with the recent launch of yelp and the ever-increasing popularity of social networking sites, the question is becoming more important than ever: do we still need ‘events sites’?

yelp is a way to announce, find, review, and talk about upcoming events and events the users have previously attended, and is not unlike yahoo’s upcoming.org.

while both these event sites, along with multiple others have been getting a lot of attention lately, the future of these sites may not be so bright. to see why, let’s first look at some statistics for the two leading social networking sites and then how they are going head-on against these smaller sites.

even by these compete figures (according to some estimates, these figures are underestimated by at least 20 million users) the two networks account for about 90 million users, and doubling yearly. both myspace and facebook have launched their versions of on-site events creation and sharing.

events on myspace

give myspace events two minutes and you will see that you have all the important features of any events site available to you.

you can create events with event name and summary, created/hosted by information, the when and where, ability to upload pictures, option to indicate whether you will be attending the event, add it to your calendar, share the event with others, and finally discuss the event with others interested and attending. as for the question of whether people use this feature, i found over 12,000 upcoming events listed (within this week).

events on facebook

facebook offers a similarly (if not more) robust events feature set.

unlike what your first instinct would suggest, these social networking sites don’t restrict you to events just in your network. facebook, for example, let’s you browse events by your network or by choosing a global setting, by date, and by event type (party, trip, sports, etc.). again, you can create events with all the relevant details, can keep it open or restrict it to a select geographical network or social group, create a guest list, and allow users to interact with the event (share, upload pictures, create and participate in discussions, and more). as for the number of events, i was able to find over 500 events per category per day.

so are event sites dead?

with over 200,000 new users signing up for myspace daily, and with facebook’s growth at over 200%, and looking at the extensive events-related features that both social networking leaders offer, though event sites aren’t dead yet, the future seems rather bleak. not only do these sites offer most of the features of events-only sites, but they offer much more developed social networking abilities along with a much larger network to advertise to or share your events with (keep in mind you can also share events with people who aren’t actually members of these networks).

as for the question of whether events-functionality will be fully embraced by users of these networks, we have already seen that both the networks are seeing substantial events creation and sharing. as networking becomes easier and more mainstream, people are more likely to create and share events with people they know and can easily connect with and invite to their events through these online networks.

lastly we have to keep in mind that this information is only from the two leaders in the social networking space and there are countless others who have embraced or will embrace events-functionality.

Technorati Tags: yelp, upcoming.org, yahoo, events, social networking, facebook, myspace

jay neely, a boston-based entrepreneur and a social strategist takes an informative look at the linkedin versus facebook debate.

LinkedIn is smarter than a lot of people are currently giving them credit for. Compared to Ryze and some other business-focused social networks, they’ve put together a really well-developed site. I can’t blame them for being caught off guard by Facebook suddenly going from a college student network to the next hot business trend with platform potential.

For business networkers, the fate of LinkedIn vs. Facebook will depend on a few things:

jay points out the weaknesses of both social networking sites and what each must do to overcome them and gain ground over the other network.

Technorati Tags: jay neely, linkedin, facebook, business networking

it seems like this is going to be one of those weeks. following yesterday’s digg redesign, boing boing has now unveiled their new layout and features. at first glance, the new look seems like a cross between the federated media design and the wired blogs, but you start liking it after a little while. the design is much cleaner and since it displays less content at a time on the screen, it is not as overwhelming as the previous layout (which displayed multiple posts with graphics, etc, at one time).

in addition to the new look, boing boing is also reintroducing comments and they have hired a community manager to oversee the conversations on the site, and have launched a companion gadget site.

Technorati Tags: social media, boing boing, blog, design

daniel scocco has put me up agains raj dash in the latest addition of blogger face-off.

For some bloggers, one blog is just not enough. They have the talent to write skilfully on a variety of topics, and also the discipline to produce a huge amount of content on a consistent basis. It is an enviable position to be in. They get paid well and they end up developing a strong brand around their names.

In this edition of the Bloggers Face-Off we have two bloggers that fit this profile perfectly. Do you read Pronet Advertising or Copyblogger? Then you probably know Muhammad Saleem. He covers mainly online marketing and social media, and you can also read his articles on MuhammadSaleem.com.

Raj Dash is the second blogger, he writes for several high profile blogs including Search Engine Journal and Performancing. His personal blog is located on RajDash.com. Now to the face-off!

check out the blogger face-off at daily blog tips and cast your vote!

p.s. please vote based on the answers provided in the face-off.

Technorati Tags: daniel scocco, daily blog tips, muhammad saleem, raj dash

digg just updated their site and to clarify what has changed and what has been added, here is a tour of the updated site with before and after screen-shots.

first of all, here’s a ‘before’ screen shot of the home page followed by the new look.

starting from the very top, digg has removed the three-level layout which had the option of content-type (news, videos, and podcasts) on level one, the topics/categories displayed under it, and collapsible subtopics hidden within each topic. instead, they have opted to use a much more streamlined interface with each content-type displayed at the top and expandable as follows:

accessible from right under the content-types you still have the popular topics (such as world and business, technology, and so on).

the next big change has been made to the submitted story box.

with the new design, more importance is given to the title and the summary of the story. information about who submitted the story, when it was submitted/made popular, now joins the interaction options (like commenting, emailing, burying) at the bottom and all of the options are accompanied with fancy new buttons. the new layout is more efficient because it focuses on the content first and then gives you the option to interact with it and the rest of the extra information.

the one addition to the box is a button that allows you to select a story as a favorite. the button appears once you have dugg a story, and clicking it will add a story into the same archive where the ‘my number one’ stories were previously displayed.

the single most important change in the update is the new ‘one-click bury’ system digg has instituted. you are no longer required to give a reason for burying a story (though you still can if you want to). simply click the red x at the bottom of a story and you’re done. note that the option to bury a story exists only as long as you haven’t already dugg a story. unlike before, you can’t digg and then bury a story without undigging it first.

going back to the menu bar at the top, checking out your friends’ activity has also been made much easier. the total activity is displayed in a collapsible button at the top, and clicking it opens a drop-down menu allowing you to see the activity in more detail.

while much anticipated changes like a new comment system and a pictures section were not released in this update (which is largely cosmetic), there were some additional smaller changes as well. for example, the recent top stories section is now being displayed more prominently (thanks in part to the orange color), news and videos have been combined into one section (users can change this), and the ‘top in all sections’ lets you choose between all, news, and video.

overall, the update is great. the interface has been streamlined and compacted so that there is minimal clutter. the new design is not drastic and ensures that users will find it both easy to adapt to and more efficient to use.

Technorati Tags: digg, social media, social bookmarking, socially driven, design