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Ujogo, a free online poker site, has announced the first free poker application on Facebook Platform to offer prizes and rewards combined with full Facebook Platform integration. Ujogo has reconfigured its fast and slick application to seamlessly tap into the ultimate online network of users and fully leverage the Facebook Platform features.

With the new integration, users will now be able to play free, fun and highly competitive poker, including multi-table tournaments, for actual prizes in the fast and realistic Ujogo environment, without leaving the site. In contrast, most free online poker applications do not offer prizes as an incentive, and consequently, the quality of play is generally not very high.

To showcase its free-to-enter multi-table tournaments within the Facebook Platform, Ujogo will feature a week of daily $100 prize tournaments within the next month.

“With the positive feedback we’ve received on our initial launch of Ujogo in July ‘07, it was just a natural evolution for us to extend our more compelling free poker application to one of the fastest growing, integrated social communities around,” said Eric Gonzales, Ujogo’s CEO.

“Our players appreciate how prizes at stake improve the quality and competitiveness of play in our free, non-gambling platform, and the popularity of interactive features at Ujogo.com made us realize that utilizing an online networking environment would be a natural fit.”

Two time ladies’ World Series of Poker champ Susie Isaacs plays regularly at Ujogo and commented:

“I became a devoted on-line poker player in 2004 and 2005 when I took two years off from playing live poker to write four books. I tried free sites but it was not rewarding.”

“I play to win but I want to win more than accolades. Along came Ujogo and I was saved! Ujogo is a free site but we play for prizes, gift certificates, and eventually I have heard, buy-ins to major tournaments. When I win on Ujogo, I win! Risk versus reward is my old way of thinking. Today on Ujogo it is no risk and great rewards! The more I play, the more I realize that Ujogo is becoming like a social poker club. I like that!”

To start playing at Ujogo within Facebook Platform, simply search for “Ujogo,” invite your friends to join if you wish, and jump into a game.

No additional registration is required since players are already registered on the site. All players receive a sign-up bonus of Ujogo Points, which can be redeemed for valuable items at the Ujogo Store.

Additional Ujogo Points are earned with every hand played, as well as for referring friends, achieving monthly leaderboard status, and hitting jackpot hands.

Ujogo investors include Longstreet Ventures.

www.ujogo.com

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Tags: Facebook, Longstreet Ventures, Ujogo

So hot on the heels that WAYN, the social network site for travellers, may be cooking a stew with vegetables from AOL, there are reports that Facebook may be adding to their already simmering cooking pot. It appears that mobile phone giant Nokia may be ready to invest in the company. Such a move could open up a potentially massive and lucrative mobile phone user market to Facebook in a way they never dared imagine. For Nokia the move, should it happen, would spell the end for its own mobile social network, Mosh, launched last year.

Tags: Facebook, Nokia

Compete metrics have released a chart of the fastest moving websites for 2007, positive and negative, and it makes interesting reading. Supporting the belief that the internet is largely the haunt of sexually frustrated saddos,  high on the list are the adult sites YouPorn and RedTube.

A few interesting trends are revealed:

• The web has yet to reach its “Social Peak”: Among the fastest growing sites, eighteen of the twenty offer a prominent peer-to-peer communication platform. Even in the adult video category, sites that function almost identically to YouTube (redtube.com and youporn.com) represent the fastest growing niche. [Read more]

  

  Tags: AmericanSingles, CafeMom, Compete, DateHookup, Digg, Facebook, IAmFreeTonight, Reddit, RedTube, Stumbleupon, YouPorn
  

Reports that the Samwer brothers have taken an undisclosed stake in Facebook have got the population of the entire world wondering what it is they know that the rest of us don’t. This may be a gross exaggeration on my part, maybe its just me wondering and everyone else can see it. But as a true non-believer - someone who just does not get Facebook - it looks like the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ to me - a duff investment following hot on the heels of Microsoft.

Some may argue that its a case of too much money on the part of Alexander, Oliver and Marc? Others may say that their investments in LinkedIn, HomeAway, ReachLocal and MFG.com doesn’t occupy enough of their time? Or maybe they are dabbling in a little spread betting? Or perhaps they are gathering knowledge for future investments? I guess we may never know what they were thinking. However one thing I am sure we could all agree on is that the brothers will have to wait a long, long time to get their money back - if they ever do. [Read more]

Tags: Bebo, Facebook, HomeAway, LinkedIn, MFG.com, Microsoft, MySpace

Facebook faces legal action from toy company Hasbro.

Hasbro has reportedly sent a cease-and-desist notice to Facebook asking them to remove the very popular Scrabulous from the site.

Scrabulous, based on the popular board game Scrabble, has attracts around 500,000 players each day. The game was developed by Indian brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, and earns the pair a cool $US25,000 per month in advertising revenue.

However, Scrabble’s owner, Hasbro, is claiming a breach of copyright.

According to Fortune magazine, Hasbro sent a the application.

“They sent a notice to Facebook about two weeks ago,” Mr Agarwalla told Fortune.

“The lawyers are working on it.”

Tags: Facebook, Hasbro