November 28, 2007

Social Networks

I am at the opening keynote at Gilbane. The speakers:

There is quite a bit of discussion on social networks.

I just passed 500 connections on LinkedIn. I mention this because I have found LinkedIn to be a valuable resource. It's a great way to keep in touch of colleagues, especially if they are also active users. I have found long-lost colleagues and friends, made useful connections, helped other people make useful connections, and even found projects and prospects there. I compare this with Facebook, which I joined more recently. Facebook is a powerhouse, no doubt, and there seems like an endless number of applications and activities there. But I guess I am an old fart. I don't get half of the apps, and I don't like the default behavior where every new app and even every action on every app is to ask your entire network to do the same thing with that app--take the same movie quiz, answer the same question, and so forth. It strikes me as the equivalent of forwarding the same email to every person in your contact list. Of course, you don't have to ask every contact to do something--you can select some or one or none. You can even do nothing with any of the applications, which is what I tend to do.

I don't know what the effect of Google's OpenSocial initiative will be. Conventional wisdom seems to be that it won't make a dent in Facebook, and, aside from LinkedIn, the founding members seem to be a who's who of failed social networks, including Google's own orkut. And, generally, I am deeply skeptical of anything Google does outside of consumer search and pay-per-click advertising. But assuming not everyone in the world will join precisely one social network, doesn't it make perfect sense for these networks to have a common API?

Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:46 AM | Comments (1)

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