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With the convergence of social networking and mobile phones becoming more pronounced, tech companies are working toward a future when those devices are beyond smart and become intuitive, speakers at a San Francisco conference said Monday.

Using built-in accelerometers, GPS systems and compasses, a phone can have a "sixth sense" in determining when its owner is driving to work or sitting down to lunch, speakers at the Social-Loco Conference said. And then the phone can tap into a social network to make contextual recommendations, such as routes to get around a traffic jam or a new dish to try.

"It should be able to understand you automatically," said Sam Liang, founder and chief executive officer of Alohar Mobile, a Palo Alto company that is working on just such a mobile platform.

The conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center focused on social networking, location-based services and mobile phones, trends that are particularly important to the biggest social network of all, Facebook.

Generating revenue from mobile users is one of the key investor concerns that dragged down Facebook's stock price after its debut as a publicly traded company last month. The company previously warned it did not have a proven method of generating revenue from mobile. But in the past few days, Facebook's stock has rebounded, closing at $31.41 per share Monday, $6.59 per share lower than its initial public offering price.

Facebook is working on different mobile advertising opportunities and has seen "really significant interest" in ads in mobile news feeds that the company has begun testing, Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions, told Bloomberg.

But the company isn't announcing any new mobile ad products just yet.

Still, taking advantage of social, mobile and location-based technologies is a key to Facebook's future, one of its executives said at the Mission Bay conference.

"The mobile phone is probably the most social device that any of us have," Emily White, the Menlo Park company's director of mobile partnerships, said during a conference keynote.

"It is the most closely held member of my family that is not walking and breathing and something I rely on to do everything from waking up in the morning, to getting me to work, to figuring out, in some cases, what I need to wear," she said.

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Conference looks at social, mobile possibilities

FOSTER CITY, Calif., June 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Schools.com, a digital resource for education, recently published, "Is social media making us socially awkward?" an infographic that investigates how social networking online affects relationships and interactions offline.

According to a new study from Badoo, 39 percent of people surveyed spend more time socializing online, and 20 percent actually prefer communicating online or via text message instead of face-to-face.

"It is fascinating to see people gravitate toward social media as an accepted form of communication," shared Michelle LaFrance, spokesperson for Schools.com. "The time we spend connecting via mobile devices, while not face-to-face, allows us to expand our social interaction because they can be used anytime, anywhere."

While many people use social networks to share with friends, 24 percent of people surveyed by Badoo reported missing an important real-time event during an attempt to share the moment online.

The ease and speed of connecting online may lead to friendships that appear superficial. Conversely, offline friendships may seem deeper and more genuine. However, research shows that online social networking can help boost confidence, facilitate new friendships, re-establish old connections and even strengthen relationships with people outside the social networking sphere.

"Regardless of how people connect, they can use social media as a way to maintain real-life friendships," continued LaFrance. "The online world allows them to share good news, plan events with friends and stay in touch."

For news related to this infographic and other information about online schooling and education news, follow Schools.com on Pinterest and @SchoolsEdu on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

About Schools.com

Schools.com is a definitive source for education, connecting current and prospective students with the right information, people and schools to help them advance in life. Featuring in-depth sections with faculty interviews, campus tours and national education news, the site aims to be a hub for higher education topics and trends. Schools.com is owned and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (QNST), one of the largest Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is committed to providing consumers and businesses with the information they need to research, find and select the products, services and brands that meet their needs. The company is a leader in visitor-friendly marketing practices. For more information, please visit QuinStreet.com.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/6/prweb9602137.htm

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Social Networking Influences Real-World Relationships According to Schools.com Infographic

ARMONK, N.Y., June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that for the third consecutive year, IDC ranked IBM number one in worldwide market share for enterprise social software. According to IDC's analysis of 2011 revenue, IBM grew faster than its competitors and nearly two times faster than the overall market which grew approximately 40 percent.*

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The growing popularity of social networking continues to explode, with more and more organizations looking for ways to adopt social business practices to integrate global teams, drive innovation, increase productivity and better reach customers and partners.

According to IDC, the enterprise social platforms market is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2016, representing growth of 43 percent over the next four years.*

While this demand is on the rise, organizations are still looking for ways to embrace social capabilities to transform virtually every part of their business operations, from marketing to research innovation and human resources, but lack the tools to gain insight into the enormous stream of information and use it in a meaningful way.

"Social software is gaining in momentum in the enterprise," says Michael Fauscette, group vice president for IDC's Software Business Solutions Group. "Companies are seeing significant gain in productivity and increasing value from successfully deployed social software solutions including supporting ad hoc work by bringing people, data, content, and systems together in real time and making more effective critical business decisions by providing the 'right information' in the work context."

Today, more than 35 percent of Fortune 100 companies have adopted IBM's social software offerings including eight of the top 10 retailers and banks. IBM's social business software and services is unique combining social networking capabilities with analytics to help companies capture information and insights into dialogues from employees and customers and create interactions that translate into real value.

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IBM's social networking platform, IBM Connections, allows for instant collaboration with one simple click and the ability to build social communities both inside and outside the organization to increase customer loyalty and speed business results. IBM Connections is available both on premise and in the cloud.

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IBM Named Worldwide Marketshare Leader in Social Software for Third Consecutive Year

Despite the clamor around Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site, the real king of the social networking sector is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), a new survey by IDC found.

Coming in second: Jive Software (Nasdaq: JIVE), of Palo Alto, Calif., with huge year-over-year gains by private Yammer, of San Francisco, which investment bankers speculate is about to be acquired by Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world's biggest software company, for about $1 billion.

The reason is that these social networking companies specialize in the enterprise, or networks of users throughout companies, universities or government agencies whereas Facebook is very consumer-centric.

"We are engaging people in mission-critical applications," said IBM VP for Social Software Jeff Schick. "Our capabilities are focused on business optimization."

Besides involving nearly all of the Armonk, N.Y., computer company's 433,000 employees, IBM's social media software has been deployed by the United Nations, banks like Canada's Toronto-Dominion (NYSE: TD); retailers like Lowe's Companies (NYSE: LOW), the No. 2 U.S. home improvement chain and appliances giant Electrolux AB (Pink: ELUXY).

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Schick said IBM uses many of the same internal applications for customers in a secure environment so that they can collaborate in groups for mutual benefit.

For example, he said after TD Bank acquired several U.S. banks that were open on Sundays, the new U.S. employees used social media to explain to their Canadian counterparts why the practice led to new customers and business and then helped them develop the same service to Canada.

The enterprise social networking market rose about 40 percent between 2010 and 2011 alone, IDC concluded. By 2016, the market value could reach $4.5 billion, for about 43 percent annual growth.

IDC also found the top six social networks currently claim more than 2 billion global users. Twitter dispatches about 340 million daily tweets. Facebook users share about 30 billion content units monthly.

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Facebook? IDC Says IBM Ranks No. 1 In Social Software

Social networking has a dark side for a younger audience.

NEW allegations of sexual predators raping and abusing minors found on social networks raise an elemental question: can any such service be made safe for kids?

This week, The New York Times reported that three under-age users of the San Francisco dating app Skout were allegedly sexually assaulted by adult men in recent weeks.

Skout added its teen-only section last year after realising that kids were using the app, the Times reported. It included additional safeguards, including parental controls, but clearly it wasn't enough. The incidents suggest a dating service for teens is tantamount to a honey pot for paedophiles, whatever the precautions.

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On Tuesday, Britain's Channel Four posted a scathing report on Habbo Hotel, a children's game site owned by Finnish company Sulake. A producer for the station posing as a young girl said users immediately tried to steer her onto webcams and urged her to strip.

More troubling, the station found that two paedophiles had been convicted for ''sexually abusing dozens of kids who they befriended'' on Habbo. One was jailed for seven years after persuading children to expose themselves on webcams in exchange for gifts. He then used those images to blackmail them into committing additional sexual acts on camera.

Predators have long used the internet to find young victims, but online safety experts say social networks and mobile apps that roughly indicate the location of users simplify the task.

''It just makes it easier for the predator to make contact, to be undetected by law enforcement and to get information,'' said Donna Rice Hughes, chief executive of Enough is Enough, which offers parents information about keeping children safe online. James Steyer, chief executive of California's Common Sense Media stressed that the lesson applies to Facebook, too. The Menlo Park social-networking giant has steadily dropped its age requirements and recently acknowledged exploring ways to make its network available to children under 13.

''They don't understand this market well enough to create an age-appropriate experience, nor can they provide the protections that teens and children need,'' Steyer said.

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Stalkers casting an evil net for children