What can you use the application for?
Zynga.com is a social gaming company that has a network of gaming applications on social networking sites such as Myspace.com and Facebook.com. The site features versions of classic games such as Attack! (A Risk clone), Texas Hold’em Poker and Battleship. Zynga develops some of these games, while others are developed by third parties via the Zynga network. Zynga has gaming applications for the following social networks: Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, HI5, Friendster, Tagged, MyYahoo and the Iphone.
What is the history and popularity of the application?
Zynga.com was launched in January 2008 and has seen phenomenal growth. The site has over 50 million registered users and tens of millions of daily visitors. Zynga was founded by Mark Pincus, the creator of Tribe.net (one of the first social networking sites on the web) and Support.com (later SupportSoft). Michael Luxton is CTO and also a member of the founding team. Mark Vranesh, a SupportSoft co-founder is CFO, and Scott Dale, co-founder of Houseglue is VP of Engineering. The company is located in San Francisco. Zynga launched a network for third-party developers in February 2008, and received $29 million in funding from venture capitalists in July 2008.
What are the differences to other applications?
Zynga’s competition includes Mytopia.com, Playfish.com and Social Gaming Network (Socialgn.com). None of these sites features as many games as Zynga, but Mytopia has support for several different mobile smartphone platforms besides the Iphone, as well as social networking support. Playfish.com is primarily built around Facebook applications. Social Gaming Network has support for Faceboook, MySpace, HI5, and Iphone.
How does the application look and feel to use?
Zynga’s home page is a bit busy, but navigation is obvious and most sub-sections are relatively uncluttered. All of the games are listed on the left-hand side of the home page. In order to see which networks each game supports, the user must click on the Games tab. This brings up a page with the games organized by social networking site. The site is quick and responsive, and there is virtually no learning curve involved in using the site.
How does the registration process work?
Simply click on a game, then choose the social network you wish to play on. This takes you to a login page on that site that asks if you wish to install the application. The installation takes only seconds and you are ready to play. The game application will show you which of your friends are currently online, and allow you to join a game or start your own. You can also join general games that include everyone who is playing, not just your friends. The site also features a blog with the latest news and information about new games as well as general news about the site.
What does it cost to use the application?
Membership is not necessary at Zynga and no registration is required. You must be a member of the social network that you wish to play the game on, however. There are no fees involved, as revenue comes from third-party advertising on the application pages at the social networking site. The ads are shown separately from the game window and are relatively unobtrusive.
Who would you recommend the application to?
Zynga is recommended for anyone who has an interest in playing games with their friends who belong to the same social network. It has the largest selection of networks of any of the social gaming sites, and also has an excellent selection of games. For users wish to do their social gaming on a mobile smartphone other than the Iphone, Mytopia is a better choice.
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