Top Social Networks: The Summer of Social? from Compete.com's blog, provides some interesting information about the popularity of social network sites for June, 2007, measured by number of visitors and how much attention they devote to the sites.

mySpace and Facebook are the clear winners in this measurement. The post includes a map of US mySpace users by geographic area (California and the Northeast corridor are where the greatest concentrations of mySpace users live.) Comparing the geographic distribution and density of mySpace users versus Facebook users, andthe post notes that mySpace receives 25% more visits per visitor per month than Facebook, with 72 million unique mySpace users making more than 1.3 billion total visits in June.

Today's post also includes the June ranking of the top 20 social networking sites, ranked by attention.

I found some surprises here:

• Classmates.com, arguably one of the first social networking sites, albeit cumbersome and costly, ranked #8 on the list (although with an attention decline of 19%) in June.


• QuePasa.com, recently resurrected with new ownership, made the list at #16, with an attention increase of 189% in June, the largest increase (percentage-wise) on the list (although based on the second lowest number of visits.)


• LinkedIn squeaked in at #20, although with a decrease of 6% in attention in June.


• Friendster, at #9, actually showed a 6% increase in attention in June.


• Facebook, with nearly 23 million June visitors, had an attention rating of just 1.52%, with a 19% month over month increase.


• Although more than half the sites included have seven or eight figure visit counts, none approach mySpace in terms of the attention metric.
  


• MySpace is the clear king of this ranking, with more than 72 million monthly visitors, and an attention rating of 12.75%, a month over month increase of 20%, for June.

Compete.com has numerous tools for measuring site traffic and visitor engagement. (More about the methodology used to generate this data.) These numbers may not make it easier to decide how to engage social network users, but they do provide unique data to help spot the next big thing in social media, and to put media coverage and buzz in perspective based on user data.

Also on the social networking subject, I added several new articles about Facebook to my Del.icio.us links: http://del.icio.us/sheywood/facebook today. Enjoy!

Labels: facebook, linkedin, MySpace, Phoenix.Social.Media.Club socialmedia, social.media, social.networking, socialmedia

The Utility Belt: Google testing AdSense for cell phones

Utility tool belt confirms that Google is running a limited beta test of its AdSense network for mobile use. The format shown on the site is a text ad with a phone number rather than a URL for response (a text message option could also be a useful action.) With these actions, AdSense could conceivably target by GPS as well as by content, making it extremely attractive to consumer marketers, especially those targeting the 18-34 year olds.

Utility Belt says that this could be a major driver of mobile Web use, which could ultimately bring the price of accessing the mobile Web down for everyone.

It would certainly put Google into a enviable position versus Microsoft, Yahoo! and others.

Early Kyte.tv adopter Francine Hardaway talked about why younger users are fearless about appearing on camera sans makeup in casual dress, proving she is forever young by looking great while broadcasting from bed in her PJ's!



Kyte.tv has tons of cool features, including the ability to add video comments to programming, publish "TV" shows from your phone and chat live with the hosts.

Cool stuff!

In his blog, Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak for Friday Phil shared his 7 Wonders of Jubilant Learning.

Phil noted that only one day remains to contribute to the project. This project is a neat way to create a snapshot of important ideas on what he called the "luckiest" day of 7-7-07 (Saturday.)

I'm counting Phil's site as my first, since I learned about this project there. Here's my list:

Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak

Motivational site where I learned about the 7 Wonders of Joyful Learning project.

RubiStar Home

Cool free tool for creating scoring rubrics, including problem-based learning assessments.

English 101

Tip sheet covering commonly mis-used words.

How to be a Critical Thinker

Short but interesting list of ways to apply critical thinking skills.

Using Del.icio.us in Education

Ways that educators can use Del.icio.us.

MediaLiteracy.com: Gateway Site for Media Literacy Education

Curriculum resources, speaker bios and much more to help in media literacy education.

generationnext.pdf (application/pdf Object)

PDF describing the educational needs and expectation of the Millennial generational cohort.

Find more of my favorite education links at http://del.icio.us/sheywood/education

Labels: 7wonders 07-07-07 learning links

Amid increasing concerns about the safety of the food we feed our families and pets, Congress is working on renewal of the "Farm Bill," a process that happens every five years.

Visit Support Healthy, Fresh, Local Food to add your name to the petition showing legislators your support for change and innovation in the US farm and food system. For every 100 messages sent from your state, the Farm and Food Project will hand deliver a package of healthy, local food to your Senators and representatives.

FarmandFoodProject.org has a variety of background information about the bill, the issues, and the benefits of strong local economies and affordable, safe food that a responsible and fair Farm Bill can foster.