One of the companies adopting Facebook's new log-in system, Facebook Connect, is CBS, parent company of CNET and publisher of Webware. I'm glad we're on board with this program, even if I do feel it's a bit of Faustian deal. Here's why.

First of all, CNET's own log-in system (which you see when you want to leave a comment on a CNET blog post, write a user review, or participate in other CNET community features) is not universally loved inside CNET. There are factions here at the company who want it changed, or even eliminated in some cases. There are also people who think we could be collecting more data from our registered users. The log-in system here is a political hot potato.

The conflict shows how important the log-in/registration system is, here and elsewhere. The value of a Web service lies in its users. More users means more opportunities to profit--by selling advertising based on what you know about your users, by selling the users services directly, by skimming a portion of the revenues users generate by traveling through your site, and by selling information about the users. If a site doesn't "own" its users, how can it profit?

It can, of course. You don't need to chain your customers to your store to get them to buy things from you. That is the realization creeping across the Web in the guise of new identify and registration systems, of which Facebook Connect is one.

Kinds of identity
Facebook Connect is a centralized identity service. That's not the only model. OpenID is a federated identity play--no one owns the database of users, and anyone can set up or use the standard. Functionally these distinctions are important, but asking users to understand them is a losing game. Users just want easy access to sites they like, and they want to trust that the sites they use won't steal their identity or use it in ways that are damaging to them.

That's why it's good to offer users more than one way to access a Web service. It's great if users can get into CNET services the old-fashioned way, with a CNET ID and password. But if we make it easy for Facebook users to come inside, that's great, too. How about OpenID? Sure, why not? It's a completely different architecture than Facebook's authentication system, but it's the job of people running Web sites to make access to services easy for users, which means supporting as many as possible and making it simple for users to choose the one they want to use.

No one here could look at Facebook Connect and turn down the opportunity to bring new registered users into our network. Even if they are registered elsewhere.

The downside, of course, is that we no longer "own" these users. If Facebook wants to turn off CNET, they can do it. Facebook also now gets monetizable information about the Facebook-registered CNET users. Not necessarily what the users do on CNET, but what they do elsewhere--valuable behavior data. The convenience of using Facebook log-ins has a price for both CNET and users: Facebook knows a lot more about you now.

But this is where we're going. Sites like ours will do what they do: create content and online services, and offer users community around those services. Users' identities are becoming untethered from the sites they use. More and more, services will be giving new visitors options for signing in to access the "registered" features of the sites.

Users get convenience. Sites get more users. Central registration authorities get incredibly valuable user behavior data. I do think everyone wins. Although nothing is free: there's more potential for abuse, on the part of sites and identity providers, than ever.

CNET is scheduled to launch support for Facebook Connect tomorrow.

Further Reading:
Facebook Connect appears set for expansion.
New York Times: Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web.
TechCrunch: Biggest Battle Yet For Social Networks: You, Your Identity And Your Data On The Open Web.

Yahoo and Virgin Mobile have reached an agreement according to which prior’s search service will be pre-installed to latter’s 4 million mobile subscribers in the UK. The search engine is trying to grab the mobile search market in the Europe. After UK, the next key targets of Yahoo are France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

According to Mitch Lazar, Yahoo’s head of mobile operations in the Europe:

We will continue to focus on investing in this area. It falls squarely within our strategy of indispensable starting points.

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The New York Times, in a big-picture story Sunday about the social network's plans to extend its reach across the Web, notes that the Facebook Connect service is gearing up for expansion:

In the next few weeks, a number of prominent Web sites will weave this service into their pages, including those of the Discovery Channel and The San Francisco Chronicle, the social news site Digg, the genealogy network Geni, and the online video hub Hulu.

And TechCrunch's Michael Arrington chimed in with a related post about Facebook Connect and other such services, noting that Facebook had slated Sunday as the start of "a big press push" for Facebook Connect.

Facebook Connect was launched in May as a way for members to connect their profile data and authentication credentials to external Web sites, much like services offered by rivals MySpace and Google. Members can use their Facebook identities across the Web, including profile photos, names, photos, friends, groups, events, and other information. Facebook handles the authentication process and the company has stressed that user security will be a priority.

Some of the other announced Facebook Connect partners include: Movable Type, Amiando, CBS.com, CNET (that's us, of course) CitySearch, CNET, CollegeHumor, Disney-ABC Television Group, Evite, Flock, Kongregate, Loopt, Plaxo, Radar, Red Bull, Seesmic, Socialthing!, StumbleUpon, The Insider, Twitter, Uber, Vimeo, and Xobni.

Yahoo’s new online multi-player game VideoTagGame lets you tag while the video is streamed. You can access the game through your Yahoo account. Points are awarded when similar tags are submitted by two players. More points can be scored if the time between the submission of similar tag is short. The game is fun, I scored 364 points (not bad for a starter). You can check out the game here.

According to Yahoo the aim of the game is to:

explore the quality of streamed video tagging mechanisms, to research the ability of users to tag video and the level of agreement between users in a time-sensitive setting.

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I know that the ArcticStartup guys are developing their own version of CrunchBase to cover Nordic and Baltic companies, but Finnish startups can and should add their information to CrunchBase right now.

CrunchBase is a free database of startup information developed by TechCrunch.  CrunchBase is propably the best database available for public information on startup and it’s a shame that most Finnish startups have neglected the service.One of the features they have is the ability to grab company information in widget form that I would like to use on this blog, if there only would be more Finnish startups listed there.

So, Finnish startups, if you haven’t done anything to increase your visibility today, go and add your company to CrunchBase right now. And then add yourselves to another similar service, TradeVibes too. No excuses, just do it! You’ll thank yourself later.

Toby Coppel, Yahoo’s Managing Director for Europe and Canada has left the company today. BoomTown has now managed to get hold of the Internal memo sent out by Sue Decker, President of Yahoo:

From: Sue Decker
To: XXXX
Sent: Thu Nov 27 09:02:28 2008
Subject: Yahoo! Europe & Canada update

Yahoos,

I want to update you on our Get Fit initiatives in Europe and Canada and to announce a leadership change for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Over the past 18 months, under Toby’s leadership, the Agenda2010 strategy has resulted in greater discipline, focus and stronger operating performance in Europe and Canada. There have been a number of important accomplishments and milestones in this time specifically:

• Market share gains in our display business in all markets over the past 12 months
• Growth in the Canadian display business of over 50% in 2008
• Shift towards a global development approach for Front Page, Search and Mail
• Elimination or divestiture of underperforming or non-core businesses such as Kelkoo which was sold last week
• Increased efficiency and higher margins, including reductions in headcount, travel & entertainment and marketing costs
• Establishment of new Switzerland HQ for greater business efficiency
• Higher performing sales organization including a Superstar Inside Sales Team
• Reduction in the number of layers and increase in spans of control

Now that much of this foundation has been built, Toby and I agree it’s a logical time to transition to a more focused management team in Europe. Today I am announcing that Toby will be stepping down as MD Yahoo! Europe & Canada.

I am very pleased to tell you that effective immediately, Rich Riley will assume the position of SVP, Yahoo! Europe & Canada. Toby will work closely with Rich to ensure a smooth transition and will remain with Yahoo! until the end of Q1 2009.

Rich has been with Yahoo! for almost ten years, during which he has held a wide range of roles and ever increasing responsibilities. He joined Yahoo! when we acquired the startup he co-founded which ultimately invented the Yahoo! Toolbar. From there he played important roles in corporate and business development, building and leading our U.S. small and medium business division and most recently leading our Advertiser & Publisher Group in Europe. He has worked closely with Toby and the European and U.S. leadership teams to shape the strategy and has delivered powerful results to our European business. I’m confident that Rich will be a strong and successful leader for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Under Rich’s leadership, Europe will continue on the path it has been on for the last year. This transition is a continuation of the Agenda2010 work that is underway.

Please join me in welcoming Rich to this new role and thanking Toby for his leadership, passion and tireless contributions to Yahoo! over the past 7 years.

Sue

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Another severe blow to Yahoo’s already sinking ship as Toby Coppel, Yahoo’s EVP and MD of Europe and Canada, departs the Internet giant. Coppel would be succeeded by Rich Riley, the current SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group – a position that puts him in charge of all revenues for the publisher division.

BoomTown has some more info on Coppel:

Coppel, who came to Yahoo with former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel in 2001, has run European operations for Yahoo for 18 months. And most of his time has been spent restructuring and making massive cuts.

The unit will have about one-third of the people as when Coppel arrived by the first quarter, after the current round of layoffs. And, if you include Yahoo’s sale of the comparison-shopping site Kelkoo last week, the size of the division is 45 percent of its former size.

Coppel also shepherded the move of Yahoo’s European HQ to Switzerland from higher-priced London. Most of its top managers are now located there, although London remains an important Yahoo outpost, since it is the largest online ad market in Europe.

Coppel will remain with Yahoo until the end of the first quarter to ensure a smooth transition. He told BoomTown in an interview that his future plans are undetermined, except to welcome his third child into the world very soon.

But Icahn still thinks that the current Yahoo share price is a bargain.

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Don’t know what’s going through the mind of Carl Icahn, apparently he thinks that the current share price of Yahoo is a Thanks Giving bargain, that’s why he has bought another 6.7 million Yahoo shares for about $65 million. Icahn had previously bought 69 million shares at about $25. At todays $10.58 per share, Icahn’s 76 million shares are worth around $800 million, whereas the investor has spent around $1.7 billion in buying these shares and in order to just break even Icahn would have to sell his stakes at $23 a share – that’s eternal distance considering today’s market conditions.

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But the best feature of Notify.Me is being updated about specific keyword articles - more on that later though.

To get started with Notify.Me, head on over to the website and click on ‘Register’. Give them a username, password and an arm and a leg … oh sorry, your email address. That should do it. You’ll get an email from Notify.Me with an embedded link. Click on the link to verify your email address and you’re good to go.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll have to set up your Notify.Me account. From here on, the process involves following a simple wizard and giving the website some information.

The first screen asks you for your mobile number so that Notify.Me can send you notifications over SMS. I don’t know if you’d like to be SMS’ed every time Techcrunch posts a new article but for news and similar stuff, I can definitely see the use.

Did I tell you that you can also configure Notify.Me to send you updates over IM ? The next step in the account setup wizard shows you how to do exactly that. They have instructions for working with Pidgin, Google Talk, Adium and Jabber, so they’ve got pretty much all operating systems covered, although personally I’d love to see MSN and Yahoo messenger also on that list.

The next screen asks will let you enter all the feeds that you’d like notify.me to keep a track of.

The best part is that you can even filter the kind of notifications that you want to be, well, notified about.

For example, suppose you only want to hear about Gmail related articles on MakeUseOf. Just head over here to MakeUseOf. In the search box, type Gmail and press enter. Now, copy the URL from the address bar and paste it in the Notify.Me text box marked ‘Feed’. That’s it.

Now, every time there is an article mentioning Gmail on Make Use Of, you’ll get a notification. You can even filter the source further by specifying keywords in the filter text box. Click on the IM, SMS or email icon to set the method by which you want to get your fix … err, feed.

This can also obviously be done for any other blogs too where you would like to only be notified about articles on particular subjects.   Just go to that site, enter the subject into the blog’s search engine and copy the URL into Notify.Me’s text box.

So, you’re all set now? What if one day you’re surfing your blues away and come across a really interesting site and would like to see that added to your notify list?  Well, Notify.Me has you covered there too. With the bookmarklets that they provide, you can add new sources to your account as fast as you can click the bookmark button.

I can definitely see myself using this service to keep myself abreast of the latest news and blog posts. Are there any other similar services that you guys use ? I’d love to hear about them.

(By) Sharninder is a programmer, blogger and a geek making a living writing software to change the world. He is also passionate about open source and loves to ride around the country on his Royal Enfield motorcycle. Read all about his exploits at his weblog - NomadicRider.

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Yahoo has launched a new search technology called vertical lens, with TechCrunch being the first one to implement it. The newly implemented search on TechCrunch allows its users to not only search content on TechCrunch and its network sites, but also from across the web right from the search box on the site.

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