Social networking is underhyped.

http://laserlike.com/2008/11/01/social-networking-is-underhyped/

by mspeiser • 18 years ago

11 9 18 years ago

laserlike.com

qqq• 18 years ago

No it's not.

lhorn• 18 years ago

Agreed. He's suggesting that most people haven't realized the possibilities of it yet.

I am observing the opposite: the mainstream public (looking at my non-techie friends) have been fully exposured to it, had enough of it, and is slowly getting tired of it. We're not talking about early adopters anymore: everybody has an online identity and has learned its limitations and implications.

If anything, social networks are getting boring: outside of your real circle of friends you see the same strangers posing to be smarter, better looking and happier than they really are: people aren't that different after all, and your real social network stays where it has always been: in your cell phone's address book.

And that's where I'll be turning to for an advice about finding a doctor or a car mechanic. I don't give a rat's ass about what "people on the internet" have to say. At least half of them voted for Bush. Twice.

sanj• 18 years ago

Really? Half of your social graph on facebook voted for Bush? I am guessing that isn't accurate. It is the case that half of all Americans voted for Bush twice.

But I think that makes the point: what the original post is suggesting is that your social graph could be used to limit the mechnics you want to those that are left leaning hippies (like me!) who use vegan vegetable oil in the crankcase. All because you surround yourself with people like you.

Please note that I am not advocating that this is necessarily a good thing. Just that you are making the point very well.

axod• 18 years ago

This suggests social networking is a new thing... It's not IMHO, it's been around forever. The current crop of "social network sites" have just pulled a few things together, done some things better than what went before (Finding people), and some things worse (Email/IM).

The real question is how do you make money out of it.

mspeiser• 18 years ago

To extend your argument, you make money on it the same way as you do for those things that have been around forever. For jobs and dating, listing fees. For search, search marketing. And using the social graph to better target ads should increase CPMs by much more than content-based targeting.

electromagnetic• 18 years ago

Social Networking is nothing new, and is still inherently useless. It's somewhat good at keeping in contact with people, but largely there is no contact between people using it. People stay 'in contact' by reading other peoples facebook status updates, not actually talking to them.

I met my wife through the internet, but she was a friend of a friend. Ask most couples how they met and a lot will say they were introduced by a friend. How do I say it? Well I was introduced by a friend!

Social Networking allows people to spend less time talking to people and still feel somewhat connected. There's no use in it except staving off the loss of a friend. I cut all my friends when I left high school, I moved country and I live in Canada. I don't miss a single friend from back in England, 99% of them were people who I'd have on a facebook account and completely avoid talking to.

The way to make social networking sites profitable, is to make people use them frequently enough without draining resources. Google makes a lot of money, because the data use by a single user is tiny. The data use by a Facebook user is huge, my wife probably uses 10 megs of bandwidth every time she checks the site. Yet everytime she hits google, she probably uses 10k of bandwidth from a google server to get where she wants to go.

prospero• 18 years ago

Facebook's social graph only describes my life if I use it as my primary medium of communication. Network effect aside, the value it holds for me in my day-to-day life drops off exponentially the less I use it. Either online interaction will supplant interaction in the real world, or online approximations of our lives will continue to be lossy and somewhat trivial.

apsurd• 18 years ago

Is it realistic for a social networking site to partner with a record label and use the network as a means to:

1. Promote new acts

2. Promote new events, tours, shows, releases.

3. Sell music, merch, tickets, and everything else.

The reason why I choose record labels and music is because people are very connected, social, and passionate about their music tastes. Also I would think there are many opportunities available in the music industry. For example if you are huge like fb you partner with Sony and the like. If you are small, there are countless indie labels to work with.

I've always liked this idea, but I'm not big on SNS so what do you guys think?

fallentimes• 18 years ago

Not based on investment dollars.

Social networking is underhyped.

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