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TVNZ's Reservoir Hill interactive online drama

For those of you that don't know TVNZ is currently airing an online interactive drama called Reservoir Hill where you can txt and Bebo with the main character to influence her decisions in the next episode. A few people I've spoken to recently haven't heard about it so I thought I'd point you all to the link. 

The way it works is you get an opportunity to txt Beth for 48 hours after each episode or after each video blog she leaves. If your conversations are good enough your messages and suggestions get written into the next episode. You can also communicate to Beth on her Bebo page... very cool.

Check out the show and watch the old episodes to get up to speed. I give this a big double thumbs up for TVNZ. Well done for trying something innovative. 

http://tvnz.co.nz/reservoir-hill/ta-ent-index-group-2985476

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Hayden Raw @Hamrltd

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Facebook and Bebo most popular for mobile surfers on the 3 mobile network

“These findings are the first in a series from 3 that clearly define the rapidly increasing trend of social networking ‘on the move’ as an important lifestyle choice for both pay monthly and pre-pay customers.”

“With the increased profile of social networking portals such as Twitter we anticipate this percentage to grow significantly by the end of 2009."

The Future of Facebook Usernames

A small number of super-geeky obsessives are abuzz over the upcoming launch of Facebook Usernames, an exciting new feature that will let you put some parts of your name into a web address.

Since its announcement yesterday, there's been a lot of excited discussion of the feature, but in a dashes.com exclusive I can exclusively report this exclusive look at the future of the feature. We'll also cover how the feature's rollout will be covered by the technology trade press and the mainstream press.

June 13, 12:01am: Facebook launches Facebook Usernames. The gold rush is on!

Read more: http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-of-facebook-usernames.html

Tags: Facebook, usernames, Linkedin, Mashable, Myspace, Bebo, AIM, Techmeme, Global IT News, Mark Zuckerberg, Iphone, FUD, Kanye West, Twitter, Flikr, Openid, Digg, 

Former Google Staffer Can't Fix AOL

AOL appears to have found a great doctor. The former king of the internet has hired wunderkind Google sales boss Tim Armstrong. That suggests a spinoff from Time Warner may be near. Freeing AOL from its parent can’t hurt its prospects, but Armstrong is still going to need more than just basic skills to resuscitate AOL.

It's true, the fading internet group does need someone to stop the bleeding. Before its merger with Time Warner in 2001, AOL boasted a market capitalisation well over $200bn. Today its worth is just north of $5bn, judging from impairment charges taken by Google on its 2005 investment.

And the 38 year-old Armstrong looks qualified. He has been with Google from its first stages and, as the head of sales, is responsible for turning its advertising offerings into cash. And he sits on the boards of groups like the Interactive Advertising Bureau. So his online advertising chops are indisputable.

Given Armstrong’s desirable role at Google, his acceptance of the AOL job probably heralds a spinoff. Some freedom wouldn’t hurt. Time Warner is a content conglomerate with little tech savvy, and chief executive Jeff Bewkes has other priorities on his plate like dealing with Time Inc's sliding magazine business.

But Armstrong is going to need more than his expertise and some breathing room to salvage AOL. Time Warner bought the group for its dial-up internet access business, which accounted for 70% of its revenues at the time of the merger. Now AOL has fewer than 7m dial-up subscribers, a number that’s fallen 20% in just six months.

And its efforts to refocus on display advertising have fallen flat. Its $850m purchase of social network Bebo hasn’t paid off, its advertising revenues fell 18% last quarter and the online ad market doesn’t look to be getting better anytime soon. The fact that AOL competes with heavyweights like Google and Yahoo doesn't bode well either.

Of course, Armstrong's first aim will be to stop the decline and he looks well placed to do that. But to get AOL on a new road towards rude health could take luck and a magic touch as well as his other talents.

Source.

Is social networking ruining the human brain?

The Guardian: Facebook and Bebo risk 'infantilising' the human mind

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st
century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans,
sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity,
according to a leading neuroscientist.
 
The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic
pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal
Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on
internet regulation has not extended to broader issues such as the
psychological impact on children.

Social networking firms sign up to kids' protection deal

Maybe I was wrong about Facebook's valuation

I've posted before about Facebook and its valuation ... not always in the most optimistic light. I'm reading a post today about rumors that Bebo is being actively shopped by AOL. Now I'm doing some very very rough calculations based on some very very vague assumptions, but I think I might have undervalued Facebook.
 
My take has always been that Facebook should be valued at about 5 times revenue. I still hold to that value and have said I would revise my numbers should I get more detail into Facebook's real revenues. Well based on the TechCrunch post, Bebo is rumored to be valued at about $200 million which supposedly is two times its current annual revenues (or $100 million). I pulled some traffic numbers from QuantCast for both these guys:

   

Click here to download:

Maybe_I_was_wrong_about_Facebo.zip (20 KB)

Making a very simple assumption of traffic = revenue, I'll assume that Facebook has 11.47 times the revenue of Bebo or $1.147 billion. Based on that, my new valuation for them is about $5.735 billion. Still a far cry from the $15 billion valuation they raised their last round with but not too shabby. Again, this is a very rough estimate and who knows whether I'm still above or below their true revenue number. My hope is that Facebook is doing well and that they can still grow. We all know the Bay Area could use a big employer nowadays.

warfare

Call of duty 4 "n" 5 is the best two graphicle games ever. they are so realistic in warfare its unbelieveable.