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

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

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Web Strategy Summary
Linux World spurred several announcements from vendors in this space, Friendster seeks Asian domination with new CEO, and Facebook community groans over Scrabble change of hands.

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OpenSource: Kickapps connects with CMS, Blogs, and CRM
At the Linux conference this week, Kickapps leans into it’s opensource vendors Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, expect to see social features integrate with CMS, CRM and blogging software tools –things all mash up.

OpenSource: Alfresco hunts Sharepoint market
Alfresco launches labs (Beta 3) the open source alternative to Sharepoint at Linux World this week. Given that many enterprises have sharepoint available to them, (and most require enterprise class support) it’ll be interesting to see adoption of this suite.

Widgets: How Hasbro Should Fix Scrabble
Hasbro took more blows from the community this week, after they denounced Scrabulous and then launched their own version (while Facebook did little), this opinion gives specific advice that Hasbro should consider.

Advertising: Despite heavy ad spend, American Apparel sinks
You’ve seen their ads, soft 70s porn splattered on banners and skyscrapers –apparently, this advertising effort isn’t paying off –or at least for the bottom line for American Apparel.

Research: Social networks folks consume more media
Two recent surveys conducted by ABI Research have revealed that compared to average mobile phone service subscribers, those who also participate in online social networking are heavier consumers of digital content including text messages, mobile email, photos, music, games and mobile TV

Leadership: Friendster nabs top Google exec
In an attempt to grow their Asian market, they’ve already got traction in Singapore, and look to extend to other markets under the leadership of Richard Kimber.

Feature: Facebook’s Auto Tagging feature
Auto-tagging feature in Facebook could be cursor to ‘semantic’ web where meaning and context is extracted without human involvement.

Feature: Facebook enables filtering for newsfeed
Micro controls over newsfeed granularity are now provided to users, to tweek, tune, and refine a newsfeed. While most users won’t use this feature, it’s quite similar to what Friendfeed has been offering.

Culture: Why western social networks fail in Japan
Techcrunch guest author, Serkan Toto lists out why cultural differences make it difficult for western social networks to succeed in Japan.

Analysis: Gartner’s Generation V
Gartner extends their coverage to online communities and provides this telling quadrant of user behaviors. They’ve provided additional information from their own website.

Application: Scrabulous launches Wordscraper
In response to getting shut down, the founders of Scrabulous launch a twist on Scrabble by offering a customized more robust version called Wordscraper.

Visualizations: Social Networks as art
Need a background screen this collection of 10 social networking visualizations will inspire the inner social geek, link via Mike Manual.

Vertical: Keep track of deceased “MySpace Deaths”
Morbid yes, but needed? perhaps. This website tracks the deaths of MySpace users, and puts in this archive.

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