Grown Up Thinking

5 Things We’re Loving Right Now:

1. GetGlue.com: Personal recommendations + Foursquare-ish gaming for all your bookish, audiophile, movie dork obsessions.

2. Shmotter.com: Like Polyvore, but better. More social functionality.

3. All Together Now stop motion animation: Better’n Bud, but obviously a tip of the hat to a great commercial.

4. Laika: dynamic, interactive type for all ya design geeks (that means you, Mr. Helvetica).

5. Sweatshoppe Video Painting: public art spectacle that simply MUST be used by a brand. For serious.

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of change. Whenever Facebook rolls out a new design, I’m forced to pretend it doesn’t bother me, because come on, it’s JUST Facebook. Still, I’m not going to deny that Facebook is a significant part of my life, both socially and professionally, so when people start messing with something I’ve grown to know and love, it’s going to spark some serious turmoil.

Let’s take a minute to review the most recent redesign introduced last Friday.

What actually changed? You can now switch between two views, News Feed & Live Feed. Your News Feed is essentially what used to be in the Highlight Section, featuring select pieces of information based on your own/friend’s activity (measured by most commented posts, who you interact with the most, etc).

The Live Feed is a minute-by-minute rundown off all those annoying little things you thought you got away from with the old Facebook (i.e.: new friend updates, events RSVPs, recently added groups/ fan pages, etc). Both the News Feed & Live Feed can be customized to only show that updates you want to see.

Another noticeable change is the Suggestions tab. Rather than just suggesting groups/friends that you may enjoy, Facebook now encourages you to reconnect with users you have not interacted with for a while. This is by far my least favorite change of the redesign as I think it comes of slightly rude (don’t tell me what to do, Facebook) and I’m not alone on this one.

This redesign is getting both positive and negative feedback from users. Facebook explains that they hope the changes will make Facbeook a more valuable experience for you. In the end, this isn’t the last redesign we’ll see and it isn’t the first redesign to get negative feedback.

And let’s be honest. Even with all the negative feedback that first came about when the News Feed first launched, who can really remember what it was like without it? Maybe the ever-so-impolite suggestions tab really will work in connecting me with an old flame that I hadn’t thought about in years. Just one question: will I have to invite Zuckerberg to the wedding?

In our recent tech history, there have been countless examples of emergent technologies being introduced to the marketplace before their time with a resounding flop, only to be resurrected a few short years later. A few worth mentioning:

* In 1996, CompuServe launched its WOW! initiative as the first major consumer Internet service that reached critical mass. It had a clear first-mover advantage in a space on the verge of exploding. However, technology issues and questionable marketing moves led to Compuserve’s demise at the hands of AOL, who later purchased the Compuserve business. AOL would go on to create a company that was worth nearly $15 Billion by the time it was purchased by Time Warner in 2001.

* In 1997, a web service was launched called SixDegrees.com which I regard as the first social networking site ever created. It was based around the premise of six degrees of separation (insert Kevin Bacon jokes here). At its peak, SixDegrees maintained a user base of over one million people. It was purchased by YouthStream Media in 2000 for $125 Million (the same year YouthStream also purchased The Magma Group, the first company I founded,  for infinitely less!). Ultimately, SixDegrees failed because the web had yet to be fully integrated into social lifestyles of the Gen Y audience they were targeting. It took an additional failure of Friendster (and, in some ways, MySpace) before Facebook was introduced, a business now valued by some at over $10 Billion.

* In 2000 DodgeBall was founded as a way of making social networking physical  by connecting people based on their actual geographic locations. In 2005, Dodgeball was acquired by Google, where it floundered in irrelevance juxtaposed against their behemoth search business. Ultimately, it was shut down. In 2009, Dodgeball founder Dennis Crowley created FourSquare which was seen by many as the breakout technology application at the SXSW conference and now looks like a candidate for the next big thing in the social media landscape.

Many blockbuster tech-based products services have been borne at the expense of the original brave pioneers whom broke new ground with the dreams of a first-mover advantage. The lesson here? Sometimes it’s good to take a step back, see what happens to others and wait for the right time to enter a marketplace. Sometimes the early bird gets the stale worm.

What failing business model now in the marketplace has the making of success in 3 to 5 years?

While I won’t knock my officemates for their newfound Foursquare obsession (ahem…), I will say that the hourly location updates from your pub crawl do give my occasional Saturday night couch pizza a slightly bitter aftertaste. Womp womp.

This week I came across a new form of Internet over-share that may prove a bit more useful. Lufthansa just launched a new tool that allows users to have their location updates posted to Facebook or Twitter… from the air. Yup, even planes are tweeting these days.

Go to the MySkyStatus application and enter your flight info and they’ll send altitude, location, departure and arrival updates to your Facebook and/or Twitter page automatically. It’s a valuable tool for friends and family members picking passengers up at the airport. And for those of us craving a little more overshare, you’ll love that your friends can know exactly where you are on the map (literally):

CourtneyMarieC is now flying over Karmana, Uzbekistan on SWISS http://myskystatus.com/map/view/LX/4300/5 Powered by http://myskystatus.com/

The service isn’t limited to Lufthansa passengers- because the airline puts their brand stamp on each update, they’ve opened MySkyStatus up to travelers on all airlines and are able to offer the service for free. Unfortunately, while Lufthansa can tweet on behalf of other carriers, they still can’t help them fly.

Want to unlock the mysteries of marketing to today’s new moms? Mr Youth has just released Millennial Mom 101, our latest white paper which explores How Millennial Moms are Supplanting College Students as the Most Connected and Technology Dependent Population.

The paper concludes with the Millennial Mom Roadmap, 10 keys to marketing to this ever evolving consumer. Download the full white paper at MillennialMoms.com.

Tommy Lee, of Mötley Crüe infamy, will be crowdsourcing his next studio album, collaborating with fans through an online social network. Each week Tommy with post stripped down lyrics or drum riffs to the site, allowing followers to repurpose or build upon the “stems” to create tracks. All submissions will become the property of Lee, who will choose his favorites for inclusion on the album.

A chance to collaborate with a legend of rock? Yes. An interesting social experiment? Maybe. Surely this little scheme arose as a clever way to generate record sales in a downturned musical economy, but the idea is raising red flags left and right.

As a consumer, I think I would be less likely to pay full price for a track (vs. downloading illegally online) once I know that the artist isn’t even responsible for the content. Admittedly I’m not a Tommy Lee fan, but I would be grossly disappointed if one of my favorite artists threw in the towel and started soliciting the general public for new material. Would you shell out 15 bucks for something like this? I’ll pass.

You can almost hear the sound of rubber balls bouncing around the walls of Mr Youth these days, as the epic battle to reign supreme in all things #Foursquare has swept the agency. Our resident mayor recently explained the craze in an earlier post, but developments over the weekend have added a new dimension to the biggest game on the social media scene today.

I was gleefully surprised to receive an email from Foursquare notifying me that I had been upgraded to “Superuser” status based on my, well, super (over)use of the service. While the lack of a VIP card, limited edition sunglasses and other self-identifying accoutrement is slightly disheartening, I was informed that I have the ability to make  edits to the game’s venue database, like de-duplicating venues and matching venues with twitter accounts. The more I exercise my Superuser status the more abilities I’ll unlock.

Foursquare is really hitting the mark when it comes to tapping into its enthusiastic fanbase to drive and improve the game. By inviting users into the fold and allowing them to affect elements of the service, they’re fostering deeper loyalties and creating layers of exclusivity that encourage would-be-Superusers to increase their usage of the game to reach the great heights of Superuser status. Lucky me. Question is…how do I translate this into a Halloween costume?

Where my other Superuser peeps at? Holler below in the comment section.

Pull a Volkswagen. Create an engaging video from an amazingly simple (yet beautiful and playfully nostalgic) experiential stunt. When combined with a clean microsite & a fun UGC contest, this is the kind of work that gives me the warm fuzzies.

Go to TheFunTheory.com to see how all the parts play (and I DO mean play) together nicely.

Log on to Twitter or Facebook, type in a celeb’s name, and you’ll most likely find a multitude of impersonators you have to wade through to find the star’s “official” account. For the likes of Britney Spears and Jonah Hill, this type of identity theft can be written off as the price of fame. A London court, however, isn’t taking it quite as lightly.

Last Thursday, the high court issued its first injunction to an impersonator via Twitter, stating that the anonymous micro-blogger was mimicking right-wing lawyer Donal Blaney through the handle @blaneysbarney. If all goes according to plan, the offending tweeter will be issued a message via a web link next time they open their account ordering them to stop posting and identify themselves to the High Court.

Obviously, this is a huge step towards regulating the anonymous abuse of the internet, and I’ll try doubly hard to restrain myself from creating an @JonasBrothers handle. But for all the average Joe tweeters out there, the fact that the notoriously slow legal system has not only acknowledged the micro-blogging site, but has used it to issue a writ is a huge validation of the site’s relevance and mass adoption.

Twitter addicts rejoice! The tweet is a legitimate form of communication—and you’ve got the court order to prove it.

* Know your meme.

Ad network, Chitika, recently analyzed the browsing habits of over 33 million unique users in an attempt to find the sources that provide the most loyal users. So, what did they find? That Facebook provides more loyal visitors than Google, Twitter, Bing and Yahoo. The runner up: Digg.

So, how would one define “loyal” anyway? Quite simple. A user that comes back to your site multiple times. Not a dismissive head nod, but more of a definite “getting to know ya” handshake. It’s our job to make sure that turns into a full-on bear hug (or, lion hug, if you prefer).

While this is not necessarily shocking news to many of us, it’s surely a move in the right direction to showing the implications of providing users the chance  to share using Facebook. What’s your brand waiting for?

Blog fuzzy hearts and gold stars to Mashable, as always.