The Social

Is "poke" the new Konami Code? Maybe not literally, but one Electronic Arts executive has hinted that at least one of the gaming behemoth's titles is headed to Facebook, further blurring the line between social-networking applications and the game industry.

In a Bloomberg TV interview, EA Sports President Peter Moore obliquely said, "you'll see us on Facebook, going forward," with regard to its storied "Madden NFL" franchise.

Blogger Nick O'Neill of Social Times quotes someone anonymous saying this does, indeed, mean that there will be a Facebook version of "Madden NFL" (rather than, say, Facebook Connect notifications from the console) and that it will be a "simpler experience" of the original game.

No further information is available thus far, but it's easy to imagine that perhaps more of EA's titles could get a Facebook presence.

EA acquired Playfish, one of the predominant manufacturers of social games on the Facebook platform, for about $300 million late last year. In doing so, it became the first of the gaming industry's titans to really acknowledge the muscle of social games, and now it has a stellar Facebook game development team in its ranks.

But so far, social games have proven to be of a separate vein than their console and PC siblings--unless you count the obvious influence of the "Sim City" franchise on the likes of Zynga's Farmville. Free to play and reliant primarily on the sale of virtual goods, these games have roped in demographics completely different from the young males who propelled "Madden" to success.

Facebook has been the big hub for the rise of these games. But at the same time, social-game manufacturers are pushing to get their titles onto the Web at large--outside of Facebook's confines.

It was Google's first-ever Super Bowl ad--and one of their few TV spots at all, to boot. On Sunday, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant aired an ad called "Parisian Love," featuring a Valentine's-worthy romance spelled out in Google search queries.

The queries flow chronologically from "study abroad paris france" through "how to impress a french girl" and "what are truffles" to "long-distance relationship advice" and finally "how to assemble a crib." Awwwww.

Buzz about Google's Super Bowl ad started spreading when CEO Eric Schmidt implied in a Twitter post that there would be one during the third quarter. There had been rumors--which turned out to be untrue--that Google's ad would feature the Nexus One smartphone. As it turns out, the "Parisian Love" ad has been on YouTube since November 19 as part of Google's "Search Stories" ad campaign--which had been online-only until the Super Bowl. It had chalked up over a million views on YouTube.

Unoriginal? Maybe. It didn't showcase anything totally new from Google, as search is the company's longstanding lifeblood. Plus, it was online already--Federated Media CEO John Battelle, who has written a book about Google, correctly speculated it would run during the game--and the "Search Stories" ads have already been famously parodied by opinion site Slate, which used the structure to make fun of Tiger Woods' notoriety.

"Parisian Love" also might've been considered, in any other context, to be eye-rollingly sappy. But this time, it was a breath of fresh air in a Super Bowl where the ads were dominated by dude-oriented spots that ranged from fratty (three bachelor party survivors wind up with a live orca whale in their SUV, courtesy of Bridgestone tires) to hey-don't-worry-bro-you're-still-manly (the ad for Dove body products for men) to borderline offensive (the Dodge Charger ad that featured stoic-looking men going through a litany of girlfriend complaints).

Makes you wonder if Larry and Sergey's marketing team knew how good they'd look in comparison.

Disclosure: CNET is owned by CBS, the network that aired Super Bowl LXIV.

Microsoft and Facebook announced earlier on Friday a big change in their search and advertising relationship: that Facebook will handle all of its own graphical ads, ending a 2007 advertising agreement with Microsoft that accompanied Redmond's $240 million investment in the social network. At the same time, a more enhanced version of Microsoft's Bing search engine will be available through Facebook.

But Facebook, as it turns out, is getting rid of traditional banner ads altogether.

"We recently stopped displaying Microsoft's banner ads in some international markets. After additional talks with Microsoft, we have agreed to stop running all banner ads on Facebook," a statement from Facebook read. "Ad formats that feature social actions perform better and provide a better user experience since they are more consistent with the look and feel of Facebook."

The company would be referring there to Facebook Ads, the product that it originally unveiled in the fall of 2007 and has since groomed into the "engagement ads" frequently seen on the site. These ads often involve members sending virtual gifts, voting in a poll, or signing up to an advertiser's "fan page" on the social network.

"Facebook ads can also be targeted to people based on the information they provide," the statement continued. "This combination of targeting and social relevance is the primary driver behind the shift in strategy. Microsoft has been a great partner and we continue to work with them in other areas, including search."

My big prediction now that Facebook's officially on its own in terms of ad sales? The company is overdue for the hire of a high-profile, prominent sales executive who can really work Madison Avenue--the sort of role that Tim Armstrong, now the CEO of AOL, used to play in his days at Google. With a continued shift away from the display ads that are more familiar to the media industry, Facebook will need to have someone who's able to give the hard sell and has the industry connections to match it.

Currently, the company's most prominent sales pitches come from Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer--also a former Google sales exec--who presumably has a whole lot else on her plate. Facebook, meanwhile, has plenty of rank-and-file ad sales positions listed on its jobs site, but hasn't said anything about whether it's ramping up hires.

Discount coupon site Groupon has been in the press enough recently for its rapid growth, choice position in the venture capital spotlight, and the presence of a hundred thousand imitators, but it might be pushing its way into the media even more now. The Chicago-based company has launched what might be one of the most ridiculous social-media promotions that any brand has attempted to pull off: it's challenging a member to live off its deals for an entire year, and is offering a $100,000 prize if the guinea pig proves successful.

The contest winner, according to a promotion page, will have to quit his (or her) job, close his bank account, put all his stuff into storage, and ditch his housing arrangement. Then, for a year he'll have an all-access pass to Groupon's deals in several dozen cities, including some special "cheating" ones for hotels and transportation, and will be encouraged to blog about the "Amazing Race"-like experience and meet up with other members around the country. If he or she is successful, there is a prize of $100,000 in cash.

Considering Groupon's deals run the gamut from restaurants to grocery delivery to dentists to yoga classes, it's not completely unfeasible, but it certainly would require making some compromises.

And here's a caveat for Groupon's image-grooming department: Last year, the tourism bureau for the Australian province of Queensland launched a "Best Job In The World" stunt in which it paid a contest winner over $100,000 to live in the Great Barrier Reef islands for six months and blog about it. Unfortunately, what everybody's going to remember about that promotion is that the dude got stung by a deadly jellyfish.

I don't think any of Groupon's promotions involve lethal cnidarians, but...just sayin'.

AOL has returned to its spurned Time Warner days to find a new head of its AOL Media & Studios division: the company has hired David Eun, who served as vice president of operations for the conglomerate's Media & Communications division when it was AOL's own parent company.

After his stint at Time Warner, which he left in 2006, Eun joined Google as vice president of strategic partnerships. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who was hired about a year ago, had also been high up at Google as a sales exec.

Meanwhile, Bill Wilson, the longtime president of AOL's media division, is leaving the company after nine years.

"After nine years with the company and after the significant changes we made this year moving from licensing content to becoming a principle in content, he wants to take a step back," Armstrong's internal AOL memo, which was excerpted in an e-mail to press, explained. "Bill built a strong management team and laid the groundwork for the content strategy that we're now pursuing. While I'm disappointed by his decision, I respect his intent and have asked him to work with me, not only to find his replacement but also to transition with that person to ensure that, as a company, we don't miss a beat on the execution of our content strategy."

Eun's job will be to oversee AOL's blog and content properties, about 80 in total, as well as its Seed.com freelance clearinghouse, the StudioNow platform that the company recently acquired, and AOL's studios in New York and Los Angeles.

It's still hunting for a replacement for Chief Technology Officer Ted Cahall, whose departure was announced last month.

(Credit: CC Guinavere/Flickr)

Industry trade group Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is none too pleased with Amazon's dispute with publisher Macmillan over e-book pricing, and says that it is encouraging readers "to seek out new places to find their books."

In an announcement Wednesday, the group--which was founded in 1965 and hosts the annual Nebula Awards--explained that it's removing all links to Amazon from its Web site unless the mega-retailer is the only place where a certain author's work can be found.

"Our authors depend on people buying their books and since a significant percentage of them publish through Macmillan or its subsidiaries, we would prefer to send traffic to stores where the books can actually be purchased," the SFWA's site explained, adding that many of its member authors' sales were affected by the Macmillan takedown.

There's not much chance that this could result in a sales dent for Amazon. It's purely a protest move, as the beleaguered publishing industry looks to have more control over the prices they can charge for electronic versions of books. Meanwhile, it looks like Amazon will cave to Macmillan's request to charge more for e-book sales, even though it's none too pleased.

"We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles," Amazon said in a statement last week. "We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."

A promo shot for the final series of 'Lost,' which premiered on Tuesday.

(Credit: ABC Television)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you probably know that the final season of sci-fi-action-adventure-drama series "Lost" premiered on Tuesday--so what happened over at one of its most popular fan sites? CNET hit up the team behind Wikia, which hosts and operates "Lost" fan encyclopedia Lostpedia, for some details on exactly what their traffic was like right after the two-hour episode aired.

In short: It wasn't the site's biggest night, but it was still impressive.

Sixty new pages were added to the wiki in the wake of the finale, additions that night tallied 4,370 (up from a daily average of 520), and Wikia tabulated that 13,000 man-hours were spent on the site once you consider all the individuals who showed up and edited. A page for theories about the season premiere had been worked on by 233 amateur editors as of Tuesday evening.

The total page view count at Lostpedia on Tuesday night was 1.3 million. That didn't match the 2.5 million who showed up on the days surrounding last season's finale, but it's a lot more than the average of 350,000 prior to Tuesday's premiere.

Lostpedia is soul-suckingly intricate, detailing everything from literary works featured on the show to the absurd number of "Deadwood" cast members who have made guest appearances to the wife of the dead guy whom Ben Linus pretended to be.

It's one of the most high-profile hits for Wikia, the for-profit company founded by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales. And it's true, the format works quite well for subcultures and rabid fan followings--but when the "Lost" storyline runs dry at the end of this season, who knows what'll become of Lostpedia's base.

Brooke Moreland (left) and I try out mobile payment device Square for the first time.

(Credit: Emily Gannett)

On Tuesday, I was enlisted to help out with an event in conjunction with the New York arm of the "Social Media Week" conference-fest--called "Digital Divas," the cocktail affair was organized by a handful of women involved in various niches of technology and digital media. Yes, dudes were allowed too.

As the event grew closer, we decided that we wanted some kind of innovative way for guests to donate to support Doctors Without Borders' relief efforts in Haiti. So after some brainstorming we thought about using Square, the new mobile-payment company co-founded by Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey. The event's main co-hosts got in touch with one of Square's executives, who generously shipped us two of the little gadgets--which aren't on the market yet--on very short notice.

And I got to field-test it! Along with Brooke Moreland of fashion site Fashism, I was equipped with a Square and some alpha software and given the mission of convincing party guests that yes, a major credit card and an odd little iPhone add-on could add up to more resources for a good cause.

In doing so I got an idea of some of the possibilities and challenges ahead for Square--and, in conjunction, the fast-growing array of other new innovations in payments.

Square is one of those companies that, in the jargon of Silicon Valley, gets described as "disruptive": taking a longstanding industry and shaking things up. This one, specifically, aims to clean up the red tape and intricate procedures involved with using a credit card to accept transactions--there are no subscriptions, no application process or contracts, and a mix of cool add-on features, like mobile receipts, automatic donations to nonprofits, and purchase tracking for frequent-customer perks.

The company's target market, at least from early indications, is a mix of small businesses, individuals, and grassroots activists. They're being tested out in a variety of coffee shops and other small outlets in New York and San Francisco, and recently, the devices were used to collect donations for Reshma Saujani, a New York congressional candidate who's been particularly active in reaching out to local entrepreneurs.

Clearly, Square is a new product. The credit card reader didn't always read swipes (Moreland's device seemed to have more issues than mine did here) and the software can be slow. These are all things that the company has plenty of time to tweak before Square hits the market. It also will have to contend with some mobile devices' deplorable battery life (I'm looking at you, iPhone) although Square reps tell me that the hardware itself does not contribute to any extra battery drain.

But it was obvious from Tuesday night's event that Square will face some more psychological challenges. Many of the guests came from industries outside the tech world's eager early-adopter set, were unfamiliar with the buzz surrounding Square, and weren't actually convinced that their donations would be making it to Doctors Without Borders. A few asked for more information and then declined to donate, with one saying it sounded "shady" and adding, "Why don't I just hand you a 10-dollar bill instead?"

Somebody else told me that maybe the skepticism would be less pronounced if the devices were backed by the likes of American Express or some other respected name in the financial services industry. But that's the whole point of Square--it isn't affiliated with anybody big. You're supposed to be able to sign up for an account right before your annual yard sale and be able to accept Visa payments for your unwanted beanbag furniture five minutes later.

It's evident that the app has promise, though. When it's running at optimum speed (and in this early phase, it often isn't), transactions are quick, commission fees are pretty reasonable, and some of the forthcoming features, like frequent-buyer perks, sound pretty cool. For the nonprofit side of things, Square could eventually make it easy to donate to individual charities by partnering with a nonprofit directory like GlobalGiving--Facebook-based donation app Causes taps into GlobalGiving, for example. I imagine a scenario in which you can sift through a directory of nonprofits to send an entire Square payment (or a collection of payments from an event you throw) straight to a charity of your choice.

Jack Dorsey's last big idea, Twitter, was a relatively novel concept. Square is going to have a tougher upward battle: most small businesses already use Verifone systems or the like, and other alternative-payment start-ups like Venmo are trying to make waves in a similar space. Twitter can credit a big part of its rise to a loyal pack of early adopters in the tech and media industry; Square is, without a doubt, going to have to do the same with small-scale retailers to make a name for itself. Then, ideally, the "shady" concerns will go away.

Google has decided that its social-networking strategy could use a few more followers.

Perhaps no one did a better job of capturing the Internet from its inception until, say, 2007, than Google. But over the last several years, an explosion in Web content generated by social media has created a new dimension of the Web that Google doesn't control--and sometimes can't even see. Google CEO Eric Schmidt used to think that Google could index the Web by 2300, but he told CNET last year that with the advent of social media, "I'm not even sure it's possible" to capture everything.

Joseph Smarr has been tapped to get Google's social-networking strategy off the ground.

(Credit: Plaxo)

Forces outside of Google are shaping the social-media landscape, and not because Google does not grasp the opportunity but because it has yet to articulate a winning strategy. Fed up with its progress, Google is pushing reset on its social-media efforts in 2010, hiring veterans such as social-media evangelists Chris Messina, Will Norris, and former Plaxo executive Joseph Smarr to lead the new "Social Web Team."

"Google's decided that social is one of its big focuses for 2010, and it's very natural, as the Web is going social," Smarr said in an interview with CNET. "I think there's a super-strong amount of eagerness on behalf of everyone at Google to get some fresh ideas, and figure out how this is all going to play out, and how they can get there faster and better."

But current and former Google employees wonder if a company so devoted to its engineering culture is really a match for the wider world of social networking. A cliche, it may be, but engineers aren't exactly known for their social skills. And social-networking technology is as much about sociology as it is about computer science.

"The challenge with Google is that it isn't in [its engineers'] DNA," said one former employee, who wished to remain anonymous. "It's not that they don't care about [social networking]; they don't even see it. It's almost invisible to them because their worldview is so analytical and so computational."

Smarr admits that social media is "something that Google is very aware that they haven't had a lot of success with in the past." He said it's "kind of a different animal" from what Google does best. "You can't just build a faster supercomputer to get social right, the way Google's been able to do in so many other domains," Smarr elaborated. "There's something very squishy about social stuff...it's not one or two innovations; it's a whole bunch of nurturing and culture and brand."

That's why Google ended up approaching people like Smarr, Messina, and Norris--open-standard and social-Web thinkers who, in Smarr's opinion, "wouldn't otherwise go to big companies."

Google and social

Do you know anybody on Orkut? Unless you live in Brazil, not likely.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

It's not like Google has ignored the advent of social networking and social media.

It has its own social network, Orkut: though that doesn't register on the radar of anyone outside of college-age Brazilians. It has Google Friend Connect, which lets Web publishers take comments and posts from readers by letting them sign in with a public Google Friend Connect account. It developed OpenSocial, Google Profiles, and even Google Wave could be thought of as a gathering place for a community of folks that want to share ideas, videos, and pictures: Facebook Google-style.

However, none of these products have resonated with the public or the developers that build social-networking technology. Facebook's growth continues unabated, with more than 350 million users. Twitter is the darling of the young, smart engineers that Google has always coveted--and, until recently, practically owned.

Plus, some of Google's biggest and most visible blunders have been in the social-networking space. Two of its smaller acquisitions, would-be Twitter competitor Jaiku and location-based network Dodgeball, were shut down amid budget cuts. To rub an extra bit of salt into that wound, one of the founders of Dodgeball--who had left Google on less-than-pleasant terms--revived the concept in the form of GPS-based mobile app Foursquare, which is now one of the hottest start-ups on the VC circuit.

Then Google suffered another social-media blow when its reported attempt to acquire reviews site Yelp, famed for its energetic community of loyalists, fizzled out late last year. Reportedly, it's because Yelp's executives bailed on the deal at the last minute.

Arguably, Google's biggest success in social networking has been YouTube, with which users can create their own channels, gain followers, post comments (of questionable value), and see what their friends are watching. But YouTube, of course, was Google's second-largest acquisition to date. The core of its product, as well as its initial base of mainstream popularity, preceded the Google buy.

Projects like OpenSocial haven't been met with a lot of developer enthusiam, either.

(Credit: Google)

Surprisingly little has emerged from inside Google that has had an impact on social networking. Yet Google clearly has to try to figure out this market, should it want to preserve its mantle as the most influential company on the Internet and organize this growing mass of information.

So what is Google doing about it? According to Smarr, who is in his third week at the company's sprawling Mountain View, Calif., campus, it's too early to tell, and it's going to be a long process. In part because the social-media landscape is so prone to rapid change, putting a long-term strategy in place is complicated.

"The cast of characters keeps changing," Smarr said. "When OpenSocial was coming out, Twitter was a tiny little start-up; now Twitter's a big company. Yahoo's priorities continue to shift. MySpace's priorities continue to shift. You've got Foursquare and all these new companies."

Internally, it'll involve shepherding, in addition to product development. And that could take some time too.

"It's a little fuzzy. You've got a bunch of different pockets of people who are all participating," Smarr said. "There [are] all these pockets of enthusiasm everywhere, and they're all trying to figure out how to coordinate what to work on."