Social Network Evolution

The growing trend of social networks in the online space has encouraged Facebook to re-vamp their network center. The social network is expanding its reach on the Internet, becoming more of an operating system where various applications including photos and classifieds will be available to its 24 million members.

While Facebook’s competitors are focusing their energy on taking advantage of being the hub of people’s social lives, Facebook is driving its power into useful technological applications. According to Fortune, this new Facebook will channel all the useful tools of photo-sharing, networking and marketplace websites into one central location, providing a comprehensive dashboard for its users. MediaPost even reported that two prominent newspapers are teaming up with Facebook to leverage people’s political views for the upcoming election.

I think this is a step in the right direction for social networks and marketing. Social networks are poised to become a useful hub for marketers and consumers alike.

Kodak Video – Winds of Change

Kodak just sold its health imaging unit this week for $2.55 billion. This originally internal only, Kodak video shows that Kodak is ready for the fight to change. As a consumer it will be fun to see what’s in store for Kodak’s future, but they have a big, tough road ahead. A good start would be for them to improve and open up Ofoto, now Kodak Easyshare Gallery, making it more of a community like Flickr. I’m sure they will find more ways to further monazite its 52 million users.

Online Operating System

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YouTube, MySpace and Picassa are great starts, but are really just pieces of what people want to do online. This year Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple will consolidate their content sharing applications into a single place to share your world (photos, videos, thoughts, calendars, music, bookmarks) with friends, family, coworkers, or be brave and make it available to the public. Sony will make a push to get in this game and Apple will open up their huge content world into a friendlier web 2.0 space.