Flirt” features, which are icebreakers of various sorts allowing users to meet others on the site with similar interests. One such feature, called Hot Yaars, asks users to rate their counterparts on a scale from 1 to 10. Yaari 2.0 offers increased security with spam-detection and privacy options, allowing users to choose whom they receive messages from, and who can view their profiles.
The battle to provide social networking in the enterprise is under way between solutions from established software vendors and readily available offerings such as Facebook and LinkedIn, with these sites possessing a lot of momentum, an industry insider stressed during a conference on July 11. Antony Brydon, former CEO and founder of Visible Path said, “I think we’re in a market that could end up looking a lot like the IM market, where consumer products like AOL IM gained dominance in the enterprise.” He added he did not take it for granted that companies such as Microsoft would dominate the business social networking space.
While discussing the implementation and gradual rollout of Canadian Tire Corp.’s latest communications portal based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Corp.’s general manager of SharePoint platform and tools, Derek Burney, said organizations must cease shunning social networking tools such as wikis. He said Microsoft has seen a growing interest in the collaboration space due to a number of factors ranging from the threat of individual information overload to the shifting corporate landscape that has rapidly become more global in scope.
Facebook has sued a German social networking site, StudiVZ, saying that the site has stolen its look and feel by creating a clone site and merely replacing a blue background with an orange one. Facebook, which had filed suit right before unveiling a redesign, is seeking compensatory damages from StudiVZ but has not specified an amount. However, StudiVZ is accusing its larger rival of using the pretence of protecting its intellectual property rights to make up for its failure to succeed in Germany.