• marissa mayer

    How Google killed Blogger's social network

    The new "followers" feature on Google's Blogger, which turns the blogging service into a quasi-social network, may strike some as too little, too late — a me-too move following WordPress and Movable Type's adddition of social elements. But it didn't have to happen. Blogger had a full-fledged social network in the works years ago, called Profiles — and it was quashed by Marissa Mayer in favor of Orkut. Why? Mayer's own social network. More »

    9:40 AM on Fri Aug 29 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,329 views, 8 comments

    Most discussed Figaro: Well said Owen. I have a Blogger-based blog and have been blogging for about 3 years and don't remember last more »

  • the chart

    Worldwide visitors to Facebook up 153 percent in a year

    Metrics firm ComScore reports that 132 million unique visitors logged onto Facebook in June 2008, up from just 52 million in June 2007. 117 million worldwide users visited MySpace during June 2008. Its Facebook's first definitive traffic victory, from a source advertisers actually pay attention to, over MySpace. Way down on the list at No. 6 — past the fast-growing Hi5, past still-kicking Friendster — there's AOL CEO Randy Falco's $850 million social network, Bebo, which saw 24 million visitors in June.

    10:20 AM on Tue Aug 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    531 views, 4 comments

    Latest by raincoaster: I only joined up a week and a half ago. No WAY did I hit it that much! Maybe just more »

  • geeks gone wild

    Orkut inventor may be best argument against H-1B visas yet

    Give us more H-1B visas and we'll give you innovative products. That's the pitch Google exec Laszlo Bock made to Congress as he decried the H-1B visa cap. Projects like also-ran social network Orkut, which was created (or stolen, depending on who you ask) by H-1B hire Orkut Buyukkokten (pictured, right) represent a boon to the U.S. economy, added Google lobbyist Pablo Chavez as he echoed Block's plea for more visas. More »

    5:00 PM on Thu May 15 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,083 views, 9 comments

    Latest by runrig: Classy comments? Which ones? The comments that say "The dancer" or the ones that tell NW how loser geeks more »

  • the chart

    MySpace's technical triumph

    The conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley is that MySpace, based in Los Angeles, is a tech nightmare, blaring songs through a user's speakers while crashing all the time. Skilled engineers are in short supply down south, so the website must be falling over all the time, right? Not so. Pingdom, a website-monitoring service, has tracked how often some of the top social networks have gone offline. Twitter, based in Web-savvy San Francisco, has been down for 37 hours from January through April. MySpace has been up 99.96 percent of the time. That's 33 percent less downtime than Yahoo 360, and 60 percent less than Google's Orkut. Score one for the LA crowd. The chart: More »

    1:00 PM on Tue May 6 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,390 views, 8 comments

    Latest by BobDope: MySpace is like a DDOS attack on your brain. more »

  • orkut

    Google ceases to protect its Brazilian users' right to child porn

    Felix Ximenes, Google's chief flack in brazil, yesterday gave the Brazilian government DVDs containing information on 3,261 allegedly child-lusting users of its social network Orkut. "With the information we have received, we will be able to strike a major blow against the pedophile network acting in the country," Brazilian Senator Demostenes Torres told the Wall Street Journal. Last August, the Brazilian government said Google refused to turn over information about users accused of hate speech and pedophilia. What's Google's excuse for taking eight months — they couldn't find the data?

    10:00 AM on Thu Apr 24 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    328 views, 4 comments

    Latest by Bornean: @bugz321: Voluntary. vol·un·tar·y. done, made, brought about, undertaken, etc., of one's own accord or by free choice: a voluntary contribution. more »

  • the chart

    Bebo needs cash to keep its servers running

    Now we know why Bebo's so eager for more cash. It needs more servers. According to Pingdom, Bebo has already been down for 12 hours and 28 minutes so far this year. Check out the full chart to see how 13 other social networks have fared so far.

    9:09 AM on Tue Feb 26 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    1,708 views, 4 comments

    Latest by el_googlo: err.. who designed this chart? shouldn't linkedin go before reunion.com?.. and WTF is reunion.com? never heard of them. also, consumating will more »

  • hackers

    Trojan targets Google's AdSense revenue

    Google is the target of a trojan that could be more damaging than the worm that has affected literally dozens of Orkut users. This new trojan, however, hits Google where it hurts — its ever-swelling advertising revenues. It redirects Web ads from the AdSense program to a rival ad provider. Bitdefender, the Romanian security-software maker which identified the trojan, does not specify who is serving these third-party ads or how the trojan is propagating. Researchers do say that Google may be powerless to stop the attack, because the malware affects personal computers, not the company's ad servers. Google is unlikely to lose substantial sums, but the search giant cannot enjoy being this helpless. No wonder it's pushing antivirus software.

    2:40 PM on Thu Dec 20 2007
    By Tim Faulkner
    514 views, Comment

  • hackers

    Google's Orkut attacked by worm, but no Americans notice

    A relatively harmless worm has rampaged through Google's social network, Orkut. You probably haven't noticed. That's because Orkut, while popular in Brazil and India, is an also-ran in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of Orkut users saw their accounts overwhelmed by spam on their "scrapbooks," Orkut's equivalent of Facebook's Wall. More »

    3:00 PM on Wed Dec 19 2007
    By Tim Faulkner
    1,130 views, 8 comments

    Latest by smaic: The worm reportedly uses JavaScript and Flash code to create a new scrapbook entry, containing a New Year's message in more »

  • valleyspeak

    Social nerdwanking

    Coined by R. Stevens in his webcomic Diesel Sweeties, "social nerdwanking" means lording your social-network superiority over others, which is secretly the only reason you bother with Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Orkut, and every other social network. Except your legitimate if fruitless use of Adult FriendFinder.

    6:46 AM on Mon Dec 10 2007
    By Nick Douglas
    2,454 views, 2 comments

    Latest by sultrysiren: All of Various Inc was sold Friday December 7th.The transition will be over the next twelve months. more »

  • orkut

    Orkut, the nosiest social network ever

    Want to know why Orkut never caught on? Google's motto is "don't be evil," not "don't be socially awkward." The programmatic list of "turn ons" it asks users to check off include "sarcasm," "tattoos," "erotica," "skinny dipping," and "long hair." A more perfect glimpse at the Google id won't be found anywhere. Here's the whole thing. More »

    5:07 AM on Tue Nov 6 2007
    By Nicholas Carlson
    1,291 views, 5 comments

    Latest by ValleyStiff: Alas, it's only too bad that the inherent sarcasm embedded in the name of Google's fledgling social networking site is more »