Judy McGuire from the blog the Frishy recently wrote an interesting article on being ditched by a friend - through Facebook.

We'd been having problems that had culminated in a huge argument the day before, but I figured we'd get through it. I figured wrong.

Still, being given the heave-ho by way of a social networking site? My first reaction was to laugh. I mean, we're adults. Unfriending me seemed tantamount to toilet-papering my locker or scribbling my phone number on the boy's locker room wall.

She never got the friend back - on Facebook or in real life.

Read the story here.

CNN recently looked at the future of MySpace, the once-hot social network that has lost a lot of ground to Facebook and Twitter and now seems to be in decline...

In the brief history of Web sites, there are few if any second chances. Remember Friendster?

That's why it's difficult for some industry observers to see a comeback for MySpace, the large online social network that has seen its popularity flatline and its hipness surpassed by younger sites like Twitter and Facebook in recent months.

Richard MacManus, founder and editor of ReadWriteWeb, reckons that MySpace is in danger of going the way of Lycos and Excite - both sites that have passed on. But a couple of months ago MySpace hired a new chief executive, Owen Van Natta, in an effort to stave off the decline of the site.

If you're a MySpcae fan, the CNN piece is worth reading.

© chrisdlugosz

You're looking at a new social network. You've been invited to join it, but you're not very familiar with it. Is it safe? How do you find out?

With the influence of the Web growing, transparency has become a major concern on the Internet. The ability to find out just exactly who is behind a particular website has become important. And being able to find important facts about a web domain (like revenue, traffic patterns, and speed, and contact info) can be important to you, either for business reason or just to assess the credibility of the website. Where do you go to get information like that?

I recently came across the philoneist, a wiki that investigates and tells you what and who is behind a domain name. And with out much effort I found valuable information on a couple of websites I use pretty much every day.

An entry at the philoneist will often give you a screen capture image of the site being examined. That way you know that the entry is really about the site you're interested in.

Vanity URL's have been available on Facebook for some time now, but only to a select few. Now the URL's will become available to anyone this weekend when Friday turn into Saturday, according to VentureBeat.

On Friday, June 12th, at 9:01pm Pacific Time, you'll be able to register a URL. But if you have a generic name like John Smith (no offense, just saying) you'll have to act fast to beat the other John Smiths of the world. It's first-come, first-served.

That's midnight if you live on the East Coast (like me).

The Facebook blog gives instructions as to how to get your vanity URL.

In case you're hesitant, Dan Schawbel (Personal Branding Blog) says this is an essential step in your life...

Twitter always gets a lot of attention in the Blogosphere. But it seems like the past week has had a number of interesting Twitter stories.

BusinessWeek (of all people) published an article on why people use Twitter. (After all, it's really just a waste of time, right?)

TIME did a four-page article on how Twitter will change the way we live. And VentureBeat did an article on the TIME article (though to be fair, they were interested specifically in the implications for the business world).

Twitter is going to begin offering "verified accounts" soon, as a way to resolve identity disputed. The Inquisitr, Mashable, and Search Engine Land all ran stories on that.

SEO Scoop published a beginners guide to marketing on Twitter.

And Asiajin pointed its readers to two "Twitter Business Card Generators."

Guess that about covers the week in Twitter.

Oh, wait... And TechCrunch says that 80% of the people on Twitter are sheep. They fpn't attract followers themselves, they just follow people...

I've been contributing over the last few months to the content of a vibrant and growing site that points toward the future of the Internet and has profound potential for users interested in social networking. The site is NetworkingForPros.com.

When I look across the web at the moment, it's clear that the Internet of yesterday (static pages where you could find information and news) has been replaced by an interactive, social Internet that is about people instead of facts and figures.

One of those people is you. Today the Internet is about you, and about me.

Who are you? The old model of the early Internet allowed a handful of writers and bloggers to publish information about people. Most of those people that info got published on were the stars - the Madonna, Mel Gibson, Mylie Cyrus, and the like. Who where you in that mix? Probably nobody, because they didn't write about you at all.

NetworkingForPros.com is part of a trend that is changing what the Internet is about. It's helping to make the Internet more about you and less about Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey. And the best part is that you can even help control what gets said about you. Using a wiki format, NetworkingForPros.com lets you enter your own information. You can write about yourself and about your friends or colleagues. Like with any wiki, you can comment on and contribute to the pages that other people have started. It's an interactive space focused on providing information about real people. People like you. After all, just because you're not Madonna or A-Rod, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be on the Web.

While NetworkingForPros.com is an information hub where users can find out about everyday people, it's also a good place to collaborate with other users who want to add content and to network with other users.

Find yourself and find your friends at NetworkingForPros.com. And if they're not there already, put them there…

© Search Engine People Blog

Jeff Quipp over at Search Engine People came up recently with what I thought was a great list of reason to use Twitter.

People ask me all the time; "Why in the world would I ever want to use Twitter? I can't see the benefit, and have better things to do with my time than make conversations with strangers."

...The reality of the matter is there are many reasons to use Twitter, though different people and organizations have different reasons.

Jeff divides this reason into two main categories - marketing reasons and personal reasons. Whether you're looking for new clients or trying to manage your own reputation, he has a few words for you.

The piece is worth reading.

Mashable had a great piece last week on customizing your Twitter background, and I now have that task on my things-to-do list.

Ben Parr talks about why someone would bother with this, and he references some services that will help you set up your own background.

Since the early days of Twitter, users have had the ability to upload their own background images. From photos of cute kittens to jaw-dropping mosaics, the Twitter background has been a key medium for self-expression, personal branding, and personal fulfillment.

Ben shows some examples of personalized Twitter backgrounds, too. Take a look at his piece.

I've never spent a penny at a social networking site. Not one penny. I figure, hey, you can't buy relationships. Of course, I know people who disagree with me on that, but whatever...

TechCrunch had a piece recently on a new payment engine called Gambit that's tracking social network money as it's being spent. Gambit has discovered that (as I'd always suspected) Facebook users have more money (or spend more, at least) than MySpace users.

As you think about who's on the different networks and what they're like, I thought the piece was insightful...


© jurvetson

Two GigaOm articles late last month about MySpace caught my eye and kind of hung around in my mind. Author Om Malik seems to think that MySpace is (or will soon be) a thing of the past...

The legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra is rumored to have said about a restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded." That is precisely how I feel about MySpace, which apparently has a lot of visitors, especially in the U.S., where it is marginally ahead of Facebook, but no one I know actually uses it.

I use MySpace. But I personally like Facebook better. I use MySpace because I'm part of a community at work where it is the social network of choice. My MySpace page keeps me in touch with my day job crowd.

Om sees changes coming that he thinks MySpace will have a hard time weathering. But he thinks they'll try.

Like an '80s rock band, MySpace's time has come and gone, says Om. We'll see if he's right...