Artesia Spotlight: November 24th, 2008

Artesia Spotlight is a bi-weekly review of key news in the fields of social media, user communities and virtual worlds. If you want to be the first to read the news, you can subscribe to receive Artesia Spotlight by e-mail on this page.

Post Spotlight

Today's mobile social networks are still quite primitive and mainly allow users to either access a stripped-down existing desktop community or join mobile only communities. Tech blog Mashable predicts that the the future of mobile social networks will include interactive, personalized and snackable mobile content that supplements the users' desktop social life. Not surprisingly, Facebook recently announced that their mobile site has seen users jump from 5 million to 15 million this year. Facebook's mobile sites makes it easy for users to update their statuses and, since recently, also to comment on their friends' statuses, which makes the whole experience even more social. Mashable also highlights the potential of mobile social networks to provide real-time functionality and contextual awareness that will support interactivity among physical communities, which is something that major desktop social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace still have to embrace.

Virtual worlds Spotlight

IMVU is a 3D graphical instant messenger client that includes many features of virtual worlds. IMVU opened its doors in 2004 and now has over 25 million register users, 100,000 content creators and $1 million in revenue each month. Its revenue is derived from sales of virtual credits, which can be used to purchase virtual products such as room decorations, and clothing for users' avatars. Recently IMVU launched IMVU Music, a music service which enables users to purchase music with IMVU credits. Purchased tracks can be used either to share music playlists in-world with friends or be downloaded to the user's computer.

Other news

• Microsoft's Windows Live portal has turned into a social network with user profiles, which collect user activity information and content from around the web.
• Google has release a new service called SearchWiki, which allows people to customize Google Web search results. Users can now easily rank, remove and comment on search results, as explained in this introductory video.
• 3 year study by UC Berkley and the MacArthur Foundation confirmed that casual internet use is good for kids.
• Altadyn has announced the release of Online Meetings, a product based on their 3DExplorer browser-based virtual world platform. Online Meetings offers the basics of Web conferencing (shared presentations and desktops, IM, and voice chat through Skype) in a 3D space in the browser, where avatars can collaborate in real-time.
• Google has announced that it will shut down its only 4 months old virtual world Lively by the end of this year. 
• Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, announced the 10,000 USD worth Linden Prize, which will be paid in Linden dollars. The Linden Prize will go to an innovative Second Life project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world.