Social Networks

A Los Angeles Second District Court of Appeal on Friday ruled in favor of social networking giant MySpace, saying that the Internet Company was “not liable” for several reported cases of girls being raped by men they meet in the website.

In its decision, the appellate court over ruled the decision of the federal court citing that the social networking site is protected from any sort of liability under the federal law.

The CA also stressed that the victims, has misrepresented their birthdates making them technically unallowable to surf other members’ pages.

The four girls, aged 13 to 15 years old, have posted misrepresented information in their webpages. Each later encountered four other men online before deciding to meet personally.

Two of the suspects were already sentenced to life in prison while the other two are still awaiting verdict.

The court also questioned the “late” filing of charges against the MySpace, saying that the trials against the suspect were already ongoing before a case was logged against the online company.

Under the MySpace rules, legal-aged members are prohibited from browsing or searching any members under 16. MySpace members should be at least 14 to log into the website.

However, the court said that underage users can search into other profiles by misrepresenting their birthdates making them older.

In their argument at the Home County court of Los Angeles, the parents said that these incidents could have been prevented if only MySpace use age-verification software or other shields for underage members from sexual predators.

However, the CA, citing the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act, said that mere posting from other members does not constitute to any liability by the company.

The 3-0 ruling has vindicated MySpace against all of the accusations.

Marc Tabolsky, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said that they will take the case to the Supreme Court.

Social networking giant Facebook is growing in an unprecedented pace leaving the competition lagging behind as it beefs up corporate structure after meeting with two new executive in London this week.

Experts believe that the two new Facebook executives will represent the new “corporate image” of the internet company to help boost user confidence to its social networking website.

Reports also told that Facebook is now starting to move from is cramp office in Soho Square to a bigger space in Carnaby Street.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed earlier that the company has decided to hire Sheryl Sandberg as its new chief operating officer. Sandberg is a former chief of staff of Treasury Secretary Larry Summers during Bill Clinton’s administration. She also has a Harvard MBA and a former Google top executive before being acquired by Facebook.

In an interview, Sandberg said that she will leave all the technical and cool stuff to Zuckerberg, adding that she will concentrate in the business aspect of the social networking site.

With more than 200 million users hitting the online site each day, Facebook has been transformed from a simple online campus journal to a multi-million dollar company.

Sandberg predicted that the company was well on its way and it will soon break even anytime soon.

So far, Facebook remains as an independent company. However, news of hiring a new financial officer sparked rumors of impending IPO.

But Sandberg stressed that the company will stay independent and out of an IPO despite huge capital investments in each users, not to mention the new users logging in to the website.

She said that the website’s advertising revenue can shoulder the cost of servicing 200 million users all over the globe, even in less lucrative markets such as India.

She said that not only that Facebook is generating money; it is also expanding and making major investment for future growth.

A movie about the popular social networking site Facebook is expected to start its production this year, according to online media reports.

While Facebook executives have criticized the plan to make a movie about their site and even warned their employees from talking to anyone affiliated with the production, film maker David Fincher was reported to have made discussions with the Columbia Pictures executives.

According to reports, Facebook movie will be written by Aaron Sorkin who also created popular television series “West Wing”.  Meanwhile, a source said that Kevin Spacey will play the main character in the movie.

A source, who asked for anonymity, said producers are considering Shia LaBeouf (from Transformers) and Michael Cera (from Arrested Development) to play the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  While there are many contenders for this main role, the source said the two actors are the top choices of the producers.

According to several online reports, Zuckerberg’s character will be portrayed as an “obnoxious nerd” in Harvard.  And while this has yet to be confirmed, an industry entertainment source said the character will not be “likable” and will focus on the Facebook founder’s flaws and belligerent attitude.

Producers have not yet come up with the title, but reports said that they are considering to call the movie “Accidental Billionaires” or “The Social Network”.

In 2003, Zuckerberg, then a sophomore in Harvard University, created Facebook that will allow Harvard students to interact and share ideas to other users.  But with the unprecedented popularity of this social network, users from outside the campus joined the site.

A recent study conducted by executive public relations firm Blue Trumpet Group showed that company CEOs are now doing enough in managing their time online, stressing that they should engage more on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

In a statement, Blue Trumpet President Sharon Barclay said that the survey was participated by the Top 100 CEOs featured in the 2009 Fortune 500. She claimed that the study showed surprising results as they found “engagement in miserable level” among CEOs using social networking site.

The study, conducted together with UberCEO, said that CEO should do better in managing their online presence, including logging in on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

According to the study, only two top executive have their Twitter accounts while 13 have accounts on LinkedIn, a social networking specifically made for professionals.

The study also found that 19 out of 100 have their Facebook accounts while three-fourths admitted that they have entered in an online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia. These “some sort or” entries were reportedly inaccurate, has wrong content, and lacking in important information and sources.

However, Barclay admitted that the CEOs were not the direct respondent of the survey. But she stressed that the results of the survey only raise the question on whether they really are managing their accounts online.

Contrary to what they expect, Barclay said that they were disappointed that these CEOs did not exploit the online world. She said that the only knowledgeable people in the online community are still those people working with technology.

She said that these CEOs should be able to recognize the potential clientele in social networking sites, saying that they should not ignore or dismiss millions of customers online.

Guatemalan Jean Anleu could possibly be the first man to be sent to jail after sending a “tweet” on the popular social networking site Twitter, tackling the big-time corruption in his country.

Anleu, who allegedly operates under the alias “jeanfer”, urged investors and depositors to “cash out” their money from the rural banks of Guatemanla, which were allegedly stained by many political scandals.

“First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt,” the 96-character tweet said.

According to Prosecutor Genaro Pacheco, Anleu could be facing a five-year prison term, and be the first person arrested and to go in jail by just sending a tweet.

The prosecutor claimed that Anleu’s words in his Twitter message have “illegally” undermined people’s trust to the banking system of the country.

The prosecutor also plans to slap Anleu with a $6, 200 fine for spreading “false” information.

However, Anleu’s legal counsel, Jose Toledo believes the Guatemalan government only wants to make him as an example on what could happen if they go against them.

But instead of silencing the people, news of the arrest made some unity on the Twitter community as several thousand members retweet Anleu’s tweet, a publicity that his government tried to avoid.

To date, some 1, 600 followers regularly follows news of Anleu while other donated money for his bail through Paypal services. A report claimed that about half of the bail was donated by his supporters.

The Guatemalan government was not the first to cried foul over these tweets. Countries like Iran, China, and Vietnam also expressed concerns over the “uncontrolled” messages being passed on Twitter.

For his part, Anleu has now toned down on his tweets and keep it in a more restrained manner and less politics.

Popular social networking platform Facebook has recently upgraded its privacy setting following complaints from users regarding its limited control options. The new setting options will make it easier for online users to customize content.

Facebook has modified its user control on privacy settings to make it easier for users tom customize content of messages that they sent out to their network of friends.

With more than 200 million users, and growing, Facebook said that they want to continually give the best service for their customers. One of these upgrades includes enhanced control on the users’ “Status Update”, which is available through a roll-out beta control called “Publisher”.

Publisher is a panel that can be viewed on top of the user’s account page. It is also the panel that gives users the options of adding contents such as videos, photos, and text status updates.

However, Facebook said that the new service is only available to a tiny percentage of users, who had their settings configure as “visible to everyone”.

Users can now allow access to their network of friends depending on their specification. It has three option namely, everyone, specific groups, and specific persons.

The Internet giant also said that the comprehensive approach to the users’ demand will surely make the social networking site more reliable for the users.

Despite all of the modifications in Facebook, critics are apprehensive whether the new privacy settings will be good enough for the users and IT admins within the industry comfortable.

According to one of its critics, the security measures of Facebook and other social networking sites remain in question as new line of cyber criminals are always present and always testing the sites security options for holes and other openings so that they can prey on unsuspecting users.

Porn lovers around the world can now converge into one website to discuss and exchange topics, videos, and stories after the launch of the newest social networking site specially created for pornographically obsessed people, it is called Pornoob.

Operating live, Pornoob was recently launched into a private beta to give the adult entertainment industry a boost in its sales and give porn watchers a place to converge, or even stalk their “prey” of preference.

Dubbed as “a place for porn”, Pornoob offers fans/members to divulge their inner most sex secrets, discovery of new adult videos, talk to porn stars, and connect real time with their network of friends.

You can even arrange your orgy of friends, and discuss the most wanted, most sought after, and the most viewed smut materials on the face of the planet.

To date, the site now has several thousand members ranging from homosexuals, lesbians, to heterosexuals who wanted to connect with people from other places. Although elicit encounters are not encouraged, people will have the option if they want to get in on with the people they want.

According to the site creators, the new social networking site will give budding porn stars a chance to sell their “art work” and get the maximum exposure while film makers and studios can look for new talents for their up and coming films.

The creators also believe that Pornoob will be a hit to the people who loves surfing for porn since the site have everything that they need. Chat, discussions, and bulletins are available too.

To date, Pornoob operates heavily under advertisement revenues. However, site creators said that the long-term plan for the social networking site is to have an online store where people can buy and sell content directly in their respective profiles.

As social networking is becoming more popular among young consumers, a recent study shows that micro-blogging Twitter is not widely-used by people in their 20s who prefer to use other social platforms including Facebook, MySpace, and Multiply.

According to research group Participatory Marketing Network (PMN), in participation with Direct Marketing Lab, onlly 22 percent of Generation Y—people born during the 80s and 90s—are using Twitter.

While recent studies found that almost 99 percent of Generation Y are maintaining at least one profile from a social networking, PMN said Twitter is not appealing to majority of young consumers in the country.

PMN Co-founder Michael Della Penna said Twitter has failed to tap the lucrative market of young consumers despite its success to capitalize in the news media, adding the company has to develop new strategies to attract more people especially young Internet users in using micro-blogging.

Meanwhile, a Nielsen Online report said that majority of Twitter users are quitting the service after one month of registration.

In its report, Nielsen said that 60 percent of its users are quitting—an indication that the micro-blogging site failed to retain its people from using its service.

Despite its low retention, Twitter has nearly 14 million new users in March in addition to its other clients.

Nielsen said that Twitter’s retention rate is 40 percent compared to Facebook and MySpace’s 70 percent.

With this low retention and low popularity among young users, some communication experts said that Twitter’s fame may be short-lived.

With the unprecedented popularity of social networking sites, Americans are spending more time on these online properties which almost doubled in the previous years, according to a survey.

Online market research firm Nielsen Report said the number of minutes people spent on social platforms increased by 83 percent in April from last year, adding that Twitter and Facebook posted the highest growth.

Citing its report, the research firm said that microblogging Twitter users have spent 300 million minutes this year, up from nearly 8 million in 2008.

Meanwhile, Facebook also posted an increase of users for the past years, with more than 200 million users worldwide.  Facebook users also spent more time in the site, with a number of minutes increasing by 700 percent this year compared in 2008.

However, MySpace, which used to dominate the industry, has experienced a continuous decline of users, forcing the company to close its facilities in some parts of Europe.  According to Nielsen, the total minutes spent on MySpace declined by 2.3 billion settling to 5 billion this year.

While the total number of time spent in MySpace has declined, the research firm said the site still ranks as the most popular social site in terms of online video.

With these findings, Nielsen said that Facebook ranks as the number one social platform in terms of minutes followed by MySpace, Blogger, Tagged, and Twitter.

Nielsen said that other social networks including MySpace, Linkedln, Tagged, and Blogger also enjoyed drastic growth this year.

Despite the growing popularity of social sites, online communication experts said these companies have to capitalize on its popularity and attract major advertisers and businesses.

Yahoo 360 social networking site will be officially closed down on July 13, Yahoo Inc. officials said in a statement.  With this delay, the Technology giant expects that all users will transfer to its new Yahoo Profiles service.

Yahoo said the decision is to focus more on Yahoo Profiles service, launched in October 2008, which has been said to have more user-friendly features than its predecessor.

Yahoo Profiles is an online community that allows users to use interactive tools, which can be also found in mainstream social sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Multiply.

Yahoo said the new social site creates more intimate correspondence between users as it allows them to provide information about themselves, create their own friend’s list, send updates to their friends, upload photos and videos, provide web links, and create blog entries.

Meanwhile, Yahoo Community Manager Melissa Daniels said in a blog announcement that Yahoo Profiles lacks some features which are found in Yahoo 360 but said they are planning to incorporate the latter’s technology to the new social site.

Daniels said Yahoo Profiles will only allow users to upload one picture, unlike its predecessor which allows people to post multiple photos.

However, Daniels said they are trying to improve their new social site, adding that they are already in the process of acquiring users’ feedback.

Last year, the Internet giant also shut down its social networking site Yahoo Mash which has not been successful in attracting users.

According to previous surveys, Yahoo 360 has low visitors and users.  With these findings, analysts said the Internet giant has failed to capitalize on the popularity of social sites unlike its rival Facebook and MySpace.