Quoted: The casual games industry, for better or worse, is beholden to game distribution websites known as portals (or ‘evil portals,’ depending on who you are). Each of the portals carries a large catalog of games that is fairly unique, but regardless of this fact, casual surveyors of the industry find the portals to be about as dissimilar as the games they carry -- which is to say, not very.

IXDA group on Slideshare

Quoted: The Interaction Design Association is a member-supported organization committed to serving the needs of the international interaction design community. With the help of over 4500 ...

Massively Multiplayer word association game

Wonderful example of data visualization; a human-generated version of the Visual Thesaurus!

Gleemax Alpha design Preview

Wizards is trying to use WOTC and Hasbro's audience and assets in a 'social networking' site for gamers of any kind. They claim to offer something for RPG, TCG, strategy, even board and casual gamers, but the design and marketing is aimed more towards a geekier crowd. The name "Gleemax" says it all.

Quoted: At Gen Con we are previewing the new Gleemax.com. We're aiming to create a gamer's social networking site.

I like Yahoo! Answers' job description for this lead designer role.

Quoted:
Yahoo! Is looking for a Lead Designer for the Yahoo! Answers product. Our vision is to "Enrich people's lives by enabling them to Find, Use, Share, and Expand all Human Knowledge". We need a strong Design Lead, who can think strategically while executing with great eye for detail, to help us accomplish that vision. "Better Search through People" is one aspect of this vision, and Yahoo! Answers is a key product in this brand-new space. Yahoo! Answers is growing quickly to become the best place on the internet to show off what you know, and tap into other people's knowledge. This is a great opportunity to work on a product that impact millions of people and has the potential to change the way people use the internet. This is the perfect position for someone who likes to think big, but who also wants to be involved in the final execution of the product. Check out www.answers.yahoo.com, and a detailed job description at .... Please send any questions about this position and or resumes and portfolios to: ...

Here's the Techcrunch version of the Bear Stearns Yahoo! presentation.

Quoted: There is a bit of buzz around the presentation Bear Stearns Internet analyst Robert Peck gave a couple of days ago. It recommends ...

Quoted: Bear Stearns Internet analyst Robert Peck today wrote a lengthy piece which contends Yahoo (YHOO) urgently needs to figure out a social networking strategy, or risk being marginalized in some of their businesses. He thinks Yahoo is going to have to buy or partner with one of the primary players. Peck says that Yahoo has held talks at various times with Facebook, Bebo, Friendster and MySpace, but that when it comes down to it, we think the price tag is the ultimate factor for a transaction to materialize. Isn't it always. Peck goes on to to build a financial model ...

Is the future a Unified Social Network (USN)?

Their user studies and personas may be helpful for those of you who can't afford to do your own studies but are in the same space. (Yay, free research to look at for next-gen social networks! )

Via Techcrunch. See their post with video demo here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/08/google-yahoo-both-working-on-next-generation-social-networks/

Socialstream is a system where users can seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks. It is the result of a rigorous user-centered design process that involved formal research and evaluation with over 35 participants and weekly critiques from clients and colleagues.

Project is Google-sponsored... Hmmm.....

User experience conference in Chicago - anyone going?

Quoted: ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, and AIGA are excited to announce the third designing for user experience conference (dux07) focused on social media and networks. ¶ ...