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Social Media Butterfly

Social Networking Updates for August 1, 2008August 1

• del.icio.us has relaunched as delicious.com and they’ve improved on speed, search and design.
• Digg is updating their Recommendation Engine by adding stories to the front page widget, extending the 30-day Digging window, and advancing the algorithm.
• Digg has also released a new mobile version, which is found at m.digg.com
• LinkedIn announced Xobni and LexisNexis integrations.

socialmedian Launches Public BetaJuly 31

Out of all the social media and web 2.0 offerings currently out there, socialmedian is definitely one of the few at the top of my list. That’s why I’m happy to let you know that they’ve launched into public beta. So, it’s time to register!

I’m really happy with the efforts they’ve made and continue to strive for to organize all the “noise” out there. You can read news sorted into categories called News Networks. The news is clipped by other readers, and of course you can clip your own news. And the topics aren’t always about social media. There are topics for gaming, politics, current events and more.

You can also follow other readers and see what they’re reading (follow me here).  I know that sounds like FriendFeed, but socialmedian’s News Networks are better than FF’s Rooms, IMHO.

Go check out socialmedian and let me know what you think.

Testing Out New ThemesJuly 25

If you happen to visit the site right now, and it looks funky or different - I’m testing out new WP themes.

Social Network Updates - July 25, 2008July 25

YouTube added community help forums.

LinkedIn hablan espanol ahora.

Blogger has made 4 updates including Malay availability, comment moderation after a fixed # of days, spam interstitials allowing readers to click through to blogs, and the optional inclusion of your email address in blog feeds.

Flock released a Fashion and Entertainment version of their browser dubbed ‘Gloss.’

Pownce now supports UTF-8, meaning it supports international languages.

Fight or Flight: Social Media is at a CrossroadsJuly 24

For a while, I’ve been thinking that social media is a bubble. I figure in 3-5 years the hype would be over, and, while elements of social media would remain, the bubble will burst.

But lately, social media has gotten quite stale and I’m wondering if the bubble is already deflating.

I’m not the only one.

Not surprisingly, bloggers are among the first to notice.

Problogger Darren Rowse addressed the changes to blogging in a post entitled, “Has Blogging Lost Its Relational Focus?”

The blogosphere is a different place now in many ways. For starters there are a lot more blogs. There is almost a bigger focus upon blogging as a business tool and the idea of making money online in general.I do think there’s probably been a shift (a smallish one) to some degree in the ways that bloggers look at and treat one another. For example I hear people talking about their ‘competition’ a lot more and see some bloggers link out to other blogs in their niches less. I also see bloggers developing relationships more out of strategy rather than just because they want to connect.

Robert Scoble chimed in with his thoughts in his post, “Has/How/Why Tech Blogging Has Failed You”

I’ve been thinking a lot about Tech b