Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 6th July 2009
9 COMMENTS 
Mike Bracco,
I really dislike where we are headed in the area of cross-posting. Cross-posting is when you submit your content to one location online and then have that service automatically disseminate it to your other social media accounts. With most sites offering cross-posting ability, duplication is becoming a big issue. However, my real gripe with cross-posting is a philosophical one. I believe that cross-posting inhibits conversation, which is at the heart of what makes Social Media so valuable.
My beef with cross-posting is not with the theory behind it. I think the idea of submitting content once and saving you the work of posting elsewhere is extremely useful in certain cases. For example, if I take pictures and post them to Facebook I might also want to post them to Flickr for my non-Facebook friends. In the above example there is a specific reason to post to (more…)
Written on 30th June 2009
40 COMMENTS
Mike Bracco,
I recently made a half serious post on FriendFeed as to whether or not you would name your child if the domain of their name wasn’t available. Perhaps I was taking it a little overboard but if you ask the same question to any company trying to come up with a name it goes well beyond making sure the domain name is available.
Locking down brand names across all social media sites is not just an issue for big companies and celebrities. Internet addicts like myself are extremely particular about having a consistent username across all sites. I can only imagine the anguish of those who were late to Twitter and don’t have their username of choice.
In order to address the mounting task of reserving your username across the (more…)
Written on 23rd June 2009
7 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Dutch insurance company FBTO is actively warning its users not to post their vacation plans to Twitter, social networks, or even worse: travel blogs!
According to the company criminals are using social networking tools to find possible victims. In the past, these criminals used to check mailboxes (full mailbox = probably away for the week) which houses they could break into. Now they use digital means to find their victims.
Maybe one day these insurance companies will start refusing payout based on what you said on Twitter. If you are stupid enough to announce to the world that you are not home for a week, you are practically inviting burglars over, right? (more…)
Written on 21st May 2009
0 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
Social gaming has become huge in the last year, reason being that playing games is naturally a social activity. Social gaming basically combines the best of the gaming portals with the social network platform. What’s so great about this idea, is that the social tools offered, enable casual gamers to play in a much more fun, interesting and competitive environment. It not only allows friends to share their scores with one another, it creates a fun way for people to interact, create and receive feedback.
While more and more gaming sites are hopping on this trend, XPO Games is one trend hopper who’s doing it right.
XPOGames describe themselves as a fully-featured social network for both casual gamers and game developers. Gamers can join the fun; play original casual games and use the featured socializing tools to meet new people and share their experiences, while developers can submit and expose their originally created games and monetize them. XPO Games launched in 2007 by Daniel Yaron and Hagay Nave when they realized the void and solitude one can experience on other casual gaming websites. “The games were there, but the community and social tools weren’t!” says Daniel Yaron. They decided to go beyond the portal functionality by including features such as the ability to like games, create profiles, friend other users, send them messages, post on walls, utilize the live scoring system and news feed, and win trophies. In addition to all this, the XPO Games platform allows developers to ask users for feedback on which games to create.
Gaming just makes more sense when you play against your buddies. Daniel and Hagay have realized this and have taken it to the next level.
XPO Games is still in private Beta and we’ve got invites for all Blonde 2.0 readers! Get yours here.
Written on 15th May 2009
7 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
The truth hurts. This is why I became a professional blogger. :)
via
Written on 3rd February 2009
2 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
RTL Interactive, the Internet brance of the RTL Group (German) announced their 100% takeover of Wer Kennt Wen.
Marc Schröder, the CEO of RTL Interactive responded to the takeover in a interview with a German newspaper that RTL wants to become less dependent of tv advertisements, instead they want to focus more towards Internet and e-commerce. Wer Kennt Wen currently has 5.5 million members, the transaction is estimated at 10 million Euros. RTL Interactive is not new in the Internet brance, they booked a turnover of 200 million euro’s in 2007.
Moral of the story, the memory of StudiVZ (holding 5 times less users at the time) being bought for 85 million Euros in 2007 is still fresh. Was StudiVZ worth the money? While Business Angels are utterly scared getting their hands dirty, media giants realize that Internet startups are on sale these days.
Written on 12th December 2008
23 COMMENTS
Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of The Next Web Conference. Twitter: @patrick
She wants me to invite her. Should I do it?
ASmallWorld is one of those famous social networks for the rich and famous from all over the world who help each other out on a lot of stuff. Although I’m rich nor famous I got an invite to the network about 2 years ago anyway. Must be my good looks. ;-)
I started using it and build my profile and my network. After my buddy list on Skype, friends on Hyves, business contacts on Linkedin, marketing business and German contacts on Xing, my international friends on Facebook and my Twitter follow list it was just another network where people could find me.
Different than other Social Networks?
Is it any different? Well, not really. The user interface is poor, usability idem, but in the end it is about the people who are on that network. The network has been ‘invitation only’ since the start and invitation rights are hard to get. Exclusivity is the main driver of the network. The main difference would be that the average income of the people in the network is probably a factor n higher.
I got invites!
Last june I got invites to ASW and now I can invite up to 10 people in the network. I blogged about this on my personal blog and I was surprised to find out that that particular post got 22 comments (make sure to check them) of people begging to get an invite and more than double the traffic I normally get (My mom is the only one reading my personal blog normally).
Today I got an email with this subject:
I offer EUR 500 for an invite to ASW
What!!! I must say it is very tempting, but I think I’ll skip this one. Unless someone has a higher bid?
Written on 5th December 2008
6 COMMENTS
Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of The Next Web Conference. Twitter: @patrick
Hyves (winner of last years The Next Web Award for Best European Company) has 7+ million members and is by far the biggest social network in the Netherlands. Today they released the Hyves iPhone app. It is immediately the number 1 most downloaded app in the Dutch iPhone store.
In many ways it looks a lot like the facebook app, which might be a disappointment for the true web savvies and mobile addicts (who were hoping to see new revolutionary stuff), but hey, let’s not complain, it is great that a Hyves App is available for the ’shiny object’ and they have included some nice features.
The app:
In short it has the basic features of the website; you see the so called buzz of your friends, there is a WWW (WhoWhatWhere) section with twitter-like updates on what you’re friends are doing. You can check out pictures and albums of your friends and you have your friends and their contact info at your disposal. What is pretty cool and can come in very handy is that you can directly call your friends (without the need to know their phone number) from the friendslist (note and call for action to all my friends: your phone number needs to be known to Hyves).
All together it is a nice to have and useful app, although it could be a little snappier.
Here are some screenshots:
The future:
My guess is that this first app will be rapidly followed up by new versions with new functionality and available on a lot more phones. They’re using this app to test how people are using it and what features should be available on all phones. One thing that has been left out (on purpose probably) of this version is the friend finder.
It makes a lot of sense to be able to see where your friends are and it makes even more sense that this will be provided by your social network, where you’ve invested hours and hours of building your network, uploading photos and using as a communication service to stay in contact with your friends. My guess is that this killer-app will be introduced in the next version of the mobile app, once there is an app that supports the majority of all phones. The rationale behind this is pretty straightforward; You want to see where your friends are and not where your friends are who have a certain phone (iPhone in this case).
Conclusion: If you’re a Hyves user you need this app.
P.S. What is remarkable is that this is an English language app aimed at the Dutch market!! Could this mean Hyves is planning to expand internationally? I leave the speculation up to you…
UPDATE: The app is (of course) bilingual and depends on the settings of your iPhone thanks, Martijn, Yme and Kjeld.
Written on 11th November 2008
3 COMMENTS
Paul Vereijken, Next Web Journalism & Media editor
Ever had the feeling that you really wanted to crash the party you weren’t allowed at? When I wrote a blogpost about social network MeettheBoss.com I couldn’t let go of that feeling. MeettheBoss.com wants to be an exclusive social network. To become a member of the network you have to be a senior or top executive at a financial firm. So for a freelance journalist like me there is only one option to get in: lying.
"Your registration has been accepted."
Surprisingly lying worked out very well. All I did was fill in the registration pages. I filled in my name, e-mail address and told the site that I was working as a CCO at ABN AMRO. A few minutes later I could check out some parts of the network but still not everything.
Got kicked out eventually
I guessed they would reject me at one point. If they would have looked at my LinkedIn profile they would have known right away that I’m not a CCO. But they probably didn’t do that. One day after my registration I received an e-mail telling that the network was happy to let me know that my registration had been accepted.
How long would it take them to find out I ain’t a CCO? Not too long. My previous blogpost probably caught their eyes because since this morning I can’t login anymore. It looks like they kicked me out after all…
MeettheBoss: could not find your user
Written on 7th November 2008
7 COMMENTS
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
Written by Paul Vereijken
It sure isn’t surprising that social networks like LinkedIn are adding new users by the second thanks to the credit crunch. But read this: social network MeettheBoss.com says it has attracted 25.000 active members within two months. And those users sure aren’t the average LinkedIn member. They are senior and top executives at large financial firms.
According to their website and an article in the International Herald Tribune, it looks like MeettheBoss.com wants to become the number one network and forum for executives at company’s like Barclays, Goldman Sachs and ING.
Not just connecting
Registered MeettheBoss.com users can participate in discussions about the crisis, but also about how web 2.0 technology could be implemented in products and services. These big boys can also use (peer-to-peer) video conferencing, IM, e-mail and sms to interact and – of course – connect with other members. At MeettheBoss.tv members can watch interviews with industry hotshots and thought-leaders.
Exclusive network
The Bristol, England, based network is founded by Spencer Green, chairman of publisher and event organiser GDS International that owns MeettheBoss.com. The network was launched in September ’08 when they invited their first 20.000 members. To keep the network exclusive it intends to close its doors at 50.000 members.
Closed doors
I wish I could check if everything MeettheBoss.com promises is true. But to become a member of the network you have to be a senior or top executive. So if you’re working as a developer, web 2.0 consultant or if you’re an entrepreneur that probably means this network keeps its doors closed for you. And for journalists like me too.
Have a peak
Or wouldn’t they? Of course I tried to get in and I filled in the forms to create an account. Surprisingly I got in.
I couldn’t check out everything the network has to offer. Still I got more than just a peek. I was able to login at MeettheBoss.tv and check out some interviews with experts in the financial market. After a few clicks I was scanning the discussions between members talking mostly about the crisis. But when I tried to connect with other members the network just returned error messages telling me my account wasn’t approved yet. Damn.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
