So I read on News24 that US and Canadian users have been cut-off to Scrabulous in the face of a lawsuit by game maker Hasbro Inc.

“Scrabulous, introduced on Facebook a year ago, has become a phenomenon, sucking productivity in offices and schools around the globe. The game has become one of Facebook’s dozen most actively used programs, attracting 500 000 daily players.”

What’s the deeper issue here for entrepreneurs?

The lesson is that business has rules and if you break the rules to get ahead you most times get burnt.

That includes copyright, Privacy, data ownership and many more areas of business ethics.

So the lesson is - Keep it clean and you may be ok. If not your business may crumble overnight.

Slightly related is the issue of Facebook apps in themselves -and the risk associated. Facebook can change the rules at any point - so it is important to understand the risks your business may be build on.

Or you may base a business on having access to an open API - that could potentially be shut down at any stage.

It’s a tough balancing act. When you are new and hungry “corner-cutting” is appealing when you have to box clever and be enterprising and sometimes necessary - but just make sure your business is not build in a house of cards.

There are of course exeptions to the rule. Youtube streaked around the copyright issues of professional content and the prediction has always been that they will die by the hand of litigation but the power balance has swung so vastly that many broadcasters realise that their content HAS to be on Youtube as an important content distribution. - but these examples are few and far between.

So - keep it clean and avoid pain later.

So last year I was ecstatic to attend the Loeries as a VIP (which was fab because they really do lay it on thick) and it was an amazing experience.

But, to my dismay the level of online creative in SA was poor. So much so that I wrote an article for Biz-com which of course upset a few people. You just have to go and have a look at the Cannes Cyberlions by way of comparison.

This year Clint Bryce, Head of creative in our new studio “Space patrol car” is a judge in the digital category so I am looking forward to his thoughts. - and HOPEFULLY the state of online creative is on the up.

It is a global thing too. At all conferences I attend people complain about the standards in their markets. The issue that lies behind it - priority.

The irony is that the lifeblood of an ad agency is to be on the cutting edge and show innovation.  The reality - ad agencies are like old people who don’t use technology in the way they act.

You can look at Online finalists on the Loeries listing (2nd from the bottom of the page)

Telling that Online and Mixed Media campaigns are at the end of the page.

I also cannot wait for the day when the most creative SEO campaign is a category
: )that would be an evolution.

Anyway - we can only go one way and that is up. I cannot remember the last time I saw an ad on an SA web site that really grabbed me.

If you going, have a rip-roaring time and a tequila for me.

Here was me strutting my stuff (with Mike Luscombe, Chief revenue officer @ 24.com) last year announcing an award for Satchi&Satchi…..

I know that IS announced a while ago in June that they were creating a VC-like fund for innovation and yesterday FMtech reported on more of the details.

I just wanted to say well done. It is great that companies such as IS are starting to invest in the SA web and start-ups.

“We are trying to improve the Internet in SA,” IS product development manager Jeff Fletcher said. - and that is a noble and worthy cause.

Our(24.com) investment into Blueworld Communities was a fantastic decision and I am sure Vodacom’s minority share in Zoopy.com will assist them to really grow their presence.

If you are looking to pitch a start-up them to HAVE to read “The art of start” by Guy Kawasaki.  In fact get your hands on anything you can from Guy - he is an apple legend and now focusses on getting start-ups started so to speak. The web is littered with his videos, talks and texts. You MUST do it. I read his book recently and was frothing at the mouth I got so excited. He details the best way to do pitches, plans and presentations. Key elements in getting funding.

I think we are going to see an explosion on the SA web and look forward to it!

So everyone saw the news about domains going ape.

It’s obvious but I just have to say that Google must be licking their lips.

It’s sentimental and quirky but they have never removed “I’m feeling lucky” from the homepage and now there’s a chance it will get  more action in the future.

Either way if this trend does take off then search will become even more nb.

Google’s strength and ranking algorithm has always been to find websites. It is what it was designed to do. It is far worse at finding real info. So this will play to their strengths if things proliferate.

Indecently i am also curious about how much search traffic I will generate via the word Gang bang in my headline - LOL!

Whatever …… I will def register  elanlohmann.unique !! or elan.fun

What will you register?

Found this decision very  interesting that Fox opted to use Passenger to build out there communities rather than sister Myspace.

You would think that Myspace would have the tech available to make this happen on Foxes behalf.

Most interesting for me is that Fox have not tried to create a sub-group in Myspace and shoe-horn it as a mechanism to aggregate audience - which most publishers or traditional media companies are tempted to do.

Passenger have built Business Intelligence tools to mine customer opinions and experiences with a bunch of other tools in a turn-key solution - which shows very clearly that you cannot  treat the concept of social networking - or community as one homogeneous solution.

Link: Article on yahoo news 

The guys at del.icio.us responded fast! Thank G-d.

I was fretting about FF3.0 not having the del.icio.us tagging plugin and here it is. 

Dead easy. Just go to your “Add-ons” in the tool menu of FF and  search for del.icio.us - click, install, DONE!

In my woes and while moaing on twitter Stii recommended I give Flock a bash - which is a very cool venture into social browsing - but of course FF will go this route in no matter of time.

Anayways - chuffed about the add-on and thought I would share my elation.

Happy  (del.icio.us)ing.

[Ps - you can follow Firefox queries @firefox_answers on twitter- useful]