The world of mobile messaging has really taken off in the last few years, with products like WhatsApp, MesssageMe, Kakao, LINE, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Viber, and others building large and growing user networks. I think many of these companies are really interesting and many of them are building really interesting businesses in their own […]
Tag: social networking
Why Refresh.io Nails and Pre and Post Meeting Intel for Busy Networkers
When I first heard about Refresh, I kind of rolled my eyes. I love CRM and contact management applications, and many of them sound better in practice than they deliver in practice. I figured that Refresh would fall short as many other well-intentioned products in the space had in the past. But Refresh is now […]
On Startups Competing with Core Mobile OS Apps
One thing that’s been on my mind lately is how (and whether) startups can compete with the stock applications that ship with Android and iOS devices. I’ve included a screenshot of my current homescreen – it changes fairly often, but this reflects the apps that I use fairly often today. As the image of m […]
Yelp and foursquare are on a Collision Course
Awhile back I posted a question on Quora about services looking to disrupt Yelp via focusing on short-form reviews. I got a lot of feedback via email, Twitter, and Facebook and one person in particular, David Levy, pointed out that foursquare is the most likely competitor. All that was lacking was a better logged out […]
Are Facebook Credits and the Apple App Store on a Payments Collision Course?
Just a quick thought that’s been on my mind of late. I’m trying to figure out how two major changes I see in social and mobile games will be reconciled: 1. Many social games developers are gradually beginning to embrace deeper integrations of Facebook Credits into their on-Facebook social games. In a number of cases, […]
Thoughts on Social Travel – My Own Social Graph Isn’t Good Enough
I have been doing a lot of travel lately, some for work and some for fun. The one thing that continues to stun me is the dominance of TripAdvisor as a source of reviews whenever I go to a new place and start looking for restaurant or hotel reviews. It reminds me a lot of […]
Is Zynga Running Out of People to Acquire on the Facebook Platform?
I’m knee-deep in last minute preparation for this week’s Social Gaming Summit. It should be great and I hope you’ll be there to join us. I was spending some time on AppData and was struck by something – I thought it warranted a quick blog post of my own. I was also inspired by something […]
Does “Sign In with Twitter” Make Sense Without an Web Ad Play?
I’m starting to see the “Sign in with Twitter” button in more places on the web. I’m still trying to figure out what the bigger picture plan is for this service. To me, it looks very similar to Facebook Connect – it’s a simplified way to log into 3rd party sites without having to create […]
Do Social Games Need More Social Chaos?
Something has been bugging me about social games of late. There are a lot of great games out there – I play a lot of them. And you know what many of them have in common? There isn’t enough chaos in most of today’s social games. Let me explain what I mean. I grew up […]
Google Buzz and the Challenges of Using Email as a Social Graph
I’ve been playing with Google Buzz for a few days, mostly to get a better sense for the interaction model. I’m a heavy Gmail user, so I’ve been particularly interested in how the service integrates with Gmail. While I have enjoyed using Buzz, it has helped crystalize some of my thoughts about why using email […]