Entries tagged with social networking - Channel 10

Windows Live Messenger Now Supports Facebook Chat

Sarah Perez — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:06:00 GMT

With the recent refresh of the Windows Live Essentials beta, Windows Live Messenger has been updated to now support Facebook chat in addition to its standard IM service. This new feature further enhances the IM client software, which is already more of a social dashboard than a simple chat application.

Thanks to the (optional) “full view” feature, Messenger users can check on social networking updates, photos, and status messages from Windows Live friends, Facebook friends and MySpace friends or reads news from MSN.com. If you click “connect more services,” you can also pick dozens of others to your dashboard, including popular social sites like flickr, Twitter, Pandora, Digg, Hulu, YouTube, Photobucket, Last.fm and many more.

Now, the new version of Messenger kicks up the social networking integration to the next level by allowing you to not only see and respond to social networking activity via the dashboard, but to directly chat with Facebook friends in real-time. Even if you don’t use Messenger IM itself, the app can now function as an always-on “people app” that alerts you when your friends come online in Facebook, explains Chris Jones on the Windows Live Team blog.

To get the new Messenger, just head over to the Windows Live Essentials beta homepage here and hit the “download now” button.

Spindex: A New Social Aggregator from FUSE Labs

Sarah Perez — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:07:00 GMT

At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Microsoft announced a new social aggregator called Spindex, a project built by FUSE Labs, the folks behind the Outlook Social Connector, Bing Twitter Maps and Docs for Facebook.

With Spindex, now available as an early technical preview, your social streams from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and Bing are displayed in one interface, allowing you to easily see the personal trends among your own network of friends. Think of it like a News Feed for all the social services on the web.

Spindex has already been compared to Friendfeed, a company that was recently sold to Facebook. And it’s true – the idea of social aggregator is not new. But Spindex, by the looks of it, has a few interesting features, most notably the “trends” section that appears at the top of your stream.

It also shows you recently shared links, top posters, the most commented on post, and recent news from Bing on the “homepage” of the service.

You can filter you stream by service, search, save searches, reply, favorite, share, “remember” (save), like and retweet items within the stream itself.

Spindex is built on Windows Azure which is what provides its scaling and speed. You’ll need an invite to get in, but you can stay tuned to updates on Facebook and Twitter for more info on that.

(Image credit: Steve Clayton)

Windows Messenger Connect Revealed: Private Social Graphs & More

Sarah Perez — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:32:00 GMT

At the Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, the Windows Live Messenger team announced “Messenger Connect,” a brand-new collection of APIs for Windows Live Messenger. The Messenger Connect API actually ties together APIs that have been around for awhile, including the Windows Live ID, Contacts API, Messenger Web Toolkit, and more) into one single, standards-based API that uses OAuth WRAP, ActivityStrea.ms, and PortableContacts while also adding some new scenarios.

The new Messenger Connect API lets developers do 3 main things:

Create instant user profiles and friend lists. In other words, portable friend lists you can choose to share with websites by signing in.
Enable real-time IM on websites plus feed-based sharing options
Easily integrate into multiple development environments (an API service exposes a RESTful interface, wrapped in a range of libraries including JavaScript, .NET and others)

For end users

But for consumers, what the Messenger Connect will allow for is the ability to pull together “all of a user’s social networks into one ‘passport’ that they can use around the web,” writes Martin Bryant on The Next Web blog. Yep, that means you can tote around your Facebook identity and others too, all in one package.

“Like the new version of Windows Live Messenger, it supports Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn but will additionally be supported by over 100 third party partners at launch,” Bryant explains.

While Microsoft claims that the aim is not to compete directly with Facebook’s Open Graph, “we’re not trying to be a social network, we’re trying to be the best companion to social networks…,” Microsoft’s John Richards told TNW, there are some similarities between the two services and how they both let you port your social graph around the web.

However, privacy is being positioned as the biggest difference. The official blog post reads: “…we believe that the privacy of a customers’ data is a critical element of a secure web and the customer should be in control…Websites cannot access any of a user’s non-public information from Windows Live without prior consent…”

Security and privacy, in fact, are listed as “foundational elements” of the new service, which should be a big plus for consumers who want the convenience of a social companion service without the fear of over-sharing.

The new API is part of the next version of Messenger, coming soon and available for preview here: http://www.messengerpreview.com/

Seesmic Shows Off New Silverlight Apps at MIX

Sarah Perez — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:52:00 GMT

At this week’s MIX10 conference, Seesmic showed off their new Silverlight-powered Twitter applications, one a desktop app and the other a mobile app designed for Windows Phone 7 Series devices.

A prototype of the cross-platform desktop client, which is similar to the current "Seesmic for Windows" app was demoed at the conference on Monday. Unlike the native Windows app, the Silverlight version works on both Windows and Mac platforms, allowing you to access multiple Twitter accounts, your Facebook account and LinkedIn.

The company also announced the launch of their Seesmic Desktop Platform (SDP), which will allow developers to build features or integrate their services into Seesmic’s suite of clients. For example, a new Bing mapping control plugin allows you to track geo-location and integrates trackable links at bing.com, notes Seesmic on their company blog.

Seesmic for Windows Phone was announced at the conference, too. Like the desktop client, the mobile app will use Silverlight technology and will fully integrate Bing maps and its geo-location features for plotting tweets on a map.

Playfire: A Growing Network for Gamers

Sarah Perez — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Playfire, a social network for gamers, lets you track your scores and rankings on services like Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PSP, and others while also engaging in discussions with fellow gamers, viewing game-related content like photos and videos, building your own virtual game collection, and more. Originally launched early last year, the company is now boasting 250,000 members with 100,000 added in October 2009 alone, reports TechCrunch. (The site itself says they have 245,000+ gamers, however). Playfire also recently took in additional funding which the company plans to use to expand their development team and accelerate their growth, notes the article.

Once logged in, users can track over 40,000 game titles, meet fellow gamers from around the world, join groups, take quizzes, and build a free website for their clan or guild.

If you haven’t checked out Playfire before (or it’s been awhile), you may want to take a look. The company revamped their homepage earlier this month with a fresh design that loads faster and makes accessing the various parts of the website much easier than before.

Playfire is free to join – there are no “premium” features you have to pay for. It’s just your typical niche social networking site. Interested gamers can sign up here for an account.

Social Media Desktop App Sobees Launches New Version

Sarah Perez — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:20:00 GMT

Sobees, creator of a .NET/WPF desktop app for social media junkies, has just launched a new version. This latest release adds Digg to the list of supported services which already includes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, as well as RSS feeds, too. The Facebook integration has also been revamped to allow for the addition of the full Facebook stream – that means you can see the comments now, not just the updates themselves.

One of the things the aggregator is good for is tracking a various topic across the social web. Sobees even offers a few built-in modules for following popular subjects. New modules in this release (which are, by the way, strangely called “bDules” – I know, I don’t get, either) include MLB, NFL, Soccer, and Tennis.

Incidentally, “bDule” is also the name of another product by Sobees which is a single window application for tracking just Twitter and Facebook.

One final improvement has to do with the aesthetics of the app. Before, there was a rather large and cumbersome ribbon floating at the top of the application. That’s now been thinned down considerably and even offers an auto-hide feature to get it out of the way. (Whew!)

You can download the new version of Sobees from here.

8hands: Social Networking Desktop App for Windows Now in Beta

Sarah Perez — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:20:00 GMT

8hands is a desktop client for Windows users that lets you track several social networking platforms including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. In a way, it’s sort of like FriendFeed without the need to set up an account – it just tracks your friends across the social web after you add in the services.

Just recently, 8hands released the beta version of their desktop application which adds in some new features like the ability to respond to tweets, write on the walls of your Facebook friends, and accept friend requests.

Unfortunately, as noted on Download Squad, the app doesn’t allow you to turn off the update notification sounds, which for a lot of us is kind of a deal breaker. (Let’s hope that someone from the company takes note of this issue and makes the correction.) Another issue is the app’s long install which requires a reboot. Crazy! But - sigh - I guess that’s why they call it a “beta.”

If you’re feeling experimental – or just really want a new way to track your social networks from your desktop, you can give the download a try. But it sounds like 8hands might be a better mobile app than it is desktop software.

Zune Social at CES 2008

Laura Foy — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:47:00 GMT

During the Bill Gates keynote, Robbie Bach announced the Zune launch in Canada* in Spring 2008. The Canadian offering this spring will first include Zune players (including Zune Originals), Zune software and Zune Social, with the Zune Marketplace online store coming later this year. He also showed off some pretty cool functionality between Zunes and Microsoft Auto software with the "Sync My Ride" demo (check back soon for my interview with that team).

But still, after all that Zune love I felt there might be a little bit more. In this clip I chat directly with the Zune team about the new features on Zune marketplace and how much emphasis is being placed on perfecting Zune Online as a social networking site.

Mobilize Your Social Networks

Sarah Perez — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:03:00 GMT

A service called MoDazzle brings social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Salesforce.com to your mobile phone. In an attempt to make searching these networks faster for mobile users with bandwidth issues, MoDazzle offers a way to interact with these networks using unique email addresses and SMS short codes. With MoDazzle, you can email in or SMS your search requests for different actions on the supported social networks. For example, Facebook users can email/SMS MoDazzle for locating a contact, reading your Facebook messages, poking other users, checking a friend's status, reading your wall, posting to others' walls, and more. Each community and/or feature has its own SMS short code and email address. Although it's great to see this kind of mobile integration with social networks, the system is a bit too complex to use on-the-fly from memory, since each request has a unique address and syntax. However, I can see where it could be useful if you had a unique need, like uploading photos to Facebook on the go, and wanted a quicker way to do so than using a slow-loading app. I can't imagine trying to use all the features in this way, though, unless you didn't have access to mobile browsing on your phone and needed an alternative. You can also access news, weather, stocks, directions, and locate the nearest Starbucks with the MoDazzle service.

SOCIAL NETWORKING PHENOMENOM

Barbora Zychova — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:04:00 GMT

Business Tuesday session I'd attended this week in Prague focused on the social networking phenomenom. LinkedIn, Facebook and XING seemed to be most popular among the audience. Most controversial topic was Second Life. Presentation about this unique virtual world was shown by a mayor of the Czech city called Bohemia - Martin Dvorak. This is a place where mainly Czech and Slovak communities get together.
It's one of those where I teleport myself regularly during my visits to the Second Life. Another favourite place of mine is a beautiful Strawberry Island with beaches and lots of fun stuff to do. It belongs to a friend who keeps working on it whenever he gets a chance. He also hosts regular Sunday parties and keeps creating secret invitation-only places. One of his recent ones is the Magic Forest. He's made it for a very special event - his wedding. Well, have a look at this beautiful couple on the photo yourself...

A conversation with danah boyd

Nick Hodge — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:38:00 GMT

Listening and speaking to danah boyd makes you think. Really think. danah is the premiere researcher and publisher in the world following the networked public of the online social world. Primarily focused on the online generation (Generation Y, Generation C are just clumsy labels) where without aMSN Messenger/Myspace account, you don't exist: danah has written on these topics in depth.

The Simpsons, LOLCats, usenet, cats in online culture, alternate grammar and narrative. Nike shoes: danah and Nick discuss the virtual world. Australia, US, and some other topics.

Her essays and reports contain the leading thoughts and inspire the social sites, reflect memes and architect systems that we as the digital community take as the norm. A conversation with danah boyd. Thinking. KTHXBAI

Vista How-To: Publicly sharing your media library

JD Lewin — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:06:00 GMT

While there seems to be a new social networking web site/service every week, it’s important to remember that publicly-shared music collections are the original gangster in the game of meeting fellow keyboard jockeys. Look over the shoulder of any college student, and you’ll find that every student with spare disk space has titled their collections with their screen name and room number. Windows Media Player does enable this glorious functionality, but as always the right switches to flip can sometimes be hard to find.

The Media Sharing window can be found either in Library->Media Sharing from within Media Player, under Sharing and Discovery in the Network and Sharing Center (yes we know that’s a mouthful). Once you’re there, be sure to hit the Settings button, where you can name your collection appropriately and specify what types of media are made available. Be sure to check the Allow new devices… checkbox, as this is the difference between being an inviting member of the ear-goggles society.

Windows Live Spaces

Tina Wood — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:10:00 GMT

Windows Live Spaces is Microsoft's Blogging, Social Networking, Photo Sharing free web based service. It's a great tool that allows you to stay in touch with your friends and family. With over one hundred million users worldwide you're bound to find somebody to connect with. Group Product Manager Ali Alpay shows off some of the integration between Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Messenger.