I went to Noshi Sushi with seven friends on Tuesday. Great food. My friends are in their early to mid-thirties. I asked them if they would ever buy virtual goods. None of them would. They think it’s silly and they don’t see the value. While they do accept virtual gifts from friends through Facebook, they hate it when they are asked to “install the application and share my personal information.”

Today, I sent them some virtual gifts.

I predict virtual gift revenue will finally break through in the US in 2009. Unlike interruption advertising, virtual goods and branded content works great in social networks. Proof? Facebook reportedly made $35M+ in virtual goods in 2008. Now, if they can make that kind of money with their boring clip art - then I predict there’s 100% revenue increases in store for 2009.

How big is this market? In Korea the virtual gift economy is huge and it’s the driving revenue model for loads of market leaders such as CyWorld ($160M annually) and Nexon (80% of $230M revenue). Charles Hudson has a great post here with loads of data (and assumptions.) Thanks Charles! Of course, you may know that virtual worlds like Habbo Hotel and Second Life is all about virtual goods, but those eco-systems are closed and there is no doubt the massive markets are in social networks and mobile.

Viximo is betting big the social market. They seem to think they can be market makers (see interview with CEO here) and their Giftd shop just opened in time for the Holidays. Hi5 just launched their own gift store and MySpace is reported to be working on a version of their own (I have to say, I don’t really understand what’s taking so long. Maybe you know?) Other players in this market includes FooPets, NeoPets, Digital Doll House, and major Scandinavian player StarDoll. There’s Zynga and major player Social Gaming Network who recently bought niche Facebook app developer (fluff)Friends . Also have a look at Artist Licensing and IP companies like Virtual Greats.

My friends say they won’t buy virtual gifts. Would you?

There's no recession in social networks. In the last year, Twitter grew 343%, LinkedIn 193%, and Facebook 116% according to Nielsen. MySpace's growth has stalled at 1%.

It's worth pointing out that pure growth in registration numbers is not the only metrics that matters. Data on user activities such as page views, time spent on site, visit frequency, as well as member interactions and purchases are all important when you evaluate the value of these networks.

Engaging users over time has proven to be tricky. Yeah, you can build it and you might even be able to get people to register. But can you make them stick around? Many can't make it work and that's been an expensive lesson for many brands and marketers.

It's a challenge one of our teams are taking head on. Ryan Nash, Sara Apelkvist, Michael Jung, and Clayton Kjos are developing a new niche social networking site due to launch in January.

We can't wait to share our design experience with you when the BETA site becomes available in late January. Can we make you stick around?

Samsung did something interesting with their latest Instinct campaign. Check this out. The story is wrapped in a series of videos - with interactive choices for the viewer. The story kept me engaged. That's hard to do these days. Clearly someone understands what the Internet is all about: Getting people involved!

Have you seen anything else like it recently?

Samsung Instinct video

I live in Los Angeles. So I know something about love and hate relationships. I love interesting people. I hate traffic.

I feel the same way about Lifestreaming. In short, it's “virtually posting real time updates of your activities.” Taking a picture? Upload it immediately to Flickr. Thinking about buying a rabbit? Let your friends know through your micro-blog.

Early adopters have been doing it for a while with Tumblr, Jaiku, Soup, and Twitter.

From your mothers perspective, it all makes sense. Your family always wants to know what you're up to. Some friends might even care.

I'm torn. When my friends came back from Burningman - again - I checked their pictures on Facebook. (I missed the playa this year - not so much the dust-storms). Many of my friends are creators or producers. They create art, music, or products in their professional lives. Facebook makes it easy for me keep up on their latest innovations or adventures.

On the other hand, the constant stream of personal experiences on social networks networks makes disconnecting hard. If you're not in the stream - how are you going to hold up in conversation? I want to feel as if I can disconnect anytime - not missing anything. Just like e-mail, this bastard is always on.

Regardless of how you feel, Lifestreaming is here to stay. So, you might as well get on with it. Especially if you're a marketer (aren't we all?) here's a few things to think about:

Using common utilities such as Facebook, you can quickly close the communication loop with the people you love, no matter where they are. You can share what matters anytime in real time. This sets the pace for communication: faster than e-mail!

In fact, Facebook's little news-feed represents a big leap in social media. (Yeah, I know there has been others but the wide adoption makes use of Facebook more relevant to more people).

As bloggers have proven, social groups with massive influence forms around those most connected.
Those people who have social graphs with several hundred connections become very valuable nodes in marketing networks. We call them influencers. You should get to know them - or become one.

If you want to take advantage of lifestreaming for your brand - here are a few of the top opportunities:

• Research - massive data pools on actual behavior. With the right tools, you can tap data for intel on behaviour and trends. That's big.
• Real-time intelligence: surfing the actual real-time behavior of millions is pop-culture in motion.
• Marketing: Micro-segmenting based on social graph and behavior.
• Small brands can kick ass: The media landscape is flatter - anyone can do anything to get attention. That means we might get more Tila Tequila and less quality. (I hate the fact that I know her name.)

Now, are you a producer, creator, follower or spectator?

Get your goggles on. It's not a dust storm yet, but it's going to take a while before it all becomes clear.

If you care about the environment, check out GoodGuide. It's an excellent guide to healthy products. Here's what I like about it:

They stick to the basics. Design is clean with enough white-space to let the eye rest.

The “Quick Product Picks” section is really useful. I imagine they did a study on what 90%+ of their audience look for most often - then they designed the “get recommendations” engine. I used it right away.

Immediately under “Search” they mention that they have “61,041 products.” It makes sense to do that. I would make sure that number is updated frequently (ticker-style) to ensure that people are reminded that the product selection is growing. That's an easy thing to do.

Good people at GoodGuide: Cool product!

A few months ago,an interactive marketing agency with offices in LA and NYC asked us if we could do some “word of mouth” (WOM) marketing for one of their clients.

They wanted to hire our team to “post about the product to message boards and social networks.” Fake promotion. Also known as Astroturfing. The practice I'm referring to here is fake product reviews, comments by people hiding their identity while being paid to comment, or fake “customer” dialogues. It's dirty. So much so that this behavior is now illegal in the EU.

We declined to do the campaign, partly because the product sucked, but mostly because we think lying is a bad idea. Pretending to be someone you are not is not cool.

As you may know, a lot of brands and PR firms engage in this practice. For example, Home Depot recently seems to have done some remodeling on their product reviews. Big brands make big mistakes. Even Coke stumbled.

Are you a marketer thinking about doing some Astroturfing? Go surfing. You'll feel better. Besides, wouldn't your time be better spent building relationships with real customers? You could even talk to them. Maybe consider working with brands that matter to you? Then, when time comes, you don't have to fake it. You can tell the truth. That's organic marketing.

There are countless examples of this nonsense hurting brands. You got some you want to share?

So, Fabric recently finished work on a new web application, PolicyMap.com, and I can't stop playing with it. It's not even a game; it maps geographic data in a layered, easy-to-use map interface. Our main focus was on UX/UI for both the application itself as well as the wrapper site the application resides on.

Just enter an address and start researching the demographics - income, school test scores, crime data, etc, etc. Anyone who owns a home, is thinking of buying a home, knows someone who owns a home, knows someone who is thinking of buying a home, or you've just plain been inside a home… you'll probably immediately see the value of this application.

I don't know why I can't stop. It started with looking up all the statistics of my own neighborhood. I clicked on almost every possible data layer. How much money are my neighbors making? How much money should I be making to stay juuuuuust above average? Should I worry about my car getting jacked? What if someone decides I should have kids? Will they grow up intellectually stunted because my particular school system values snack foods over music education? I've probably spent over an hour just researching my particular block. And believe me, I know exactly - precisely - which statistics to spit at you to make my neighborhood seem like the place you should be living.

But, wait! What if you're already living in a great neighborhood?! I started looking up my friends neighborhoods. Dammit! Their block has less old people living on it! I've memorized the exact set of data precisely calibrated to send every close friend I have into a wracking fit of sobbing. It's awesome.

Also, my girlfriend makes me look up the neighborhoods I really, really should be living in…

How many times per week do you ask your friends: “Where are you?” There is no doubt social networking on your mobile phone is a big opportunity. According to Emarketer, the size of this market is expanding fast. 800 million people will be using their phones as mobile networking devices by 2012. (It was about 82 million in 2007).

So, who's playing in this market? Who's worth your (limited) attention? Here's a few that might kick up some dust:

Sniffu. Really? That's one of the worst names I've heard in a while. While the name sucks, they got some things right. I like the value proposition. It makes immediate sense. I also like that they don't seem to be trying to do too much. Keeping it simple. Their “Safety” page clearly illustrates the big issue all of these companies face: “Do people really want other people to know where they are in real time?”

Where also just landed a partnership with Yelp (Article here) . They could be a player to watch.

Dodgeball is an established player in start-up terms. Odd name. Not certain I get it. On the positive side, they did some good work on the user interface to explain what it is. I think the experience can be improved by giving the user more control of the animations.

Loopt got their partnerships down. Last week, they did a deal with Yelp. This makes a lot of sense for established and new Yelp users. Loopt is in a good position to make some moves. It works on 80+ phones, which I think is a real critical factor to success.

Next2Friends: Decent design. I found it interesting that these guys are funded by Simon - a real estate company. Why? Well, they own a bunch of malls, so they might possibly be making a play for mall-rats. “I'm in the store! Come see me while i try on some new boots!”

Their “Proximity Tagging” uses P2P Bluetooth to connect and record relative matches to other users and businesses that you come into close proximity to. Smart play for a real estate company. However, they have to be careful with the user experience. Make it too commercially driven and they risk alienating users.

Zannel is all about life-streaming. Share your pictures and video. Unfortunately, they stuff the UI with Google ads. This ruins it for me. Sorry lads and ladies. That's not the way to go. Please, let's see less - not more - clutter.

Radar has done a really nice job on their interface. Smart and clean design. For many users, photos drives sharing. Radar gets it.

Plazes Back in 2007, I wrote a post about them here. I wasn't too happy about their user experience at the time. They fixed it and they just got acquired by Nokia last month. That means this is possibly the gorilla to watch. Coming out of Berlin, Plazes is still a bit German-centric and, as with all mobile social networks , that's a challenge if you live in Los Angeles (or any other US city).

If you do happen to live in the US, you might check out Platial. I just installed their iPhone application today and I'll be taking it for a spin at the Sunset Junction Street Fair tonight.

Another player in this space seems to be Brightkite, who seems to be in private BETA. I've not tried it yet, but I'll give it a run once I get access.

The real question is how all these players are going to scale. It's not going to be easy and we'll have to see what happens when Facebook and Google really pick up steam. Meanwhile, go startups!

Everything is changing fast. Advertising, media, marketing, content, and context. We think social media is at the center of it all. So, what to do? Jump in. Don't sit back. If you’re not sure what to do, don’t think about it. Just do something. It will likely be better than doing nothing.

That’s our attitude anyway. Just do something. Here are some things you can do to engage:

Get a Twitter account. Why? You’ll learn something new. You can follow me here http://twitter.com/bergen3000

Get a Facebook account and use it. Why? You’ll find old friends. People you forgot. Those geeks in your class you forgot about. Oh, yeah, they are now running cool companies and doing amazing stuff.

Use LinkedIn. Yeah, it works. 20 million business people can’t be wrong. You must know someone, right?

Get the new iPhone. The mobile Web has arrived.

Try www.Summize.com. See what the Buzz is about.

What are you waiting for?

We got our act together (sort of) and launched our new site. Yes, we have been busy with clients. Yes, we have hired great people. And, it is true, we are changing everything. Regardless, there shall be no more excuses. Bang! We are alive.

We’ll slip you a few pills before New Years. No, really, we will.

30 Days is on the road again – this time we have a big surprise for you. A highly respected ad agency in NYC just hired us to do a cool project for the City. A truly great Art Director just joined us in Los Angeles.

Oh, we just finished a project for Tampax. Yep. You heard it here first.