Discussing the "massively multiplayer social web" at a Web 2.0 Expo panel, rmbr CEO Gabe Zichermann coined the term "Funware," game-like behaviors and mechanics embedded in web-based social applications, according to VC news weblog VentureBeat. A new word for an already prevalent trend, Funware attracts users to complete tedious tasks, such as marking photos in Google Image Labeler or filling out profile details in LinkedIn, with game-like rewards.

Zichermann notes that the video game industry has been slow to adopt the Funware approach, leaving new developments and ideas to non-traditional social gaming companies, like Zynga and Social Gaming Network. He notes that this could be a mistake for video game companies, as social networks with Funware mechanics could be sharing and competing for the same audience as traditional games.

Said Zichermann: “Unequivocably, for the first time, games have direct competition for user time. Until now, we’ve been [like] Pac-Man eating the cherry of television and the printed word. Now, a new type of application has emerged that, in the long term, could be more engaging and sticky than what the game industry produces.”

Zichermann has a vested interest in naming the trend and inviting gaming companies to embrace it, as his own company has released its own application that falls under the Funware umbrella, rmbrME. The application allows users to share their Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and other other socially-network friends via SMS.

THQ marketing chief Bob Aniello doesn't yet see traditional games losing its audience to Funware applications and social networks: "If anyone is losing audiences to social networks and games, it’s the traditional media such as newspapers, TV shows, and movies." Aniello instead suggests that traditional games and social networks are complementing each other, not cannibalizing each other.