Technically Speaking

I’m going to re-open the EmbargoZone blog-PR site shortly. But for now, enjoy:

Friendgiftr First to Turn Multiple Social Media Sites Into E-commerce 2.0 Platforms

Friendgiftr first and only company to sell popular brand name gift cards through e-commerce storefront to hundreds of millions of social networking site users

Hollywood, CA. (Feb. 16) — E-commerce 2.0 pioneer and rising star Friendgiftr turned multiple social media websites, including Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, Ning and Bebo, into commercial marketplaces for the first time with the debut of its new e-commerce storefront application network. Friendgiftr’s one-of-a-kind network is the first and only social media-based online storefront to offer actual purchasable retail and restaurant gift cards to hundreds of millions of social media site users.

Friendgiftr features the nation’s largest collection of gift cards for sale from a single source, with over 120 leading brand names like Gap, Dominos Pizza, Pottery Barn, Starbuck’s, Chili’s, Red Lobster, Regal Cinemas, Barnes & Noble, Applebee’s, Crate & Barrel, Marriott, P.F. Chang’s, Dell, Macy’s, Sephora, L.L. Bean, Banana Republic, and Overstock.com, among others. Through the Friendgiftr application, social media site users can now send gift cards in amounts from $10 to $100 to anyone in their network.

“Introducing our network of gift card storefronts across numerous social networking sites is a game-changing step forward in the commercialization of social media,” commented Rob Carpenter, Friendgiftr CEO. “It’s also a cornerstone of our unique business model. We partner with the companies whose gift cards we sell, which keeps our operating costs minimal, and unlike most web-based start-ups, we have multiple viable revenue streams, including commissions from cards we sell through a growing number of storefronts, slotting fees, advertisements and affiliate marketing programs.”

Another aspect of its unique model is that Friendgiftr is the only gift card merchant to allow card recipients to exchange the card given to them for a card they prefer from any of the merchants Friendgiftr offers, at no charge, and without the buyer knowing. Recipients can even split the gift card amount across multiple merchants’ cards, to make sure they get the gifts they really want. For example, someone who received a $50 Macy’s card can exchange it for a $25 card for Starbuck’s and a $25 card for Chili’s, or five $10 cards from five different stores.

With the simplest user interface of any online gift card source, Friendgiftr lets social media site users buy and send gift cards in just three simple steps: Â select the card and amount, enter the recipient’s name, email and a personalized message, then pay via Friendgiftr’s secure online payment platform.

About Friendgiftr, Inc.

Friendgiftr is the premier digital storefront company currently offering over 120 of America’s favorite retail and restaurant gift cards through its website and social media sites. Friendgiftr won the grand prize prestigious Henry Kravis Award in venture capital and entrepreneurship, and placed first in a VentureBeat.com technology trends competition held at the prestigious DEMO Conference for the concept of merging social networking and e-commerce. Friendgiftr partners with iCard Systems, a leading supplier of electronic and physical gift cards. Headquartered in Hollywood, CA, Friendgiftr is a Rob Carpenter production.

For Immediate Release: February 17, 2010

Contact: Rob Carpenter, (909) 851-8119, rob@friendgiftr.com

Press Info: Kendall Guimond, (909)262-2120, kendall.guimond@allterrain.net

Technically Speaking, look for the re-opening of EmbargoZone soon.

A person I know is selling the following. If you are interested, please contact me for a proper introduction:

1) Ojeez

A social networking system (like Facebook) of enterprise level comprising of profile, search function, blogs, videos, audios, forums application

2) Ecommerce application

State of the art shopping cart system already empowering hundreds of online retail stores.

3) Content management system for websites

An easy to use content management system for managing website page content, publishing, with modules such as FAQ builder, newsletter, dynamic form builder

4) Lead generation system

A marketing/sales CRM type of application that manages contacts, runs campaigns, track results, filter prospects for effective business development

5) Job Portal Application

6) A system like Craigslist

7) MLM backoffice application

Technically Speaking a twitter DM or @ is preferred method of contact. Thanks, and I’ll put you in touch with this person pronto!

The news of the moment is that Twitter has been officially down for about 1.5 hours now, and looks like Facebook has suffered it’s own meltdown.

MySpace however seems to be rockin’ right along just fine. I haven’t checked any of the other social net’s – but it seems that out of the big two, the one that everyone has abandoned seems to be working just fine. A little too messy looking still, but hopefully in time the new leadership sees the error of the past administration that was in charge there.

It does bring up an interesting thought of maybe just possibly the social net revolution isn’t over quite yet. Stay tuned for sure, as with this mornings meltdown and people that can get in to update their fb status, all are crying that Twitter is down. Now I’m sure once everyone wakes up and the services come back, there will be a lot of analysis of this event.

Technically Speaking, a new social world is in order about right now; well if someone can tune the cloud, but as someone once already stated “You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish!” >:-?

While I posted yesterday about the BGCC launch press release, I started to think about this today – and decided to do a quick twtpoll.

Technically Speaking, I never seem to have much of a response out of these and have been told it’s because I give nothing away for you to vote! So for those people that get a great response to your polls – What do you give away to get people to vote???

It’s pretty simple that the baby boomers are all retiring or getting close with more time on their hands. Or they are now realizing they missed out on all the cool things they wished they had as kids.

Whatever the story is, this poll that I saw Steve break down well today is missing Generation-X (1965-1977). That is the current core workers I suppose. It still doesn’t explain the lack of representation these days. While you can click over to those links are read the poll and it’s findings, it’s time for another twtpoll of my own!

Sure it might have only been comparing the two generations (Y and Boomers), but since I’m from Gen-X, I wonder where all the Gen-X people are? It’s like a Gen-X ghost town online lately. Represent and vote below!

Technically Speaking, I really like these twtpoll poll’s and hopefully will get some more people voting or casting their opinions soon!

Friends On Fire, the new Facebook app that launched earlier today based off of the Yahoo! Fire Eagle. Along with the official Yahoo! blog post, there was really good coverage of the new app.

In addition to Friends on Fire, we’re also launching a new way to update Fire Eagle — a Firefox extension that adds a button to your toolbar. With one click, your location is instantly shared with your trusted friends on your favorite services.

I haven’t had time to try the Firefox Fire Eagle extension yet, as it’s been a busy Friday – wanted to write this post hours ago! Glad it was well covered.

Of course, if you’re out and about, you’re not necessarily going to be hauling around your computer with you. Instead, you’ll want to grab one of the mobile Fire Eagle updaters from Yahoo’s Gallery. These apps include simple mobile updaters like Fire Fone for the iPhone as well as more robust social networking apps like Brightkite.

I haven’t tried the mobile yet either. Now here is one thing that did come up in discussion in a call I had earlier today. There are a lot of 35 and older people online. In fact, here is a thought for you – most people that age and older would rather have a hidemenow.com function vs a “Here I am! Here I am!” mobile all the time find me everywhere network. Not saying there is failure here, but basically – you are not 23 years old forever is all I’m saying!

While Foursquare and Whrrl may have a good time this weekend at SXSW, how will it translate into the real outside of SXSW coming in the following weeks.

Just in time for SXSW, Dennis Crowley, one of the original developers of Dodgeball, has released a new location-aware social app (iTunes link) for the iPhone: Foursquare.

One of the main issues of Foursquare that I see out of the box is limited support or limited areas as described.

The app currently features a database for 12 of the larger metropolitan areas in the U.S., including Boston, New York, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Austin. We expect that Foursquare will add data for more cities in the next few months. If a certain restaurant or bar is not in Foursquare’s database, you can also add your own.

Like I said – after Austin and SXSW this week – what about the real world post SXSW?

Whrrl, I just never found it easy or fun. Maybe that has changed in the 2.0 version as outlined in this post, but still what about Loopt?

You’ve got options when it comes to iPhone apps designed to help you capture moments in time, but the Whrrl v2.0 iPhone app hopes to help you combine photos, stories, and your location with the photos and stories of your friends for a collective storytelling experience.

While there is even more written about Yahoo! and Fire Eagle, and Friends On Fire.

Despite the hype they get, location-based services have yet to catch on in the mainstream.

That above quote is the main issue of location based social nets in one sentence.

Of the two, Friends on Fire for Facebook is the more consumer-friendly.

This above quote sums up Friends On Fire for Facebook. It is quite easy to use, and yes, I signed up as shown by this picture below.

Technically Speaking, there are just as many 35+ age people online and technology savvy as I already stated above that would rather have some startup come up with the hidemequicknow.com vs the find me here! Find me NOW! COME HUG me TODAY! social networks of today. It’s not at all a fail, but a miscalculation of mainstream appeal. For complete coverage inside of SXSW – check out Rizzn unleashed, on twitter @rizzn, as well as posts that he will be putting up on siliconANGLE.