Last month I blogged about a social photo sharing app called Photovine. This app was released almost the same time as Google+ and was created by Slide a company acquired by Google last year. I only got to try out Photovine a few days ago and I really like it. I love Instagram but Photovine provides a different type of experience.

Photovine has a lot of potential and I believe that it can be successful in the social photo sharing market. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to find out because Photovine along with other Slide social apps like Slideshow, SuperPoke! Pets, Video Inbox and Pool Party will be “retired” in the coming months. This was announced yesterday via Slide’s official blog.

We wanted to give you all advance notice that in the coming months, a number of Slide’s products and applications will be retired. This includes Slide’s products such as Slideshow and SuperPoke! Pets, as well as more recent products such as Photovine, Video Inbox and Pool Party. We created products with the goal of providing a fun way for people to connect, communicate and share. While we are incredibly grateful to our users and for all of the wonderful feedback over the years, many of these products are no longer as active or haven’t caught on as we originally hoped.

Most importantly, we wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that we’re committed to helping our users preserve their data as easily as possible. We recognize that many of you have stored valuable content with us and want to assure you that, wherever possible, you will have ample time to download that information or transfer it to another service.

For example, on Slide.com, we will enable users to either download their photos or export them to a Picasa account. We are working to release this export feature over the coming weeks and, once added, users will have several months to take advantage of transferring their photos.

Thanks again for all of your support, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to share more details in the coming days and weeks on how to access and save your content from specific Slide products. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to contact us at feedback@slide.com. Or visit this page for any additional updates.

Anybody else use Photovine or other Slide social apps? Do you think Google’s decision to shut down Slide’s social apps is a good one? Should Google keep Photovine running? Please share your thoughts.

Here’s this week’s edition of the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

Blogging

• 6 Common Slip-Ups that Make Your Blog Look Bad
• 2 Blogging Myths: Traffic Measures Success and Content Is King
• Taking Your Blog Off Topic
• The 3 Most Common Copyright Mistakes Bloggers Make

WordPress

• Add Custom Links to WordPress Admin Bar
• How to Add Facebook Send Button in WordPress
• 5 Must Try Premium SEO Plugins for WordPress
• WordPress and the Lost Password

SEO

• The Role of On-Page SEO Content: Relevance, Not Rankings
• SEO for YouTube : The Basics
• The SEO Bucket List: 3 Things to Do Before Your Site Dies
• Panda Slaying: How Nature Teaches SEOs to Adapt to Search Algorithm Changes

Social Media

• 6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure
• Do We Really Need Another Blog About Social Media?
• 3 Reasons to Stick with Social Media
• Social Media Adoption and The Stages of Grief

Technology

• Countries Ranked In Terms of Internet Freedom
• Why You Should Password Protect Your Wi-Fi Network
• New Tool Hides Data In Plain Sight On HDDs
• The Future of In-Car Computing

Gadgets

• Samsung Galaxy S II review
• Wearable LEGO Minifig Helmet Streams Audio Comics
• Acer Iconia Tab A500 Review
• LG Optimus Big Officially Announced

Pinoy Blogs

• Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100 vs Galaxy S i9000
• Globe 4G demos HSPA+ performance to Media
• Income Taxation and Tax Rates in the Philippines
• Friendster to Drop Most Social Networking Features on May 31

JaypeeOnline Weekly Recap

• Delicious Acquired by YouTube Founders
• BestBuy 10%OFF Printable Coupon 4/1/11-5/31/11
• WordPress 3.1.2 Security Update
• What Is A WordCamp? [Infographic]
• ThemeFuse Premium WordPress Themes Giveaway Winners
• Lastminute Auction – Great eBay Bargains
• WPZOOM Social Media Icon Set

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or would want to share your article or any interesting story that you found in the Internet and have it featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

From the Edelman Digital website:

..we wanted to celebrate our own milestone in social media by producing something of value for you. The social media milestones poster puts together some key events that have happened in social media over the years. Some are company related and others, purely societal. We couldn’t fit everything we would have liked—but these are some significant ones. The asset is for you—to put on your office wall, share with friends or enhance your presentations. It’s our way of saying thank you—and also our acknowledgment that this thing we all refer to as “social” is here to stay and has fundamentally shifted how we communicate, connect and create.

Here’s the Social Media Milestones infographic:

click here to view the the image in full size.

How do you like the Social Media Milestones infographic? Which is/are your favorite social media milestone? Any other social media-related milestone/s that should be in the infograph? Please share your thoughts.

OnlineSchools.org created the History of Social Networking Infographic to visually share the rich 30-year history of social networking. Aside from the different facts and figures, it also includes some trivia or fun facts like the first e-mail ever sent contained the message “QWERTYUIOP” or Usenet was the birthplace of flame wars and trolling or that the first version of Myspace was coded only in 10 days. For some these information is old news but for some it’s completely new. Nevertheless I hope you guys enjoy it.

Click here to view the full sized image of the History of Social Networking Infographic.

I joined Friendster back in June of 2003 and at that time, it wasn’t popular yet in the Philippines. I didn’t know anyone there except for my friend Hunny who invited me to join Friendster. My account is still active, but I no longer use Friendster and haven’t logged in to my account in a long time. Friendster remains to be a top player in the social networking market in Asia, especially in Southeast-Asia. Although most of them are now on Facebook, some of my friends from the Philippines and Indonesia continue to use Friendster or prefer to use it rather than Facebook.

Anyways, I got an email today from Friendster containing the press release for the launch of its social gaming and music portals in Asia. Friendster have a long ways to go to catch up or get close to Facebook and other social networking giants but since they have a strong presence in Asia and music and social gaming (especially MMO games) being very popular in that region, I think that this is the right move to make towards getting a bigger bite from the social networking market in Asia.

Here’s the official Press Release that Friendster sent me.

FRIENDSTER TO LAUNCH MUSIC AND GAMES PORTALS IN ASIA

SINGAPORE, 23 September, 2010 – Friendster, a leading social networking site for young Asians, today announced that it is launching social media portals for music and social gaming fans in Asia.

The portals are the latest ventures from Friendster which was acquired in December last year by MOL Global (www.molglobal.net), one of Asia’s leading online payment companies.

“As a social networking site, Friendster has tremendous experience to make the Friendster Music and Friendster Games as socially connected portals for developers, artists and their fans. Friendster has a strong physical presence in Asia and now that it is part of MOL Global, we see huge opportunities to partner with developers and independent musicians to aid them in new ways of delivering and monetising their content to their fans,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Friendster’s CEO and Group CEO for MOL Global.

Friendster Music

Friendster Music (music.friendster.com) looks to champion independent music from around the region, aiding the discovery of new music and catered towards the Asian consumer by providing content and information that are useful and relevant to this region. The music portal provides the latest information on music news, updates and concerts happening around the region, featuring new music from independent artists as well as running online contests for free giveaways of merchandise, concert tickets and more.

Friendster Music will also feature artist profiles of up-and-coming, as well as established, artists from around the region and allow these artists to build their own communities. Plans are underway to feature music blogs and reviews as well as ringtone downloads and Friendster is already in discussion with several record labels to feature their content on the portal.

Currently Friendster Music is available in beta stage only for Malaysia. However, with the aim to become a regional platform for music, there are plans to launch in Philippines and Singapore in the coming months.

In Philippines, Friendster is already planning a series of on-the-ground events across the country in the next few months that will prominently feature some of the local independent artists building communities to support the upcoming launch of the portal in the country.

Friendster Games

As social games become increasingly popular among online users, Friendster recently launched a new gaming portal. Friendster Games (friendster.com/games) is designed to deliver easier-to-access, entertaining, locally flavoured and highly immersive MMO (massively multiplayer online) web games to Friendster users. Currently, the portal features new games such as BoomZ, War2, 3Kingdom, Sushido and Lady Popular played right within the browser.

Friendster is currently building partnerships with content developers, driving marketing activities of the portal across Asia and leveraging on MOL’s strong distribution channels and monetization services.

Intended as a beta service, the new music and games portals will pave the way for social gaming and virtual goods to be the central part of Friendster’s future.

The new portals are complemented by various online and on-the-ground activities in the region such as the recent successful official profile launch of Philippines’ radio personality Mr. FU (http://profiles.friendster.com/dearmrfu) which has reignited interest among users on Friendster.

“Friendster is a brand that is close to the hearts of many Filipinos around the world. The on-line love show through my Friendster profile has provided another venue for my fans to connect with me and share their love problems,” said Mr Fu. “I am happy that a global brand such as Friendster can remain true to the needs of so many people.”

Friendster also announced that MOL Internet café which is already highly popular for its gaming customers in Malaysia has now been renamed to Friendster iCafe. The iCafe, located on the 9th floor of Malaysia’s Berjaya Times Square mall and equipped with 80 high performance PCs, has started to run promotions of Friendster Games.

Anyone here using Friendster? What do you think of Friendster’s upcoming music and social gaming portals? Do you think it will click and be successful or will it be a flop? Please share your thoughts.