I think the facebook platform is turning into a double edged sword for Facebook. It doesn't seem to have hurt their valuation, but I detect a weakening of the trust factor which facebook were fostering with their closed profiles.
In particular apps which seemingly randomly send out messages on your behalf and apps that don't even work half the time aren't good news.
They need to tighten up the controls, make it easier to understand what an app can or can't do on your behalf and they need to provide app hosting, or have some way to guarantee an app maker can handle the traffic.
My brother Andrew on Social Networking (Bebo, MySpace etc.)
"It's ridiculous. They're not even real friends. You can phone up K T Tunstall on the buttons and ask her to be your friend."
Why is upcoming.org not more popular? It calls itself a collaborative event calendar and thats pretty much what it is. Say, for example, you're going to see Noam Chomsky talk in Edinburgh then you can see who else is going too and do what you like with that information; hook up, have coffee before, pints after. Most useful I imagine if you actually know upcoming.org users in your 'metro area'. More useful still if you live in NYC or SFO. Edinburgh at the moment only has 9.
Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.Unfortunately Edinburgh doesn't (ever) have any events listed either. This app could be useful though and deserves more popularity.As Upcoming.org learns more about the events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never would have heard about.
Over at Neowin.net, there is a heads up of some new Microsoft happenings including
Messenger Marketplace[Via seattlepi.com]
You heard it here folks, MSN Ebay is here! Buy and Sell within social network, also list wants and share recommendations. List items you want to sell, things you are looking for, and your recommendations. Your buddies notice new items you’ve listed when they login. They can either buy, sell or refer you to one of their buddies. It is like eBay except with people that you already know and trust directly (or a few degrees out).
In the same vein as my recent post (Orkut, Friendster et. al.), Joi points to YASN without a point (and two with) by Suw Charman who discusses the merits of last.fm and flickr as essentially social networking sites.
Last.fm lets you people with similar musical taste to your own based on your and their playlists. Flickr facilitates photo sharing among friends and groups.
The key thing about these two examples is that social networking is just something that happens by using the system, it's not necessarily what you are there for. This is something I touched upon before when I suggested that a far better and more truthful picture will emerge if the onus moves away from the user having to consciously define their relationships.
Perhaps in these heady post-IPO days Google are too busy with letting you search your own pc, developing browsers (or not) and figuring out how to leverage their IM application to bother too much about Orkut.
Probably not, but it does have big problems with reliability. More fundamentally, it's easy to go for days, weeks and even months without logging in (or having a need / desire to log in).
Jeremy's Why Google needs Orkut article is informative as to intent, however the Orkut implementation is very lacking. Rebecca Blood's Thirteen ways to save Orkut hit the nail on the head with her observation, "Orkut is too inflexible to succeed" and she goes on to suggest specific remedies which would help.
The thing I find with these kind of 'social networking' sites is that it's somehow very false. My experience tells me that data becomes useless if people don't update it, the most successful automation projects I've seen manage to automate the data collection process, i.e. don't rely on the user to do anything much. They probably don't know exactly what their social circle looks like, a far more telling picture would be achieved by analysing email, phone records, IM conversations etc. If a social networking app was profiling me then simply by telling it about anoasis.co.uk it would be able to discern my interests with some semantic analysis, people I rarely/sometimes/often defer to, people I rarely/sometimes/often criticise.
The scope of publically available data might, on collation, be so all revealing as to provoke a privacy backlash against the site which attempts to map it; maybe an opt-in system would work for some data, e.g. electoral, financial etc. Or maybe that kind of data has little utility and can be omitted. The point is that Google has the ability to analyse data and infer relationships, by taking the onus off the user then non-geeks (and non Brazilians) will be receptive if there is a benefit to them. A benefit like being the cross-application 'Contacts' section of a mail program, an IM app, a photo sharing solution. Or a cross-browser, cross-pc bookmark folder. Or a 'blogrolling' type provider of links to recommended resources.
At the moment however Orkut is in a pretty sorry state doing nothing well.
Via JoiIto,
eBay has acquired a preexisting minority ownership interest in craigslist of approximately 25%. The resulting relationship will allow eBay and craigslist to share expertise, resources, and creativity on behalf of online communities everywhereThe shares are not being sold by Craig or by Craigslist but by a former employee who was granted a stakeholding in the company. Craig comments,
Like craigslist, eBay is about helping folks get everyday stuff done, on a level playing field - they emphasize trustworthiness and reputation, and try really hard to listen to people. Basically, we're both about building community, and humanizing and democratizing the 'net, and there's gotta be more of that.Already in 45 cities, perhaps eBay's money will help roll out craigslist to many more, and that is a good thing.The deal we're announcing today basically allows us to operate without changing our mission of community service, while making available to us expertise and resources we could really use.
Earlier today I read something which reminded me of something which led me to solicit an invitation to Orkut. I have been fascinated following click paths of who knows who knows who knows who. I feel like I'm a bit of a dead end friend because it seems I only know two people who use the 'net as much as I do, are counter-intuitive enough to cope with Orkut's weird interface or who would recognise merit in a geek tool which purports to be a socializing tool. I'm reluctant to send out invites because all of my offline friends will just think I'm being a spamhead.