LSQHA Blog Reviews

Out of the seven social media platforms considered in web analyst firm StatCounter's latest look at social media websites as drivers of traffic, Facebook unsurprisingly comes in with nearly half of all traffic. The site takes a look at social media driven traffic and gives us a look at how the lay of the land has changed over the past year. Sponsor The top three social media sites a year ago were StumbleUpon , Facebook and MySpace , in that order. Now, Facebook has taken a clear lead, with nearly half of driven traffic, with StumbleUpon in a surprising second place position, accounting for nearly a quarter of all traffic, and Twitter just behind that with one out of every 10 hits to websites from social media. Myspace, on the other hand, has virtually disappeared, dropping from 16% of hits to nearly 1% this month. It will be interesting to see where these numbers go, as yesterday Facebook announced some very interesting changes to its platform , including a web-wide "like" button, that shares a user's activity with a single click. With Facebook already dominating social media driven traffic, we have to wonder if this number will only skyrocket with the new sharing and recommendation functionality. The same can be said for Twitter, which last week announced Annotations , a whole new meta-layer of data which will be appended to tweets. This new feature could add some seriously interesting new functionality in this summer and increase Twitter's already strong presence as a driver of traffic. Discuss

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Facebook Accounts for Half Social Traffic; StumbleUpon 2X Twitter

The OAuth 2.0 draft specification is out there. The efforts the group working on the specification are paying off in the form of an IETF working group submission. One thing that is clear is that there is a natural tension in following the processes of IETF and the hyper-innovation cycle of web standards that are now powered by the growth of social media. In this world, keeping up with all the work in the community itself is feat by itself. As proven recently, even aligning the naming of standards in our small community (xAuth, XAuth) proves challenging enough. With that said, we'll share we what we've learned about this version and what work has been incorporated in it. Sponsor For those coming up to speed on the issues surrounding OAuth 2.0, here is a brief summary of the state of the union: The OAuth Working Group in IETF generated a first draft of OAuth 2.0 . This group that is credited with this document consists of active leaders of both the Twitter API team as well as Facebook community standards team. A robust number of daily discussions are happening in the working group hosted at IETF include topics such as the default use of JSON that show the opportunity and challenge of growing the standard from a web-based to a broader set of devices and scenarios. One of the stated goals of the IETF OAuth working group is to maintain backwards compatibility with OAuth 1.0. From our sampling of the depth of change in scope and conceptualization of the standard, this may be a big deal for the group, especially if key members decide to legacy their support for the first versions. As part of the evolution of OAuth, there is the case of the OAuth WRAP Google Group . This group has forged ahead to develop profiles for scenarios seen as extensions to the profile OAuth 1.0A. This includes new ways to gain tokens bringing the use cases of Javascript or RIA applications. WRAP also redefines the dependency on SSL and provides a simpler way to get started using tools easily accessible to the web resource. With some changes noted, this work has been brought forward in the OAuth 2.0 public draft. David Recordon, a chief thought leader in the open web (also employee at Facebook) recently offered this summary " What's going on with OAuth ?" to help align the understanding of the evolution of the standard. Here we show one of the better known descriptions of the OAuth flow as provided by Yahoo. The annotations show a few of the areas that are under consideration for changes in OAuth 2.0 and/or in the work done in the OAuth WRAP group. Last week, at Twitter's Chirp '10 the Twitter API team gave this presentation, " Too many secrets, but never enough: OAuth at Twitter ". This document contains overview of the basic process of Twitter, commitment to the movement to OAuth 2.0, and discussion of Twitter's xAuth and OAuth Echos projects. Twitter Likes to Optimize Twitter is deeply intertwined with the inception and direction of OAuth. The company is both involved in the specifications but also is a lightening rod for discussion in the development community. In the Twitter blogs and developer groups, OAuth is being considered deeply in the trade-offs in implementation, design, and risk in the Twitter ecosystem. A few areas under discussion is how to remove the re-direction from the process, and also how to keep a running log of all account client accesses available to the user as a way to make sure users are aware and signaling proper account use. The Twitter API team has been willing to make change happen in the community by deprecating legacy processes, such as basic auth. With the changes coming in OAuth 2.0 the company may be in the best position to bootstrap developer adoption of the new standards. In this way, OAuth 2.0 need to adapt to the speed and need of the Twitter use cases, to avoid becoming like XML. XML is a good thing, of course, but when push comes to shove, JSON is lighter weight and more compact. This is helping it become the preference for data attribute exchange in APIs like Twitters that support OAuth. With the rise of the social ecosystem as the hub for authorization, it is becoming clear that the IETF efforts need Twitter as much as Twitter needs the IETF. This seems like a good balance that will guide use cases along the way to practical standards formalization. There are a lot of questions out there about OAuth 2.0. Top of mind is whether this technology release will see the effective join of Twitter, Facebook, and Google? Or, will the practical matters of business and strategy keep the standards intact, and the implementations as islands? What is your prediction for OAuth 2.0 and web resource authorization? Discuss

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First Public Draft: Taking the Wraps off of OAuth 2.0

Less than 10 weeks after launching, Google Buzz seems so far to have fallen short of capturing the hearts and minds of the social web. A new report from social media analytics service PostRank has found that 90% of the content published into Buzz is automated: 63% is piped in from Twitter and 27% is from automated RSS feeds. So does that mean that nobody participates in Buzz? It's hard to imagine more premium placement for a service than inside every Gmail inbox, so why hasn't Buzz caught on? To be fair, it's hard for any service to compete with the volume of imported Tweets and easily added RSS feeds. The fact that 10% of content published is added manually might even be seen as an early success... maybe. Sponsor Of course the best part of Buzz is the conversations in comments. In my stream at least, I see some amount of conversation but it's dominated by a few uber-geeks: people who loved FriendFeed before it was acquired by Facebook. The whole Buzz model looks a lot like Facebook does these days, in fact. It doesn't do much else for users, and there are fewer people being social there. Why use Buzz when your friends are on Facebook? Perhaps that's the question and why Buzz hasn't caught on. We're excited in principle about Buzz because of its potentially disruptive support for open data standards . Apparently it's mostly robots who get excited about such things, though, as they are mostly the ones coming to the party so far. There are some hardcore Buzz users discussing this... over on Buzz, too . If you do use Buzz, you can be our friend here . We never post automated content there. Discuss

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90% of Content on Google Buzz is Bots, Report Finds

Building strong networks and developing meaningful relationships are cornerstones to business success. Although it may be a cliche, "who you know" can be incredibly important for startups. With the growth of social networking sites, it seems easier than ever to develop a sizable network of connections: Facebook friends, Twitter followers, your Google social circle, your LinkedIn connections. But having a large social media network means little if you do not maintain these connections. It is important continue to meet new people, cultivate existing relationships and to emphasize the quantity rather than the quality of your connections. Sponsor Last week, in a post on the blog Journalistics, Jeremy Porter wrote, "Too many people think networking is about collecting business cards - whether actual or virtual - in an effort to demonstrate how many people they 'know'." Porter listed tips on how to strengthen your network. Here are some things, based on some of his suggestions, to consider as you expand your network: Establish goals: What are the types of people you want to build relationships with? For example, do you need to meet journalists or venture capitalists? Set goals and deadlines for reaching out to make some of these connections. Keep score: If you set goals, track your progress. If you aren't meeting the people you want and/or building your network how you want, revise your strategy. Make the most of face-to-face opportunities: Some events, such as conferences, are geared towards networking. Make an effort not only to attend these sorts of events but to maximize the networking opportunities there. Have a good opener: As we noted with our tips for crafting your elevator pitch, you need a hook. When you introduce yourself, you should be able to answer the "What do you do?" question consistently and memorably. Here's my card: It might seem obvious or even outdated, but do not undervalue the importance of the business card - whether electronic or paper. While social networking does make it easy to locate people, having a business card is an invitation for a follow-up. Follow up: It's easy to toss business cards in a drawer where they're never to be seen again. Follow up a first meeting with an email or phone call within 48 hours. If you skip this step, you might as well toss the cards. Stay in touch: Don't let your relationships die off. Keep in touch with people. Porter writes, "Some job hunters I met back in the late 90s are now directors at big brands. When you keep in touch with contacts over the long haul, you'll be surprised how many interesting connections you'll have down the road. You'll quickly become one of those people that knows somebody that 'does that' or "works there." Of course, you want to stay in touch with people so they'll remember you too. People forget who you are and what you do - you have to remind them regularly if you want to get value from your network." Share: Give value to your participation in a network and make it so that people value your connection. If you come across interesting information, share it. If somebody asks for help, offer it. Porter says, "Don't miss the opportunity to pay it forward, you'll feel great and will find people often reciprocate." Look in the mirror: Regular self-assessment is good. Ask yourself if you are both gaining from and contributing to your network. Reciprocity is important. Build relationships when you don't need them: It's a mistake to only network when you need something (such as financing, a new job, a new team member). Be an active part of your network before you make your pitch to it. Start with one new connection today: Meeting new people and building your network might be one of the most important investments - personally and professionally - you can make. Discuss

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Tips for Networking (Beyond Just "Social Networking")

In the UK, consumers are spending more time with digital and traditional media. According to the second KPMG Media and Entertainment Barometer , the average monthly consumption of traditional media climbed from 11 hours and 40 minutes per month in September 2009 to 12 hours and 13 minutes in March 2010. For digital media, the increase was more dramatic. Consumption of digital media rose from 6 hours 14 minutes to 7 hours 28 minutes per month. At the same time, however, consumers now spend less on digital and traditional media. Even though more newspapers are putting their content behind pay walls, the number of consumers who paid nothing for accessing online news actually increased over the last few months. Sponsor People Spend More Time with Digital Media... With regards to new media, a growing number of consumers now spend time on social media and blogging sites (up from 47% in September 2009 to 50% in March 2010) and watch TV online (up from 19% to 24%). KPMG also found that younger Internet users in the UK between 16 and 24 are more likely to engage with new media. Those Internet users who use social media and play online games also tend to spend more time online than others. ... But Pay Less More Statistics from the KPMG Report The number of people who don't pay for print journals and magazines is also up (19% compared to 12% six months ago) 21% of print newspaper readers paid nothing in March 2010 (most likely due to the availability of free newspapers like the Evening Standard in cities like London) People in the UK spent an average of 29 hours in front of their TV last month. Men are more likely than women to engage in new media activities (83% vs. 75%) When it comes to paying for online content, most consumers in the UK continue to pay nothing (88%), though publishers will be happy to hear that younger Internet users between 16 to 24 are slightly more likely to pay for online content than older users. Today, only 3% of Internet users in the UK pay for an online subscription to digital content and about 7% pay for digital content. The number of Internet users in the UK who paid nothing for digital content actually increased slightly over the last six months. Only about 10% of these users who are currently paying nothing for content indicated that they would be likely to buy a paid subscription to online content in the next 12 months. This, according to KPMG's analysts indicates, that the market for paid subscriptions is "unlikely to grow greatly over the coming 12 months." KPMG also found that the average spend on digital media in the UK fell from £1.99 in September 2009 to £0.98 in March 2010. Some People Simply Prefer Traditional Media This doesn't mean that all consumers prefer to access media content online, however. Only about a quarter of respondents preferred online media over traditional media. Most of these users (89%) cited a preference for "reading something physical" over reading on a computer. About 60% of respondents also noted that they simply prefer the experience of traditional media over consuming digital content. Discuss

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Digital Media Consumption Increases - But Few Are Willing to Pay