Facebook Archive

Swiss-based Sobees has announced updates to their two client applications: bDule and Sobees. Founder Francois Bochatay explains the difference between the two application by noting that bDule is their starter kit providing a Windows-based client combining Twitter and Facebook support. Sobees is a multi-window application that combines many “bDules” together.

Most of the updates in today’s 0.9.6.5 release are usability and performance enhancements. They have also rewritten the Flickr search. The new functionality is the addition of Digg and the Digg search along with the ability to submit items from others windows to Digg. They have also added new themed content windows for the MLB, soccer, tennis and the NFL.

The Sobees tools compete in the same space as Tweetdeck and the new Seesmic. Currently the Sobees tools are only available for Windows. The company is working on a cross-platform version which they expect to release this summer.

Last night was like Times Square at New Year’s for geeks. Everyone sat at their computer waiting for the stroke of midnight to claim their new exciting URL on Facebook.

Interestingly enough, it seemed like it only took one minute before some “people” started to claim some interesting names. Some are calling the names below spam - I guess only time will tell if they picked these vanity URLs for fun or for something more serious.

The list includes (both with the dot and without):

• /free.porn
• /freeporn
• /online.gambling
• /onlinegambling
• /buy.phentermine - Todd says he registered this one as a joke and he agrees with my previous posts regarding domain branding
• /buyphentermine
• /cheapairfares
• /cheap.airfares
• /cheap.hotels
• /cheaphotels
• /cheapcruises
• /cheap.cruises
• /freeipod
• /free.ipod

Have you found anything else that seems odd with the Facebook Vanity URLs? Leave them below in the comments and I will add them to the list.

Earlier this week I shared my thoughts on why you should use your own domain name for marketing instead of a social network link. Owen Stone (aka Ohdoctah) posted his thoughts in a video which is a must watch (embedded below) about Facebook’s vanity URLs and social network links in general.

Owen notes, “You need the tools like facebook and twitter to grow, but the first think out of your mouth should ALWAYS be YOUR brand.” In the video he talks about a variety of people including Michael Jordan and Pdiddy. Owen also makes a good point about missing the opportunity to connect with users/customers who aren’t on Facebook.

I continue to say that you should get your brand’s vanity url for protection but never use it for marketing or promotion. This process makes for a better customer experience.

Yesterday we took a look at why your own domain name is a stronger branding option than a Facebook vanity url. There will be some rules about the naming of vanity urls when they go “on sale” on Friday.

As I was browsing around, it appears many names are already taken. I present the following list so that you can plan accordingly. The following 25 names are already taken — how they were given is not 100% known. It does appear that our friends at the cupcake factory may have had something to do with it. BFF status also seems to be another way in. Note that this list does not include brand names.

Update: Amit has put together a neat vanity url checker.

• britney - this one belongs to Britney Spears although it redirects to britney-spears - she’s so great she gets multiple vanity urls
• loic
• gary
• mike
• chrismessina
• david
• obama - redirects to barackobama
• mark
• tom
• juliaallison
• william
• james
• paul
• ellen - redirects to the ellen television show
• randi
• pete
• oprah
• jasoncalacanis
• joebiden
• sarahpalin
• leolaporte
• rob
• tom
• pdiddy
• allie

I am sure there are plenty of others already taken as well. Have you found other names that are already taken? Leave them in the comments and I will update the list.

So the big news this week is that Facebook plans on opening their version of a .com auction for names this Friday night. I can just imagine the call that went out from editors at CrunchAbleBeatReadInsiderGigaNet to their writers to cancel all plans and be ready for the launch and the potential for breakage. I am sure somewhere a designer is creating the Facebook version of a whale. I like Anil’s future look at how the night will go.

My take is (and has always been) that you should brand yourself and/or your business and never brand another company in an attempt to backdoor your brand. Whether it’s Twitter, MySpace, Yahoo Pages, Geocities, GoDaddy or now Facebook, you need to always do what you can to control the flow. Controlling the flow is very, very easy and here’s how it’s done. And the control I am talking about is from your customer’s perspective.

Buy a domain name and use that as your vehicle.

Does that mean you shouldn’t create a presence on Facebook or MySpace or wherever your customers are? Of course not. And I think it makes sense to grab your brand’s vanity URL if it is available. I agree with Marshall about as he says his domain name is better than any vanity URL will ever be. Chris Messina takes a more technical look at the vanity urls.

This afternoon I watched an interesting video from newly-launched social media consultant Gary Vaynerchuk who seems to think the complete opposite. Gary compares Facebook fan pages to Twitter accounts - he’s right that FB FP have more flexibility but he completely leaves out the concept about owning your brand. (side note, somehow he already ”owns” the facebook.com/gary url meaning you won’t be able to get it) The ultimate flexibility for a fan is to be able to find all of a brand’s social interactions.

What happens to the people who aren’t on Facebook or who don’t care to “friend” a brand. If you push to one property, you lose the opportunity to get with users on all of the other properties. I don’t care if all a brand has on their xyz.com/net/uk/de/eu site are links to all of their social network pages, it’s still a much better interaction than allowing your brand to be controlled by one social network. It does add one extra click but the overall value of that click is higher than the alternative.

I have a unique perspective - not just from being in this industry since the beginning and having worked on all sides - but because I process business cards for a living. It’s amazing to see how many brands don’t even have their own domain for email and are using an ISP’s email server. A large percentage of cards outside the tech space have no URL at all. Every business card must have a URL on it and that URL should point to your company or personal website - not one or more networks.

Think about offline social interactions as a transaction. By pointing to one URL it makes the transaction smooth and easy for the customer. You only have seconds to make the transaction - would you rather push the person to one social network or to a site that offers them to connect with you how they want to?

Cable tv and Internet provider Comcast has put out a release today with tips and ideas for parents who want to talk to their teens about social networks like Facebook and MySpace. I must be old because growing up parents were supposed to talk to their kids about drugs. Comcast actually has an entire security site which, among other things, tells us that our global security threat risk level is low.

Here are five of the tips Comcast recommends for parents who are planning to speak with their kids:

• Choose your pictures wisely
• Don’t talk to strangers and use privacy settings
• Keep your personal information personal
• Don’t be a cyberbully
• Go outside and stay active

These tips sure seem like 1995 to me - with so many new networks and ways for teens to interact online, parents really need a full education.

Comcast does recommend that parents learn about the new online networks so they can speak intelligently about them. Perhaps there’s a business opportunity there - people who teach parents about the current state of online networks and keep them up-to-date moving forward. In fact these people could even be there to “moderate” discussions between teens and parents so the teens can’t get over on the parents.

Over the past few days I’ve written about startups who put all their eggs in one basket and what it could meet for their ability to continue as a going concern. Today I noted that TwitterMass is up for auction — what happens if you buy the app and then Twitter announces the same offering?

Last night I spoke with a friend and most of the discussion centered around the issues the auto industry is facing today. My friend asked if anyone would have thought five years ago that Chrysler would be in bankruptcy and Daimler would partner with a valley startup. What about GM we wondered - the company has just announced 1,100 dealers will close and tens of thousands will be out of jobs. Oh yea, Chrysler is closing 800 dealerships around the country next month as well.

Am I suggesting that people shouldn’t open car dealerships or create applications on Twitter/Facebook/etc.? Of course not. What I am suggesting is that you do the homework to calculate the risk involved with the business plan. If an application takes little effort, the point of risk calculation is moot. In the TwitterMass example, the app took two weeks to build. If the application was to grow and staff or funding was required, at that point the risk calculation should take place.

The percentage of risk goes down when you can build your application to leverage a technology or platform in addition to your unique offering. In the car dealer business, an example might be offering used cars along with new to minimize risk of losing a new-car dealer license as has happened with GM and Chrysler.