The News Corp. owned social network has “synced” its service with Facebook and Twitter, enabling members to cross-post their status updates as well as shared content.

It is self-explanatory, taking the recently revamped “stream” design of MySpace profiles, and plugging in Twitter and Facebook’s application program interfaces (APIs).

The “syncing” applies not only to individual MySpace users, but also bands and celebrities. One of the reasons that this is imperative for MySpace is because it is in serious danger of losing out entirely to Facebook’s “fan pages.

“MySpace gained much of its early traction because it was possible for independent musicians to establish a presence, and manage a fan base there. Unfortunately, that was significantly diminished once Facebook’s open-ended fan pages started to take off, considerably more successfully than many had anticipated.

This is terrific news for the millions of musicians on MySpace, as they can now use this tool as a complement to their MySpace presence, and share their vast libraries of content, which will include full album catalogues to those that have ‘liked’ their Facebook pages.

This article has been edited prior to posting on CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20015098-36.html#ixzz0yECq0lXn

MySpace background info: The domain name MySpace.com was originally used as a data storage site, until MySpace was created, back in 2003.

MySpace soon became one of the largest online companies. It was all due to the dream of a few people who were members of Friendster, and already had everything they needed to get started and create MySpace.

MySpace was bought out by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in July 2005. The company’s name was then changed to Intermix Media. News Corp is owned by Fox Broadcasting.

©2010 CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution. All Rights Reserved.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled today that large telephone companies, such as Bell and Telus must make their networks available to alternate Internet service providers at speeds offered to retail customers.

The CRTC said that this ruling would ensure, and enhance, the presence of Canadian Internet Services, and most importantly, create a competitive edge.

“Access to broadband Internet services is a key foundation for the digital economy,” said CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.

“The large telephone and cable companies are bringing their fibre networks closer to Canadian homes and businesses, which allows for faster Internet connections.

Requiring these companies to provide access to their networks will lead to more opportunities for competition in retail Internet services and better serve consumers.”

This article has been edited prior to posting on CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution.

Source: The Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/CRTC

©2010 CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution. All Rights Reserved.

(Skype filed to sell shares at up to 100 million dollars earlier this month) 

U.S. networking giant Cisco has made an offer to acquire Internet communications firm Skype, TechCrunch said today.

TechCrunch, citing what it described as “one of our more reliable sources,” said that California-based Cisco is seeking to acquire Skype before the company makes an initial public offering, or IPO.

“Skype insiders are hoping for an out of the gate valuation of five billion dollars or so, we’ve heard,” TechCrunch said. “Presumably Cisco would have to be bidding in that range to make it interesting.

“Google was also rumoured to be sniffing around Skype,” TechCrunch said, “but antitrust concerns may have persuaded them not to make an actual offer.”

Luxembourg-based Skype announced plans in early August to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Online auction giant eBay sold a majority stake in Skype for some two billion dollars to a group of investors late last year that included the two founders of the company. The deal then valued Skype at 2.75 billion dollars.

Skype, founded in 2003, bypasses the standard telephone network by channelling voice and video calls over the Internet. It allows users to call others free of charge, and to connect with landlines or mobile devices at low rates.

Cisco is a leader in networking equipment but the company has been on a buying spree recently expanding into online video-conferencing, Internet telephony, software services and tablet computers.

Last year, Cisco bought Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the popular Flip digital video recorder.

Cisco shares were down 0.48 percent at 20.71 dollars in early trading in New York.

This article has been edited prior to posting on CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution.

Source: The Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Cisco+seeking+acquire+Skype+

©2010 CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution. All Rights Reserved.

“This is a marketer’s dream,” said John Pliniussen, a professor of Internet marketing at Queen’s University. “The GPS identifies you and not only do your friends know where you are, but so do businesses.”

The long-anticipated free service, called Facebook Places allows the 150 million users of Facebook’s mobile application to virtually “check-in” their location at restaurants, shopping malls or movie theatres, and alert all of their Facebook friends to their whereabouts. Friends can then exchange maps, meet for impromptu get-togethers, or check on where everyone is gathering.

The immediate red flag that comes up for me is the issue of privacy, such as it is. I cannot see myself ‘checking in’ with Facebook, as I am making my way through a busy shopping mall, or in a noisy restaurant. I cannot imagine someone’s life being so intensely interesting, that we need to know where they are ‘at all times’.

Geolocation services have proven to be massively popular, and several others are already available, including Foursquare, MyTown and GoWalla.

With Facebook’s 500 million+ active users, entry into this market will make a huge splash and turn millions of new users onto the idea of broadcasting their daily routine to the world, step-by-step.

“There is a built-in audience of people who are hungry for this kind of thing,” said Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst. “It’s a lot easier to use this under the umbrella of Facebook than it is to go out and sign up for an entirely new service – which of course, would have a ‘price tag.’  That’s Facebook’s significant advantage.”

All Facebook users will be able to tap into their friends’ whereabouts using the social-media network, but only those using Facebook’s mobile service will be able to check in to announce where they are.

The service was activated in the latest update of Facebook mobile, released yesterday. However, it has not yet been opened to Canadians. The company was not prepared to announce when it would be available outside of the United States.

Analysts believe that the real reason Facebook is rolling out the new service is to generate substantially more advertising revenue.

Currently, Facebook only posts generic advertisements based on a user’s hometown. For example, someone in Ottawa may see Ottawa classified ads or advertisements for local coffee houses. However, Facebook Places will change that.

“Location-based services are the next big thing in terms of online advertising,” said Levy. “This is going to be the next significant frontier in terms of how businesses choose to connect to their customers and prospective customers.”

“This would allow you to identify cliques, such as if there is a restaurant, coffee shop or spa that is favoured by a certain type of person — for example, university business students” he said. “That makes it even more interesting from a marketer’s point of view.”

Despite being valued at around $15 billion U.S., the privately-held company barely raked in $800 million U.S. in revenues last year, according to reports. That compares to more than $6.67 billion generated by Google Inc., during the same time period.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, Internet advertising accounted for $1.82 billion in 2009, compared to the $13.8 billion spent annually on traditional media advertising.

Levy suggests that the highly personalized advertising provided by services such as Facebook Places will push advertisers to take a closer look at the way they market online.

This article has been edited prior to posting on CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution.

Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Facebook+Places

Technical Info on Facebook Places http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS399280186320100819

©2010 CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution. All Rights Reserved.

If you see the “Dislike” button on Facebook, do not click on it.

Computer security firm Sophos on Monday warned that scammers are duping Facebook users with a bogus “Dislike” button that slips malicious software onto machines.

There is no “Dislike” version of the “Like” icon that members of the world’s top social networking website use to endorse online comments, stories, pictures or other content shared with friends.

Hackers are enticing Facebook users to install an application pitched as a “Dislike” button that jokingly notifies contacts at the social networking service: “I just got the dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts LOL!!!”

Once granted permission to access a Facebook user’s profile, the application pumps out spam from the account and spreads itself by inviting the person’s friends to get the button, according to Sophos.

Hackers can then access your profile and send spam messages from your account.

The ruse was described as the latest in an ongoing stream of tricks that includes baiting booby-trapped links with messages including “the biggest and scariest snake” and “world’s worst McDonald’s customer.”

Source: The Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Hackers 

©2010 CorpSecrets ~ E-Commerce Evolution. All Rights Reserved.