social networks

Web 2.0: Finding a business model that pays

By Michael Copeland

It's not your 15-year-old daughter's Internet anymore. On the first full day of the Web 2.0 Expo, that more than anything seemed to be the message from the conference room floor.

Tech stalwarts like Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) were showing off technologies that bring elements of the consumer Internet to the workplace. Startups that last year might have been flogging a consumer video service or photo sharing MORE

Microsoft and Yahoo have common foe

By Scott Moritz, writer

The yelling phase of the proposed Microsoft/Yahoo merger got a bit louder as Yahoo (YHOO) turned in good numbers ahead of the deal negotiation deadline.

In the wake of a solid first quarter performance from Yahoo Tuesday, Microsoft (MSFT) chief Steve Ballmer said his company was standing pat on its original $31 a share unsolicited takeover offer. Microsoft has given Yahoo until Saturday to come to the table with MORE

Web 2.0 goes to work

By Michael Copeland

On the eve of the latest and largest Internet gathering this year, O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Conference and Expo, Forrester Research dropped a report that concludes that companies will spend $4.6 billion on Web2-related technologies by 2013. What that means for you, fellow office dweller, is that Forrester believes the world of wikis, widgets, blogs, mashups and social networks will increasingly find a way into your work life.

The emphasis MORE

Yahoo joins Google OpenSocial alliance

By Yi-Wyn Yen

Yahoo has joined Google and MySpace to form the three musketeers of social media. The companies announced Tuesday they are starting the OpenSocial Foundation to create universally-accepted standards for social networking sites and applications.

Yahoo's endorsement of Google's OpenSocial initiative comes two weeks after MySpace (NWS) opened its doors to developers using the OpenSocial standard. MySpace was the first social networking site to adopt OpenSocial.

Yahoo (YHOO) did not MORE

What Web 2.0 needs to make some money: a 99-cent store

By Michael V. Copeland

I was having lunch with Flixster CEO Joe Greenstein the other day when we came to the topic of how to monetize all these widgets that are cropping up like poppies in a Silicon Valley spring.

Flixster, for those of you who are not Web geeks or film-buffs, is an online community of more than 1 million people focused on movie recommendations and reviews. While it has its MORE

MySpace: A place for web developers

By Jessi Hempel

At long last, the MySpace Developer Platform is open for business. News Corp's social networking behemoth is launching a dedicated site for developers Tuesday and it will go live to all audiences in a month.

Says MySpace COO Amit Kapur: "We want to make sure that we build a rich platform for monetization for the developers." That's jargon for the promise that MySpace will make widget-makers money.

That's a significant MORE

The hard side of Mister Softie

By Josh Quittner

Ah, Microsoft. Nothing gets the knickers of Silicon Valley startup guys more twisted than signs that the world's largest software company is over-reaching again. The latest outrage? Some of my friends at the Valley's best-known social networks and Web 2.0 companies are privately grousing that emissaries from Redmond are trying to "strong-arm" (their term) startups into giving special treatment to Messenger, Microsoft's (MSFT) answer to AIM and other MORE

A Facebook Bill of Rights

By Josh Quittner

Yesterday, I considered opting out of Beacon on my Facebook account. I pulled up the Privacy page, and looked at the tick box, which would turn off the controversial feature that broadcasts a user's purchases at participating websites everywhere. But I didn't pull the trigger. It was still on an open tab in my browser this morning.

Partly, I didn't do it because I was too busy dealing MORE

About Face(book)

On Wednesday, Fortune's David Kirkpatrick weighed in on the latest controversy surrounding Facebook and its new advertising system. While some critics in the media say the social networking site is doomed based on its own mistakes, Kirkpatrick argues that the site will not only survive concerns about violations of members' privacy, but will continue to thrive. What do you think? Are you a Facebook fan or foe?

About Face(book)

From Fortune's David Kirkpatrick:

"The press rarely grants an autumn reprise for those it loved in the spring," once wrote the great New York Times columnist Russell Baker. How true in the case of Internet-darling-turned-reviled-evildoer Facebook.

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has ridden the hype curve up and down in recent months, reaching a low MORE