Join over 4,000 fellow members of the Web 2.0 community to celebrate the power and innovation of the East Coast web industry at Web 2.0 Expo New York, September 16–19 at the Javits Center.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, marketer, entrepreneur, business strategist, or technologist, whether you’re a geek or a suit that “gets it,” if you’re looking to understand and harness the changes taking place right now, this is the one event you need to attend this fall.

Conference Tracks

The New York conference agenda includes 4 tracks and a Focus track that takes a look at how Web 2.0 is impacting the workplace and business: Finance, Performance and Scaling, and 2.0 at Work.

• Design & UX
• Development
• Landscape & Strategy
• Media & Marketing
• Focus on: Finance
• Focus on: Performance and Scaling
• Focus on: 2.0 at Work

Workshops

In addition to the conference sessions, the workshops give you a hands-on opportunity to master the power of Web 2.0 technologies though a collaborative learning environment.

Expo

Meet face-to-face with over 100 exhibitors to test drive solutions — including some you don’t even know you need yet — and get feedback from your peers in the Web 2.0 community on what’s going to be really valuable to you.

Hotel And Travel

Web 2.0 Expo has negotiated special rates at several hotels. We recommend you make your hotel reservations for Web 2.0 Expo New York as soon as possible.

See you guys there!

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Earlier in may, Google announced a preview release of the newest addition to its product mix, Google Friend Connect, a service that helps website owners grow traffic by enabling sites on the web to easily add social features to their websites.

By offering Friend Connect, which can be added to a web property by simply adding a snippet of code to the site, Google removes the technological barriers of offering social applications.

Website owners can now attract more traffic to their sites and keep them engaged utilizing the social gadgets created by Google and OpenSocial developers. Some of the main gadgets offered are member management, message board, reviews, and picture-sharing.

So in a nutshell, Google Friend Connect helps website owners in three major ways:

Increase Traffic -Visitors get engaged and bring along their Internet friends and connections from social networks such as Facebook, orkut and MySpace.

Improve Engagement KPIs - People can get more involved by getting engaged with social features developed by Google and the OpenSocial developer community.

Reduce Cost to Market - With no programming needed, the technological and financial barriers of adding social features to the sites are removed.

Friend Connect can also give Google more insight into the websites’ audiences by mapping a virtual representation of a social user on the web. This will eventually help Google provide more robust advertising through Google AdSense and Placement Targeting by providing demographic and interest segmentation.

This Google application has major implications on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) as it incorporates user generated content to the sites.

Here is a video that shows how Google Connect works:

Have fun exploring this new tool from Google.

Andy Huang

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Have you ever wanted to join a social networking website before? A large number of internet users have, but not all decide to join one. If you are like many other internet users, you may be worried about the networks that can be found online. Many of these networks, including MySpace and Yahoo! 360 have rapidly increased in popularity. This increase in popularity has led to a large number of members. In fact, some might say too many members.

One of the many reasons why Yahoo! 360 and MySpace have increased in popularity is due to the fact that they cover a wide variety of different topics, issues, and interests. MySpace and Yahoo! 360 do not focus on one particular group of individuals or one particular hobby. Instead, they invite all internet users to join. While this may be good, it gives you a wide selection of online friends to choose from, it can also be considered bad. On many of these websites a competition has brewed. That competition has been to see who can get the most friends. This may result in you not really getting an online friend, when you are supposed to be.

If you are looking to join a social networking website that is more focused on creating friendships or partnerships between internet users that have the same interests, you will want to focus on social networking websites that have a particular focus. Many times, these websites are known as specialty social networking websites. Online, you should be able to find a number of these specialty social networking websites. Many have focuses on important issues, topics, and hobbies, such as pet owners, religion, travel, and much more.

When it comes to many specialty social networking sites, many individuals want to know what sets them apart from the rest. Honestly, it is the community. As previously mentioned, specialty social networking sites tend to focus on a particular topic, issue, or hobby. This means that if you are a devoted Christian and you would like to speak to other Christians, you will want to join a Christian networking site and so on. The difference between specialty social networking sites and traditional ones is that you will automatically be paired with hundreds, if not thousands, of other internet users who share the same interests, views, or beliefs as you.

Another one of the many benefits to joining a specialty social networking website is that you are, in a way, safer than those who are members of other networks. Not all, but a large number of specialty networking sites require activation before joining the site. Before activation can occur, many internet users are required to state their reasons for wanting to the join the network or they may be required to fill out a small questionnaire, often pertaining to the social network in question. In many cases, this will help to determine whether or not an internet user really has an interest in the topic focused on by the network in question.

As previously mentioned, specialty social networking websites allow you to automatically be paired with a group of individuals who share the same beliefs, views, and interests as you do. This mean that you don’t have to spend hours researching a person or speaking to them, just to learn what they are or are not interested in. Essentially, this enables you to jump right in and start making friends, almost as soon as you are granted access to the site that you have chosen.

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Have you ever thought about joining an online social networking community? If you love meeting new people, there is a good chance that you have given it some thought. Despite wanting to join, there are many individuals who make the decision not to. Are you one of those individuals? If so, is it because you feel overwhelmed? There are literally an unlimited number social networking websites out there to choose from and many are full of members.

While you would assume that it is nice to join a social networking website with a large number of community members, some individuals, maybe even yourself, feel that it is too much to handle. For instance, did you know that MySpace, a popular social networking website, has over one hundred millions members? If that isn’t overwhelming what is? If you are interested in joining an online networking community, but one that has fewer members, you are encouraged to look for social networking websites that have a particular focus. That focus is often on popular topics, issues, views, and interests.

A social networking website that focuses on one thing in particular is often referred to as a specialty social networking website. This is because, unlike traditional websites, not everyone can become a member. To become a member of a specialty social networking site, you must have an interested in the topic at hand. These websites drastically reduce the number of members. Although you will have less community members to socialize with, you will find that more have the same interests as you do. In that, a small number of internet users, with the same interests as yourself, is better than millions of members that you don’t have anything in common with.

If you are interested in finding a specialty social networking website, you are advised to perform a standard internet search. You will want to search using the words social networking site and whatever else you are looking for. For instance, if you are looking for a social networking website designed just for animal lovers, you may to combine the words social networking with animal lovers, pet lovers, cats, dogs, and so on. Whether you are searching for social networking websites that focus on a popular hobby, religion, or politics, you are sure to find that you are looking for.

In your search for specialty social networking websites, it is likely that you will come across Facebook or Classmates. Facebook and Classmates are both considered specialty social networking sites because they tend to focus on high school and college students, including those that are attending and those that have already graduated. Both of these websites work to connect you with individuals that you are currently going to school with or those that went to school with, in the past. If you have already graduated, Facebook and Classmates are great when looking to reconnect with old friends or even make new ones.

Other popular social networking websites focus on religion. Whether you are Christian or not, there are a large number of social networking websites that have a focus on religion. These websites not only allow you to meet other internet users, but they allow you to meet those that share the same beliefs and views as you do. By using a religious social networking website, such as HolyPal and JesusCrowd, you will not have to spend the time searching for those who are the same religion as you, you will automatically be entering a community where everyone preaches and believes the same things.

As previously mentioned, there are a fairly large number of specialty social networking communities that you can find online. These communities are not just limited to those that are for pet lovers, religious followers, or those looking to reconnect with old classmates, as mentioned above. With the way that social networking websites have increased in popularity, it is safe to say that you should be able to find an online networking community, no matter what your interests are.

Happy friending.

Andy Huang

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