Facebook App versus FB Connect?

Giff Constable social media

One of my projects posed the question: should we create a native Facebook application (example: Playfish’s Country Story) or a separate website using Facebook Connect (example: Thread.com).  FB Connect, after all, still gives you access to the social graph, feeds, etc.  Here are some of my preliminary thoughts after conversations with other folks, and I would welcome your input. A …

The banality of Twitter

Giff Constable social media

140 characters only go so far. Nabeel and Batman reminded me of that this morning. I particularly notice this when people share startup lessons.  Let’s be honest, a lot of “startup lessons” being shared are common sense and known to anyone with any experience (that is true with this blog too, don’t get me wrong). However, that doesn’t mean that …

Traction vs Value

Giff Constable social media, startups, virtual goods

David Pakman has an excellent post up called “Confusing Traction with Value“, pointing to the “distressed exit of iLike” and then pointing out a few Web 2.0 aberrations in valuation.  For those of you who experienced Web 1.0’s up and down, this is a bit “been there, done that”. Web 1.0 was about startups far outstripping the available audience. Web …

Social Gaming Expands as Casual Gaming Gets Nervous

Giff Constable games, social games, social media, virtual goods

Casual Connect just took place in Seattle and Dean Takahashi over at GamesBeat has done a great job capturing some of the trends in this part of the games world: Part 1 and Part 2. Some of the most interesting quotes: Social games might hit a half billion in revenues this year. In 2007, before a price war began, casual …

Links & Attention

Giff Constable metrics, social media

There have been a lot of posts around lately about whether blogging is dead, because short form is the new shiny. Of course, new media types never kill off old media types (or at least not quickly), but the topic is really moot because long form and short form are apples and oranges — two different value propositions. One thing …

Socnet Advertising, where art thou?

Giff Constable social media, virtual goods

A few months ago, I listened to a panel organized by Battery Ventures called “Monetizing Social Media”.  Perhaps not surprisingly for a New York-based event, the panel spent 99% of the time talking about advertising.  Still, I was surprised to see both the Facebook and MySpace representatives brush off microtransaction business models as niche and not worth discussing. The total …