Movie producers invest in social networking site
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Longtime movie industry moguls Bob and  Harvey Weinstein are the latest media players to invest in a  social networking site, after the Weinstein Co. on Monday said  it has taken an undisclosed stake in aSmallWorld.net.
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Its e-mail program will trade data with social-networking sites.
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Belatedly recognizing the importance of social networking as an online service and advertising vehicle, Google this week will unleash its strongest response yet to the rising threat and skyrocketing popularity of MySpace and Facebook.On Thursday, Google will announce OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed &quot;to spread social applications across the Web,&quot; the company said.These common APIs have been designed to let developers create social networking applications that will run on multiple Web sites, simplifying the making and distribution of these programs.Partners supporting OpenSocial include various well-known software developers and social networking sites: Oracle, Salesforce.com, Hi5, iLike, LinkedIn, Slide, Ning, Friendster, and Plaxo. Neither Facebook nor MySpace is on the list of partners at press time.The move is also no doubt intended to dilute the massive&#160;success Facebook has had in attracting external developers&#160;since it opened up its Web site platform to third-party applications in May.About 7,000 such applications have been built for Facebook so far, helping to make the social networking site more attractive to people and thus boosting its usage.&#160;MySpace recently announced it would follow Facebook&#39;s example.By allowing developers to write an application once and have it work in multiple social networking sites, the OpenSocial initiative could, in theory, water down the appeal of Facebook&#39;s ballooning applications catalogue.Once considered a fad of interest mostly to teens and young adults, social networks have significantly broadened their demographic appeal, attracting many people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.Along the way, social networking sites have been created for other purposes beyond entertainment and staying in touch with friends. For example, there are social networks tailored for specific occupations, such as doctors, and interests, such as sports.Google has had a social networking site named Orkut for several years, but it doesn&#39;t seem to have merited much attention from the company until recently, and only after the popularity and potential of this type of site became evident.Google was reportedly locked in a battle with Microsoft&#160;over which one would be chosen by Facebook to buy a stake in the social networking company and earn a deal to provide advertising to it.Microsoft eventually won, buying a 1.6 percent stake that values Facebook at an eye-popping $15 billion, although the social networking company reportedly will have revenue of just $150 million this year.With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg recently said. About 250,000 new users register every day at Facebook, which was founded in 2004.In June, MySpace had 114.1 million unique visitors worldwide, ranking first among social networking sites, followed by Facebook with 52.2 million, according to comScore. Hi5 ranked third with 28.2 million, while Friendster was fourth with 24.7 million. Orkut rounded out the top 5 with 24.1 million.More information about OpenSocial and resources for developers will be available in this Web site later this week. There will also be a developer sandbox.
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Tech-savvy DIY filmmakers help finance and distribute their films using the web -- and make money showing it for free.
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New social networks are building businesses based on exclusivity and limiting the number of users.
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Social networking sites drew security concerns along with new audiences and investments from major tech players.
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The chance to direct a Â£1m feature film is to be won in a competition on social networking website MySpace.
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More and more movie fans are sharing films online, and hollywood doesn't like it. Should the studios fight or find a way to adapt?
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For business or pleasure? Reg Technology Panel Over the past two or three years, zanily named social networking tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr and Twitter seem to have come from nowhere to wheedle their way into just about every aspect of online life, both in business and pleasure. Such facilities share a handful of simple, but powerful core features: each will enable information sharing of some form, will have some kind of community orientation and will be constructed in a way that several of the blighters can be merged (or should I say, âmashed upâ) into clever, multifaceted concoctions of collaborative capability.â¦
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Social networking sites like Facebook have wooed millions of users with their easy format for keeping in touch but left them navigating the pitfalls of interacting online -- is it really private?
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The Web page building company forays into social networking with a new site that allows you to create an ultra-customized profile.
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Study exposes emerging tribes of social network sites
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The Penthouse Media Group remains so bullish on the sex-related entertainment industry that the company is investing $500 million in a group of social networking sites.
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Ten internet users land film roles after auditioning on the social networking site MySpace.
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Back to work, back to Facebook? Column Recently, we've seen a spate of reports of employers blocking the use of social networking sites at work. With one estimate suggesting that sites such as Facebook cost UK employers over Â£130m a day in lost productivity, this is perhaps unsurprising.â¦
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Nearly one-fourth of companies are now using Web 2.0-social networking software in some form.
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Two seasoned Hollywood producers have made a deal with MySpace to produce an original Web series called âQuarterlife.â