What I want to answer with this post (long though it may be) is:

• Why did Web 2.0 emerge and are there any lessons to be gained about the future? [cheap accessible digital hardware]
• Why did Twitter emerge despite Facebook’s dominance? [asymmetry, real-time, curated RSS / link-sharing]
• Why did MySpace lose to Facebook & what can Twitter learn from this? [encouraging an open platform where 3rd parties can make lots of money]
• Does Facebook have a permanent dominance of the future given their 500m users? [chuckle. ask microsoft, aol/time warner & google]
• What are the big trends that will drive the next phase of social networks? [mobile, locations, layering of services, data management, portability & more]

An excellent piece… worth the whole read.  Shortened version here… and full version here.

Just posted the following list of local search api’s on SearchEngineLand.  I am going to be maintaining the list here and will be updating it from time to time.

• Alcatel Lucent Open API Service
• CityGrid (CitySearch)
• Earthmine
• Foursquare
• GoWalla
• Hoovers
• Outside.in
• Praized
• TownMe
• Trulia
• Twitter/MixerLabs
• Yahoo! Local
• Yelp API
• WhitePages.com
• Zvents

I caught a glimpse of the future of mobile phone games this past weekend at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York City last weekend, and I’m very excited.

I played six “location aware mobile games” that made me run and walk like crazy, talk to dozens of people, and explore nooks and crannies of New York that I never would have seen otherwise.  In other words, playing these games made me more physically fit, more social (face-to-face), and far more aware of the physical environment that surrounded me.

This is the polar opposite of the effects of today’s video games on children, who play for hours inside their houses without moving anything but their fingers, barely talking to anyone.

It’s a rare computer application that encourages more face-to-face interaction with people in real time and space.  That’s one thing that sets Front Porch Forum apart.  It’s encouraging to see others moving in this direction.

Mobile social networking startup MocoSpace raised a $4 million B round from existing investors General Catalyst, Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and former eBay exec Michael Deering. The previous A round was $3 million in January 2007. MocoSpace is a mobile-only social network with two million members and serving one billion pageviews a month (from mobile phones). When we last wrote about MocoSpace in August, it had half as many members and pageviews.