One of the great dilemmas of online networks is what does a ”link” mean? Orkut offers several levels of ”friendship”, whereas Friendster and LinkedIn just offer the binary option: yes i am your friend, no I am not. In several conversations with the LinkedIn team, I have heard them say very strongly that [...]

Marc Hedlund eloquently analyzes Yahoo! 360 through “The Lessons of Lucasfilm’’s Habitat”, and I agree with his key points: walled systems stifle innovation and offer an inferior user experience for power users—but may offer a superior user experience for regular users.
That said, in the long run regular users can become power users. [...]

Following is some marketing material from LinkedIn. Of course, no surprise, this is written in such a way that all the answers make LinkedIn look good. I reprinted this because these are valid questions to ask, and worth thinking about. Courtesy of Patrick Ewers.
8 Important Questions To Ask When Evaluating “Social [...]

Landed.fm, internet radio focused on career issues, has some free interviews with Heather Hamilton (Microsoft recruiter & blogger), Tim DeMello, CEO of Ziggs, and others. Check it out!

Yahoo! Groups has changed their interface. Most of the changes are cosmetic, but notice this:
Members
• We”ve made it easier for you to find and get to know fellow group members. The Members list is now searchable by all members, not just group owners and moderators.
• You can now search for members by Yahoo! ID [...]

I”m definitely not endorsing this, but see the end of Heart Hacking — lessons for the online dater by Rachel Neiman for a guaranteed (albeit deceptive and unethical) way to meet women (or men) online for dating purposes.

Jon Whelan (who I know from his past life with Afternic) just emailed me that NowPublic has launched. This is a very intriguing model, giving people a profit motive for photoblogging and helping bloggers to substantiate their stories. If I were in their shoes, I would later roll in a Google Answers-type service. [...]

From RLI Corp. Vice President, Executive Products Group, A. Q. “Skip” Orza:
1. Never renege on your handshake. Multimillion-dollar, complex deals are sealed by handshakes or verbal agreements on the phone, and you live by them. If you don”t honor them on paper afterward, you”ll lose longstanding friendships that are productive [...]

TheDeal has a good overview article on mergers and acquisitions in online dating:
The match game.
(The article says ”Subscribe now and receive instant access”. However, when i click on the link, I can see the whole article.)
Some highlights:
Co-founder Forgatch says eHarmony has been cash-flow-positive since 2001 and has been approached by potential buyers. Although it [...]

Geoff Hyatt forwarded me this press release below, which isn”t even on Contact Network’’s own home page, reporting that Contact Network raised $1.6M. When we earlier profiled Contact Network, we reported that:
As of March 2004, Contact Network has 16 corporate customers and 24,500 paying seats. The Boston Consulting Group and Dartmouth’s Tuck School [...]