Via Chris Bird: a nifty map of social networking sites based on their popularity in countries around the world.

Some thoughts:

• I’d love to see some historical data. It’d be neat to see Facebook’s growth versus myspace in English-speaking countries
• Why has Facebook been so so slow to launch international (non-English) versions of the platform? It’s only now that they’re getting going on that. It seems to me that the time spent developing the application system would have been better spent shoring up mindshare in big markets like India and Latin America.
• Friendster? REALLY, Asian Pacific?

This stuff may seem trivial now, but consider the future of business as a peer to peer network of contacts and resources. Your chosen platform may end up meaning more than you think.

Ed Gottsman at ZDnet writes:

The workplace won’t change because of Gen-Y’s values. It’ll change because of their tools. In particular, social networking tools. Now, if you’re like me you are sick unto death of hearing about MySpace, FaceBook and LinkedIn. But part of the reason they keep coming up is that they’re important.

There’s a bit too much exasperated-old-foginess coming out of this article, but Gottsman makes a good point here:

So one of the most important assets Gen-Y will bring to the workplace is its Facebook account: an enormous “rolodex” of acquaintances–probably larger, more varied and better maintained than those of top management. Enterprises will be well-advised to encourage cultivation of this contact list–in other words, to let their employees “play” on FaceBook–since this activity will serve as a source of new customers and recruits.

While I have mixed feelings on Facebook and its long term prospects (more on that later), there’s definitely something to the idea that Gen Y employees will bring social networking clout to businesses. Already businesses have seen the kind of success a timely link from digg, slashdot and BoingBoing can bring them. My own digg experience has shown that a front page appearance on a weekday during business hours can net a web site some 30,000 pageviews. Considering posting to digg costs $0, it’s hard to think of more effective advertising.

I do think this is an area where Gen Y will have to be smart, though. No matter how much the corporate landscape shifts, no one’s ever going to get hired because they have over 1,000 MySpace or Facebook friends. Especially if your social networking activities are limited to superpokes and Scrabulous. On the other hand, if someone happens to have regular IM or twitter contact with Jason Kottke, waxy or the gang at 37 signals, that’s an immediately valuable thing for business. That’s an employee who has the connections to get you major exposure across the web.

This shouldn’t just be limited to so-called ‘web’ companies, either. This is something that all businesses would do well to keep in mind, especially as more people — and not just the sketchy ‘SEO’ market lurking about these days — come into business with extensive social networking experience and knowledge.

Photo by Aristocrat. Licensed under Creative Commons.

The headline at forbes.com is Mister Softee Buys Cool, referring to yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft is in the process of a hostile takeover of Yahoo! and all their properties.

So, why is this merger/buyout in the works? Simple: It is all about the Facebook Nation. This is apparently the main focus of the Microsoft plan, as they have been slowly moving toward a greater relationship with Facebook for some time. Have you taken notice of the sea change to the look and feel of Microsoft? As a company, it has finally realized that “square corners” is not selling. Microsoft wants desperately to be hip. It owns the desktop, but it doesn’t own the action/nightlife.

Think of a teenager living in his parent’s home. He uses it as a place to flop, eat and wash. He tolerates his parents yet keeps them at a social distance. Once he has his wings, he is out of there. Apple (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) has done a good job at capturing the early adoption of many of the Gen-Xers and now Gen-Y is up for grabs. This is the social generation with idealism.

It’s a good point and it throws the spotlight on something really interesting about this deal: Yahoo! wasn’t at the very top of Microsoft’s to-buy list when it comes to ‘hip’ web properties. What they really wanted, and have been angling for for months, is Facebook. But Mark Zuckerberg – worth billions and one year younger than me (dammit!) – wasn’t playing ball: Microsoft ended up only getting a small piece.

There’s no doubting that Microsoft desperately wants to foster a more youth-friendly image, but I’m not sure Yahoo! will do anything to help that. For the most part, Yahoo! is too big to really seem cool. Some of their properties have the right kind of cred: Flickr is definitely cool. Del.icio.us is pretty cool. Even the Fantasy Sports sites have potential. But Yahoo! Finance and News? The search engine itself? The mail program? These things are nowhere near as ‘cool’ as Google’s products. Plus, there’s not really any “Yahoo! Communities” on the level of Facebook, Myspace or even Digg.

Is it a bad deal? Probably not. If anything, it takes out a major third party in the Battle for the Web, leaving this as essentially a two-horse race. (With maybe Newscorp hanging out somewhere, far behind.) But any talk of the Yahoo! buy giving Microsoft more Gen Y appeal seems a little presumptuous.

Photo by Gnal. Licensed under Creative Commons

One of the more pervasive memes about Generation Y is that we’re narcissistic. It goes so far that one of the other names for “Generation Y” (in addition to Millennials and Nexus Generations, both of which makes us sound far too much like robots for my tastes) is the “Me Generation.” This can be seen to various degrees in a lot of writing about our generation. There’s mild stuff, like the article Generation Y: Connectivity & Enjoyment which just sort of oversimplifies the generational issues and sums it all up as this:

Contrary to their parents, for whom “the job” dictated everything, for generation why-ers, enjoyment comes first. They choose where and what kind of lifestyles they want to lead and then choose their careers accordingly.

But then there’s the far more negative slant, such as in this article from the Christian Science Monitor. They write:

A little smug self-absorption might be a time-honored trait of at least some subsets of the under-30 crowd.

But over the past few decades the prevailing disposition among college students – today labeled Generation Y or Millennials – has slid into full-blown narcissism, according to a study released this week.

The “all about me” shift means much more than lots of traffic at self-revelatory websites such as YouTube and Facebook. It points, says the study’s author, to a generation’s lack of empathy, its inability to form relationships – and worse.

I think the they labeled YouTube & Facebook as self-revelatory is fairly telling of their inability to really understand both what those websites and the generational attitudes they refer to really mean. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and the other Social Networking sites aren’t fueled by egotistical tendencies — they’re driven by social tendencies. It’s not just about logging on and telling the world what you’re doing. It’s also about seeing what everyone else is doing. And for most, that’s the real compelling reason behind being part of a social networking site. If it was just one person sharing their thoughts, activities & photos with the world, you wouldn’t see anywhere near the same level of popularity. (Plus, it’d just be a blog — not that blogs and blog authors are egotistical!)

This worry that Gen Y has too much self-esteem is actually pretty funny when you think about it. I guess the concern is that we’re too confident and have unrealistic expectations. But the subtext seems to be “life sucks, and you should know that already.”

Is too much confidence harmful? I guess so. But a good deal less so that a bunch of people who have no faith at all in their own ability. Nobody with ‘realistic’ or less-than-realistic levels of self esteem has ever created, invented or changed anything. If you want to see a parade of so-called narcissists, look no further than this video.

It’s the optimism — that so many write off as a negative thing — that separates us from Gen X, who were known for their cynicism, amongst other things. And, sure, the optimism can in a lot of cases manifest itself as egotism or narcissism — and I’ll be the first to point out that that can be really really annoying — but even in spite of that it is this generation’s hope and belief in change that has most strongly defined it.

And, yeah, we expect to enjoy the things we do, at work and otherwise. That some people find that difficult to understand seems to indicate a problem with them, and not us, doesn’t it? Not to draw lines in the sand or anything.

Photo by Huro Kitty. Licensed under Creative Commons