After nine long years, half of which have been spent in the dark shadows of social network monolith Facebook, it seems like it might finally be the beginning of the end for Friendster - at least in the Western hemisphere.

Every now and then you hear a great story about someone getting fed up with their job and quitting in dramatic style. A JetBlue flight attendant named Steven Slater probably takes the prize, however, after he reamed out an unruly passenger earlier this week over the plane's intercom, then grabbed two beers from the cantina and exited the plane onto the tarmac using the emergency exit slide.

By this point, nearly everyone working in the marketing and advertising world has at least hard of the power of so-called "Social Marketing" - leveraging the power of the "crowd" - that nameless and shapeless mass of internet users - to market a brand or a product. There are some empowering stories of amazing success - "viral" marketing campaigns, created at an incredibly low-cost, which have resulted in massive increases in business and profits for companies forward-thinking enough to use them.

 Oh my have we come a long way.  In this late 80s CBC Canada news report about "The Internet", there are a whopping 15 million people online, connected around the world to this thing called the Internet.  

Now we have more than 1 billion people on the Internet and Earth is working on connecting the next 1 billion Internet users. 

 This weekend, the old Dallas Cowboys stadium in Irving, Texas was demolished.  The public was invited to watch and film the implosion of the stadium live.  Videos are all over Social networking sites like facebook but especially YouTube, where members of the public filmed the event and uploaded to the Internet.  You can see the stadium come down in the first video below.

 In August of 2009, Nielson Polls reported that Internet users admitted that they were now spending about 17 percent of their surfing time on social networks. This time is up triple the amount from the 2008 poll. It was also discovered that 93 percent of kids in America from the ages of 12 thru 17 were on the Internet daily. Of that 93 percent 55 percent of them admitted that they belonged to a social network. With all this time being spent on the Internet, it would lead one to think about what kind of an effect it is beginning to have on the nucleus of families.

 Here is a very cool and fun video for you.   A team at onemoreproduction has produced this short video where 8 bit pixels take over the city of New York.  

It is very well done.  Enjoy!

The Google Buzz privacy fiasco is anything but over, as all Google Buzz users today will be prompted to take part in a network-wide privacy overhaul. Google's been scrambling to address criticism surrounding the privacy problems that plagued the launch of their Twitter-esque social network, Google Buzz, and this privacy reset is Google's latest attempt.

For some time now, there have been websites and forums catering to gamers. They offer gamers a place to get cheats, exchange information, tips and give them a chance to meet other gamers. So it is not surprising that this niche is upgrading the experience, now there are many gaming social networks out there.  Below, you will find fourteen social gaming networks that cater to a range games and for casual to serious gamers alike.