New York is going to be even more full of events going on in the next 10 days or so,  some which I plan to attend, to the extent I can attend them.  In fact, things are going on this week as well, including GirlsinTech, which I attended last night at Kush in lower Manhattan.  I’m also going to GoldenNetworking.com’s Twitter Party tonight at Johnny Utah’s. Also -BarCampNYC4 – May 30-31, 2009 happens this weekend and is already sold out (but it’s free) over at the ITP facilities at New York University – I’ll be there at least most of Saturday and maybe some of Sunday, not sure if I’ll speak or not, still thinking about it.

Internet Week officially starts June 1st and I’ll probably drop by the The TechSet Bubbles Up Innovation with PepsiCo early Monday Evening and Ignite NYC 3 .  I’ve also been invited to cover MediaBistro Circus on June 2nd and 3rd, and time permitting, I’ll be at part of the event and the networking afterwards, trying to find the new directions Social Media, Search and Web Analytics is going.   There’s also New York Tech Meetup and Facebook Garage going, not sure how much I’ll be able to cover of all the things going on, again, time and workload permitting.  I’m still trying to decide what combination of sessions I can cover at The Circus that allows me the best overall experience.  We’ll see.  There’s also First Wednesday JUNE which I’ve regularly gone to.  Next Thursday, Diggnation LIVE in NYC at Webster Hall which I planned on attending  – but there’s also an Ultra Light Startup focusing on Twitter occurring at the same time, again, I’ll figure it out.

And, a good friend is dropping by next week, Gary Angel who co-founded Semphonic.com and who I’ll meet with while he’s in town – he’s also founder of XChange Conference that I’ve attended and spoken at twice, in Northern California.

What I’ll be focusing on is what is new and emerging and meaningful in 2009 and 2010 – and that’s what I’ll write about.  In a way, I would not mind covering some of this for Entrepreneur.com, where I also write, but that’s not focus of my column which is Web Analytics, solely.

I was waiting till I got past 700 Facebook Friends to say anything about it – but yes, I passed 700 friends today – and I find Facebook pretty useful – it’ll also be part of my 2009 Predictions I’ll publish later this week – still working on it.

Hey … does anyone check 2008 Predictions?    I seem to see a lot of people publishing predictions every year, but hardly anyone checks the accuracy – except in a few notable cases.

I mean, what’s the point, if we can’t tell how accurate someone’s previous predictions were?   Honestly, I don’t think I even checked mine – I guess I’ll have to do that as I write up my next year’s predictions.

I’m also looking forward to getting my Facebook feed published here on a regular basis – we’re in process of getting that working – there’s so much richness in Facebook and Friendfeed that isn’t easy to capture if you don’t not reading a feed (as a virtual friend or subsriber).

I guess, if you read my blog regularly, your welcome to reach out to me on Facebook and request friendship – and I’ll accept – as long as I know it’s coming from a reader of Webmetricsguru.com (just say that in the invite greeting – maybe I’ll make a category in Facebook just for blog readers).

Well ….. looks like Facebook developers who write applications that everyone likes ….. get wiped out eventually, according to a post in TechCrunch today by Erick Schonfeld – Endgame: Scrabulous Gets Wiped Off Facebook

"…Long outplayed by two Indian brothers, Hasbro finally delivers a massive counter blow to Scrabulous, one of the most loved games on Facebook. Scrabulous fans in North America will see the following message when they try to play the game:

Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.

Hasbro has long contended that Scrabulous infringes on its trademarks for Scrabble. It licenses the North American digital rights for Scrabble to Electronic Arts, which announced its own Facebook version of the game earlier this month. (RealNetworks owns the international digital rights, and is not taking as aggressive a stance against Scrabulous)."

And what was so bad about letting Scrabulous stay up?   Wouldn't it drive more people be aware of scrable – and probably drive some sales of the game up too?

Last week, Hasbro filed suit against the owners of Scrabulous, Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla. The same day, EA publicly launched its officially-sanctioned Scrabble game on Facebook. (See screen shot below, which I took that day).

I know this is tricky – but instead of taking down an application game off of Facebook that people liked, Hasbro ought to have simply launched their own and let people decide which one they liked better.

I find that brands still don't get it.  People will not be happy their favored application was taken from them and replaced with what is probably a frail copy -

"…Hasbro and EA planned their moves very methodically and waited patiently for their chance to strike. Perhaps EA felt that it could not compete with Scrabulous other than by taking it out at the knees. Scrabulous boasts 509,505 daily active users. EA’s Scrabble Beta has 14,956 (after only five days). Now, the question is whether Scrabulous fans will boycott the official version of Scrabble on Facebook or switch over to satisfy their word lust."

I predict most fans of Scrabulous won't switch of the Hasbro Scrabble application – and I hope they don't.    Brands have to play in a new world – Brand doesn't own anything anymore – they just think they do.

Hasbro doesn't own Scrabble – it just thinks it does, and the legal system agrees, but people don't care  … they don't care about Hasbro, they care about all that garbage the Brand cares about – they care about their relationships – but the don't like a Brand coming in and interfering with their fun.

I think Hasbro made a big mistake getting Scrabulous taken down – and I hope they reverse the decision.