Facebook Checks Out of Places by Erik Sass

There must be some schadenfreude in the location-based social media world today, as rivals like Foursquare and Gowalla celebrate the demise of Facebook Places, the location-based mobile check-in adjunct introduced with great fanfare by Facebook a little over a year ago in July 2010. More broadly, it is also important evidence that Facebook is not invincible -- an absurd notion which nonetheless seemed to be taking root in recent years. ...Read the whole story

Why Google+ Is So Good For Facebook by Catharine P. Taylor

I'm posting this week from sunny San Francisco, where yesterday's earthquake was only a 3.6, rather than a 5.9 back home in New York. Ah, the irony! Still, in keeping with our earthquake theme, something seismic is happening, and it concerns how competition is actually proving good for Facebook, and by extension, all of us who use it. ...More

  • The Seven Types Of Mobile Social Commerce by David Berkowitz

    Until recently, I used to put mobile social commerce in the same category as Woody Allen's blockbusters and Rick Perry's bad hair days; it's something that couldn't possibly exist. When defining it properly and exploring the possibilities, though, it turns out that mobile social commerce is flourishing. ...More