Is your site FACEBOOKed?

I'm back after a brief hiatus, extended a little more since a recent development brought out the techie in me (which I wrongly thought was put to rest the day I joined IIM Indore). Guess the signs are visible on my blog :-)

Yes, social networking is evolving fast and Facebook is defining the rules of the game. Facebook hosted its developers conference f8 on 21st April 2010, at San Francisco. The highly anticipated event was followed worldwide by social networking enthusiasts, who eagerly watched trends, strategies and technology being discussed.

'Instantly social and personalized experiences everywhere' has been the mantra for Mark Zuckerburg in his keynote, which perfectly aligns with the new offerings from Facebook - Social Plugins and Open Graph Protocol. This can potentially bind together the biggest social network in the world and a plethora of businesses aiming to offer their customers an interactive experience, thereby leading to a social graph of gigantic proportions. San Francisco based denim maker, Levi's has been among the first businesses to take advantage of Facebook's new plugins.

In the pipeline are exciting innovations like an 'Instant Personalization' capability for third party websites which will pull out information from user profiles on Facebook. The third party sites would be allowed to store user-data indefinitely. Concerns over privacy have cropped up immediately. Ian Paul's blog on PC World provides an in-depth insight into the privacy issue, its fallout and ways to tackle it.

All said, the innumerable 'like' buttons and a FACEBOOKed cyber world are here to stay. If you really liked this blog post from me, spare a moment to click the 'Like' button below.

Cyberwatch: Wannabe Mayor?

Ever dreamt of being a mayor? I recently joined a new social network called Foursquare and this (pic below) is what I saw:

Yes, here is a social network that can possibly crown you the mayor of your frequent hangouts. Recently I noticed a flurry of updates on Facebook from my cousin mentioning the places he had 'checked into' at Singapore. Having known Four Square as just a brand of cigarette in India, I got curious about a different Foursquare on the cyber world.

Foursquare is a creation of a small group of techies in Silicon Valley led by Dennis Crowley whom Business Insider calls 'The Most Wanted Man in Silicon Valley'. It falls in the category of Geosocial Networks or location based social-networks, where the network is primarily based on the places the user visits. Foursquare is growing into a phenomenon in the West, with April 16th being declared the 1st ever social-media holiday - FOURSQUARE DAY (Logic: 4 squared is 16 => 16th day of the 4th month!!). April 16th, 2010 saw a huge number of Foursquare Day parties around the world. With popular hangouts like restaurants, bars and cafes getting free publicity, this is proving to be a win-win for all. No wonder companies like Yahoo and branded VCs are knocking at Crowley's door.

Why isn't Foursquare creating any buzz in India? The answer is pretty straightforward. Real-time check-in into any venue has to be done using smartphones (iPhone, Android etc.) or GPRS enabled phones, which right now are the prized possession of an elite few. But there is a potential market waiting (with GPRS access getting more common and 3G coming finally), and Foursquare needs minor local adaptation if it wants mass success in India.

Recently, restaurants started offering special deals based on regular check-ins through Foursquare. But wait a minute, have you been to a cricket stadium in the dead of the night? Well, I have (see below)

Haha... Jus kidding! That was a fake check-in. In its 1 year of existence, Foursquare has seen many fakes and cheats. But the time has come now to pull up its socks, especially with big deals around the corner, and Foursquare is on the right track. Only verified users (through GPS and other means) would be eligible for real rewards (like a free pizza or an additional pint of beer).

Would Foursquare be the next Facebook? Let's wait and watch!