Santa Monica-based Userplan has extended the firm's chat applications, saying Tuesday that the firm will connect users of its chat application across different web sites, regardless of where they are on the web. According to Userplane, users of its Userplane Chat App can chat with other users logged in anywhere on the chat application, which previously only offered chatting within a specific web site. Userplane said that those sites include MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Ning, Flux, and Bebo, as well as other social websites using its chat application. The developer

News Corporation said a few minutes ago that it has added two new executives at MySpace , and is tapping Tsavo Media's Michael Jones as Chief Operating Officer and Sling Media's Jason Hirschhorn as Chief Product Officer. Jones is best known in Southern California's technology community for his success at Userplane, which he founded and sold to AOL. Both are in Los Angeles. He was most recently CEO of Tsavo Media, which is developing online publishing and advertising technology along with related online content.

Los Angeles-based social networking site MySpace said late Wednesday that CEO Owen Van Natta is stepping down from his position, and will be replaced by co-presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschorn . Jones was most recently COO at MySpace, and is best known in the Los Angeles area for founding Userplane , which he sold to AOL in 2006. Tags: myspace executive Reasons for Van Natta's departure were not given. Hirschorn was most recently president of Sling Media , and also had served as Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks.

Michael Jones and Jason Hirschhorn have just been appointed COO and Chief Product Officer, respectively, over at MySpace. Most of the folks in Los Angeles will know Michael well, from his days bootstrapping Userplane (sold to AOL), as well as his recent efforts with both Tsavo , as well as his efforts (along with Peter Pham and others) to get the technology elite networking here. Jason was most recently at Sling Media , and prior to that was Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks . btw, I checked in with Mike Jones about what’s going to happen over at Tsavo Media; he said

Goodreads is backed by angels; its investors include people such as Michael Jones, now COO of MySpace, and formerly founder of Userplane. Los Angeles-based Goodreads , the online social networking site focused on book readers, told its users today that it has launched a new feature similar to Twitter's "follow." According to Goodreads, the new feature allows members of the site to follow updates of people they admire, without marking them as friends.

I’m re-posting this interview with Michael Jones because he was recently tapped to be the Chief Operating Officer of MySpace and thought you’d want to see how the man News Corp. Michael bootstrapped userplane and sold it to AOL, then went on to found Tsavo . Most recently, he was named COO of MySpace. ( Can’t see video? Try this. )

worked at Userplane, building social applications for sites like MySpace. The majority of them are social application developers, who have social applications on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, and Hi5, either using the Facebook API or OpenSocial. average, we're seeing around a 50 cents CPM on both Facebook and MySpace, which is actually high. As companies figure out a way to monetize social media, one of the areas which has been lacking is a way to measure the impact and effectiveness of social media advertising. To gain some insight into the area, we spoke with Ian

worked at Userplane, building social applications for sites like MySpace. The majority of them are social application developers, who have social applications on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, and Hi5, either using the Facebook API or OpenSocial. average, we're seeing around a 50 cents CPM on both Facebook and MySpace, which is actually high. As companies figure out a way to monetize social media, one of the areas which has been lacking is a way to measure the impact and effectiveness of social media advertising. To gain some insight into the area, we spoke with Ian

I’m thinking of folks like Mike Jones (Userplane/AOL/now MySpace), Matt Coffin (LowerMyBills), Sky Dayton (Earthlink etc.), I’m sure everyone’s seen Intel’s big advertising push “ Our rock stars aren’t your rock stars “–comparing the firm’s technologists to celebrity rock stars. I