Those familiar with the Darwin awards probably have a special appreciation for the man and his theories (I only call them theories, because the idea of evolution or anything even remotely related to the subject is somewhere up there with same-sex marriage. Although I acknowledge thatÂ? evolutionÂ? from a big picture perspective isÂ? still theoretical, I can’t ignore the obvious signs of evolution displayed throughout the biological world, like Hox genes.). Moving right along, the general description of Darwin’s (most famous?) theory is often summarized as “survival of the fittest.” A more accurate description of the theory is those best able to adapt will survive. This is even true on the Net.

A recent articleÂ? we wrote talked about Microsoft and their new, risky moves towards increasing their Internet presence, and with that, the software company will look at capitalizing on the potential of their userbase and sell advertising. Although Microsoft continues to dominate worldwide with their Windows operating system and their Office suite of applications, online competitors like Google and Yahoo! have made moves that would inevitably destroy the near monopoly that Microsoft has in those markets. Through acquisitions, both Google and Yahoo! have acquired Web 2.0 companies that will allow users to complete the same tasks as they would with Microsoft Office, but the documents would be accessible worldwide, and there would be no costly software to purchase. In response, rather than stumbling along on their doomed path, Microsoft will attempt to reposition itself. No longer will Microsoft be a software company. Instead, a large portion of their revenue will come from advertising media.

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I’ve often commented about the number of social networking websites, and the ability of these different websites to survive will be almost entirely based on their ability toÂ? create their own unique niche to fill. WallopÂ? thinks they have “a golden opportunity for Wallop to change the face of social computing.” Of course, the people at Wallop won’t give any details before they launch, and they don’t seem to be open for business just yet, so the buzz around the company is mostly to do with Microsoft IP Ventures being a part of the company.

After announcing it really isn’t for saleÂ? and raising $25 million in VC funding, Facebook has announced an ambitious move to expand on its current high school/college-based users. Although a completely different market, corporate social networkingÂ? is virtually untapped byÂ? theÂ? social networking giants. I mentioned in a post recently that MeetupÂ? may be the social networking site that has the best potential to do something unique, however, this bold new move by Facebook could prove to be key to their continued growth.

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In the last 30 years, Microsoft has dominated almost every aspect of the computer industry. A variety of different players have come and gone, usually with little or no long-term impact on the company, but there have been a few different scares that the software giant has always seemed to conquer. A recent article in Fortune magazine looks at Microsoft and the changes that are now being implemented by the company to remain competitive in todays Internet-based world.

There are four important, history-making steps that Microsoft has made. In 1990, Windows 3.0 was released to the PC world to compete with the user-friendly Macintosh computers. Macintosh still enjoys less than ten percent of the overall market, and the success of this very first version of Windows is a big part of it. Users are used to the program and have almost no trouble moving to new Windows versions as they are released. In 1995, the Internet is an ever-growing phenomenon and with it comes the new threat of Netscape. Although it probably cost them in the millions to fight the federal court’s antitrust charges, Microsoft was able to crush Netscape. Internet Explorer, which now comes with every version of Windows (IE 7.0 is about to be released), accounts for over 60% of all browsers used. The release of .Net in 2000 didn’t have the same result as the previously mentioned moves. The .Net product still works best with Windows computers while the rival software, Sun’s Java, works well on all computers. In 2005, the Internet and the two of the biggest and best websites in the world have started to put the pressure on Microsoft. But, never to be outdone,Â? Gates strikes back.

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Well, I hope I wasn’t one of the folks “raving” about AOL about to launch a “MySpace Killer,” but I did email SiliconBeatÂ? about the news. There is a small post about it on Catchup FridayÂ? by Matt Marshall, and more importantly, there is a link to AOL’s Ted LeonsisÂ? clarifying the situation. Ted makesÂ? a couple interesting points, and I find the whole post to be very political. I’m curious how many users AIM actually has - Ted says 43 million, but AOL’s Press CenterÂ? gives a number of “63 million active users.” But what’s a 20 million difference in the scheme of things.

The way the project is being downplayed is interesting - in another post on the subject, Tina Sharkey, AOL’sÂ? Senior Vice President of Network and Community Programming, made comments similar to those of Mr. Leonsis. AOLTimeWarner has to consider News Corp.’s MySpace to be a threat, and anything that AOL develops that is anything close to MySpace has to be done in a way that can take on MySpace head-on. I purposely didn’t comment on whether “AIMSpace” could be a “MySpace Killer” in my post yesterday. To me, it was more important to discuss the reason why AIMSpace has the potential to be a threat rather than commenting on whether or not it actually is or will be.

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To go through, sign-up for, and review the major players in the world of social networking is a major undertaking, and it seemed to only make sense to start with the golden child of the group, MySpace. Since it’s release in 2005, MySpace has been the biggest thing on the Internet. With it’s sale to News Corp. for $580 million, MySpace became one of the biggest, if not the biggest, websites sold since the bubble burst in the late 90’s, and has continued its unprecedented growth since then. Despite it’s obvious appeal to the masses, MySpace is hardly the answer to everyone’s online needs, and although users are drawn to the site, it seems quite obvious they would be just as quick to jump onto the next big thing. I hope you enjoy our MySpace pageÂ? and our review of the site.

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