Daily Marauder

INDECENT EXPOSURE IN FACESPACE: FRIEND REQUESTS

Listen up randoms of the world: I don’t want ANY.

I’m sure your band rocks out but unless I’ve already jammed to you, I’m not adding you as my “friend” in Myspace. And to random sketchy guy: If we haven’t met nor do we have any connections in common, I’m not confirming you.

In this most recent edition of Facespace, I attempt to tackle a sensitive issue:

Unwanted Friend Requests

It’s hard to imagine a real world situation in which a stranger calmly saunters up to you and requests your friendship. In Facespace, however, this is common practice. In many cases, a simple ignore is the only necessary response. Shockingly though, some will send multiple friend requests to test your resolve. In even rarer situations, some friend requests can result in jail time.

Just take UK resident Dillon Osborn, as evidence. In October ‘07, he was sent to jail for sending a friend request to his ex-wife after receiving a restraining order forbidding to contact her. Way harsh Ty. Some click ignore. Some call the po’ po’. Interesting tactic. For more on the story, click here.

Definition

Friend

1 a: one attached to another by affection or esteem b: acquaintance

There are several classifications of unwanted friend requests. Let’s dig a bit deeper. . .

Work Colleagues

Here you are at your desk minding your own business, wasting some quality time on Facebook when your boss sends a friend request. It’s one thing if you and your boss are close but quite another if this isn’t the case.

What do you do?

Ignore and create an awkward situation with the man/woman who decides your promotional state. Accept and your boss has free access to your online identity. No more drunken photos of you and the friends. In any situation when a boss or any other work colleague attempts the friend lock, tread carefully. I have no easy answer on this one. It’s really a case by case decision.

Family

In doing some research for this post, I came across an article from the Washington Post describing a situation in which a father had requested to be his son’s friend in Facebook. Many teenagers regard their social networking space as an environment free from the prying eyes of their parents. Many parents know this and find it to be an uncomfortable situation.

Here’s my judgment on this one. Don’t friend your kids. They have a hard enough time trying to convince other kids how cool their kicks are on a daily basis. In addition, if the mall has been replaced by Facespace, it still doesn’t qualify a visit from mom or dad.

Randoms

This situation presented itself as recently as Friday. Some random man sent me a friend request. I saw that he was friends with my friend and so figured that I knew him. Accepted. I then proceed to get an e-mail from 2 other friends (obviously doing their homework) asking if I know this man. Oh snap! A friend roach on the prowl and I didn’t even see it coming.

The Final Word

Don’t be a friend roach. If we wouldn’t sit together in the cafeteria, we shouldn’t be friends in Facespace.

Want More Facespace?

If you’re ready to tackle more social networking faux pas’, check out the other Indecent Exposure in Facespace posts:

To Tag or Not to Tag

When Your Status Says Too Much

Applications

BROADCAST/CABLE

“Jericho,” the post-apocalyptic CBS drama whose devoted fans rallied via email to save it from cancellation, has met its end. The show failed to increase its audience and will air its final episode Tuesday. “Jericho” was first canceled last May, triggering a widespread fan protest. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_en_tv/tv_jericho_canceled  3/21)

 
HBO has approved pilots for two new comedies, “Suburban Shootout” and “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl.” “Shootout” focuses on the open warfare between rival gangs of housewives to control their suburban enclave, and “Diary” looks at how sex, power and money intersect at a high-priced escort agency in The Big Apple. 9The Hollywood Reporter 3/23)

 
CNN Headline News on April 5 will launch “Not Just Another Cable News Show,” a 30-minute clip show that will revive top news and interviews from CNN’s nearly 30-year-old video vault. The program will run Saturday and Sunday nights during prime time and will replace encore episodes of Glenn Beck’s show. (Mediaweek 3/24)

 
Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House have accused Verizon of illegally using proprietary information to keep its customers from switching to cable for phone service. The cable companies argue that when a customer is in the process of switching away from Verizon, the phone company contacts the customer and offers steep discounts and gift cards. (AOL News/USA Today 3/24)

 
DVR maker TiVo has dramatically cut its spending on subscriber marketing, pursuing a strategy instead of allying with cable companies such as Comcast and Cox to grow its business. The company, according to CEO Tom Rogers, has also initiated talks with some cable firms about building a new DVR based on CableLabs’ tru2way specifications. (Multichannel News 3/23)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

CBS, which holds the rights to NCAA’s championship, will stream all 63 basketball games this year to 200 Web sites, making March Madness the biggest expansion beyond television for any major sports event. Online ads could bring CBS $23 million, says CEO Les Moonves. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/b4077070416250.htm  3/20)

 
Google’s new search-within-search feature lets users stay on the search engine to find pages on popular sites like nytimes.com. However, when a term is entered into the secondary search box, Google will display ads for competing sites, thereby profiting from ads it sells against the brand. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24ecom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin  3/24, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/23/some-retailers-oppose-googles-secondary-search-feature  3/23)

Example of the Secondary Search Box

 
Joost, the Internet TV startup backed by CBS, may be in danger of being squeezed out. In terms of A-list content, NBC-News Corp. newcomer Hulu appears to have wrestled the momentum from Joost. Also: Hulu is seen as “the most addictive time-killer since instant-messaging.” (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/goods/gadgets/2008/03/17/Joost-Disappoints-as-Next-YouTube  4/08, http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/03/23/from_starsky__hutch_to_lost_tv_moving_online  3/23)

 
MySpace’s plan to launch a digital-music joint venture with the major record companies is picking up steam, as News Corp.’s social networking giant nears deals with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. The labels are trading content rights in exchange for equity stakes in MySpace Music. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.nypost.com/seven/03242008/business/digital_destiny_103302.htm  3/24)

 
Music fans searching online for information about artists select the Wikipedia entry link over artists’ pages on News Corp.’s MySpace by a factor of more than 2-to-1. The Wikipedia entries are also more popular than the artists’ own sites. Wikipedia is seen as a “missed opportunity.” (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2148195720080322  3/22)

Will Internet movie services ever replace the neighborhood video store? Blockbuster, Starz Entertainment and other players are hedging their bets with new online services. “I don’t predict this is the death of TV,” says Starz exec Bob Greene. “This is just another viewing option.” (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insidetext23mar23,1,6599742.story  3/23, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-services23mar23,1,4351884.story  3/23)

 
Traditional media companies like Viacom, CBS and Conde Nast are trying to stem the flow of advertising dollars to Google and other Internet outfits by building their own ad networks. The latest, Forbes, is expected to announce that it will start selling ads for about 400 financial blogs. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_hi_te/online_ad_showdown  3/24, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080323/online_ad_showdown_glance.html  3/23)

 
Fancast, Comcast’s two-month-old entertainment portal, is performing even better than the company expected. In February, unique visitors were 125% higher than internal expectations, and page views were 500% higher than anticipated. The site serves up more than 20,000 videos at any one time and is looking to offer about 5,000 new videos each month from its 100 content providers. (Multichannel News 3/23)

 
In a move billed as a way of underscoring the power and uniqueness of the ESPN brand, the sports network’s Web site, ESPN.com., has severed ties with several Web ad-sales networks, including Specific Media. “We’re heading down a path where it no longer suits our business needs to work with ad networks,” said Eric Johnson, EVP of multimedia sales for ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales. (Mediaweek 3/24)

 
Dailymotion, a Paris-based video-sharing site, is now surpassing YouTube in traffic in its home country, encouraging it to expand in the United States, Britain and other major markets. Dailymotion’s technology is “ahead of YouTube,” claims a video producer in Manhattan. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/business/motion24.php  3/23)

 
YouTube is announcing the winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards, recognizing the top user-created videos. “It’s the new Emmys, the next People’s Choice Awards,” declares winner Tay Zonday of the YouTube honors. “It’ll be interesting to see what happens five years, 10 years.” (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_en_ot/youtube_awards  3/12)

 
It’s been a whole year since the launch of live video streaming site Justin.TV , and there is no shortage of competitors (Ustream, BlogTV, Kyte, Stickam, Mogulus, Yahoo Live, LiveVideo). (See more of our coverage here). But Justin.TV looks like it is holding its own in this still-nascent part of the Web. “So far,,” notes CEO Michael Seibel, “Justin.tv has more than 50 years of video stored in its archives and we have accumulated 10 of those years over the past 30 days.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/24/justintvs-birthday-stats%e2%80%9457-years-worth-of-video-and-counting  3/24)

GAMING

Gibson Guitar is filing a lawsuit against Electronic Arts and Viacom units MTV and Harmonix for infringing a patent by selling Activision’s “Guitar Hero” video game. “Guitar Hero,” which lets players strum along to music videos on a toy guitar, has generated more than $1 billion in sales. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2147943920080321  3/21)

WIRELESS

Qik.com, a Silicon Valley startup, allows users to send live video directly from their cellphones to the Web. Tech world celeb Jason Calacanis now regularly broadcasts ad-hoc “shows” from his cellphone. “My whole existence online is one big focus group,” he says. (Iwantmedia 3/24, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/interactive/la-ca-webscout23mar23,1,336119.story  3/23)

TECHNOLOGY

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment expects to release its first Blu-ray Disc titles April 8. The release of the BD-Live titles coincides with the rollout of Profile 2.0 enhancements to Sony’s PlayStation 3, which will make the game console the first Blu-ray player that can connect to the Internet to access bonus features. (Yahoo!/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter 3/24)