Industries
RH Internet Report
Internet news briefs for the week of April
17, 2006.
April 17, 2006
Print Issue
Captain Hook
Up
Desktop-based social
networking is so passé. Well, not yet (see
The MySpace Wannabes), but development is increasingly
shifting toward social networking via mobile phones. Mobile social
networks were the talk of the CTIA Wireless convention in
Las
Vegas last week. There was
news of Facebook’s deal with Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless allowing users to
make mobile posts to the popular network, which already has 72
percent of fulltime U.S. college students
signed up.
Meanwhile,
Intercasting, which operates social network Rabble, has also
announced deals with Verizon and Cingular, and touts plans to add
Metro PCS. Ever since the Helio-MySpace deal announced in February,
wireless companies and social networking startups are hooking up
nearly as often as their customers.
The
“mososo” (mobile social software) news did not stop with Facebook.
Last Wednesday, ring tone and mobile game provider 3GUpload
announced $20 million in funding from VantagePoint Venture Partners
to redirect its efforts toward mobile communities. Digital
Chocolate, the mobile game company founded by Trip Hawkins, who
started Electronic Arts, said it was launching a teen cell
phone game that actually has the words “Hook Up” in the title. And
mobile social network AirG announced plans to sell its system for
filtering and monitoring mobile social sites. | 
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