Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: March 5, 2008

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an analyst.

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Web Strategy Summary
We’re starting to see more consolidation of the White Label Social Networking space, and it’s probably a good thing for the overall market. Mzinga acquires Prospero, and I think this will be the first of other companies coming together.

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M&A: Mzinga Acquire Prospero
Mark at Techcrunch gets the story about Mzinga increasing it’s stature by this recent acquisition of Prospero, my thoughts are on the TC site.

Executive: New COO for Facebook
Facebook continues to attract top talent, Kara Swisher breaks the news that Facebook’s new COO is Google’s Sheryl Sandberg.

Content: MySpace launches Hidden Camera Reality Show
This non-scripted reality hidden camera show called Special Delivery (in association with Avalon TV) was launched on MySpace TV.

Global: Facebook translated to German by Users
Facebook recently translated it’s site to Spanish (with mixed reviews) and is now letting it’s user and member base translate to German, in fact over 2000 members will crowdsource this site.

Widgets: How brands are getting in on the action
BusinessWeek shows how A&E gets in on the widget craze by creating an interactive game.

Segmentation: Social Network for Infants “TotSpot”
Niche coverage for nearly every interest, demographic, or focus continues as “TotSpot” gets coverage. This social network, aimed at infants gives them a way to network (well their parents at least) before they can even type.

Community: Fanista launches a media based community
Fanista, self-described as “a community-powered marketplace for entertainment enthusiasts that offers a whole new way to discover and shop for music, movies, games and books” we see yet another online community launched. Expect this to be in similar market area as MySpace and Bebo.

NewsFeed: Facebook opens Newsfeed to 3rd parties
Facebook has allowed third party web sites to signal changes to member news pages, (of course in opt in) but Sean from RWW does some analysis and suggests they didn’t’ allow for enough access to the those developers.

Usage: Bill Gates ditches Facebook, joins LinkedIn
This probably makes a lot of sense for what Bill’s trying to accomplish as he’s now joined LinkedIn, where he can connect with other business and political figures.

Community: How to build one
Francine Hardaway gives some examples of companies and organizations that have built some communities, see this extensive list.

Analytics: The team at ‘Developer Analytics’ brings new measurement
Measurement is key, it drives marketing and advertising spend. The Developer Analytics team launches new features to help developers measure their widget growth and campaigns.

Limitations: Clamps on invites for Facebook Developers
I’m conflicted on this one, but the less invites may drag down growth for Facebook developers, but I’m sure it could increase the user experience.

Normalization: Social Network feature spread to Wikis
Jimmy Wales new project, Wikia launches social networking suite that invades the white label social networking space.

If it’s not apparent to you yet, I cover this space as an Analyst, this really helps me (and everyone else) stay on top of what’s important.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything, leave a comment, or submit to me over email, see my contact page.