In the announcement, Yahoo tries to explain: “In 2008, she made a comeback with a new album, three MTV Music Awards, a sitcom guest star role and documentary on her rise, fall and career comeback.” True, Britney actually had a #1 song this year – her first in a decade. But, Yahoo’s rankings are much more a testament to our collective fascination with pop culture, as other terms in the top 10 include World Wresting Entertainment, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and American Idol. President-Elect Barack Obama was only the third most-searched for term.

In addition to the most searched terms overall, Yahoo has posted rankings for most searched politicians, Olympians, news stories, women, famous deaths, economic terms, and “rising” celebrities.

If you’re thinking the celebrity fascination might be a Yahoo thing, think again. In Google’s end of year search rankings for 2007, Britney came in at #3, with terms including American Idol, Anna Nicole Smith, and Paris Hilton blanketing the top 10. Any way you slice it, it’s fairly clear we’re all in the wrong business.

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MySpace Music has finally found a person to head the affairs and it is none other than Courtney Holt. We have had already reported this in the past but now the news has been officially confirmed via an internal memo sent by MTV president Van Toffler to the MTV staff. Holt was previously MTV Networks’ EVP Digital Music and Media. According to the memo published by TechCrunch:

I wanted to let you all know that Courtney Holt, our EVP of Digital Media for the Music & Logo Group, and owner of arguably the most extensive vinyl record collection at MTV Networks, will be moving on at the end of the year.

We’re sorry to see him go, and there’s been lots of buzz about his potential next moves, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his hard work, and determination, as well as his musical and technological prowess.

Courtney championed and drove through several important initiatives during his tenure here. He kick started the re-imagination of MTV.com when he first got here in 2006, paving the way for future innovation and growth of the site. He was instrumental in seeing through and launching our joint venture with Real Networks to create “Rhapsody America” and most recently, he and his team persevered to design and launch a beta version of mtvmusic.com, where we can finally showcase our incredible history of music video and exclusive content in one place. It’s sleek and simple to browse and is being met with rave reviews even though we haven’t even officially launched or turned our spotlight on it. Courtney has been a true champion of mtvmusic.com since day one and I am thankful to him for all his creativity on this and everything else he touched during the time he’s been with our company. We wish him the best.

In the meantime, Courtney and I are working on the transition plan and I will be communicating more details very soon. We truly have great momentum on all digital fronts including continued growth and innovation at each of our branded .coms with MTV.com, VH1.com, CMT.com and LOGOonline.com and killer success with our music video game Rock Band. We’ve only just begun to unlock our precious music vaults on mtvmusic.com, making us the pre-eminent place to not only see music videos, but a wealth of content that no one else has anywhere…more than 27 years worth. We also have more than 30 verticals and ancillary sites that connect to our on-air content and drive traffic online.

So look for more from our digital music space — there truly is so much opportunity for us. And again, a thank you to Courtney for serving us so well.

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De-friending has always been awkward. Social networks offer one click “remove a friend” options, but it still doesn’t make the decision any easier.

What follows is a collection of stories about de-friending. In summary, what I discovered is that everyone approaches their social network differently and it’s impossible to communicate all those nuances when you choose to de-friend.

As you read, keep in mind that these are all one-sided stories. The interviewees made their best guess as to why the de-friending happened or how the offending party felt after being de-friended. I purposely didn’t include stories of de-friending romantic exes because those de-friendings are obvious. If you see a real name and in some cases a link to their profile page, I received permission to publish. In all other cases where people wished to remain anonymous, I replaced their name with the first name of one of my ex-girlfriends or one of my wife’s ex-boyfriends.

1. Squashing opportunists trying to grow their network

Andrew Bouchard is a member of the Nashville swing dance scene and it’s reflected among his Facebook friends. One day a request came from Jane Dubuffet (not real name), who happened to be friends with five other of his swing dance friends. He couldn’t remember her, but friended her anyway.

Soon after, Andrew received an invitation to join the group “Who is Jane Dubuffet?” Having all fallen for Jane’s friendship requests, the group of 50 members quickly discovered that this mystery woman had infiltrated the Nashville swing dance scene just to grow her business network. Unimpressed, Andrew decided to scratch Jane off his dance card.

2. Getting laid off can be embarrassing, especially if you were bragging about your job

Liz’s college friend Dave wouldn’t shut up about his new high powered consulting job. After a few quick promotions that inflated his head, the bubble burst. Dave got laid off. Ashamed, he quickly closed up his social network so certain people, like his ex-girlfriend, wouldn’t find out and take pleasure in his misfortune. So he began de-friending all those connected to his ex, like Liz, who worked with his ex.

3. Parents can be embarrassing exhibitionists

On Facebook, Lauren leaves outrageous status updates about her mock drug use. Her mother, new to Facebook, wasn’t in on the joke. After seeing an update announcing that Lauren’s superpowers might be tempered by PCP, her mother responded and laid into her. In turn, Lauren looked at her mother’s profile and saw that her mom posted a photo of herself in the pool, nude! While Lauren couldn’t actually see any of the naughty bits, it was obvious to Lauren that her mother was nude. Lauren called her mom on it, de-friended her, and ever since their relationship has been strained.

4. Take a hint. I don’t want you in my show

Coordinating an arts management program, Aaron accepts friend requests from more artists than he puts in his shows. While Aaron accepted Dustin’s MySpace friend request, he let him know that he wasn’t good enough to be in one of his art shows. Retaliating, Dustin began leaving nasty messages on Aaron’s blog and MySpace profile. Aaron de-friended Dustin on MySpace and Facebook only to discover that even if they weren’t friends, Dustin could still leave nasty personal messages through his Facebook profile.

5. Guilted back into re-friending

Denise V.’s kickball teammate had a little too much to drink one night after a game. His obnoxious behavior really got to her. She had enough. Not wanting to see his updates anymore, Denise de-friended him to which he quickly responded, “Whoops, I may have de-friended you accidentally when I was removing some coworkers. Or else you de-friended me on purpose because you are a hater…” Caught, Denise felt obliged to re-friend him because they have so many mutual friends and they see each other once a week. Having told her friends the story, Denise is often jokingly referred to as the “hater.”

6. De-friending can regress mature women into a high school gossip mob

Jill received a message from her friend Megan asking, “When are we getting together? Miss you.” Moments after that message, Jill discovered that Megan had de-friended her on Facebook. That was odd. She gets a “let’s get together” message, the two of them hang out twice a week, and they have lots of mutual friends. All signs that made Jill believe she was Megan’s friend. Jill didn’t realize that Megan was on a rampage, a three day de-friending bloodbath, cleaning out her Facebook friends list.

The behavior was so strange that all the mature 30-something women who were in Megan’s original friend pool turned into gossiping teenagers. Why did some of them make the cut and others didn’t? Turns out some friends who stayed on were told by Megan that they were being left on because they could be valuable to Megan’s professional network. One friend was told that she was kept on because Megan thought if she de-friended her, which apparently she wanted to do, she would lose her social standing in the group.

7. I really love the Minnesota Vikings, and I don’t care if that ends our friendship

On Sundays, David Erickson goes into full “I love the Vikings” Twitter mode with his MST3K-like running commentary throughout the game. Most people follow him for his marketing advice, but often get fed up once a week on Sundays. David doesn’t get upset that people stop following him. He knows it’s not personal. He just really loves the Vikings.

8. Don’t leave or we’ll all de-friend you

Steven Ortley gave his 2-week notice to his small 35 person PR firm. He was going to leave for a larger competitor, Weber Shandwick. The move came off as a personal insult to his coworkers. As he walked out the door, 18 of his former coworkers immediately de-friended him on LinkedIn. He hasn’t spoken to any of them since, but expects he will since he’s in such a small community. Until then, Steven prepares himself for the inevitable by having awkward conversations about his 401K transfer with his former office manager.

9. Don’t use my personal life as leverage in business negotiations

Doug Cone works hard and plays hard. After getting a little behind on a project, Doug’s colleague took advantage of their social networking friendship at work by using Doug’s posted Facebook photos of his weekend rafting adventures. In team meetings, his jealous colleague would complain, “…and you are sending pictures having fun in rivers with a bunch of girls.” Now de-friended, the colleague doesn’t seem so distracted by Doug’s weekend adventures.

10. I’m ok with your race and religion, but not your political beliefs

I was not surprised to hear that many people de-friended during the political season. Here’s a quick roundup of the offending issues that pushed people to pull the de-friend trigger:

- An argument about abortion rights ended with Jay Ferrari being called a baby killer.

- A good friend of Allison Nazarian called the candidate he didn’t like a “Nazi.” After the de-friending and a discussion, Allison re-friended him, but they don’t discuss politics online anymore.

- Marsha became scared of one friend who announced on his status updates that he hoped all the candidates died in a plane crash.

- Marianne had enough of her friend’s political propaganda harassment. Unfortunately, de-friending didn’t stop the harassment as it continued on email where she had to block him.

- Claire Kiefer had to pull the plug on a friend who announced, “I don’t really HATE Mexicans, but I am sick of all the immigration rallies” and another who photoshopped an Obama campaign sign with an Islamic flag in the “O.”

11. Trying to de-friend your best friend’s ex-girlfriend

Chris de-friended his best friend’s girlfriend during their breakup. Even though the de-friending was unprompted, Chris got roped in with the ex-girlfriend complaining, “How can you say, ‘Let’s be friends’ and then ask Chris to de-friend me on Facebook!”

12. Keep your online flirting to one woman at a time

Michelle Reynolds began cautiously dating David, a guy she met on MySpace. While they were dating Michelle noticed that David was also sending flirtatious messages to some other random woman online. The pick up lines were identical to the ones David had been using on Michelle. He said things like, “Thinking about you,” “Let’s get together,” and “When can I see you?”

While in full blown multi-flirt mode, David began telling Michelle he wanted a relationship. In addition, Michelle saw David send a message to the other woman announcing he was going to take the next plane out to see her. Having seen enough, Michelle finally confronted him, and David began begging and defending himself, “Gimme another chance…I flirt with all my friends like this…I have no interest in that woman at ALL…” Michelle didn’t believe him so she deleted him.

Three weeks later Michelle looked at David’s MySpace page and the other woman’s. Turns out they both had publicly professed their undying love to each other and had moved in together.

I’m sure you’ve been de-friended or had to de-friend someone. It’s always uncomfortable. Please share your story. I’m sure we can all learn from your misfortune. For more insight, please check out “When technology tells us we have no friends,” and “The awkwardness of de-friending.”

David Spark (@dspark) is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of Spark Media Solutions, a storytelling production company. More importantly, he has lots of great friends. Read more of Spark at his blog Spark Minute or listen and subscribe to his “Be the Voice” blog and podcast.

Imagery courtesy of iStockPhoto, swilmor, dolgachov, 7nuit

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And as you can gather, we’re still not quite at that dream state, where everything is available, sharable, discussable, and yes, even mashable.

So where are we, then? Will utopian (tele)visions for Facebook and MySpace soon come to pass? Or are we far from perfection? Will we ever get there? Looking at these fifteen or so official Big Media-borne devices, there’s still a considerable distance left ’til we see heaven.

Mixed Signals

Facebook is in a thorny position when it comes to media, we think you’d agree. The company has managed to assemble a pretty solid set of homegrown social software, and has done much to pioneer the third-party network application boom. Yet it has no MySpace Music or MySpace TV of its own. No major media-heavy awesome to speak of.

Which is certain puzzling, given the fact that Web users have been yelling the where-we-want, when-we-want refrain for a long while now, whether it’s on Hulu, YouTube, or, indeed, on Facebook.

Here are several items Big Media world that can be found on Facebook today. You’ll notice most applications are just gadgets ancillary to the brands which deliver them:

FOX - Yes, let’s start off with FOX. MySpace, after all, is part of the Fox Interactive Media umbrella, so it sholudn’t be expected that the company or any affiliates would establish a strong presence on Facebook. Nonetheless, FOX does boast a “News Video” application through Buddy Media. It’s neither terrible nor worthy of any applause. It just…is.

NBC - There are only two items from the NBC universe which have grabbed small but reasonable attention on Facebook. Both are games: “What’s Your iCue?,” and “Gladiator Battle.” No video offerings from the company’s news divisions, and no titles from NBC’s weekly primetime lineup. Which is disappointing. Very.

ABC - This broadcaster offers widgets for most all of its popular shows. Names like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “LOST,” “Dancing With The Stars,” and “Ugly Betty” are all present. Yet none feature the full library of content associated with each production.

It’s quite well known that ABC has remained largely independent and solitary in the Web video world, serving much of its online audience at its main website. The company has claimed that to be its preferred method of delivery. But the “be everywhere” motto being carefully exemplified by other broadcasters may draw ABC to rethink its strategy. We hope so, anyway.

CBS - The most outstanding CBS option on Facebook at present are: an AOL Radio application that CBS has partnered with; a fairly basic “Survivor: Gabon” widget; and a service dubbed “Breaking News Headlines.” There is also an item from CBS Sports called “Sprint Fantasy Pick,” which highlights weekly choices for the NFL schedule.

Suffice it to say that CBS needs to get going with the premium media delivery if wants to transition from “dabbler” status to something with a vested interest in tapping the social media space to full(est) effect.

The WB - Though the WB and UPN television networks merged some ways back to form “The CW,” there has still been an effort to resurrect the WB’s back catalogue and introduce new Web-only shows to eek extra value from the brand. Interestingly enough, this fourth or fifth place network (after CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC, in no particular order) has delivered what I find to be a fairly good experience with its Facebook application. Its competitors could take lesson.

Seriously, the only thing negative to say about The WB at this point is that there should be more content to choose from. The necessary groundwork has been laid, however.

MTV - Listing some 7,500 monthly users, the “MTV Music Videos” application, currently in beta, grants users access to some 16,000+ music videos.

While the browsing experience can be considered clunky, the wealth of material provided is substantial. The developers promise that improvements are on the way, too. Improvements = good news.

ESPN - Games and team picks are where ESPN devotes its attention on Facebook; no radio or video highlights to speak of. The most utilized item in the ESPN playbook is “No Limits Moto Jump,” from ESPN Arcade and Skyworks.

How unfortunate. ESPN is one of the most valuable names in all of media, and the best the company can come up with is a motocross gimmick. They can do better. A lot better.

Comedy Central - The only official item released by Comedy Central to the Facebook application directory is “Indecision 2008 Games.” Which might be a tad past its expiration date.

In fact, the names that emerge from the Stewart-Colbert world that are relatively popular have been produced by non-affiliates. “Watch Colbert,” and “Daily Show News” are the sole items that promise video content. You might say that’s unnatural.

PBS - Yep, PBS is on Facebook! Besides a “Teacher Search” application, it boasts a video preview and podcast service for its trademark “Nature” programming. We’d like it if PBS were to do with this application what the broadcaster has done with things like Frontline. Put it all up on the Web for all to see. Wouldn’t that rock if PBS had a enthusiastic followers on Facebook? On Facebook!? Heck yes.

Are there any Facebook applications with ties to Big Media that you don’t see here which you enjoy? Are there any apps that you haven’t seen that you’d really, really want to see? Share your picks in the comments!

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Facebook, Google, and the Google-owned YouTube are among the sponsors for the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit, an event taking place at New York's Columbia Law School from December 3-5.

Along with other collaborators--which include the U.S. Department of State, MTV, Access 360 Media, and start-up Howcast--the event hopes to "find (the) best ways to use digital media to promote freedom and justice, and counter violence, extremism, and oppression."

The companies have amassed 17 leaders of different activist groups and hope to bring them together to come up with a common set of principles and strategies, inspired by a movement against a Colombian extremist group that was formed and organized on Facebook.

"Aided by social-networking technologies, the organization inspired 12 million people in 190 cities around the world to take to the streets in protest against the FARC, an extremist group that has been terrorizing Colombia for more than 40 years," an announcement of the summit read. "The magnitude of the marches illustrated once and for all that the FARC lacked a strong support base. Within days of the protests, the FARC witnessed massive desertions from their ranks."

Speakers at next month's summit include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz, actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg, and State Department Undersecretary James K. Glassman.

The State Department has already partnered with YouTube for its "Democracy Challenge," a moviemaking competition in conjunction with several film schools. And in the wake of the 2008 presidential election, Facebook has been stepping up its activism and outreach efforts; earlier this fall, it sponsored the ServiceNation summit.

This morning I had the privilege to sit in on a panel for the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership, in which everybody in the room was excited about two things: the new administration’s full embrace of technology, and how social technology is transforming the political realm. It is no longer required for a group of people to get together in a room and make change happen.

Instead individuals can now create groups on social networks (especially Facebook) and the ideas of those groups spread virally. In a globally interconnected world, we all learn from each other and in the case of Oscar Morales, who created the group which led to the protest against the FARC, we have no doubt learned some valuable lessons.

Inspired by this change, “Facebook, Access 360 Media, Columbia Law School, Google, Howcast, MTV, YouTube, and the U.S. Department of State are bringing leaders of 17 pioneering organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month for the first-ever conclave to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools. ” The event is called the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit.

We are in the midst of a tectonic shift as the barriers between government and citizens are eliminated, and this new administration will be part of leading the charge. Check out the video below to learn more about the FARC protest via Facebook, or go learn more about the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit.

Image of FARC Protest taken by AP and provided by the BBC

This morning I had the privilege to sit in on a panel for the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership, in which everybody in the room was excited about two things: the new administration’s full embrace of technology, and how social technology is transforming the political realm. It is no longer required for a group of people to get together in a room and make change happen.

Instead individuals can now create groups on social networks (especially Facebook) and the ideas of those groups spread virally. In a globally interconnected world, we all learn from each other and in the case of Oscar Morales, who created the group which led to the protest against the FARC, we have no doubt learned some valuable lessons.

Inspired by this change, “Facebook, Access 360 Media, Columbia Law School, Google, Howcast, MTV, YouTube, and the U.S. Department of State are bringing leaders of 17 pioneering organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month for the first-ever conclave to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools. ” The event is called the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit.

We are in the midst of a tectonic shift as the barriers between government and citizens are eliminated, and this new administration will be part of leading the charge. Check out the video below to learn more about the FARC protest via Facebook, or go learn more about the Alliance of Youth Movements Summit.

Image of FARC Protest taken by AP and provided by the BBC

P2P Sites have costed the Music Industry $69 billion in 2007 alone, according to findings by MultiMedia Intelligence Research. Rick Sizemore of MultiMedia Intelligence has went on to say that:

A $69 billion figure is staggering to contemplate, but it effectively illustrates the impact of piracy on the music industry. It is important to note that piracy has expanded well beyond music. Content owners of TV episodes and full length movies are seeing a growing impact. This is precisely why efforts from groups like the DCIA and those related to digital fingerprinting (e.g. MySpace and MTV) are vital to foster a ’safe’ environment - one conducive to growth and maturation. With an ever burgeoning flow of content over the digital pipes, the need for efficient distribution becomes all the more vital and we would be remiss to think of P2P exclusively as a tool for pirates.

If that is not enough the number of unlicensed full length movies “shared” will grow almost 4 times from 2007 to 2012. More headaches for the Music Industry in times to come.

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Highlights of the MTV piece:

• Morhaime: "We will continue making expansions as long as we have players that want to play 'World of Warcraft'." Blizzard's goal is to release a new add-on every year, but that may be aggressive, and there's no commitment to a November 2009 release.
• No changes to WoW's subscription price (about $15 a month) are being planned.
  
• The company is looking at how to incorporate an iPhone application into the game, but they've ruled out an "independent standalone application." What does that leave? Checking your WoW in-game email from your cell phone? Trading virtual goods at WoW's "auction house?"
  

But this is the best line, where Mike defends WoW's monthly fee as a lot of bang for your buck: "If you look at other choices that you can make - like going to a movie with a date - you've already over your 15 dollars for two hours." Mike may have a point, but we'd suggest to any World of Warcraft players reading this that while dates are indeed expensive, it's worth stepping away from the land of Azertoth now and again.

See Also:
World Of Warcraft Frenzy: Two-Hour Lines For Lich King
Chinese Government Gets In On Gold Farming Action With New 20% Tax
Geeks Camp Out In The Cold For New Warcraft (Photos)

FriendFeed, the popular activity aggregation tool, makes sure to publish all of your activities and then provides a filter of your network’s activities based on a number of factors. Facebook performs a similar service and when you view your main news feed on the Facebook home page, this is a highly filtered set of news stories. The reason that Facebook limits application feed activity makes sense, they want to filter out application spam.

Facebook already filters out hundreds of stories daily and display the ones that they believe are most important based on their custom algorithm. The news feed filter is what’s of most value for Facebook and as such they should accept as many stories as possible so that they can improve their story filtering algorithm. This would also benefit applications as they get to publish all of a user’s activities.

How would Facebook be able to verify that a user took an action? Easy, Facebook simply needs to verify that some sort of request variable has been posted from the previous page. I believe they already do this for many of the API calls which currently have restrictions. Do you have any problems with news feed spam? Would you benefit from having more stories published about your activities?