Not only does Kiva offer information about the lender, exchange of money and field partners, but the organization also allows you to see the profiles of the other lenders. Thus building on the idea of community that we’ve already discussed. In addition, they have a website – kivafriends - which allows lenders to communicate with one another through blogs and various topical postings. The organization itself also keeps anyone whose interested updated on their marketing strategies, other business ideas (i.e. sale of yearly calendars), and objectives. They offer themselves the opportunity to get incredible feedback as well since anyone who makes a login name can feel free to write and read all blogs (“discussion forums”).

As of this past December, Google led the market in online searches with 58% market share while #2 and #3, Yahoo! and MSN, respectively, held a 33% share. Thus, last Friday Microsoft revealed a deal to Yahoo! that CEO Steve Ballmer claims would make a stronger #2 to fight Google’s potential monopoly. The bid was made at $31/share or $44.6 billion (one of the biggest internet mergers to date, second only to AOL/Time Warner). At this point, there is also discussion that Yahoo! CEO Jeff Yang has been in contact with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, regarding a different agreement in which Yahoo would retain its indepedence (A Yahoo! / Google merger, however, would likely violate many of the antitrust laws) but share revenues with Google over search ads. Google executives are not hesitant to say that they like the status quo and may fear Microsoft becoming too strong.

As of right now, it seems unlikely that Yahoo! will accept this deal, but many are failing to comment other than to say that they are reviewing the offer and it might take a good deal of time.

Nine years ago, I was astonished and confused to hear that friends of ours had purchased both a boat and a car online on some “new” website called Ebay. Little did I know, Ebay had already been up and running for at least three and a half years.

Nowadays, you can buy just about anything and everything on ebay -from rare art, sellings for up to millions of dollars, to your wedding dress or something as small as a pencil. For sellers this is a goldmine. Virtually anything you can find in your house can be documented and sold on ebay to the highest bidder. It’s like having your own garage sale with half of pittsburgh’s residents coming to browse.

Recently, we went around my house just looking for things we didn’t want or use – taking pictures of things to post on ebay. They have made millions off of the ever popular concept that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I’m surprised no one thought of it sooner.

Facebook – a multi-million dollar social network – was created with the chief aim of “helping people understand their world.” – or so says Mark Zuckerberg, the 22 year old mastermind and CEO. It began as an experiment at Harvard, Zuckerberg’s Alma Mater, and then expanded to all American colleges. Nowadays, aside from being over the age of thirteen (“for now”), Facebook is virtually open to anyone and thus is growing rapidly (about 150,000 new members/day). This begs the question – lose focus, lose face? Initially facebook was preferred to MySpace, Xanga etc. because it was simple. It was for college students to talk with other friends. It didn’t seem terribly “sketchy,” so to speak, and it was fairly parentally acceptable with the entire audience being in the 18-23 age bracket. With more members, less regulations, and an infinite amount of “applications” from “How Evil are you?” to “When will you get married?” to “Compare People”, Facebook may be losing some of its initial appeal. Zuckerberg chose to add the applications (the “Facebook Platform”) as a way for people outside of his company and 250 employees to market what they have in an effective way. On the flip slide, more applications means more technological glitches and more difficulty and frustration among facebookers.

On another note, Zuckerberg claims that they have not and will not pursue any exit strategies, even considering offers from both Viacom and Yahoo! ($750 million and $1 billion, respectively). He claims the purpose of Facebook is not so much to gain a huge profit but rather to add “value” to people’s lives by providing them with a ‘meaningful’ form of communication. But really – how meaningful is it? While I admit to having and utilizing it myself, I can’t comment that it really adds any “value” to my life personally. I would argue quite the contrary in regards to communication and that while it is helpful with old friends living far away, insofar as college friends are concerned, doesn’t it inhibit our ability to communicate on a more personal level? Is the amount of time people spend on facebook rather than on actual interpersonal skills going to add “value” to their future? The same goes for AIM, MySpace and the like. The term “value” may need to be redefined.