One of the best known video game franchises of all time, Sid Meier’s Civilization, will get a Facebook version under the name Civilization Network. Originally released back in 1991, Civilization is a turn based strategy game so fun and addictive that players kept playing its various iterations (by the way, am I the only one who preferred Colonization?) for decades. Sometime in 2010, we’ll also be able to play it on Facebook. Here’s what Sid Meier wrote on the official Civilization Facebook Page: “I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished Civilization® Revolution™ last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on Facebook.”Details on what the game will look like are sparse, but Meier says you’ll be able to do almost everything you can do on the standard version. Most importantly, it’ll be free:“You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment – you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.”A closed beta should be coming soon, if we get access, we’ll make sure to let you know how we like it. Reviews: FacebookTags: Civilization Network, facebook, Sid Meier
It’s been an eventful day: among all the breaking news about Microsoft signing a search deal with Facebook and Twitter, Google doing the same with Twitterand later announcing social search, one can easily forget that today is the day that Vista gets replaced by something better: Windows 7. As we wrote earlier, the interest for the new OS from Microsoft has been huge, making Windows 7 the biggest pre-order itemin the history of Amazon UK and a perpetual trending topic on Twitter. The reactions from users and reviewers have been mostly positive, but after the lukewarm it’s-ok-but-why-should-switch-from-WinXP attempt that was Vista, the fact that people can’t wait to get their hands on Windows 7 is hardly a surprise. And, for the most part, it’s true. Annoying security features such as UAC have been fixed in Windows 7 (you can now manually set its annoyance level), the system feels speedier and more responsive (although it really isn’t that much faster when you actually measure it (for example, boot time on both systems is pretty much the same on my computer), but it feels that way, and it’s all that matters), compatibility issues have been fixed. In short, it’s more of a really, really good service pack for Vista than a new OS, but it’s definitely enough to switch from the eight year old Windows XP. If you’re interested in making the switch, the price is $319 for Windows 7 Ultimate, and $299 for the Professional version ($219 and $199 for the upgrade, respectively). Windows 7 Home Premium will set you back $199, and an upgrade from either Vista or XP will cost you $119. Tags: microsoft, Windows 7
Tom might have been officially removed from power at MySpace, but he’s still officially a “friend” to millions of the site’s members. However, he’s now poking around the social network that supplanted his own as top dog: Facebook. At least in the world of satirical Facebook profiles.Complete with pokes from Rupert Murdoch, wall comments from Mark Zuckerberg, and astute observations about the differences between Facebook and MySpace, Comedy.com[click for full img] has done a stellar job at this one:Reviews: Facebook, MySpaceTags: facebook, myspace
The Wall Street Journalreports that the Walt Disney Company is close to unveiling new technology to allow entertainment companies to distribute media to consumers using computers and cell phones, rather than on DVD and television.The technology is code-named Keychest and sounds like its the for-pay web service that Disney CEO Bob Iger announced back in July. The service would basically let consumers pay one price for permanent access to content from a number of different devices — like set-top boxes and mobile phones.As the WSJ points out, this type of system could really bring the idea of movie downloads to the mainstream — because content would be stored and accessed from the cloud on your different devices, rather than downloaded and then stored for playback.Digital Media Served From the CloudThink of the service kind of like Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace — content you buy via your set-top box would also show-up on your mobile phone or on your computer. The advantage is that the content can be easy to access from multiple devices from the user, but the content provider ultimately has control over who gets to watch the content (making piracy much more difficult).Even content purchased on physical media, like Blu-ray or DVD could still work with the Keyset system, because a customer could either type in (or in the case of Blu-ray, have the key transmitted over the Internet) a code that would then “unlock” viewing options for that product on different devices. For consumers, this would be like the iPod friendly digital downloads that now come packaged with many DVDs or Blu-ray discs. Only instead of a download, you could access the content over the cloud.Of course, all of this content seems to be based on the idea of ubiquitous connectivity. How consumers would (or if they could) access content when not online (say you’re on a trip or in the car) hasn’t been discussed.Competing Digital SolutionsAlthough Disney hopes to to bring other studios and content providers into their system, another competing digital initiative is underway, called the DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem). Its partners include Sony, Comcast, Intel and five of the six major film studios. Disney and Apple are not part of the DECE (Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple is also Disney’s largest shareholder), which attempts to solve the digital distribution problem from the opposite end. Rather than creating or licensing compatible devices that work with already existing digital file formats, the DECE would create a new set of standards and formats that would be then licensed to new devices.Disney doesn’t see the two groups as being unable to work together, but the very fact that it hasn’t signed on with the DECE makes it look like a format war might be brewing. Only this time, it would be in the digital cloud content space.Disney’s History With Digital MediaThis is hardly Disney’s first foray into the digital-content distribution market. In 2003, Disney licensed some of its Buena-Vista and Miramax films to online video-on-demand service Movielink (Movielink has since been acquired by Blockbuster and no longer exists as a separate project), later that same year, they partnered with CinemaNow, which also offered PC video-on-demand rental or purchasing options. CinemaNow is also now part of Blockbuster, though it still operates as its own entity.The company also tried unsuccessfully to launch its MovieBeam service, which was basically a set-top box that could deliver Disney content, for a fee of course, for 24-hours. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out, and Disney plans on unveiling the technology next month. What do you think of the idea of content being purchased, delivered and stored in the cloud? Is this something you would like to see in the future? Let us know!(Photo Courtesy of Lock & Alarm)Reviews: BluTags: cloud content, DECE, digital video, disney, hulu
There’s no question about it, brands are on Facebook. From small businesses to the biggest corporate names, chances are that if there’s a consumer-facing product, there’s a Facebook Page to go with it.The tools that Facebook provides brand managers and Page admins is rather limited. When you combine that oversight with the abundance of brands on Facebook, a new need emerges: Facebook Page moderation that scales. ContextOptionalhas just launched their solution to the problem: the Social Monitoring Consolefor Facebook Pages.Moderation Console OverviewThe new premium tool allows brand managers to manage multiple Pages, locate new comments on old posts, like and reply from within the console, mark Page comments for review, and receive email notification for designated bad words. The idea is to eliminate nightmare situations that can develop quickly on Facebook, and make it easier to maintain a clean community.After registering with ContextOptional, you’ll be able to use Facebook Connect to grant access to your Facebook Pages, which will enable you to use the moderation console. The console is divided in six different areas: Dashboard, Pages, Issues, History, Reports, and Account. From the Pages tab you’ll be able to get a quick view of fan status per page, and have the option to click “Moderate Page.” Once in moderation mode, you can view, like, escalate, reply, remove, or go to each post on your Page.Issue ManagementShould you choose to escalate a post, you’re essentially marking it to be reviewed by your support team. Additionally, you can provide a specific reason and action recommendation to clearly identify why you escalated the post. Once completed, the comment/post willnow appear in the Issues tab of the console, where users can then send the marked items to email recipients.Perhaps the most useful features are the auto-deletion and bad word alerts. You can automatically configure the system to flag and/or remove comments based on bad words, as well as send out automatic email alerts for the bad words as they happen.A few additional features include:- All pages are consolidated into one place for easy review.- All new comments appear in chronological order.- Once reviewed, comments are removed from the dashboard.- All deleted comments are archived for reporting and tracking.- A history of all moderation actions performed are recorded for auditing.- Comment workflow manages process.- Auto‐delete feature immediately removes undesirable comments.- Email notification of comments containing specific words.Try it FreeThe moderation console normally runs $500 to $2000 p/mo, but ContextOptional is giving 100 Mashable readers with Facebook Pages a free trial of their product. To receive the free trial be one of the first 100 people to retweet this post, but make sure to include a link to a Facebook Page you want to moderate, and follow ContextOptionalon Twitter. They’ll direct message you with the necessary details.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Irocha_T.Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: brands, contextoptional, facebook, Pages
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: KijubiQuick Pitch: Kijubi is a new type of travel planning site that helps you discover “What Kijubi Doing” on your next vacation.Genius Idea: Thanks to the Internet, planning trips online has become much, much easier. Not only can you book your flight, hotel and car rentals online, you can compare prices andfeatures. The one aspect of trip planning that hasn’t come completely online though is that of local activities. Plenty of places have online sites, but coagulating that information during the planning stages of your trip still isn’t as easy as it could be. That’s what Kijubi aims to do — help you find and plan the stuff you want to while you are on vacation.Right now, Kijubi covers California, Florida and Nevada and catalogs more than 80 different types of activities from snorkeling, to water-skiing, to hot-air ballooning (if you want to have a “Balloon Boy”adventure of your own — you know, minus the huge media hoax).You can search by price, whether or not children are allowed (or encouraged), and check for user reviews and booking coupons.I really like the idea of using a website rather than sifting through hotel brochures — many of which are either out of date or only aimed at certain types of events. Plus, being able to book what you want to do before you arrive at your destination can reduce your stress and make a vacation that much more relaxing. I hope Kijubi expands to other cities and locations — because the idea has real potential. How do you book and plan for activities when you go on vacation? Let us know in the comments! Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”Reviews: PHPTags: kijubi, trip planning, vacation planning
Ambassador must be the word of the day. We just reported on Charmin’s quest to find bathroom ambassadors, Ford’s looking for Fusion ambassadors, and now Coca-Cola is looking for a few brand ambassadors themselves. The Coca-Cola variety, however, are on a mission to find happiness in the 206 different countries that sell Coca-Cola products across the world.With the Expedition 206campaign, Coca-Cola is tapping regular people to be their “Happiness Ambassadors” and travel the world for the whole of 2010 and document their quest via blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos, TwitPics, and other social media mentions. They’ve already narrowed down the playing field to 9 competitors, separated into 3 teams, and have just opened up the final selection process to you. You can visit the site, watch team videos, and vote once per day on your favorite between now and November 6, 2009. Here’s a video intro:The winning three-person team will begin their journey on January 1, 2010 and attempt to travel more than 150,000 miles in 365 days, visiting each of the 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold. On the way, they’ll get to experience the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and the World Expo in Shangha. Their duty is to engage with local denizens and uncover what makes them happy, openly document and share their experiences online, and complete tasks in each country as determined by online voters.It’s a pretty impressive undertaking, and one of the most unique and involved social media marketing and travel campaigns we’ve ever seen.Image from IceNineJonon FlickrReviews: Flickr, YouTubeTags: coca cola, expedition 206, social media, social media marketing
Today sees the launch of MySpace Music Videos, a searchable collection of music videos from all of its major and independent label partners. With the wide array of players MySpace Music has in its pocket, the music videos archive could shape up to be a comprehensive and always-on music video library heretofore unseen — a sort of on-demand MTV for the Web 2.0 generation, or a Hulu for music videos but even better since videos don’t expire.There’s also good news for artists and labels, who will benefit from a new Artist Dashboard product (screenshot below) providing detailed analytics surrounding their content hosted by MySpace. Free access to the beta Dashboard starts today, with various charts, graphs and data including 7 and 30 days trends, song plays, demographics, and even incorporates analytics from other sites via partner data from iLikeintegration.And last but not least, MySpace has announced that users will be able to purchase and download music from both iTunes and Amazon MP3 directly through MySpace Music. It leaves us wondering what kind of cut the social network might be getting from those transactions.It’s several rather hefty announcements in a long string of big news today — what’s your take on MySpace’s bid to re-energize itself? Reviews: Hulu, Ilike, MySpaceTags: amazon mp3, ilike, itunes, music videos, myspace, myspace music
If you use Facebook, you’re surely familiar with the option to tag the people in your photos. The feature both identifies them to viewers of the pic and lets them know a photo that includes them has been posted on the site.Today, venerable photo-sharing site Flickr added a people tagging optionas well. You can tag people in photos in two ways: by typing a person’s name or email in the “People in this photo” section much like adding a regular text tag, or by drawing a bounding box on the person’s face, similar to adding a photo note.You’ll get notifications in your Recent Activity stream when other members add you in a photo. You can also see all photos you’ve been tagged in from your Profile. You can also use Flickr’s Batch Organizer to do a lot of people tagging at once, handy for power users who have loads of pics in the back catalogue they’d like to add people to.Although it’s not only a bit of a “me too” feature as well as sort of late to the game, Flickr does do one better than Facebook’s implementation of person tagging with better controls for managing both who can add you to photos and who can tag people in your photos. If you like, you can even opt-out altogether from the People in Photos feature and disallow anyone from tagging you in photos.Plus, it’s nice that you can tag people who aren’t actually members of Flickr. To do so, you’ll have to enter their email address, and Flickr will send them a message asking them to confirm that they appear in the photo and are okay with being tagged.If you’ve got more questions about how Flickr people tagging works, check out the People in Photos FAQ. If you’re a Flickr user, will you start tagging people in your photos? Will you go back and retroactively tag older photos? And what do you think: should Facebook adopt similar opt-out controls for its person tagging feature too?Reviews: Facebook, FlickrTags: facebook, flickr, people tagging, photo sharing, Photos, Tagging
Google’s Vice-President of Search Marissa Mayer has just made a surprise announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo: a new Google Labs feature called Social Search. They just gave a quick demo of the new feature.While the details are still sparse, here is what we currently know (and we’re still updating, so check back for more information):- The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results.- These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.- They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.- It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks.Reviews: FlickrTags: Google, social search
Imagine being able to gift a track to a friend on Facebook. Now you can, thanks to today’s Facebook announcementof a revamped gift store that includes a music selection powered by Lala.For one Facebook credit (10 cents), a “web song” can be played back online forever, or for 9 credits ($0.90) the track can be downloaded and transferred to other computers or devices. It could mean significant dollars for both Lala and Facebook both if the latter’s virtual currency and gift store economy take off. And with the success of virtual goods sales and app stores paving the way before them, it’s easy to see how they might.At launch there are over 8 million songs on offer in the Music and MP3s section of the Facebook Gift Store. The full-price tracks for download are happily in DRM-free MP3 format.For the streaming gifts, the recipients will be able to play back the tracks from their Facebook News Feed or Wall as often as they like, or from Lala.com with an existing account or signup via Facebook Connect. Other friends who see the gift exchange on the giver or receiver’s Walls will be able to listen to the track in full one time, after which they can only stream a 30-second clip (exactly how Lala’s model works now). Are you itching to send songs to friends on Facebook, or are there better methods of gifting you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: FacebookTags: digital music, facebook, facebook gift store, Google, Lala, music, one box, virtual currency
This guest post was written by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was elected to the position in 2003 and reelected in 2007. In this guest post, Mayor Newsom announces a new open data policy for San Francisco and challenges city departments to use open source software.Hundreds of technology leaders and companies have gathered this week in San Francisco for the annual Web 2.0 Summit. This year’s conference is exploring how businesses have used the web to weather the global financial crisis.Government, like other sectors, has been forced to do more with less because of the economy. Necessity has created a great opportunity for innovation. To improve transparency and engage our tech community, earlier this year I announced an Open Gov Initiative for San Francisco, which focuses on open data, open participation and open source. The new strategy has seen early successes. Our first of its kind Twitter-311 serviceis solving San Franciscans’ problems with a tweet or text. Last week, we announced plans to build on this by opening 311 to developers. City agencies are embracing social mediato interact with residents and share information. Our one stop clearinghouse for government data, DataSF.orgis providing more than 100 datasets from a range of city departments. Our effort to improve access to city data has led to the creation of new services that are now featured in the DataSF App Showcase. There is an interactive crime map with San Francisco Crimespotting, EcoFinder, an iPhone app that helps residents recycle, and a new section of EveryBlockthat gives a detailed break down of what people are asking government for by block, neighborhood, zip code and day.Turning government into a platform for innovationThis is just the beginning. There is much more that we can and should be doing to turn government into a platform for innovation. That’s why today, with Tim O’Reilly I am announcing a fundamental change and a challenge to every city department. Watch live at 4PM PST.I am issuing an Open Data Executive Directive (PDF)that asks City departments to make all datasets under their authority that are not considered confidential available on DataSF.org. This Directive will enhance open government, transparency, and accountability by improving access to City data. By providing more government data, San Francisco’s world class technology community will be able to create even more useful civic tools, all at no cost to City government. This new ease of access will lead to innovation in how residents interact with government, resulting in social and economic benefits for San Francisco.Second, I am challenging City departments to use open source software when they look to update or purchase new software. In recognition of how far open source has come today, I am also pleased to announce the launch of my new city web site in open sourcepowered by WordPress. Open source software has been able to deliver shorter implementation times and lower costs. We have seen this with DataSF.org, RecoverySF.organd our 311 integration with Twitter.The Open Data Executive Directive and Open Source challenge will take time to implement, but they will improve access to government data, lower software costs and create new jobs. Join Mayor Newsom on Facebookor follow him on Twitter.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alengoReviews: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, iStockphotoTags: government, open source, San Francisco-San Jose
Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg took the stage. She sat down for a Q&A with Federated Media’s John Battelle to discuss Facebook’s deal with Bing, its long-term goals, advertising, Facebook Connect, and more.While there were no bombshells during the Q&A, it was still an interesting discussion, and she did release an interesting stat: there are now over 45 million status update per day from 30 million unique visitors.Here are the highlights:On Bing: Sheryl noted the search deal with Bing, saying that it will be integrating Facebook data into Bing sometime soon. They are giving a stream of their data to Bing. No money exchanged hands. She also said there is no Google deal in the works currently.On advertising: She discussed innovation in advertising. In the past, ads were one-to-many (banner ads, video ads). On Facebook, they are “engagement ads.” Specifically she said that you can engage with brands just like you would with your friends, making it a more meaningful advertising experience.On search: Sheryl, a former executive of Google, addressed whether Google should be worried about the fundamental shift of the “information economy” to the “social economy.” She said that Facebook believes in the “wisdom of friends” over even the wisdom of the web. She believes Facebook is uniquely positioned to fill this gap and provide information nobody else can.On Facebook’s relationship with 3rd party developers: They focus on the core technology, and let developers focus on the specifics. They care most about being the technology that connects everyone.On Facebook Connect: She was asked by John Battelle if Facebook Connect has evolved as she expected. She simply said that it has enabled people to connect to the Facebook platform in completely new ways. Their goal is simply to facilitate sharing. Specifically though, they’re looking to make it easier to use Facebook Connect. They are not focusing on monetizing Connect at this time.On Facebook Credits: The long-fabled monetization strategy of Facebook…Sheryl was completely tight-lipped about. It’s still being tested with developers.On Twitter: We’ve discussed Facebook’s Twitterification before (adding real-time search, making the home page stream-like, etc.), but John asked Sheryl about this directly. She praised Twitter as being “impressive.” She called it part of a “global movement” changing how we communicate.On status updates: Sheryl announced that Facebook processes 45 million status updates per day.Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, TwitterTags: facebook, Sheryl Sanberg
While we’re still digesting the news of Bing adding Twitter to its search engine, Google has some news of their own: they’re about to do the same exact thing.The search giant has just announced that they have reached a deal with Twitter to include tweets in search results.Fromthe Google blog:“Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”In other words, so much for Bing getting the upper hand in the battle for real-time search. Absent from Google’s announcement, however, is Facebook. That said, the vast majority of status updates on Facebook are not public, so how much of an advantage that will be to Bing is dependent largely on how Facebook is able to change user behavior.For Twitter though, today marks significant validation of its business. Just two weeks ago, it was rumored that the company was working on search dealsworth “several millions dollars,” and today, they delivered, by partnering with the two biggest players in the game. With a fresh $100 million in the bankand both Google and Microsoft implementing tweets in search, it looks like Twitteris in it for the long haul.See Also: (How Much) Does Google Need Twitter?Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, TwitterTags: facebook, Google, twitter
