New Technology From Web Design Giant Gives Businesses Greater Networking Capabilities Than Ever Before

Mega Star Media, Inc. announced the beta launch of their latest technology, JumpSwitchMedia, slotted to take place in mid-October. JumpSwitchMedia, which is still pending patent, will eventually take its place among the web giant's custom made social networking media.

The company specializes in harnessing the tremendous networking capabilities taken by big name social networks like MySpace and Facebook and scaling them down to create custom made, industry niches specific websites for their clients. JumpSwitchMedia will serve as a switching mechanism for both social and dating sites, streamlining their natural resources and providing their clients with greater growth potential than ever before.

"(We are) building dreams one website at a time," says Mega Star Media, Inc. lead designer Sandra Rowley.

Rowley and her team have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success building those dreams since the company's birth in 1999. Mega Star Media, Inc.'s client base has grown from thirty to over 1600 (and growing), with over 3500 websites bearing their savvy graphic design and optimized text designed to give businesses the boost in site traffic they need to watch their business grow exponentially.

Photobucket Launches Top Pics on MySpace

Photobucket’s Top Pics Application Connects Friends Through Photos on the World’s Largest Social Network

Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the world's largest standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the launch of Top Pics on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/top_pics), the world’s most popular social network. Top Pics gives MySpace users a fun way to showcase their favorite photos from MySpace and Photobucket alongside those of their friends. Empowered by MySpace’s newly announced Developer Platform (http://developer.myspace.com), Photobucket was able to easily build, test, and ultimately deploy Top Pics.

Top Pics displays photos in an attractive grid that can be viewed privately on a user’s MySpace home page or by friends on a user’s profile page. The application’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface enables users to quickly find, select and arrange images from multiple sources, including:

MySpace Founder Brad Greenspan Launches LiveVideo.com, A New Proprietary Web

3.0 Community Platform Designed to Protect, Grow, Extend, and Celebrate Original Online Content Creation by Empowering Users With New Technology to Create Instant Online Live Shows That are Integrated With Real Time Interactivity

LiveUniverse, Inc., one of the largest online entertainment networks of video, music, and social networking websites has launched LiveVideo.com. The platform is MySpace Founder Brad Greenspan's latest creation. And as Chairman/CEO of LiveUniverse, he is leading the charge into a new age of social networking with LiveVideo.com. LiveVideo.com, an advanced on demand interactive broadcasting platform, provides instant global reach and messaging to any user with a web cam. LiveVideo.com represents the next generation of online interaction.

LiveVideo.com, which officially launches today, is the first fully interactive, global, live streaming platform. It allows users to connect with others around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365-days a year. Using the LiveShow technology, LiveVideo.com users can create and broadcast live content alone or in conjunction with friends, colleagues and/or newly acquainted users. Distinctive LiveShow interactive features such as LiveTextChat, LiveCoHost and LivePolls empower real time community and social interaction and provide users with unlimited real-time feedback and interaction. In addition, the advanced LiveShow platform allows advanced videographers to broadcast on their channel with multiple cameras to create professional broadcast-quality shows.

The Internet is Not Just for the 20-Something

73-year-old Man Takes on Ebay with a 1920's Style Live Auction and Auctions off $100 Bills

It may seem like a crazy idea, but at 73 years old Donald Karr is taking on Internet giants like Ebay by starting a live auction site where users pick up paddles, listen to
auctioneers cry out and find out immediately if they have won. To prove it isn't a crazy idea, Karr will be auctioning off $100 bills everyday so users can get acquainted with the how-to's of his live auction.

Contrasting the young entrepreneurs who have found success on the Internet, like the developers of Facebook and MySpace Karr is proving that the internet is for everyone. Karr, a retired antique and jewelry dealer, recently launched his 24-hour a day, old-fashioned, live internet auction called Blackwells Live Auction.com. www.BlackwellsLiveAuction.com

MySpace, States Agree on Predator Shields

by Ken Schachter

In a deal with 49 states aimed at thwarting sexual predators, MySpace said Monday it will tighten its security and privacy standards and step up enforcement of its age minimum of 14.

The deal, announced at a news conference in New York City, calls for MySpace to make profiles of teens aged 14-17 private by default and work to set up an e-mail registry that will let parents block their children from gaining access to MySpace or another social-networking site.

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester Research, said that the move by MySpace, with 110 million users, likely will force competitors to fall into line.

"You can expect others in that market ... to be likely to be very interested and adopt this same type of outreach," he said.

The voluntary agreement with MySpace, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is expected to heighten pressure on Facebook and other social-networking sites to adopt more stringent controls as well.

Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace, the No. 1 social networking site, and Fox Interactive Media, called on its competitors to sign on to the agreement.

"It's time to tell the industry: Step up," he said.

The agreement is the product of negotiations that extended for nearly two years, said Tom Corbett, attorney general of Pennsylvania, who noted that eight of the 27 people charged by the state's child predator unit in 2006 were MySpace users.

Julian Lennon Invests in MyStore.com

Today MyStore.com confirmed Julian Lennon, son of Beatles icon John Lennon, is among the group of private investors behind yourStore, LLC. The company owns and operates www.mystore.com, an online marketplace.

"In addition to his monetary investment, Julian has contributed some great ideas to the options MyStore.com offers to musicians and artists who want to resell or self distribute their music and art online. As an independent artist himself, Mr. Lennon was an early user of MyStore.com, setting up his own MyStore and linking it to several places he has a presence online including his MySpace page. We are glad to have him involved. He's been a friend for a long time," stated Todd Meagher, the company's CEO.

About MyStore:

MyStore.com is owned by yourStore, LLC (http://www.yourstore.com) which is a virtual real estate company and application service provider offering individuals and businesses with FREE online "retail" space and software usage in the form of personalized web stores located within the company's marketplace http://www.MyStore.com and an e-commerce service provider offering seller support and software services; including web hosting, site design, marketing, fulfillment and inventory and customer management tools. MyStore is not an alternative but rather an additional sales channel that can be either a stand-alone store or integrated as part of other websites like eBay, Craigslist, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Amazon or Yahoo. Users simply build a store and start selling. MyStore provides the marketplace
and tools to promote, sell or trade your items and services.

MySpace and Google join forces

Internet search engine giant Google has teamed up with the popular social networking site MySpace, it has been announced.

MySpace will now be able to access Google applications, Google announced at a party it threw for software developers on Thursday night in Mountain View. Discussions about Google's OpenSocial platform began between the two companies over a year ago.

The move is seen as a strategy to try and combat the growing influence of Facebook, the second-largest social networking site in the world after MySpace. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is quoted in USA Today as saying: "This is really the next step in the evolution of the web.

"We're ultimately in the business of people being happy online, and this helps do that." Microsoft recently paid $250 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, which values the social networking site at $15 billion.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room at Harvard.

MySpace and Zazzle Sign Custom On-Demand Music Merchandise Deal

Partnership Enables More Than 6 Million Musicians and Bands on MySpace to Sell Unlimited Merchandise Without Any Up-Front Production Costs or Inventory Risks

MySpace, the world's most popular social network, announced today a music merchandise deal with Zazzle, the only on-demand retail platform to offer billions of retail quality, one-of a kind products shipped within 24 hours. The distribution partnership will empower the more than 6 million musicians and bands on MySpace to sell unlimited music merchandise to the MySpace community instantly. The announcement also underscores MySpace's commitment to offer tools and services to the music industry that benefit artists and consumers alike.

Starting today, musicians and bands on MySpace will be able to create products and sell merchandise by putting the Zazzle Merch Booth widget on their MySpace profile. With Zazzle's new "Model Realview" technology, these artists can display their very own branded merchandise three dimensionally, on real models in their profile. The Zazzle Merch Booth widget will also enable placement of the artist's merchandise in a Zazzle gallery, their own websites, fan sites, blogs and more. MySpace users can also use Zazzle to create their own custom items for their favorite musicians and bands.

"MySpace will continue to evolve its industry leading music platform by developing new revenue models, partner integrations, and features that bring bands and fans together," Amit Kapur, VP of Business Development for MySpace. "Zazzle's on demand platform will enable music artists on MySpace to share merchandise with fans like never before."

MySpace teams up with Skype

The popular social networking site MySpace has enlisted the internet phone service Skype, it has been reported.

Under the collaboration, users of MySpace will be able to call each other for free using Skype, beginning at the end of November this year. The service will also allow MySpace members to pay to place calls to landlines and mobiles. Michael van Swaaij, the chief executive of Skype, was quoted by the NY Times as saying: "We are interconnecting the world's largest voice network and the world's largest video and social network."

"It feels like an obvious fit." When MySpace members use the Skype pay service the two outfits will split the revenues, though the ratio of the split is not known. Skype currently has approximately 220 million users, whereas MySpace has over 110 million. The internet auction company eBay bought Skype for $.3.1 billion in 2005.

MySpace goes mobile

The popular social networking site MySpace is to become available over cell phones, it has been announced.

A free version of the site, supported by ads, is being launched today that will allow users to search for contacts and send and receive messages. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the company that owns MySpace, is attempting to expand its mobile advertising. John Smelzer, senior vice president of mobile at Fox Interactive, the division of New Corp that runs the company's internet activities, said: "Accessing the internet from your mobile phone will soon be as common as text messaging and voice calling.

"Over time, the most targeted ads will be on mobile." Recently MySpace announced that it is to give its users' information to advertisers for use in targeted advertising. Users' information will be categorized into ten subject headings, such as auto and finance. MySpace is expecting the move to garner millions in revenue, the New York Times reported.

MySpace to give personal data to advertisers

The popular social networking site MySpace has announced that it is to give users' personal details to advertisers to use in highly targeted ads.

Users' details will be perused to find out their likes and dislikes and then MySpace will sell them in ten neat categories, consisting of finance, auto and so forth. By using this tactic, MySpace may see a massive growth in revenue, reports the New York Times.

Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy in Washington, told the paper: "People should be able to congregate online with their friends without thinking that big brother, whether it is Rupert Murdoch or Mark Zuckerberg, are stealthily peering in." Rupert Murdoch is the head of News Corp which owns MySpace and Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook. MySpace, which was founded in August 2003, currently has over 200 million accounts, providing a mine of information for advertisers.

MySpace plans TV show over the web

The popular social networking site MySpace is to broadcast a TV show over the internet, it has been announced.

My So-Called Life creators Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz have been signed up for the show, which is to be called Quarterlife. Episodes of the show will be broadcast on the site MySpaceTV. Quarterlife will feature a group of people in their mid-20s.

Chris DeWolfe, chief executive of MySpace, said: "When Emmy award-winning producers come to MySpaceTV - you know this is reaching a whole new level.
"We're proud to offer the creative community a blank canvas and open platform to express their vision." The first episode of Quarterlife is to be shown on November 11th. Mr Berman continued by saying that the creative duo behind the show, Mr Zwick and Mr Herskovitz, were "delighted". Mr Zwick and Mr Herskovitz were also behind blockbusters like The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond.

Facebook Addicts Cost Employers Billions

Workers surfing the social networking site Facebook are costing billions of dollars in lost time, according to research by an internet security firm.

Up to $4 billion a year is being lost by businesses due to workers voraciously logging on to the site, the research from SurfControl found. Chairman of SurfControl, Richard Cullen, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "People love being there and telling people what they are doing right now, what their thoughts are right at this second.

"It's so interactive that people just get addicted to watching their Facebook groups all the time." Mr Cullen's findings are based on a Facebook user who works the typical schedule of nine to five and spends an average of one hour on Facebook every day. Facebook allows one to search for friends and acquaintances, send messages and post pictures. With hundreds of new users logging on every day, Facebook has become the latest craze in internet social networking.

The site's name is derived from the "facebook's" used by colleges in the US identifying the college's staff which are given to incoming freshman students. Currently Facebook has an estimated 34 million users, with the city of London in the UK having the network with the most users.

Facebook Source Code Exposed

Part of the source code of the highly popular social networking site Facebook was leaked onto the Internet over the weekend, it has been reported.

The source code is a group of commands which control the physical appearance of the site when accessed by its users. Facebook has blamed a misconfigured web server for the exposure of the code. A spokesperson from Facebook told Computer World that the security of the website was not broken and that the leak "did not compromise user data in any way".

"Because the code that was released only powers the Facebook [user interface], it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook," the spokesperson added. The source code was published on a blog called Facebook Secrets. Launched on February 4th 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook currently has over 34 million registered users. Facebook is based in Palo Alto, California, and generates revenue of approximately $50 million.