The Boston Globe has settled on a platform by Pluck to help the paper make the most of user-generated content (UGC) hosted on its subsidiary website Boston.com. The Boston Globe has recognized the need to have a much stronger online presence and the need to be able to interact with users, the Pluck platform will allow Boston.com to do all this and more.

Pluck, a subsidiary of Demand Media, specializes in driving traffic to clients’ websites using a variety of social media strategies. Boston.com will be using a product called Sitelife, a complete social network. Sitelife allows a company to have all the tools of a social network, customized to their needs. This is a great benefit for companies that want to host their own networks and not just exist within a bigger social network such as Bebo or MySpace. (more…)

User-generated content (UGC) may be the best example of freedom of speech there is. This may be the reason why social network Plurk was recently banned in China. Plurk is a micro-blogging website that works a lot like Twitter. Users sign in and post short updates with a maximum of 140 characters. The website never really caught on in North America as it did in other parts of the world.  Asian countries Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines make up the top three countries for user concentration.

In North America and most other places in the world websites like Veoh, Bebo, Twitter, and Flickr are very common and no one outside the advertising community cares when a user logs on to the websites. However, sites like these are considered a threat by the Chinese government because they allow for the free flow of information and ideas. (more…)

SmallWorlds, a 3D virtual world with a successful financial model launched its new Facebook and Bebo applications this week with hopes that it can expand its social network even further.

The SmallWorlds virtual world allows users to do all the things that they would do on Facebook and Bebo but in a user-designed 3D atmosphere. The company says it is significantly more profitable than those larger social networks already. The application has games that can be played by users either alone or with each other. Users can share pictures, videos and post information about themselves. (more…)

The latest report by compete.com, a Web analytics company, shows Facebook has taken over as the most possible social network. The compete.com ranked the top 25 networks, comparing January 2009 numbers to January 2008.

The study looked at a number of different things including number of visitors, unique visitors and time spent on the website. The top 25 was compiled using only the amount of visitors per month. Facebook took over top spot from MySpace, which has moved down to second. Twitter, which ranked 22 last January, is now number three. Flixster is fourth and LinkedIn rounds out the top five. (more…)

A recent fundraising campaign in the UK is pointing to its use of user-generated content as one of the reasons for its success. The Really Good School Dinner Campaign in the UK generated more than $2,000 US in donations from primary school students, about 10 pence (20 cents) at a time for every meal they had at school. It was a program that started locally in Lancashire, but has spread to the online world of social networking.

The program encourages kids to upload pictures or videos of their own Really Good School Dinner week. Participating schools will have their own tables in an online virtual lunchroom as well as materials to promote the program in their schools (posters, etc.). Children can create their own animated avatars on the campaign’s website as well, which can interact with other avatars online. (more…)

Playfish launched its newest social network game MiniGolf Party this week, adding to its stable of games that has the company earning a profit in what is still mostly a profitless playground.

Playfish markets its games as applications on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and MyYahoo where they have found an enthusiastic audience of 40 million registered users.  (more…)

Nintendo is in hot water over its decision to block all user comments on its current Bebo campaign in the UK for its Animal Crossing game. New Media Age reported on the controversy today citing Nintendo as saying it was company policy to ban all comments on official company online properties.

It begs the question why the company is choosing to promote itself on Bebo then, doesn’t it? If you’re marketing through a social networking site, shouldn’t you be trying to maximize the social aspect of it?

The article goes on to quote Electronic Arts and Xbox spokespeople who question Nintendo’s move. It’s also led to bloggers taking up the cause against Nintendo’s policy. Here’s another.

Wordia.com has created a new kind of dictionary called a ‘visual dictionary,’ which allows users to search for spelling, meaning and etymology of a word just as they would with a normal dictionary. But this dictionary is user generated and anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can contribute to the site by defining words that matter to them on video.

Users can then compare the user-generated definitions with definitions form official dictionaries and decide which ones they like best.

The site works with Harper Collin’s Dictionaries, The National Literacy Trust, Open University, and Michael Birch (of bebo.com fame) to help create a truly useful resource. (more…)

Since 1886, Coca-Cola cans and bottles have changed in design and composition through various campaigns and marketing strategies. But only this year did Coke drinkers have a chance to design their own bottles.

Coke’s recent user-generated campaign, Design the World a Coke, resulted in more than 30,000 designs. (more…)