Dmitry Shapiro thinks his startup Altly will be ‘an alternative to Facebook’

By Molly McHugh April 20, 2011

“I know it sounds crazy, but our new company, http://altly.com, is building an alternative to Facebook. More details soon :),” Dmitry Shapiro tweeted this morning. That’s all he had to do to create a stir in digital media. Altly is in the stealthiest of stealth modes: Aside to its CEO’s cryptic tweet, there is nothing to be found about the project.

In a very Hipster-like move (remember Hipster? That super secret startup from a month or so back that turned out to be created specifically for SXSW and originally featured nothing but scenic images and the word “Hipster” in bold letters? Remember how everyone was curious for, oh, I don’t know…two weeks?), Altly’s site is bare except for this premonition:

A few things. First, someone should tell Shapiro that it actually isn’t crazy that Altly will be a Facebook alternative. Hell, everything’s a Facebook alternative. Being a viable, user-stealing rival to Facebook is another thing altogether. Now that would be crazy. Secondly, we don’t want to be too cynical but there’s just something so attention-seeking about these “stealth startups” and their big promises that almost makes them seem destined for mediocrity. But just for kicks, here’s some background on the man behind the social media scheme:

Dmitry Shapiro was most recently CTO at MySpace Music. He worked there for a mere 10 months before bailing off that sinking ship on April 15 to begin his own startup, Altly. Prior to MySpace, Shapiro founded video site Veoh. Veoh has an interesting history; on one hand, it was a successful Internet streaming site that provided big studio productions and even had former Disney exec Michael Eisner on its board. It is only available in the US, which was a source of contention, and eventually copyright battles forced the company to file bankruptcy. It’s since been acquired by Israeli startup Qlipso.

And before Veoh, Shapiro founded Akonix Systems, which was later acquired by Quest Software. Akonix provides secure instant messaging and various business communication products at the executive level.

Will Shapiro be able to bring the goods to Altly? Seems a bit ambitious, but we’ll be keeping an eye (more like sideways glance) on the site.

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Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

Social Media

How to: Get rid of the Facebook Timeline

timeline turnback

We live in a post-Timeline era. The redesign of the profile page has been formally introduced and whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay. Facebook introduced Timeline back in the fall of 2011 at f8, and it quickly became clear that this would replace the profile page as we’d known it.
The user backlash has been swift and lasting, and there are still stifled cries of dissent even though Facebook has taken its sweet time entirely rolling out Timeline. But the time has come: brands and business will soon have access to the new format, and the continuing implementation of Open Graph apps mean that resistance is most definitely futile.
Lucky for you, there is a way to at least trick yourself into reliving the good old days.
Social Fixer
Social Fixer for Facebook is a browser extension that allows you to customize your Facebook experience (disclaimer: it doesn’t support IE). There are loads of things you can do here, like create tabbed News Feeds for a quicker and more browser-like look, install themes, hide comments after you seen them before, or even customize the font. But perhaps most tempting is that fact that you can get rid of Timeline.
To be more specific, what Social Fixer does is change the way you see Facebook. After installing the plugin, head to Facebook and then hit the wrench icon at the top of the page and then select Social Fixer Options.
Now you are more than welcome to leave whatever you want checked and personalize how you see Facebook, but if all you want is to rid yourself of Timeline, uncheck everything. Then go to the Timeline section under options and check these options: Display posts in a single column; hide cover photos; hide the friends box; and hide maps of check-ins. Then save, and go ahead and check out your handy-work by viewing a Timeline enabled profile. It should have reverted to a much simpler style, although it won’t be identical to your original profile page. It’s definitely less-crowded and image heavy than the alternative.
Timeline Remove
This extension is currently available for IR, Firefox, and Chrome (Safari support is in the works). The tool basically strips out Timeline for you, but everyone else will still able to see your Timeline (unless of course, they’ve also installed the extension). Basically it's only to preserve your own sanity if you just can't stand looking at it. Sure it's rather simplistic but from the mounting complaints we've seen, we're sure some are desperate enough for the quick fix.

Social Media

Survey: Facebook plays a destructive role in a third of U.K. divorces

Facebook browsing

According to a recent survey of 5,000 divorce petitions conducted by U.K. blog Divorce-Online, approximately 33 percent of divorce petitions within the United Kingdom contained the word "Facebook" and indicated that the opposing party in the divorce utilized Facebook in a manner that was destructive to the relationship. This is a sharp increase from 2009 when only one in five petitions mentioned the social network as an issue. The most common reasons that Facebook appeared in the petitions included inappropriate Facebook messages, potentially sexual in nature, that were sent to members of the opposite sex, spouses undergoing a trial separation that posted nasty comments to each other, and Facebook friends that reported a cheating spouse's behavior to the other party in the relationship.
According to the managing director of Divorce-Online Mark Keenan, he stated "Facebook has become the primary method for communicating with friends for many people. People contact ex-partners and the messages start as innocent, but lead to trouble. If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then it’s the easiest place to do it." With the mention of Facebook in approximately 1,650 divorce petitions in the United Kingdom, it's clear that the growth of the social network has had an increasingly negative effect on troubled marriages over the last two years. The people conducting the study also searched for the work "Twitter" in the divorce petitions, but only 20 out of 5,000 petitions mentioned the competing social network.
According to a similar study conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers during 2010, over 80 percent of members have used social networking evidence during a divorce case. Facebook was the most commonly sited as a resource for evidence of infidelity with approximately two thirds of members claiming to use Facebook to gather dirt on spouses. Other sources included MySpace, Twitter and other unnamed, miscellaneous social networking sites.

Social Media

Occupy Wall Street takes the fight to the Internet with its own Facebook clone

Facebook rivals and detractors have been springing up online for awhile now. It most significantly started with Diaspora, the anti-Facebook, open source social network that launched with the idea of segmenting how you share online. Anybeat (formerly Altly) has also tried to execute these ideas, as has Path and newcomer Unthink.
While these networks were born of a desire to connect without Facebook and to potentially do it better, none of them have had an already established community behind them. Now, the Occupy Wall Street protestors are trying to create their own social media platform, using the anti-corporate movement’s members as fuel.
According to Wired, a group of developers associated with OWS are working on their own Facebook. Their motivation is partially to have a focused space for like-minded individuals to communicate and organize. It’s also because they don’t entirely know what Facebook is doing with their data. “We don’t want to trust Facebook with private messages among activists,” developer Ed Knutson told the site.
At the moment this platform is being called Federated General Assembly and will work like Facebook and Twitter applications that use the Open ID and OAuth permissions. In order to join, you have to be invited and then vouched for by a member of your movement’s local network.
Facebook backlash is nearly as old as Facebook, but there’s never been a collective group like the Occupiers who have taken up the cause of creating an alternative. But does mean this idea has legs to stand on? Sites have tried time and time again to accomplish this, without any feasible success.
It deserves to be said that protestors shouldn’t be so quick to abandon Facebook (or even Twitter) for a new medium. These social sites were hugely instrumental during revolutions in the Middle East, and we can’t imagine their international presence is going to be impeded by the Occupy movement. It stands to reason that many users interested in being a part of the Occupy version represented on Facebook are also interested in worldwide demonstrations, and for that reason a great many would remain on these sites.
But if the bar is set low enough, this thing could serve a purpose. Protestors’ social media use has been targeted this year, from threats during the UK riots to Twitter subpoenas regarding user information. Secure messaging and event organization features would be the main purpose of the application, and anything that’s willing to build off of Facebook or Twitter rather than go head-to-head with them has a much better shot. But attempting to lure Occupiers over completely is a fool’s game--the project would be dead in the water if that were their mission.
Two things set this idea apart however: using the Facebook or Twitter permission technologies and the OWS movement. While the latter of these two has seen better days, having any pre-existing user base is more than most new social platforms start with.