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Remember what happened on SecondLife?
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/120066/facebook-fac...
Or is it just bound to generate more talk?
"I wish my network worked like facebook"
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3...
As hot as Facebook is right now, it probably doesn't really have any permanent traction. It's just the flavor of the day.
Google has the platform and the means. Do they have the will? Let's see what they must do:
1. They need to rename it. "Orkut" sucks big donkey balls.
2. They need to put all their services in there.
3. They need to open up the APIs
Photos, mail, news, groups, events, etc.
All under one beautifully crafted social experience.
Sign me up.
Btw, just signed up for facebook and couldn't see anything interesting to do. No hype for me.
Ken: myspace isn't even in the running for a professional social networking tool. Not even close.
Even high school kids tell me they are moving off of MySpace.
I think we're going to see a major play from MySpace very soon. Friends who work there are constantly telling me they are working on "something big". I don't know if that's hyperbole or not but it is a great teaser.
Yes, in order to do a major move in the social space, MySpace has some *huge* problems to solve. Their infrastructure sucks, the way they work isn't consistent, and the site is just plain buggy. But there is potential there. I predict that there is, at some point, going to be a showdown between MySpace and Facebook.
Whoever does the play and whoever wins, there is going to be some very cool stuff in the social space pretty soon.
Personally, I can't wait!
However, Jeramiah pointed me at a group and from the "related groups" i have NOW started to enjoy the site.
They need to work on their discovery. So did Orkut. You ended up with a few groups with *everyone* on it - the long tail existed, but it was too hard to find, so you ended up with many parallel long tail communities, each consisting of two people.
Looks like Jerry Yang just figured out his mission statement for Yahoo -- get Scoble to shut up about Facebook.
Robert, I agree with that, but it sounds a little inconsistent with some of your previous comments. First it's just the place to be and anyone who disagrees gets insulted. Any mention of Myspace tends to get a non specific dismissal (and not without reason, it's an ugly site) until here with this qualifier.
On Techcrunch, you talk about the 6000 siemens employees and apps for Siemens employees coming soon: "It’s not Siemens in control (and the same thing is happening at almost EVERY corporation, every one I talk to says they have tons of employees on Facebook — all organically there and there’s absolutely nothing that these companies can do about it). So, what do you do when your employees all join something and you can’t do anything about it? You join in.".
I've read Cluetrain, I get it. Except, maybe I don't. You really think Siemens is just going to give in and let Facebook control their data/employee interactions? I mean, I get it, they're already there. But are they there in a complete professional capacity to do work, or a more like/work balance one? I suspect they're there to network, which has both social and work components, and also for more purely social pursuits. I ask sincerely: am I wrong? Are they actually on facebook to do the business of their business?
The work/social division is one that it seems Silicon Valley wants to collapse, but not every company wants to. Nor should they. Do you want your bank's employees dealing with your mortgage through facebook apps?
Hehe Scoble hangs with high school kids. But in all seriousness, I'm with you on the whole "Facebook is amazing who will usurp them?" thing. Except maybe there's something that's going to come out of left field and perhaps surprise us all?
"GOOG fell from a closing price of $548.59 to around $502.47, an 8% drop that wiped out $13 billion in shareholder value."
How can you possibly lose 13 Billion in a day?
You could feed Africa for 2 years with that. They should be ashamed of themselves for losing investor confidence like that.
At any rate, I think Scoble is right, but he's missing one fact.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...
Scroll down to this part
"Orkut.com users come from these countries:"
Orkut is for people from Brazil and that fact has been widely disseminated over years of time.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...
MySpace is for Americans. So is our SN site.
Online communities are all about the people, not the software. You want to find people who are "like you".
You're forgetting the cardinal rule of business (or perhaps just YCombinator): "make something people want."
Yes, Google has all the early adopters on GMail, but does it have the bulk of people who drive traffic to sites like Facebook and MySpace? No.
The average consumer won't care if Google makes another social network, they are content with Facebook and MySpace.
They will care if Google makes something that redefines the social network, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Google's got other things to worry about right now.
However, Googles Orkut doesn't even let you search your Gmail for contacts. I think that what makes Facebook so easily is that you can find all your friends who are on it quickly, adn from there you can get friends of friends to grow your network easily - or to grow it really large, you could just blog that you accept anyone who invites you ;)
Google as I have seen pays the least attention to orkut, there is no official blog on Orkut.
We rarely see updates (last one was GTalk integration/Video sharing I believe).
Sometimes I wonder if the lawsuit on Orkut itself is holding back Google on doing anything on this social networking site !
There's value in not having quantity. My social network is for a cyberpunk fiction writing project and has 31 members. It will not have 1000.
Beyond that, is there a difference between using it and talking about it? Everyone knows about it, so what more can we say about it? Use it. USE it.
I found this out with my iPhone (yeah, haven't posted THAT one yet). I use it in such a reflexive way and often times, no one notices.
The greatest power is using, existing, 'being one with' the technology. "GREAT DRESS!" "oh, this old thing? /shrug"
What's your value-add in talking about Facebook? It's all over techmeme. And everywhere else.
Anyway, that's all from my peanut galler. And not bad, I went from nutty-fruity-crunchy 'be one with' hippie to value propositions in one comment. /smirk.
ILFB.
Why do you trust Google to store all your information?
If you like it and it works for you, enjoy it. I don't like any of the social sites. I have a small family, a life, and I enjoy things, but I fail to see what Facebook or any other site is going to do for me. How will it improve my life beyond what it is already.
My friends and I communicate via email. It works just find. While I dislike the asynchronous aspect of email, my friends and I both work for employers where IM is frowned upon at work, so asynchronous it is.
What I'm holding out for is a Web services or services whereby I can see my friends in real time, talk with them without cost beyond my ISP, send them files in real time, share bookmarks instantly. I want all this on one site. Granted, I'll have to have a webcam onboard or external, but that's a minor detail.
How is that even remotely related to MS possibly building a social networking app? You do understand the difference between software and hardware, right?
Yes, but you know what I mean, longer than 3, 6 or 9 months. I know that's considered long to a certain crowd.
Xbox and PS3 have contact management, crappy email, instant messaging and more. PS3 is about to come out of beta with @home which should be THE Social networking platform for all gamers ever with finality.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/07/playstation-...
"PlayStation Home will be a free download, and will eventually include a virtual cinema for watching movie downloads"
MS's Xbox is legacy * 1000 as far as social network gaming platforms is concerned when @home RTM is in the PS store.
http://en.blog.orkut.com/
http://orkutplus.blogspot.com/
http://www.insideorkut.com/
You have to remember that were Facebook, Orkut ect... are all Yugos of Social networking, @Home is a high end BMW.
It's the difference between being seated in this chair
http://www.panasonic.ca/english/personalhealth/...
or being seated on a log stump in the woods.
Not everybody can afford that chair, but those that can are going to be infinitely better off.
I deleted mine months ago too, although I generally like most things Google.
Problem is that when they buy existing code that has been around a while it takes them a while to integrate it well.
Orkut was very slow and buggy for a long time after the purchase. I'm having another look. Looks for one thing like they have managed to get the performance up in spite of the bazillion users in Brazil.
Most of this social networking stuff bores me. On the other hand if I were looking to connect up with old college folks etc, I'd much rather use Orkut than Myspace. Come to think of it, I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than use Myspace.
My hope though is that all these things are forced by user demand to interact with one another. I should be able to be seen by Myspace users or Facebook users by only having an Orkut ID, and visa versa.
Of course we are still waiting for the Instant messengers to interoperate aren't we? I won't hold my breath.
Also, since you touched on Orkut, I want to add it is the biggest social networking site in India. Its like Yahoo or Hotmail right now, even more popular.
We don't know (or love) Facebook very much though FB is really "shiny" and more sophisticated. Rather FB is simple and private.
Everyone I know has an Orkut account. I know its ugly but its so easy to use. FB is beautiful but geeky for Indian tastes. Trust me. Orkut is a masala movie, very popular, though not refined. FB is an art movie, refined, but not as popular.
Privacy? Social networking sites have been made to mainly strut your stuff. :-) That's what makes them viral.
I told my friends about FB, they are not buying it. Orkut is enough they say.
Further, the tech/biz community is adopting it, and while there's a lot of hype around things like Twitter, Facebook is a much bigger time investment for people, making them much less likely to change.
We launched apprate.com specifically because we think the opportunity for Facebook-related platform plays will be huge. Of course, I also own fbapprate.com, but I liked hedging my bet with the more generic name. :)
What I love about Facebook is it's become the dialogue of my friends' and even business colleagues' lives. It takes the Twitter/Jaiku/Pownce world and combines it into the little actions you can actively take on a social network. So whether I manually type in "I'm having a ham sandwich" or I post a picture, both appear as a single line microblogged action.
I have a summary of why I think Facebook has become so successful here: http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=213
I'm not trolling for Orkut, just correcting Robert there. When he talks about Orkut as the next shiny thing that he'd like to rave/rant about..I feel like saying "hey wait a minute...Orkut's even older" Pownce is the new shiny thing...but I think these things are a waste of time...too geeky...
I wrote about it here:http://www.thesocialbookmarker.com/2007/07/google-carnegie-mellon-and-grand.html
Where do you think Linkedin misses the boat?
More and more people I trust, like Jeff Pulver who runs some of the biggest conferences in the industry, are telling me they are getting off of LinkedIn. http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/007226.html
Facebook's application platform is why you'll need to move someday.
Myspace badly wants some coverage!
I do have to say that I don't like the "walled garden" aspect. I like the interoperability standards of email, IM & RSS, so something that would allow people to integrate those types of things with a widget/badge type of app on their own sites would be preferable to me.
In other words, having to jump from Friendster to LinkedIn to MySpace to Facebook and re-add people, etc. seems the wrong way to go.
William
www.sugarattack.com