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Friday, November 18, 2005 Social Networking 3.0The third generation of social-networking technology has hit the Web, and it's about content as much as contacts. By Wade Roush
If there were a competition for "Internet Buzzword of the Year," last year's winner would have been "social networking," as a cohort of companies such as Ryze, Tribe, LinkedIn, Friendster, Spoke, and Visible Path, rolled out new or improved services that let Web users create online mirrors of their circle of real-life acquaintances. The idea was mainly to let users build online profiles that advertised their interests and to help them connect with friends and friends-of-friends around one of those interests -- whether it be finding a job, making a sale, or repairing an old motorcycle. But with the exception of Friendster and Myspace, the initial response to these services among average Internet users was sluggish. Many users signed up for one or more services, created online profiles, formed connections with a few acquaintances, and drifted away, uncertain about how to use the networks. But today, not only have all of these companies survived; they're experiencing record growth, introducing new technology and new money-making features, and being joined by sophisticated new competitors such as iMeem. Moreover, they're joining the parade of sites offering "rich media" -- the big buzzword of 2005 -- by encouraging users to share their own content online, including photos, videos, music, and other digital files. Social networking, in other words, is finally becoming a real business with a convincing product. "A year ago a lot of our users were pretty unclear about what they could do," says Konstantin Guericke, co-founder and vice president of marketing at LinkedIn, a social network focusing on business connections. "They knew they were getting invitations to join the network, and they knew how to accept invitations, and sometimes they sent their own invitations -- but they weren't sure what else to do with that." A year later, LinkedIn's membership has grown from 1 million to 4.2 million; users are conducting 5 million searches a month for potential contacts within their own networks, and the company has launched several revenue-producing features, such as paid subscription options that allow members to search profiles outside their immediate circle of friends and friends-of-friends. Rather than simply passing requests for introductions back and forth through their networks -- which was about all they could do a year ago -- LinkedIn members are using their networks for practical purposes, like finding job candidates, locating business and legal services, and coordinating group activities. What makes all this possible, says Guericke, is the user-generated content LinkedIn holds in its members' profiles, such as resumes and testimonials. "First, we are a search engine. But second, we are a publishing platform -- about yourself and what other people say about you," Guericke says. "It just creates a more powerful business." |
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Flocking Together on the Web
05/07/2008
Comments
Guest (Sangmin Ahn) on 11/21/2005 at 1:12 AM
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tobto on 01/31/2007 at 2:18 AM
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Guest (Sangmin Ahn) on 11/21/2005 at 1:12 AM
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Guest (Justin ) on 12/03/2005 at 8:15 PM
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Guest (Justin ) on 12/03/2005 at 8:15 PM
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Guest (Cynthia) on 04/21/2006 at 12:00 AM
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Guest (Ravi) on 07/05/2006 at 12:00 AM
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sloppyjoe25 on 09/05/2006 at 4:11 PM
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One new branch is represented by "CyWorld" - a transplant from Korea. Unfortunately Cyworld has a take-it-or-leave-it from their collection of avatars and mini "virtual items" - to decorate your profile (home) and make it your own. It is not likely to appeal to many MySpace users.
Other sites are pushing new technology too - but often miss what users care about in terms of self expression and interaction.
MySpace may be terrible tecnnically - and not appeal to the geek "technorati" in elegance - but it is King with users - and it's easy to see why:
FREEDOM
The fundamental problem is diversity with the CyWorld Approach - MySpace has created a huge ecosystem of companies like www.skem9.com www.blemeshack.com www.glitter-graphics.com www.dolliecrave.com www.myonda.com www.createblog.com
the list and diveristy of sites serving different interests - with different layouts, graphics, video, music etc. to customize your profile - or ANY OTHER profile on another social network is astounding. There are litterally millions upon millions of items from thousands of sites. CyWorld only offers their items - yes for cute acorns, but C'mon?? Who would pay? All the sites offer Free Code - that you can put on any blog, website, profile, wherever...and they are not going away.
www.blemeshack.com has even launched a meta search engine to search all the other sites to find these free items and the free code...
You Tube is another Major market force - in distributing their video <embed> codes free - they have grown to be the market leader - and the dozens of video offerings that have followed - have all had to offer their video codes for distrbution - to MySpace profiles, blogs, and anywhere else...
Other social networks will grow - and in time - one may top myspace - but it will be based on leveraging all the FREE decoration and enhancement codes ALREADY out there... not by building a closed walled community - and trying to trick users with cutesy garbage into paying for a poorer choice of items.
Look at Tag World - which has tried to push and push it's own "widgets" (technically elegant and loved by techies) to enhance your profile - after tons of money spent - it's numbers still suck. Lost Cherry is a good example of an SN that is embracing all of the MySpace content sites - and enhancing some messaging features - and growing like a rocket. They have another revenue idea which is getting users to review advertisers offerings more closely - in exchage for points - but they are doing nothing to try to lock users in, and fully support HTML grabbed from any where - and stored in users bleme Shacks.
In the end - the equation is simple:
Free Code + Leveraging Existing Content + Demographic focus => Social Networking success.
joe
tbeestrong on 02/21/2007 at 10:17 AM
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http://blog.meetmoi.com/
cms168 on 09/11/2007 at 1:00 AM
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It is a lot like Myspace, but you get paid for your page views + the page views of up to ten levels of referrals. I find it easier to use and more interactive than the other sites. Alexa.com shows it exploding to the top of the Internet listings. Check out Yuwie.com!