Also: Socializr | Dodging censorship | Fuelmyblog | Lovefilm | Women and the web | HD DVD | PA in Second Life | Red Nose
Has Linked In really cracked the social networking for business market? Nobody seems convinced, but Viadeo seems to be gathering pace. The site has just announced a partnership with Tianji, the Chinese social net for professionals, which is a clever, strategic move that gives them a combined usership of around two million.
Behind the scenes, Viadeo has taken what is described in the release as "a significant stake" in Tianji. Even the mighty Google and eBay have struggled to break into the critical Chinese internet market, arguably entering a well-established domestic market too late.
In the release, Tianji CEO Derek Ling said the alliance shows a belief that each network "must be a local business in each country and not just a western model transplanted to China". Crucially, Viadeo itself is cross-language, supporting German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese as well as English.
Front of house, members of both sites will be able to contact user with English-language profiles from May 2007. Profiles searches will also be integrated between the two sites.
And another social net launch
Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams has a new social networking project called Socializr which actually does sound quite interesting. I'm of the opinion that it would be better for everyone if all the information we spend hours adding to our profiles on different sites was easier to move between sites and it sounds like this is heading in that direction. Users can pull information from other social net profiles to build their Socializr page and customise their page.
Abrams said he left Friendster before he had really finished it, so maybe this was how Friendster was meant to work in the first place. He's also added various Silicon Valley in-jokes, like adding "Don't be boring" as the site's strapline in a dig at Google's "Don't be evil" motto. (Wall Street Journal)
Dodging the great firewall of China
The FT looks at how anonymous proxy servers are used to bypass censorship and filters around the world. Web users can access the web through a server to mask their true location: notably there's a whole market of services provided by Chinese exiles in the US for people within China. When I last checked, China had a 30,000-strong team of people monitoring for "inappropriate" content.
Danny O'Brien at the Electronic Frontier Foundation uses The Onion Router to encrypt instant messages and web browsing. A new service called GPass2 can manage a whole range of web, email and messaging programmes so the user can access content that would otherwise be blocked, or avoid government monitoring for certain keywords. In the case of China -democracy, Tiananmen and so on. The GPass2 developer World's Gate is working more closely with two other similar firms including with Dynamic, a firm that has developed a system to send mass emails to people in China. (FT)
Fuelmyblog.com Fuelmyblog has been furiously building traffic in its beta form and is about relaunch with various editorial features. This is a directory site, basically, where bloggers can promote their site and rate other blogs. It's a UK-based site, which might explain why its only lists 2,000 of the world's 62m blogs. There are plans for podcasts, competitions and something described as "blog chat radio", so I suppose anything that might up the number of UK bloggers has to be a good thing. (Release)
Lovefilm up for offers
Both ITV and Virgin Media are reported to be interested in acquiring online DVD rental site Lovefilm. The site has appointed Goldman Sachs to help the Index-backed site find a buyer or find backers for a flotation that could be worth £100m. (alarm:clock euro)
Women can't live without the web
IPC has carried out some research into women's web habits and apparently 70% of them say they couldn't live without the internet. Eight-six percent said they had shopped online, 68% research products online before buying and 50% go online to look for clothes. The most popular items to buy online are books, CDs and DVDs, flights and holidays, and cinema tickets. IPC publishes Marie Claire, Ideal Home and Livingetc, and launches a new site for In Style soon. (Release)
High-def DVD
European film studios, technology companies and manufacturers are collaborating as part of a new non-profit trade organisation that will promote high-definition DVDs. The European HD DVD Promotional Group will work with partner organisations in North America and Japan to convince us all that six times better screen quality is really worth buying a new high-def DVD player, and then buying all our favourite film titles on yet another format. Sound familiar?
PA's Second life budget coverage
The Press Association will be feeding breaking budget news to a "Budget Info-Station" in Second Life, as well as to SL's blogHudders. Other multimedia plans for 2007 budget coverage include a white label budget news service and notifications via Twitter.com.
Red Nose shenanigans
My brother has painted himself red at work, and Alfie at Moblog is waxing what he described as "his frontals". I could have told him waxing is not a good idea for brunettes. Maximo Park pop up telling a series of rather poor jokes, with the exception of the last one, and there are some cute pics of kids and noses. Join in - I dare you.
