If your Foursquare check-ins could be limited to backyard outings and trips to the mailbox, you may be interested in a new mobile application called Miso. With this service, a startup from Bazaar Labs, also the makers of a social network called Flixup! for movie chatter, you can perform Foursquare-like "check-ins" when watching a particular TV show or movie. Homebodies, this app is for you.

Sponsor

With Miso, instead of checking in to locations outside of your home, like bars, restaurants and events as you do with popular mobile applications like Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt and Gowalla, the Miso app takes the "check-in" model and uses it to connect people enjoying TV shows and movies. Although you could check-in when watching a movie at a local theater, the app is just as useful to those who tend to stay at home.

Foursquare for the Boring?

For those with the heyday of youth behind them, social outings to bars and restaurants and other "fun" events are slowly replaced with more boring trips to the grocery store, playgroup meetups and other errands unworthy of sharing with a mobile social network. In addition, tighter household budgets forced upon families by the down economy has many trading weekly evenings out for low-cost movie nights at home, cuddled up with the latest Netflix DVD - or even just good ol' fashioned cable TV.

Thanks to Miso, even homebodies like this can participate in the check-in craze. Although you can still share what you see at the theater, if desired, the beauty of this app is that you don't need a social lif/> [...]

Tue Mar 09, 2010 09:25 am

Facebook is rolling out new features today to allow users to have more control over how they share content with others.

Users will be able to control who sees each individual piece of content they post. Facebook's new Publisher Privacy Control will allow people to select a privacy setting for every post they make at the time they create it. By making selections in a drop-down menu, users will be able to control what they want to share with friends, family and co-workers.

To help users with the changes, Facebook is offering a Transition Tool. The tool will start with a message that explains the changes and will then let users update their settings. Users will have the option of keeping their old settings or accept recommendations from Facebook.

"One of our primary goals is to consistently improve Facebook and expand what our users can do through the site, and that includes providing them with new tools to help control their information," said Chris Cox, Vice President of Product Management.

"The features we're announcing today aren't the end point, but are simply the latest step in our iterative process. Great suggestions helped us get here, and we look forward to the feedback that will help us develop the next innovation in privacy and user control."

Facebook said the changes will not impact advertising programs and that it has never shared personal information with advertisers except at the direction and control of a user
 

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Fri Dec 11, 2009 07:35 am

Good friend JD Lasica asked me to share answers to some fantastic questions for a blog post he published in celebration of the new book, Engage. I poured so much of myself into the responses, that I felt it was worth sharing here with you as well.

#Engage

Your new book Engage may turn out to be the definitive work on how social media is transforming business. Looking at the big picture, how is it changing the balance of power between customers and companies?

I invested an incredible amount of passion and also vision into this book as I believe that the time is now to lead a media revolution based on insight, intelligence and experience. I think the minute you hold this book, its intentions are clear. The impact of new media is only just beginning and the road to where we’re going is, to channel the Beatles, long and winding. I believe that the destination is less important nowadays and it is this journey that we each embrace, that defines our experiences and teachings.

As in many books and blogs on the subject of social media, theory plays a role of course, however, new media isn’t as “new” as we might think. There are lessons and applied learning that we must embrace in order to effectively change, not merely for the sake of change, but for the betterment of the tattered relations between businesses, customers, and the influencers and peers who connect them. The shift of balance skewed towards those who believe they held the power and in many cases, businesses invested profits into distancing the nodes that connect us to our networks of relevance in order to reduce the cost of actually “managing”/> [...]

Wed Mar 24, 2010 04:40 am

The first quarter of 2010 could see a higher number of investments by venture capital firms than the fourth quarter of 2009, according to figures from new reports by the National Venture Capital Association and information and data services company ChubbyBrain.

Data from a report relased by the NVCA yesterday shows that the fourth quarter of 2009 saw a growth of $1.7 billion in venture funds over the previous quarter, similar to numbers seen from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009. Data released today by ChubbyBrain shows that following the earlier growth in venture funds, Q2 2009 saw a $1.4 billion increase in VC investments, a trend that could mean big bucks for startups in the first quarter of 2010.

Sponsor

As we reported last week, 2009 was a difficult year for startups and venture capital firms, with venture-backed mergers and acquisitions continuing a downward trend in 2009. Carolynn Duncan, founder and director of the startup incubator Portland Ten, says that the "pressure crunch" of 2009 caused VCs to give prospective startups more than the third degree.

"It was more like the fifth degree," Duncan told ReadWriteWeb. "It was so intense, even for the c/> [...]

Tue Jan 12, 2010 01:10 am