CNN and Facebook strike major deal

Hong Kong - As the power and influence of social media continues to grow, CNN and Facebook have struck a major deal to allow users to connect and engage with each other during the inauguration of the political maestro of social media Barack Obama.

On Tuesday 20 January, users will be able to update their Facebook status directly from the CNN.com Live portal and view status updates from their friends and other Facebook users on CNN.com Live site.

AS part of the deal, Facebook will allow the status updates for those using CNN.com Live to be published in their News Feed section with "via CNN.com Live" hyperlinked tags allowing other Facebook users to click the tag and join the CNN.com Live/Facebook feed.

At last count, Facebook Hong Kong boasted in excess of 1 million users.

On top of the Facebook application, CNN will also use Google Maps to track the route of the event and the media group will also have users uploading instant reports to iReport.com, a user-generated site owned by CNN.

CNN is hoping the event will become the most-watched live web event in history. 

The news caps off a big week for social media networks, with the News Corporation-owned MySpace announcing its move into TV.

MySpace has developed a mini-application that complements TV with social networking offerings such as e-mail and photo viewing. TV watchers can exchange messages or browse photos on MySpace by activating a widget sitting at the bottom of the TV screen.

The widget will be launched in conjunction with Toshiba, which is promoting a new line of TV's with internet capabilities.