Michael Gracie 

Blast from the past: An arbitrator has ordered Media Breakaway and Chief Executive Scott Richter to pay the social-networking giant $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees, according to legal filings. I won’t be digging into this like I would have in the Spamroll days, but I will admit I’m a bit [...]

And what about the app providers themselves Kristen Nicole asked: “When Did Facebook Get More Spammy than MySpace?” It’s all the buzz since the BBC reported that a widget third-party application can be used to gather personal data on its users – Facebook security. Why there is an expectation that social network abuse wouldn’t grow [...]

Quick answers and not-so-quick speculation. Barron’s: Google points out it isn’t doing so hot. Alley Insider: Alas, the social network side of things is not up to par. ZDNet: Not good, and Google is disappointed with the MySpace deal. Techdirt: Cutting to the chase – it sucks. And…Facebook isn’t looking like the grand saviour either. [...]

There’s an interesting conversation that’s been taking place over the last twelve hours regarding recent innovations in the Web 2.0 space, or the lack thereof. It started with John Heileman of New York Magazine taking a few swipes at the hype, which was quickly picked up after Fred Wilson made it clear some of the [...]

Having 2,000 feed items stuffed in one’s reader when returning from even the shortest vacation has me thinking about how to put said reader on vacation as well. MySpace and Facebook apps suck. That’s not what they really said, but The Silicon Alley Insider did point out how little they might really be worth. I’ve [...]

I won’t call it slick, cool, rockin’, or use the phrase “best evah.” Yahoo! Mash is a work in progress, but do have to give the company credit for putting together a beta project that doesn’t actually require a lot of thought to use. I’ve fumbled around MySpace and Facebook, trying to read others’ reviews, [...]

A professor from South Florida says MySpace is safer for kids than parents think. A couple of thoughts: The prof has street cred – he comes from the spam/scam capital of the world It must be all the cool passwords those kids use Eh hem…I’ll be arrogant just this once – the site ain’t that [...]

I wish I had a catchy headline like the one the Associated Press pushed: MySpace Users Big Targets for ID Thieves – unfortunately I don’t really consider stealing someone’s MySpace account a form of ID theft. Unless MySpace users are posting their credit card and banking information, their SSN, or other such details on their [...]

The ubiquitous spyware purveyor is still at it, their product is available on MySpace. They will be blaming “rogue” affiliates any moment now. Movies about party girls are just the hook, reeling in desperate male MySpace junkies. Still an external threat, and still a violation of MySpace terms of service. But with a site so [...]

That was a joke, of course. Slashdot noted that a MySpace phishing exploit has been discovered. Netcraft found the pages, embedded on MySpace itself. No surprise.