The mother recounted how her daughter, Megan, interacted with her online friend who posed the name “Josh Evans” and was blamed for sending cruel messages to the girl’s MySpace account which led her to commit suicide.

After Megan’s death, investigation conducted by the FBI revealed that “Josh” is not really a boy as what the girl’s initial thought but instead a pseudonym used by Lori Drew who is a mother of one of Megan’s friend with whom she had a rift.

According to the prosecutor, this legal proceeding will pave the way to a new law that will deal with online harassment issue.

Meier also testified how her daughter used vulgarity and indecent words in response to “Josh’s” nasty messages in which she didn’t approve of and reprimand Megan that she shouldn’t have been online and got into that kind of squabble.

Megan, who was diagnosed with depression and attention deficit disorder, went to her room and was found hanging in her closet with a belt.  The family brought her to the hospital but died the next day.

The prosecutor charged Drew with three counts of unauthorized access to computers and one count of conspiracy.  If proven guilty, she may spend five years in prison for each count.

Prosecutor Thomas O’Brien opened his first statement by saying that Drew had help her daughter Sarah with whom Megan has a falling out, by creating the fake identity of “Josh”.  The lawyer added that Drew’s motivation for making a false identity is to prove if Megan was spreading rumors about her teenage daughter who was then 13-year-old.

Meanwhile, Drew has pleaded not guilty for all the charges.

According to video game provider Majesco Entertainment Company which provided this new application, online community members can play this video game using Live Multiplayer Mode which can support up to 25 “friends” playing simultaneously.

Developed by game maker Large Animal Games, this application is a word game which allows players to compete against each other.

This is how to play the new application: a player should make as many words as possible under time pressure.  There is a set of tiles which must be simultaneously scrambled to make interconnected words, and while doing so, the player must draw some supplementary letters from another set of tiles, and the first one who depleted this (with no remaining letters) will be the winner.

Meanwhile, this game also promotes interaction among competitors.  With in-game chat, they can communicate and send messages to each other even while they are in the middle of the game.  And for those online users who want to compete with people who are not included in their “friends” box, they can always go to public room which will provide them opponents to compete with.

Bananagrams also offers multiple game modes which include Banana Solitaire and Single Player Banana Café both of which are played with a single player.  Meanwhile, players can also set up their own time which will be the basis of when each challenge ends.

According to Majesco, this game application will soon be released to other social networking sites.  Meanwhile, the company failed to provide the names of these sites and when this application will be available to other online communities.

In 2006, the online community signed advertising contract with Microsoft, a deal which amounted to $240 million venture which was given by the Internet giant.

While this advertising deal can to boost the company’s revenue, this partnership has contradicted Facebook’s private policy which stated that no third party will be allowed to view its members’ contact information.

With this advertising deal, Microsoft is given access to Facebook’s user emails, allowing the company to send messages to members, inviting them to use Windows Live Messenger.

To paraphrase Facebook’s private policy:  The company is not allowing third party entities to see its member’s contact information (the author surmise that users’ emails are included) without their permission, or if the information is legally required.

Some critics suggest that the Internet giant’s Invite2Messenger has violated the privacy policy since users are required to log in to the online community site.  After doing so, all the people from the friends list will receive message from Microsoft, inviting them to install its chat application.

According to some experts, the Microsoft’s move is an attempt to promote its Internet services.  (While its hardware products and software are consumers’ favorite, its Internet services especially its search engine optimization lags behind the race.)

Facebook members may find this advertising deal with Microsoft a symbol of a broken promise, but one thing for sure, just like any business, this social networking site is built not for altruism purpose, but mainly for money-generating venture.

This new service will allow people to print pictures and use these to customize photo books, cards, prints, and calendars.

The Photo Print Service is the result of the company’s latest survey to its members.  After few months of conducting a survey, developers and administration decided to offer a service that will offer people hard copies of their pictures which can be used to customize various things.

This is how to use Photo Print: Members should choose pictures they would want to print and place these to site’s wide selection of designed themes, in these, there will be a provided space where people can put their photos.  They can also edit, zoom, rotate, and remove red eye with the use of special tools which can provide members with more beautiful and vivid images.

Unlike in a certain social networking site which offers the same service, in terms of picture quality, Multiply provides hard copy which comes in high resolution image.

Meanwhile, according to its website, the company is offering 30 percent discount for members who will avail of this service until November 23.

This new service can be paid through the use of money online transaction including PayPal.

According to the latest report, members of this social networking site share photos which can reach more than two million in a single day, surpassing other sites such as Facebook and MySpace in terms of photo sharing activities.

Next morning, I opened my account and saw this man again.  And the unsolicited visitor keeps on visiting my profile almost every day for few months and even up to this time.

While he haven’t sent me any message yet, or even attempted to add me as his friends, his persistent presence on my account has somewhat irked me.  Feeling curious, I viewed his account and was appalled by what I had seen.

His profile account is full of curses and indecent words.  One thing he said that I cannot forget is this (this is the exact posting, while I view that there are some indecent words, I think this is the only way to make readers understand): DAMMIT I’M NOT A PLAYBOY OKAY?! I’M JUST EXTREMELY, PATHETICALLY DESPERATE AFTER 23 YEARS OF CELIBACY… SHIT!!! I HAVEN’T EVEN TALKED TO ANY GIRL IN REAL LIFE FOR MORE THAN 1 MINUTE AND I HAVEN’T. TOUCHED. ANY. FUUUUUCK!!!!!

My first impression is that this guy is an online stalker, forcing me to set my account in private mode (which annoys me because long lost friends will find it hard to contact me).

While some people would probably say that joining online communities means a person should give up some of his/her private life (which means that there is nothing wrong for viewing other people’s profile), anyone who will see this guy’s profile will perceive him as stalker.

I Googled search him and saw that he was indeed a cyber-stalker.  According to a news’ website, MySpace Mod had deleted all his accounts because he had been stalking young girls pretending that he was their former classmates.

And now that his MySpace accounts were all deleted, some girls would still complain that they are being stalked by this guy who uses many pseudonym accounts and seem to have all the time in the world to view his targets’ profiles.

Now I believe that his new targets are Friendster users.

In 2006, Muxlim, the world’s first social community was released by two Muslim entrepreneurs living in Finland, Pietari Paivanen and Mohamed El-Fatatry,.

Trying to cater to the web-centric Muslims, this social networking site has been widely- accepted by people who have this religion.  But ironic as it may seem, this site has been blocked in most countries from the Middle East which still follow the puritanical belief of its most conservative leaders.

But despite its inaccessibility in the Middle East, this site has attracted millions of members and still continually growing, especially in European countries and other parts of the modern world.

In terms of leniency, this Muslim social networking site prohibits things which may seem not to be offensive to most online community.  With the aim to follow the principle and teachings of Koran, the founders make sure that people will not find any offensive content, vulgarity, pornographic materials, and other things which promote indecency.

The good thing about this online community site is that it provides the latest news to its members and visitors.  From politics to social issues, people can read important matters which can make them more aware to the present situation.

Meanwhile, web-centric Muslims are not the only ones who can be accepted as members.  People who are interested to know this religion can sign up for a free membership.

With its growing popularity, Muxlim decided to release a virtual community which was tailor-made to suit Muslims.  But just like in the real world, members of this online community should follow the stringent rules of Islam.  For example, women should wear headscarves and members should pray in the mosque.

This animated show is about three teenager girls who like to talk about frivolous topics including fashion, showbiz gossips, and entertainment news.  The good thing about this cartoon show is that viewers will laugh at the witty remarks and funny conversation made by characters.

Britney, Tiffany, and Krystle, the three gossip queens who belong to the high school clique, will entertain web-centric viewers with their discussions which reflect the typical culture found in American campus (which probably comes in a much funnier version).

The “BlahGirls” season one can now be watched on MySpace and viewers can expect that each episode will last for about 45 seconds to a maximum of two minutes.

Meanwhile, this cartoon show was the latest creation of Katalyst Media founded by actor/comedian Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg.  Other shows by the company include “Beauty and the Geek” which is a reality TV show and “Punk’d” which is shown in MTV channel.  The media company also makes movies which include “The Butterfly Effect” and “Guess Who.”

According to a source, the company is planning to continue expanding its market by integrating with TV networks and other media entity to lure more site members which would attract more advertisers.

With this new service, MySpace is expecting to boost its advertising revenue, a move which is important during this economic condition where most Internet companies are experiencing financial slowdown/decline.

MySpace still maintains its top position among social networking sites which boasts a total of 110 million active users worldwide.

This service allows users to register and choose any marketing offer provided by the site.  After subscribing, they will refer the brands and communicate with their friends (turning them into target consumers).  And whatever feedback they will receive from their friends, they have to relay this to the advertisers.

With this marketing service, anyone can serve as a mediator between consumers and brands, allowing them to promote products and to influence people’s decision on what brands to buy.

According to the company’s spokesman, PerfectSpot does not send spam messages to their users, which makes them the number one choice of most social network users.  And since most people feel that there is a trust between the company and its site members, the company is further growing and expanding, the spokesman added.

While blocking spammers seems to be a noble act in this profit-oriented market, Friendvouch appears to a subtle way of sending unsolicited messages which may likely to be more annoying than conventional spamming.  Why?  Because any mediator can send product referrals to their friends and pool the messaging boxes (And the more feedbacks they get, the more benefits they will receive from the brands).  With this possibility, one can surmise that this is another form of spamming activities, which only happened to be conveyed by friends.

While anyone may perceive Friendvouch as just another aggressive way for advertisers to raise their profits (especially in this trying times where people’s purchasing power is declining), no one can blame the company since all social networking sites are not created for altruism, but mainly for profit goal.

Megan Meier’s birthday is fast approaching. On November 6, she could have been 16 years old, perhaps more beautiful than ever. But this young lady may only be 14 years old forever, since her life was cut short after committing suicide just because of a sickening joke on MySpace.

It all started when she decided to join in this popular social networking site. Soon after opening an account, she immediately made online friends with a boy. He’s name is Josh Evans, he was sweet, thoughtful, and funny. The two never met, but still they continue communicating with each other.

Megan was once diagnosed with depression, but with Josh, it seemed that her spirit was lifted again and she was really happy with her friendship with the young boy. Her fondness grew with her online friend. Families and friends noticed that she was again lively and vibrant, and it seemed that her life was much happier.

But one day, all things suddenly changed, Josh started to become cold and acrid, sending her messages such as, “I don’t want to be friends with you again because I’ve heard that you are not really good in treating some of your friends.” Messages like this stab the young girl’s heart, and in no time she was depressed again.

Josh’s attacks became more vicious, posting messages on the bulletin, saying bad things about Megan. The girl told her mother about what was happening, about the hurtful messages the boy was sending her, and the way she used vulgar words in response to Josh’s messages. Her mother reprimanded her daughter for using vulgarity and derogatory words as a reply for the boy’s hurtful letters.

After the argument, the girl went to her room and hang her herself.

After some few weeks, investigation had revealed that Josh was actually a pseudonym created by a mother of Megan’s friend with whom she had a falling out few months ago. When asked if she really intended to inflict emotional pain to the young girl, the mother just said that it was suppose to be a joke.

Popular web-based email companies like Yahoo! Mail, AIM, and Windows Live (Hotmail), all offer blogs for their users as an added feature to their signing as a member. Yahoo prides itself in its 360° blog, AIM for its myAOL Blog, and Windows Live with Windows Live Spaces. I took quite an interest in the Windows Live Spaces blog so I created my own “space” under my Hotmail account and decided to give it a shot if it was a potential blog site for me since I constantly write my daily accounts almost every week. In the long run though, I got tired of it for a few reasons but still thought it was an interesting blog to pursue for those who are Windows Live fans.

One word I can describe about Windows Live Spaces: small. The fonts of the text, the links, the buttons, were all so tiny and compact that it would seem like it would take days to actually fill the entire front page of my Space page up. Though I usually prefer small font sizes as compared to humongous bulging fonts, this can be a problem for those who have bad eyesight or who don’t like to see a lot of empty spaces in their pages and are compelled to blog everyday just to fill the gap. The homepage when directed is only consumed by half and when brought to your personal Windows Live Space page, there’s a big empty area under which are your dashboard controls and on the left and right sides compact navigation boxes where your links are. I guess this aspect of a blog site affects my wanting to write blog entries; I would prefer that Windows Live increases the size of their fonts and maximize the space by adding probably more modules or simply rearranging the boxes and menus. For those who love to blog and enjoy the comforts of so much empty space staring at them, then by all means use Windows Live Space as your official blog.

On the brighter side of things, so far Windows Live Space has added interesting features to the blog such as themes, interesting modules, different ways to organize them, and a compact navigation bar where people can keep track of the blog entries every month and view or update their profiles every now and then. You can also share photos, invite your friends to join and be a part of your network, and create fun lists that show how interesting a person you are. Lists can consist of anything, like your top 5 favorite car brands or your Christmas wishlist. You can edit your profiles as many times as you want and can choose if your friends and contacts can view your profile information or not. Overall I would give Windows Live Spaces as a blog hosting faction of Windows Live a rating of 8 out of 10. It works in every other aspect except the teeny tiny font size used for text, links, and buttons, which may prove difficult for those who don’t have 20/20 vision.

Link | Windows Live Spaces