by Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com
MySpace, rumored to be on the verge of purchasing the free music streaming site imeem, is struggling to keep up with its own payments to music copyright holders, according to a top News Corp executive–a problem that has plagued every other licensed free music service.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
News Corp.’s digital chief said Thursday that the company’s social-networking property MySpace is going in a different direction than rival Facebook, based on how its members socialize and share interests.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
A U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook by Power.com Thursday, the latest move in a back-and-forth legal battle between the two social-media services.
A new executive team at MySpace is trying to reignite the brand by focusing on areas like music, videos and games as users abandon the social-networking site for cooler destinations.
MySpace, which is holding a conference this week for its global ad-sales staff, needs to lure visitors back and kick-start advertising revenue, ad executives say.
by Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
When it comes to social-networking sites, women are more plugged in than men, according to data analysis by Brian Solis, president of Silicon Valley public-relations firm Future Works.
Mr. Solis used Google Ad Planner to determine the gender breakdown of users signed up for the most popular social-networking sites and found that in most cases, women outnumbered men. “The point of interest that’s worth review and discussion is that in social media, women rule,” he wrote.
by Sean Silverthorne, Editor, HBS Working Knowledge
If the ongoing social networking revolution has you scratching your head and asking, “Why do people spend time on this?” and “How can my company benefit from the social network revolution?” you’ve got a lot in common with Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski.
by Laura Saunders, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Tax deadbeats are finding someone actually reads their MySpace and Facebook postings: the taxman.
State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts.
by Jill Tucker, Staff Writer, San Francisco Chronicle
From behind their bedroom doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a nude or seminude picture of themselves or others online – a “digital tattoo” that could haunt them for the rest of their lives, according to a poll being released today.
SplashCast Corp., which lets people watch television shows within social networking sites, has been unable to raise new funding and has decided to shut down.
by Richard Wray and Sam Jones, Communications Editor and Reporter, The Guardian
From uncles wearing skinny jeans to mothers investing in ra-ra skirts and fathers nodding awkwardly along to the latest grime record, the older generation has long known that the surest way to kill a youth trend is to adopt it as its own.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. Marines Corps, citing security concerns, has banned Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on its network, and the Pentagon said it is reviewing social-networking sites as it considers setting broader policies on their use. The Marine ban formalizes an existing block on social-networking sites on its government computers, and it does not affect members’ personal use of the sites.
by Marisa Taylor, Tech Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Adknowledge, one of the largest independent online ad networks, announced Tuesday that it has acquired KITN Media, owner of Super Rewards, a virtual currency monetization platform for online games and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, for an undisclosed amount.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Facebook said it will fight a countersuit filed by Power.com, saying the company puts Facebook’s member information at risk.
Power.com bills itself as a “social inter-networking site,” in which users can sign on to their other social accounts, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. It has some 8 million users.
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