Following Kongregate's announcement last week that it had secured $3 million from Bezos Expeditions, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos' personal investment arm, for its social Flash gaming portal, the company revealed a new project designed to extend its presence on the web, the Facebook Challenge Platform.

Launched in 2006, Kongregate's site invites users to not only play and rate over 4,000 Flash games for free, but to create and share them using a "video games meets YouTube" model. Members who've registered at the site can also setup profiles, friends lists, and chat with others.

Points and badges are rewarded for completing specific challenges (achievements) in the different games, and users can even invite their friends to games they've played and send challenges. That social strategy has worked out well for Kongregate, as its users spend, on average, up to an hour, playing games at the site, compared to users visiting Facebook and ESPN, who on average stay at the respective sites for 21 and 12 minutes. Kongregate intends to add this communal aspect of its Flash game network to Facebook, integrating its games and features onto the social site. Due for a public release later this month, the Challenge Platform hopes to attract Facebook's huge user base to the Kongregate experience.

Worlds in Motion spoke to Kongregate CEO and co-founder Jim Greer about the platform's seamless integration with Facebook: "Anyone with a Facebook profile will be able to start playing our games immediately. They won't need to set up a Kongregate account beforehand. It will all be available through Facebook's application directory, just like a regular game." Even users who have no interest in the platform's social features will be able to enjoy the games with a casual, single-player "Play" mode.

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.

New York City-based mobile games developer Cellufun has expanded its offerings and community of mobile gamers with a new Facebook application that allows users to play all of its titles and take advantages of their social features from within the social network.

Cellufun specializes in providing free-to-play, ad-supported mobile products, claiming over four million downloads to consumers in 160 countries. Its 40+ games include Call of the Pharoah, winner of the GSMA Award for best Mobile Game, and The Mobile Ring, a political boxing game attracting over 2.2 million mobile game plays in the last 160 days.

Cellufun's online and social features for its mobile games, including scoreboards, leader recognition, and multiplayer support, will be integrated into the Facebook application. Friends of Cellufun users can receive invitations to the applications, and game status notifications, such as game moves and wins, will be updated on users' Friends Feeds.

Said Cellufun COO and co-founder Steve Dacek: “The Cellufun community leverages social networking for its games, so Facebook offers a perfect platform for extending the community outward. We are incredibly excited about reaching a whole new audience via this platform.”

Billed as the first green children's social network, WebbliWorld provides a child-safe site in which its users can create unique Webbli avatars, play games, and learn about the environment, all within a world designed by Aardman Animations, the creators behind Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Flushed Away.

Nine months since its launch, the social network is gearing up to expand and add new features with a second phase of development. We spoke with WebbliWorld CEO Camilla Whitby about the community's plans for the future and current features.

What has been changed and added since WebbliWorld's "soft launch" in July 2007?

Since the "soft launch" we’ve been continually adding new features, releasing them on a regular basis. These have included a cinema page (WebbliDrome), a buddy system, a safe chat system, WebbliZones to showcase particular projects, rating systems, commenting systems, a navigational toolbar, and an interactive ticker bar. This is in addition to regularly updating both our news pages and character’s home pages.

More and more virtual worlds targeted at children seem to be announced every week -- many with colorful avatars, educational elements, and child-safe environments. What else beyond the standard "feature list" does WebbliWorld offer?

WebbliWorld has a wonderful look and feel with great design, strong brand personality, vibrant colours and unique features such as quirky characters and our bespoke avatar builder which allows kids to create an avatar that is truly individual to them. However, what you see now is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s on the way -- we aim for WebbliWorld to be around for the long term, and so we are keen to develop both breadth and depth by continually adding more content, features, and interactivity. Our concerns on caring for the planet (One Planet – Everything to Play For!) sets us apart from other offerings.

At the recent InterPlay Conference devoted to social gaming in San Francisco, Charles Yong and Jing Chen from social networking metrics platform Developer Analytics addressed the engagement for social games since Facebook launched as a platform.

In particular, they discussed in depth monetization of social games, and looked at the feasibility of adding greater and greater depth to online-based social games, even those based around social networks - for which there is a significant venture capital funding surge right now.

The Developer Analytics website already provides a leaderboard of the top Facebook applications - a number of which are game-related, from Speed Racing through Texas Hold 'Em and beyond.

Charles Yong, co-founder of Developer Analytics opened by stating boldly, "Social gaming is where the really great monetization is at. You can prototype with little to no money down. The whole premise of this is that marketing cost is really, really low, compared to a real game, like Grand Theft Auto IV."

But that's not to say that casual gamers aren't "real gamers": "If you have someone playing 25 hours a week on casual games, that's a hardcore gamer. But they're really easy to impress. They haven't seen GTA IV, they haven't seen Half-Life 2, and real money is coming out of virtual goods and currency."

In this session from the San Francisco-based InterPlay Conference, particularly focused on 'social gaming' for networks such as Facebook, a panel including the founding CEOs of Kongregate and Zynga debated the different strategies and business models of their social gaming channels -- floating the possibility that their channels would be interconnected in future.

"Right now, all the attention is on Facebook," opened Martin Green, VP of business development at Meebo. But "things could get better for game developers working on social platforms over the next few years as more platforms like Meebo compete for developer attention. We started out really restrictive for developers, but we've opened up their platform much more since then."

Mark Pincus; CEO and founder of Zynga disagreed: "I believe that's the wrong approach... Facebook did it right, by having lots of freedom for developers at first, and then regulating."

"I think we're saying the same thing," responded Green. "You have to open the floodgates to get attention. We opened up months ago, but were very restrictive. We'll open up more in the months to come."

In turn, Shervin Pishevar; CEO and Co-founder, SGN argued that the "first generation" of Facebook apps were "too viral," with "not enough actual emphasis on fun and longevity."

"I look at Facebook and I see a social operating system. The profile is essentially the desktop. The more the desktop is cluttered, the less utility it has. The idea of challenging developers to create really high-quality experience is the next phase of social game development," he continued, hoping that the future was a move away from creating a high quantity of overly-simplistic games with no depth.

Social gaming and dating community Human Pets has launched HumanPets.com, expanding its online hangout from a Facebook application to an independent site.

Targeted at both teens and young adults, Human Pets offers a virtual world based on the concept of having humans as pets, their nicknames determined by their owners. All users are animals who can be fed, groomed, nicknamed, and even sold and bought as pets. Players can also earn virtual currency by participating in games, forums, chat rooms, and auctions.

Human Pets also offers adult content and activities to its 18-plus-years-old users in the form of optional paid memberships, allowing subscribers to exchange erotic items and join adult herds (herds being Human Pets' equivalent of groups). A portion of the paid membership proceeds are donated to the World Wildlife Fund.

According to Human Pets, the community has grown to 2 million users since first launching as a Facebook application in summer 2007. 15,000 people have reportedly signed up for the independent site since its beta release last week. Human Pets claims that its users spend over 30 minutes per day on average at the community.

Following up his speculation that virtual worlds are heading for a severe downturn, The Digital Space Commons president and CEO Bruce Damer has outlined several ideas for creating a healthy and sustainable virtual worlds industry and promoting mainstream adoption.

He suggests that "small worlds" might eventually dominate the space, defining small worlds platforms as "easy to install and run programs or plug-ins serving lightweight spaces hosting a small number of users. The small worlds would exist parallel to the web, embedded in and drawing traffic from social networking sites. This would contrast more traditional virtual worlds, or "big grid-iron" worlds as Damer describes them, which exist in isolation from the web.

Damer believes that the industry should concentrate on the platform with the biggest footprint of potential adopters: "Social interaction both random and purposeful is the big user footprint available to virtual worlds especially when embedded into high-trafficked web-based social networks."

He adds that the platform also has to have the lowest barrier: "The small world form factor using already ubiquitous front end technology would naturally be the lowest barrier to entry to these users."

Though Damer recognizes that builder behind large grid-based virtual worlds with proprietary and heavy browser technology will likely not be interested in this approach, he notes, "The big grid-iron worlds approach may be enough sustain a company or two, but this is not sufficient to create a healthy industry."

He concludes: "One could envision inviting key players to a common poker game where the payout at the end of the evening might be a common small world platform tuned to the biggest user footprint and adopted by the biggest trafficked social networks? The stakes in this game are a new medium and a healthy industry and… social virtual worlds everywhere!"

Social game distribution platform Social Gaming Network has announced that Bezos Expeditions, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' personal investment fund, has invested in the company for an undisclosed amount.

SGN announced in May 2008 that it had secured $15 Million in Series A funding, reportedly the largest first round for any social gaming or application company. The round was led by Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, Columbia Capital, and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Previously Bezos Expeditions revealed a similar investment for social Flash game portal Kongregate, offering up $3 million dollars. Kongregate announced that it would use the funds to continue to scale its site. The Bezos portfolio includes investments in Pelago, Twitter, TeachStreet, Powerset (acquired by Microsoft), ChaCha, and 37signals, with a total fund value of nearly $70M.

The Social Gaming Network specializes in publishing and providing a development platform for social games, such as Warbook and Jetman. Since the company's inception, its games have attracted over 1 billion page views, 54 million installs, and nearly 1.1 milion daily active users across social networks Facebook, Bebo, hi5, and MySpace.

Said SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar: "We are proud to be announcing the Bezos Expeditions investment. Mr. Bezos' knowledge and experience lends itself to the growth and expansion of the social gaming ecosystem. His participation in our funding will allow us to continue capturing new demographics in gaming by distributing the highest quality games available on the social web."

Online Gaming network Mochi Media announced a partnership with social networking and virtual spaces site Cyworld US to integrate the firm's games and ads into the community.

Through Mochi Media's MochiAds program, Cyworld will present a feed of Flash gaming content in the new gaming section of its site, which launched in mid-July. The games will also take advantage of Cyworld's social feature, allowing players to compete for top scores with other Cyworld members and share their thoughts on games and players.

Mochi Media's pre-game ads will be displayed as the game loads. The MochiAds program allows Cyworld to capture a share of the advertising revenue generated from all games played on the site.

Said Cyworld's vice president of product marketing Darian Patchin: "Mochi Media provides a deep level of gaming integration, enabling our members to compete and engage with one another. We're constantly looking to increase the quality of our members' experience and providing a social way to interact with Web games is a perfect fit.

He continued: "Mochi Media helps solve a revenue problem that many social networks are facing. Since we don't allow banner advertising on the site and are the only major social network without it, we are very selective about our revenue generation partners."

New York-based Rebel Monkey has announced that its browser-based casual MMO CampFu has reached over 100,000 registered users since its launch in February.

Announced demographics include that users come from 110 countries worldwide, and spend on average over 60 minutes playing games and socializing on the site per session.

To commemorate the 100,000 user milestone, Rebel Monkey is to launch new parts of the CampFu CampGround and a full site re-design, with more co-op games, social networking features and ways to customize avatars and cabins to come "later this spring."

"CampFu is a fun and fresh online hang-out that is different from anything else out on the market,” said Margaret Wallace, CEO of Rebel Monkey. "Players have really responded to the look of our avatars and that you can actually use your avatars inside of the games in real-time – unlike a lot of online multiplayer sites out there where avatars are usually relegated to the sidelines.”