A must-have for active MySpace users, it provides auto-login, single-click access to all areas of MySpace including contact tables and hidden profile areas.

It also provides a rich MySpace Comment generator complete with font formatting and smileys.
Perfect for all your MySpace layout, MySpace editing, and MySpace comment needs.

This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.

Download Here

Friend Finder is a freeware MySpace automation software program.

It will allow you to get thousands of MySpace Friends in few minutes.



You can download a beta version here



FriendFinder allows you to grow your MySpace Friends.

You simply enter a keyword or a FriendID and click the Search button.

You can find people by keyword or you can get all friends on a certain user.

FriendFinder will instantly save any range of friends you choose.


Features:

• Fast find Friends by keywords
• Get Friends of a certain user
• Save the results locally
• Easy management of saved Friends ID
• Easy send Add Friends requests
• SignIn to myspace
• Save Settings
• Automatic SignIn to your myspace account
• Improved Add 2 Friends (1 step instead of 2)
• Send Message
• View Web Browser window
• New version notification
• Help File

The social phenomenon that is MySpace is one I don’t fully understand, and yet, one I must fully respect. In fact, with over 50 million unique users, it is something everybody must respect. Any website which rolls up that amount of usership is doing something very, very right, and no matter what your thoughts on it as a vehicle for your own expression are, you must give it its full due for what it is to seemingly everyone else.

Several weeks ago, I finally signed up for an account, and within seconds I was instantly put-off by what had been created for me: a hastily-designed “profile page” with uninspired colors, misaligned tables, and a mish-mash of extraneous cruft and design elements which made this feel more like a halfway house than a “home”. Now, granted, I am a designer by trade so my tolerance for this stuff is orders of magnitude lower than most of the population, but clearly, this was not a place I even felt comfortable having my name on.

So with the default home page this underwhelming, what is a MySpacer to do? Customize, of course. One of MySpace’s greatest features is its ability to let you skin your own home page. Unfortunately, 99% of the customizations I’ve seen are chalkboard-screechingly awful, but what could a MySpace home page look like if some actual design thought went into it? That is the question I sought to answer.

But first — as Keith Robinson asked me when I first showed him what I was doing — “Ummm, why?” The answer is twofold. First, I love a design challenge. Second, we’ve been building a lot of new social components into Newsvine over the past several weeks and I wanted a good reference point for what is already done well online and what could be improved.

So without further ado, on with the surgery…

Read the full article here: www.mikeindustries.com

To follow up on Kevin Newcomb's post earlier this week, there are some interesting local search and small business advertising implications to Facebook's and MySpace's new ad platforms.

First to reiterate, both platforms will seek to utilize users’ level of engagement, combined with the amount of information they make known about themselves through their profiles, interaction with friends and behavior.

But a key part of both ad platforms will also allow advertisers to target users by location. This will mostly be utilized by national advertisers that want to target users in certain geographies, but it could also have implications for small-business advertisers.

Some of these local advertising possibilities for Facebook have already been developed around classifieds, while MySpace has seen some activity around SMBs creating profiles to gain exposure through viral marketing. The new ad platform could create a channel for these businesses to more meaningfully market themselves on MySpace, similar to the way artists and bands have historically done.

One of Facebook's new ad products, Facebook Pages will similarly let small businesses build a profile -- just like an individual would -- which can develop a network of "fans" that connect to the business. Connecting to a business, writing on its "wall" and other activities will be very much the same as individual user profiles. The only difference is that the business has the option to promote that page within the Facebook network by buying demographic, geographic and keyword based targeting.

A newly opened tavern in San Francisco, for example, could target Facebook users between the ages of 25 and 40 that live in the city and have shown through their profile content, a behavioral affinity towards night life, microbrews and "gastropub" fare.

As part of its announcement, MySpace underscored that only 1 million of the 23 million SMBs in the U.S. advertise online, and most of that is search based advertising. Meanwhile MySpace has about 10 million companies of all sizes that have developed profiles on the network. The company is hoping the location-based targeting and other viral marketing capabilities baked into its platform will close the gap on the untapped SMB segment.

For both social networks, this however meets the traditional challenge (explored in an SEW expert column last month) of relying on small businesses to sign up on their own.

It's yet to be seen if this self provisioning challenge — made apparent through SEM — applies to social networking. There is a good chance it will, although it does have the baked in advantage of spreading itself virally as different small businesses get social and connect to one another. At least for MySpace, it won't just be "a place for friends" anymore.

Article source: blog.searchenginewatch.com

The largest portion of searches contain two words finds Amsterdam-based research firm OneStat.

Internet users who type two words for on a search engine query account for 31.9 percent of searches worldwide. Three-word phrases are used for 27 percent of searches. A single word accounts for 15.2 percent of queries, and four words are used for 14.8 percent of searches.

"Search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo can drive a lot of traffic to a Web site," said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of OneStat. "It is important that a Webmaster or SEO expert knows what kind of search phrases they have to use."

Instances with five (6.5 percent); six (2.7 percent); seven (1.1 percent); eight (0.5 percent); nine (0.2 percent); and 10 (0.1 percent) words are used in fewer searches.

OneStat.com collects data through its Web analytics services. Numbers are averages. Research is based on a daily sample of two million Web visitors from 100 countries.

Article source: www.clickz.com

Mark Zuckerberg promised no less than a revolution with his idea that ads you see on Facebook will be attached to the names and photos of your friends who like the products being advertised.

There is at least one problem with this idea: It may be illegal under a 100-year-old New York privacy law. The statute says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages. Moreover, such a use is also a criminal misdemeanor.

According to William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who wrote about these laws in a blog post today, the law would apply to Facebook users anywhere if the ad were displayed in New York. Arguably, it could apply if the ad was displayed on a computer screen within the state. Yet “where the ad actually is in cyberspace is a whole other can of worms,” he said.

More broadly, Mr. McGeveran said people can sue advertisers who use their names and images without permission under a common law principle. He quotes from the law:
One who appropriates to his own use or benefit the name or likeness of another is subject to liability to the other for an invasion of his privacy.

Such a lawsuit, however, then would turn on the actual damages that a Facebook user incurred as a result of the advertisement. There have been a series of cases by celebrities who can claim that the use of their likenesses damaged their reputations and deprived them of their usual endorsement fees.

“It’s unclear that today’s teenagers and twentysomethings will be too upset by this,” said Mr. McGeveran.

While misdemeanors, such as the criminal aspect of the New York law, are rarely prosecuted, Mr. McGeveran said, “If Andrew Cuomo wanted to go after them, he could.” Mr. Cuomo, the New York attorney general, already took on Facebook for failing to properly protect minors using the site. Another issue that could come up is what sort of consent is required under the law. Facebook, he said, has not explicitly asked users to approve their use in these ads. And the New York State law requires “written consent.”

Mr. McGevran said that while Facebook may have various ways to defend an action, it should follow the practice used by Madison Avenue. “Standard advertising agencies have routines in place to avoid this problem,” he said. “They always, and I mean always, use stock photos” which are taken of models who consent to be used in ads.

Update: Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer of Facebook, called to present a number of reasons why he thinks this law doesn’t apply to the new Social Ads. He said Mr. McGeveran’s interpretation of the law was too broad.

Mr. Kelly said the advertisements are simply a “representation” of the action users have taken: choosing to link themselves to a product. He added that in many states, consenting to something online is now seen as the equivalent of written consent.

And he argued that it would be difficult for someone used in one of these ads to object because that person had already chosen to publicly identify themselves with the brand doing the advertising.

“We are fairly confident that our operation is well presented to users and that they can make their own choices about whether they want to affiliate with brands that put up Facebook pages,” Mr. Kelly said.

Article source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/

8hands is a new way of managing your online activities.
It is a small and friendly desktop application that presents a concise summary of all your online social-networking activities (your MySpace & Flickr profiles, or your blog) with useful statistics (the number of friends in each network, activity meter).

With 8hands you can always stay connected to your favorite networks and your network friends without having to check your various profiles on each and every site.

8hands will notify you upon receiving any comment, message, friend request, new video or any other event on your and your friends profiles.

Version 0.8.058 improves support for Facebook and flickr.

Download here