I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an industry analyst. By creating this digest (I started this over a year ago) it really helps me to stay on top of the space I cover.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

Subscribe to this blog in your feedreader, or use the email subscription box in the right column. Or you can subscribe to this digest tag only and not receive my other posts.

Web Strategy Summary
Due to slower news during holidays, this digest includes the last two weeks of news. Social Networking usage increases during the Holidays, and also due to a recession, this is a key opportunity for the industry to demonstrate new value by allowing people to connect, get retrained, and find jobs during this tough economy. More issues around culture, data, and privacy occur in Facebook, and the landscape is peppered with layoffs and partnerships. This is tumoltuous time.

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Web Usage: Spike in Facebook usage during Christmas
More time with family? Desire to connected to friends during the quiet weeks? There was a significant increase in Facebook traffic this holiday season, the ironic thing is that retailers haven’t moved in to offer gift giving options for friends. For a UK perspective see what roared and bored during the Holiday season.

Web Usage: Job seekers seek social networks
No surprise here, when people want to get retrained, connect with others, or notify others of job needs, social networks (where their contacts are) is a strong place to start. On the other hand, some may work for free, if it’s just for ‘praise’, the new currency.

Facebook sues Power.com
Power.com a social networking aggregator, which means you can view all your social networking activity from one place has been sued by Facebook for copyright and trademark infringement; unlawful competition; and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CAN-SPAM Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other charges. Facebook is known for keeping it’s member data close to it’s chest, while others tend to be more open.

Downsizing: Mzinga has layoffs
Heard through the twitter stream, a little birdy notified me that a few of Mzinga’s employee base has been let go. I sent each of them personal messages, and let them know of the job resources I have for social media folks, wishing them the best. Even though Mzinga doesn’t have an official press release announcing the downsizing –word rapidly spreads.

Cause: Facebook battles Lactivists, Growth in Argentina
Mothers who want to show pictures of them breastfeeding in Facebook were denied –the battle ensues. The line between ‘indecency’ and nature isn’t clearly drawn/. Mobile adoption and recently translated site versions has spurred growth in Argentina for Facebook.

Learning: Social Networks valuable to youth education
This article suggests that “exploring new interests and tinkering with new forms of media, young people are picking up basic social and technical skills, such as how to create a video or game or customize a MySpace page”

Partnership: Sean O’Driscoll Teams up with Jake McKee
Two community mavens, who I’ve intervewed both for Forrester reports on community, have joined forces, and Sean joins Ant’s Eye View to help brands with social networking and community strategy and deployment. I’ll be speaking to them soon to learn about their offerings. Also, read Jake’s announcement.

Biography: Ning’s Executive Gina gives interview
Ning’s Gina Bianchini gives a rare look into her life –and watching silicon valley.

Culture: Kids freak out when friended by Parents
My friend Jennifer Jones and I have had quite a few interesting discussions on how kids react when parents ‘invade’ their personal and social lives in Facebook.

Research: Forrester’s Wave on Community Platforms to publish Friday
Stay tuned, I’ll be releasing the high level findings at end of week.

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If you’re a social network, or widget company, I want to know of your news, send me an email, or leave a comment below. Help me stay up to date.

Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008? Bookmark it, then share it with others as I continue to update it.

Go to Source

It’s Christmas, with bells on. Ogilvy Labs turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Christmas-carol-playing handbell.

First choose a carol, then select a bell. Then just ‘ring’ your iphone like you would a real bell. Each ringing movement sounds a note of your chosen carol. Play as fast or as slow as you like. 

Gather your chums and form a festive handbell chorus 

Ring in the season with Jingle Bells, Ding Dong Merrily on High, Away in a Manger, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silent Night, Little Donkey, Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Auld Lang Syne. 

Chrimbell is the ultimate accessory for the modern caroler. It’s Caroling 2.0 or, like, a Christmas Guitar Hero.

In association with Golden Gekko.

Over the next few days, TrendsSpotting will be publishing a series of Trends and Predictions as presented by influencers and experts in different consumer fields.
Our first issue is the Social Media.
We have reused Peter Kim’s wonderful predictions gathered from social media influencers, we summarized the predictions, used tag clouds to help you focus, added insights gathered from Read Write Web and of course, added our own inputs.
So here it is – the first from the influencers and experts collection.

It will be great to receive your insights!
TrendsSpotting wishes you all Happy Holidays: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa!

Also Read :

• 2009 Online Marketing Predictions From TrendsSpotting
• Mobile 2009-2020 Predictions From TrendsSpotting
• Trends Review 2007 From TrendsSpotting
• 2008 Marketing & Tech Trends From TrendsSpotting

Today’s search engine marketing news and opinion: Assembling Your Landing Page Optimization Dream Team; Online Spending Soars Before Christmas; Keep Tabs on Santa’s Whereabouts; and more.

Perhaps not surprisingly, traffic to retail sites and consumer spending on those sites were both down during the holiday season, according to ComScore.

The research firm estimates total U.S. e-commerce spending declined 3 percent, the first ever drop reported by ComScore since it began tracking online retail spending in 2001. Total spending was estimated at $25.5 billion, compared to $26.3 billion in 2007.

“The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has mad this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online,” said a statement from ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Some online retailers appeared to benefit from the bad economy — at least in terms of traffic. Consumers hunting for deals online helped drive a 5 percent lift in visits to sites like Amazon (7 percent) and Wal-Mart (4 percent). Apple (19 percent) also saw an increase. The list of traffic losers included eBay (-4 percent); Target (-1 percent); and JC Penney (-11 percent). Best Buy’s e-commerce site had no measurable change in traffic from the corresponding period in 2007.

Today’s search engine marketing news and opinion: Assembling Your Landing Page Optimization Dream Team; Online Spending Soars Before Christmas; Keep Tabs on Santa’s Whereabouts; and more.

Perhaps not surprisingly, traffic to retail sites and consumer spending on those sites were both down during the holiday season, according to ComScore.

The research firm estimates total U.S. e-commerce spending declined 3 percent, the first ever drop reported by ComScore since it began tracking online retail spending in 2001. Total spending was estimated at $25.5 billion, compared to $26.3 billion in 2007.

“The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has mad this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online,” said a statement from ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Some online retailers appeared to benefit from the bad economy — at least in terms of traffic. Consumers hunting for deals online helped drive a 5 percent lift in visits to sites like Amazon (7 percent) and Wal-Mart (4 percent). Apple (19 percent) also saw an increase. The list of traffic losers included eBay (-4 percent); Target (-1 percent); and JC Penney (-11 percent). Best Buy’s e-commerce site had no measurable change in traffic from the corresponding period in 2007.