Archive for the ‘Web Communities’ Category

Even if – or maybe even because – Facebook just fueled the check-in hype with Places, the veterans in the market, Foursquare and Gowalla, are being as boring as rocks. At least Foursquare wants to release a new feature, though. Read the rest of this entry »

The city portal Meinestadt.de has revealed a more user friendly self after a revamp. Through the 1024-Pixel screen resolution, the pages are much clearer and more modern and offer much more local and regional content. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a portal to do when its successful operating ideas are copied and shipped around the world wide web in order to get a piece of the growth? It’s actually quite simple: it just buys a couple of the phonies. At least, that’s how the coupon portal Groupon is going about doing it. With the purchase of the Russian Klons Darberry.ru and the Japanese Qpod.jp, Groupon is positioning itself for the Asian market and now operates in 29 countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Just how important the personal website is in the times of social media definitely brings up some opposing ideas, especially when discussing the involvement of a firm in the Web 2.0 world. When it comes to small- to medium-sized industries, Telegate (11880, Klicktel) has found an unusual answer – the Munich-based firm is helping online companies to build their own web presence. Read the rest of this entry »

Technically, Google seems to have finally gotten it: whoever wants to win over the middle-class has to work for it. Somehow, the idea has caught on that the world doesn’t belong to Google, as a new “service-offensive” shows. Read the rest of this entry »

Google is still treading on eggshells when it comes to its social media route. Wave has finally been put to rest and Places is getting an extra treat for business owners: they can now directly respond to user ratings. Read the rest of this entry »

What if SMEs and SOHOs suddenly had a new means of direct marketing literally in the palm of their hands? Thanks to Mark McCormack’s new website, uPromote.it, this is possible.

The principle behind the concept is that promotions can be created with just a few steps using a mobile device, proceeding to be quickly distributed to a broad range of points including Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and Email.

Though the marketing is primarily focused on current customers, the contacts of those customers are also easily accessed through social networking. In other words, there is an unlimited amount of potential customers to be accessed.

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Check-ins have actually always been social: whether through Foursquare, Gowalla, and whatever other programs that are out there, checking-in and letting your friends know where you are and what you’re up to is just about the most “social” feature available by location-based sevices. So what does it mean when competitor SCVNGR is talking about “social check-ins?” Read the rest of this entry »

Checking in can get old after a while. Checking in, collecting points, checking in, collecting points…Brightkite has had a new idea – or at least it should come across that way. The Californians have enhanced their badges with new levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Foursquare was given an estimated net worth of 100 million US Dollars by investors, who decided to pump in an additional 20 million into the American company. With such a strong support system, the company can surely rest a bit more soundly, but the location-based check-in service will need to use their new capital wisely if they want to keep up with their competitors. Foursquare apparently is one step ahead of us and already has an idea of how to make itself stand out in the crowd: the gaming element of the service should be getting a major facelift to become more entertaining for the user. This information was confirmed by Foursquare engineer Anoop Ranganath in “The Big Money’s Disrupters” podcast. Read the rest of this entry »