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Imagine if a Apple users couldn't email a PC user. or a PC word file couldn't be opened on a Apple. That is the current situation with social networking sites and is the major problem with them.
If they don't open up soon though, they may start to lose people. Hmmm, lockedout.com is taken...
Will Plaxo over take Facebook? Doubtful, but I'm sure they will get millions of users that like them. There are plenty of social networks out there, and most will survive because the human is a social creature.
Or again, you can be like Elton John (and I like Elton's music!) - and just be cranky - shut down the internet - just shut it all down!
Why? So we all can move back to the stone age of dial up and computers as big as a house?
Rex
The "imagine" scenario that you raise is a straw man. There's obviously plenty of incompatibility between PC and Apple users right now - determined by the stakeholders, market forces, etc. It'll be the same situation with the social networks.
I guess unlike you and Loren & Jason, for a ZZZ-list blogger (anything lower than that?). I'll just have to keep using FB and Plaxo until we see which one wins the 2.0 contest.
IMHO, I've been using Plaxo only for contact syncing from my AddressBook.app and also as a backup and the in-case-I-am-not-on-my-laptop scenario to look up someone's address.
Like CJ said, FB has been around for a long time and it is really hard to keep moving friends around to different platform all over and every other week.
Just this morning, I got another invite to Doostang, another LinkedIn. What the heck, I signed up anyway, but I highly doubt I'll ever go back again...
my $0.02
I think (hope) FB's strength will lie in that ineffable coolness, not in the songs you can take in our out with you.
I've stopped using FB as a fun social networking tool the other day. It's now my network, period. I'll post pictures on Flickr and tell people what I'm doing on Twitter. I'm not running to Plaxo because it allows just that... but I'll check it out just the same.
I love it when a plan comes together.
LinkedIn has to do something dramatic. Plaxo sounds like it's doing it on Monday. They just took the "open/controllable" high ground away from LinkedIn.
I personally HATE LinkedIn. I got off of it a year ago and am NOT going back.
There was too much of an expectation that I'd introduce people to other people there (or send notes along). I hated that and Facebook doesn't have that usage model. Facebook is also more fun because it's more social.
@4 - I agree with you and am under the impression that certain applications on Facebook have started to do that. I am a proponent of keeping my data as secure as needed, with varying "tiers" requiring different levels of security. Recently I discovered that internet forms were being populated with my contact information, and was able to trace it back to a Facebook application. Disabling this application solved the issue.
Maybe linkedin is relaunching as linkedout (domain under construction...) - an open version. They should at least pull in your blog feeds from the web and show them next to your profile...
This is an example of you throwing it out there without much thought behind it. Yep, facebook is cool; however, collaborative products have been around for ages - so what's the great leap? Think of Groove/Facebook/Notes/SharePoint/BlogSpot combos, MSN/AOL/all the other instant crap/blogs. Surely this is not a great leap. Some jaundiced eyes might help from time to time. Gee, who would have thunk that all of these network products (Plaxo, LinkedIn) etc would implement collaboration (asynch/synch) one day?
>>Do more...think deeper<<
With tools like openkapow robomaker its actually possible to get "your" data back...
i.e. I build a simple robot that gets your fb newsfeed a displays it as rss...
http://service.openkapow.com/heiphil/facebookfeed.rss
Unfortunately, although in that first week I managed to get a decent network of close friends going, activity at Pownce has died on its arse....for me (and for now) at least...
At nakedyak.com I've been talking recently about the concept of Open Messaging. A lot of my thinking is on the same line as yours Robert, but there are some opposing points too. But it's evolving, as is everything...and I can't wait to see what forms social networks take in the oh so near future!
~biff~
P.S. Thanks for putting me on to CoComment! Very handy indeed...
Maybe I'm asking too much!
And to compare Facebook to Groove? Please.
kthxbye!
(recognise the Shiny Object Formerly Known as LOLcats?)
They do see some of the closed nature of it as an advantage. Why? Anti-spam. They say that a lot of the walls they've put up is to defeat spammers. That's one reason I love Facebook (I say that as I look at 70,000 spams that have been caught by akismet).
Despite the crtiques of a walled garden, I actually prefer it to something more open. Why: because I get less spam.
LinkedIn: I have to disagree with you here. While some bloggers might not find as much value in it, the people that use it to accomplish something (recruiters & employers) do find value in the product (disclaimer: I know a lot of folks over there). Just because some bloggers might not like it these days, it doesn't mean that other people won't find value in the product (bloggers, after all, aren't the only folks in the universe).
As LinkedIn is a different niche, I think it would be silly for folks to compare it to the other social networks. But I also think LinkedIn has to pay very close attention to the very real threat that Facebook does pose...
Facebook is already being used for that and is so much more.
I follow your blog religiously and I enjoy the content and commentary.....however...do you think you could possibly give facebook it's own section perhaps? It's a little much these days and I want to continue to read your rss feed, but it's facebook overload recently. Thanks.
DG
When I read your work, I know I'm getting the cutting edge.
As for Plaxo, I think that unless Facebook screws up big somehow, it's going to be tough luring away the millions of entrenched users. Kind of similar to Pownce and Jaiku trying to grab entrenched Twitter users.
She decided to change her relationship status on Facebook to "in a relationship" with her significant other.
I laughed at first, but then I began thinking about it. Apparently, her friend was slightly embarrassed to have been dating this guy in the first place. She probably didn't want everyone to know she was seeing this guy. So by changing her relationship status on Facebook, she's guaranteeing that a lot of her friends are going to see it in theirs Newsfeeds. Its basically the same step as calling 200-400 (or however many friends you have on Facebook) and saying "Hey, guess what? I'm dating this person." Doesn't matter if they're your best friend, or if you've only talked to them a few times at a party. Chances are, they're going to see it.
The reality is that Facebook is arguably the most open Web site on the Web today and it's probably best to say it's a walled garden with a really big door :)
You can, in fact, pull most (but not all) data from Facebook including friends, photos, groups, events, and more. In fact, just last Friday, we published a video of Soma, the Developer Division Vice President and his daughter doing exactly that using Popfly.
Here's my full post on the subject with examples that pull data from the "alleged" walled garden.
http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2007/08/...
Cheers,
-Dan
see ronni bennet's blog Time Goes By where she documents (two posts) the issue (with massive comments from visitors).
Facebook = Elder Hatebook
http://www.timegoesby.net/2007/07/facebook-elde...
Facebook/Hatebook Responses
http://www.timegoesby.net/2007/07/facebookhateb...
It's amusing that Plaxo is going after them. The people who really have the right bullets to slay Facebook is Ning. With Ning, you can easily separate your co-workers from your drinking buddies, etc. You can also control your data. They give you access to all their data because they give you access to the very source code of their site. Ning reminds me of Google back when Google was the nerdy/geeky search engine to use.
So I guess what I'm wondering is...What does this mean for Plaxo's future in this particular social market? Will they revert back to their old habits to boost their numbers again?
-Vainentree
http://thenerdcan.wordpress.com/
Just my two cents worth... From someone who uses that feature frequently!
I think this is a smart comment. And what killed them both? The web.
The thing that succeeds Facebook, MySpace et al isn't going to be another site that some company throws up. It's going to be something far deeper than that; a standard for sharing data and connections between people, across all the networks and tools out there on the Internet.
The groundwork is already being laid, and it's only a matter of time before we all move on.
How come you don't mention mega social network sites like MyLifeBrand.com (http://www.mylifebrand.com) This site allows users to belong to numerous sites and access all of their memberships under one domain. I personally think that this is the wave of the future. As long as there is money behind Plaxo and other social network sites they are going to stay around. They'll fulfill different niche functions. But then one website, MyLifeBrand will allow users to bring these different niches together as one.
Facebook is already being used for that and is so much more.
Yes, but I think the primary advantage for LI is that they do have a jobs/recruiting focus. Until Facebook makes more of their service for business folks - even if some are already using it - it won't have the same rate of adoption.
As stated, I do think Facebook is a very legitimate threat to LinkedIn. As it stands right now, I would say that it currently can't beat the LinkedIn product (my professional profile is much more robust on LinkedIn). I've had a lot of potential job offers because of LinkedIn (being a Community Manager/Evangelist is still somewhat of a niche role, so folks find it easy to find folks like me there).
What Facebook could do:
Allow you to segregate business and personal contacts. Now that would be something that could be highly disruptive (99% of my Facebook friends are actually people I know through work!).
I'm curious to see what Plaxo comes up with. The guys at Fast Pitch! will have to add another column to this comparison chart:
http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/compare.cfm
At first I had heard the 2005 album and didn't really enjoy it much... Then I borrowed the older 2001 one with catchy tunes I already knew like "One more time". I'm so hooked on it now!! :D
On the subject: I guess facebook tends to be a traditional social network model (I don't think "deprecated" would fit in..) whereas Twitter and other are a new bread, where information is public as you intend it to be.
There are, of course, pros and cons on both models (privacy later on in life, comes to me when I think of the latest model).
To be honest, you had me try Facebook AND TWITTER!!! :D Although I do enjoy Facebook, it just feels like more of the same (eg. orkut, hi5, netlog, etc...) which I have or had and got tired of it! The one advantage (huge one!) about Facebook is it's interaction with other services... that can be the more "open" ones. That way, you kind of "aggregate" your social networking on one page, for "insiders". (I just tried MyBlogLog and Jaiku yesterday... seem interesting!)
Oh well... creativity is lacking at times in some of those startups: they want to make a better something, instead of creating the best thing! (catchy phrase LOL - you can use it :p)
Keep it up Scoble! :)