From Mashable:

Facebook had already shared its plans to help you clean up your now-cluttered profile, thanks to all those applications, and today the new feature has arrived. A new option for an extended profile basically offers a “page 2″ of sorts, so visitors to your profile can choose to see all those extra, bottom rung applications if they want to. Instead of seeing an ongoing stream of applications on your profile, they’ll now see a truncated version, with the option to see more.

From the looks of it, Facebook will detect which applications display at the bottom of your profile. You can select to move one or all of these apps to your extended profile. This can be edited at any time, in case you tire of another application that’s showing on your profile. A link on your profile will let you view your extended profile as well.

I've been watching the MySpaceification of Facebook for a while now, and shaking my head the whole time. It's proven to me very clearly that a lot of people, simply put, have no taste.

From a Facebook user's perspective this is great news, more control over my own profile to highlight what content I care about.

But from the perspective of someone who builds applications, this makes my life that much more difficult. Having your application shunted to the bottom/second page of a profile reduces its visibility exponentially.

But all is not lost, you just have to build an App that's cool and engaging enough that a user will want to place it on their profile's mainpage.

I just received an email from Lee Brenner of MySpace noting the launch of a Presidential Primary on the site.

The point of this Primary? "For America’s youth to voice their opinion on the candidate best qualified to lead the nation as President of the United States."

To vote and participate, visit impact.myspace.com.

The "polling booth" launched at 3:01 AM EST on January 1 and closes at 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, January 2.

Sounds good. Now, go vote and be heard.

In regards, to the post below - my thoughts are this. Talk about John McCain on MySpace tonight, please....

Here's a poll with cool music to convince you.

John McCain is on a roll. The New Hampshire Union Leader has strongly endorsed his candidacy and Fox News' Carl Cameron called this endorsement "significant" and the "buzz" on the campaign trail (watch YouTube clip here).

That's all fine and dandy for the folks that a.) Read and care about a New Hampshire Union Leader endorsement, and 2.) Watch Fox News and care about what Carl Cameron has to say. I'm not saying these things aren't important (they are), but they don't really thrill me...

What I am more interested in is what voters think about John McCain (and the rest of the field) and whether those voters will have a chance to participate in the democratic process.

That is why today I'm going to serve a helping of porridge to McCain because tonight he'll be the first Republican to participate in the MySpace/MTV Presidential Forum. You can watch it and participate online tonight.

The details as provided by Lee Brenner, Executive Producer of Political Programming & Director of IMPACT at MySpace:

The MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogue with Sen. McCain is happening live on Monday, December 3rd, at 7pm EST. The one-hour event will be broadcast live on MTV, live on MySpace.com/election2008, live on mobile carriers, live on XM, and live and translated into Spanish on LaVibra.com/candidatos.

The first truly interactive, multi-media Presidential forum series continues to include unfiltered questions from young voters (students) in the audience (questions are unknown to the MySpace/MTV editorial team--only general topics are known), live IM and email questions from the online viewing audience, a user-generated (and user-generated rated/chosen) video question from myspace.com/election2008, and a first-of-its-kind, real-time online polling tool.

We've extended invitations to all of the leading Presidential candidates and are looking forward to hearing from those candidates about scheduling their Dialogues.

Good work John McCain. We'll tune in.

TechRepublican contributor James Durbin first blogged about McCain's willingness to step up to the plate in mid-November and I'm hopeful he has some thoughts to include in this discussion as someone with intimate knowledge of how this will all work out.

MySpace and MTV just announced that John McCain is going to be the next contender in Presidential Dialogues in New Hampshire on December 3rd, 7 p.m.EST. If you're in New Hampshire, there is still room in the audience - check in to the myspace.com/election2008 website to get selected.

So why is this important to the TechRepublican audience? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's because this event is the largest online audience of the youth vote, and the two previous speakers, Obama and Edwards, drew large numbers and had overwhelmingly positive response on the Flektor polling widget, which took real time voting results and broadcast them as the event went on.

Much of that was due to their online organization. If you can drive 10,000 people online at a specific moment, you can affect the polls. We've seen this online many, many times. My concern, is what happens when those same people go online to vote negatively.

I don't want to see either of these story lines on December 4. McCain fails to draw youth reponse to MTV appearance, and Youth Vote mainly negative for Republicans.

Check out the statistics: Since their debut, the video highlights from the two previous dialogues have been streamed approximately 700,000 times, and nearly 3.3 million people viewed the event on television

So if you're near a computer on Dec 3rd in the evening, make sure to sign on and watch the event. And if you're a McCain staffer - make sure you're organizing your e-mail list to drive supporters online.

Full Disclosure: Flektor is a client of Durbin Media Group, but this post is solely a personal message, and not authorized by Flektor or Fox Interactive Media, or indicative of their opinions.

The next presidential dialogue for the MySpace/MTV crowd is set. It's October 29th in Cedar Rapids. Information here at the Flektor-Blog. Why is this important?

The inaugural MySpace / MTV Presidential Dialogue, with former Senator John Edwards, reached a wide audience on-air, online and on mobile phones. Held September 27 at the University of New Hampshire, the event was broadcast live on MySpace and www.ChooseorLose.com, and since its online premiere, has been streamed approximately 350,000 times. The on-air broadcast (7-8 pm ET) was the #1 program for viewers aged 18-24 across all of cable for the time period, and was seen by a total of nearly two million viewers overall (all ages). Nearly 2,300 questions were submitted for Senator Edwards by online viewers during the course of the one hour Dialogue. Adding to its historical significance, the Dialogue with John Edwards was the first-ever Presidential forum to be broadcast live on mobile phones, via MTV Mobile.

That's a lot of young voters, and Edwards and Obama are getting first crack at them. There are Republicans that will be a part of the process, but it's clearly not as big of a deal. Republican candidates should be clamoring to get in front of this audience, and they're not.

Some of us may think it's because MTV is so liberal. Well, the liberals think MySpace is dominated by Murdoch rightwingers, and it's not stopping them. It's a space we need to be more active in, and if you any influence on a candidate, now is the time to be speaking up.

Flektor's polling tool has been a good story, and there's more to come after the event. Full disclosure: Flektor is a client of mine, but in this case, I'm posting not to push Flektor, but to let conservatives know there are tools and events out there we should be taking advantage of.

An excellent example is Doug Ross's Journal, and his post on Unintended Consequences, which discussed the wiretapping law and the holdup by the Democrats. I took his post and made it into a video, complete with music from Chopin and some slick transitions. Took me thirty minutes. If you are struggling to come up with online content - check out Flektor. It's free, and easy to use and embed on your site.

And for Obama's event. Here's a chance to hear him speak in an hour long format. It's a lot of information, and gives you a much better sense of what you're up against. Edwards event was a real eye-opener. It wasn't all soundbites and set piece speeches, which itself is extraordinary in presidential campaigns.

The Wall Street Journal is free today. Perusing through the site today, I found this nugget worth noting:

Pact Brings Skype Service to MySpace
By MYLENE MANGALINDAN and ETHAN SMITH
October 16, 2007 5:59 p.m.

News Corp.'s MySpace and eBay Inc.'s Skype have agreed to put Internet calls into MySpace's instant-messaging feature to gain more users and broaden the distribution of their two services.

The companies will share revenue from the partnership. Other terms weren't disclosed.

MySpace, which is the largest social-networking Web site with 110 million members, and Skype, which lets consumers call other users via computer free, have been trying to broaden their networks. Skype has 220 million registered users. The companies benefit from having more people join their communities and connect to people they know.

Voice communication is "a competitive advantage to us for gaining users and keeping users," said Kyle Brinkman, vice president of product development at MySpace.

Hmmmm... Get-out-the-vote calls from your MySpace profile? Now we're talking.

MySpace and MTV announced yesterday that they are hosting the first of 11 "Presidential Candidate Dialogues" next Thursday in New Hampshire.

The first is with Edwards, but most of the major candidates on both sides -- including Giuliani, Romney, Clinton and Obama -- have already signed on.

The goal of these interactive town halls, held with one candidate at a time, is to empower people, through online media, to ask questions of the candidates and give feedback on their answers in real time. Of course the pessimists argue that this format could also be merely a softball love-fest filled with questions like, "boxers or briefs?"

Regardless of which camp you fall in, I'm pleased to not only see major media outlets like MySpace and MTV trying modern, tip-of-the-spear experiments in participatory democracy, but also Republican candidates stepping up and agreeing to participate on the modern campaign trail.

If you want to participate in the first town hall, you can watch the debate on MySpaceTV or MTV.com on Sept. 27 at noon.

As Mark mentioned yesterday, MTV and MySpace have teamed up to present real-time "Presidential Dialogues."

This is a critical group for the GOP to reach. Young voters are increasingly turning out to the polls and voting for Democrats. The Republicans need to take every opportunity to reach them. It's good to see that all of them have agreed to participate.

Anastasia Goodstein, youth marketing guru, offers a few reminders for campaigns targeting youth:

What I don't understand is why the youth voter message either relies on celebrities to tell young people voting is cool or the candidates showing how hip they are. Where are the issues? Why isn't there messaging or a campaign that's focused on issues young people care about? The cost of college is sky high and only getting higher. Most of the people serving in the Iraq war are in this demographic. The cost of buying a home or apartment in a major city is not affordable for most young people. Will there be social security when this generation retires? With this generation, context is key. We have to show them why their vote matters and how specifically it can affect change and have a direct impact on their lives. I think that the messaging has to be less about how it's cool to vote or how cool the candidates are and more about why young people should give a damn.

I echo her sentiments. Millenials are a tough group. They want to be reached through certain mediums, but only with their issues. With our glee to see the candidates use social media, it's easy to forget that young voters also care about the issues. Facebook friends are great, but does the profile or web site mention positions that matter to them? What's more important--that celebrity endorsement or the candidates' views on college costs?

This generation has been told from birth that they are special, and they're looking for a candidate who realizes this and reaches out to them. It's a challenge, but Millenials can provide the edge needed to win a close race. All they're asking for is substance wrapped up in the 2.0 package.

I saw off of Todd Zeigler’s twitter that Hillary has started her very own social networking site!

Because MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other 91 socnets out there aren’t enough…

Now, the other top-tier Democratic presidentials are doing this – Obama’s got his own and Edward’s has OneCorps, but as my Mother always said…

I think this is one case where I don’t want Republican’s to imitate the Dem’s online practices.

I created an account with the campaign, and the largest group, with a whooping 23 members is LGBT COMMUNITY FOR HILLARY CLINTON. For those of you who didn’t go to a liberal college like myself LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual & Transgendered - what a mouthful.

I don’t think that the investment in time and energy to run these in-house platforms is well spent. At best you’ll get some people who’d never normally join Facebook or MySpace to create a profile on the Campaign’s socnet. But, I think the more likely situation is that the campaign is stealing its own lunch.

Most of the people who will make a profile will be the hardcore activists who already have a profile on Facebook. Furthermore, the work they’re doing to create content on the campaign’s own little internal socnet isn’t reaching anyone beyond the gated community. For a campaign, one of the primary purposes of a socnet is to have its modern media volunteers engaging with other people online and promoting the candidate.

These in-house socnets, like Clinton’s, suck energy, time and resources away from where activists should be focused: reaching out to undecided, or as yet unengaged voters, and instead channel the focus inward. In effect the campaign is connecting with itself.

A final note, related to socnets, but thankfully not to the Dems. Danah Boyd has a great blog essay, “viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace” (hat tip again to Todd). What’s really interesting is how Danah looks at the growth of MySpace and Facebook, and how and why people decide to use one socnet over another. I’ll comment more on her piece later.