"The uptake we've seen has been incredible," Friendster CEO Taek Kwon said in October, about a month after the new features were introduced. "We've seen substantial increases in media being uploaded, profiles being customized, and people posting classifieds." Friendster's current membership: 21 million, with 9 million of those users returning to the site every month. Friends or Buddies? The newest players in social networking, such as Palo Alto, CA-based iMeem, may have a long way to go to catch up with the likes of Friendster -- but their technology is already leapfrogging that of their older competitors. iMeem hopes to attract members by building all their activities not around a virtual representation of their social network, but around instant messaging technology. Indeed, the company's name is a combination of IM, for instant messaging, and "meme," meaning an idea spreading through a network. As an undergraduate in psychology at Stanford University, iMeem co-founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell wrote a thesis about instant messaging's role in workplace collaboration. The wave of social networking applications that emerged around 2001 intrigued him, he says, but "from the first time I saw this stuff, I didn't think it was interactive enough. It was too much just lurking and watching people from afar, but not in real time. It seemed to me the center of the universe [in a social network] should be a buddy list rather than a friends list." That's exactly how iMeem works. A downloadable application similar to Yahoo Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger, iMeem is built around a buddy-list window that shows a user which of her friends are online. From that window, she can send and receive instant messages, join group chats, keep a blog, and share photos, videos, podcasts, playlists, and the like with other users using a peer-to-peer system related to the technology behind the original Napster. Aggregating all of these functions into one program sounds like a recipe for information overload. But Caldwell believes that iMeem users will act as each others' media critics, perhaps bringing real effectiveness to the much-heralded idea of "collaborative filtering." "There's too much stuff out there," Caldwell says. "Too much data, too much content, too many blogs. Collaborative filtering is one of the most important things that's happened on the Web over the past couple of years. It's holding back the tide of overstimulation." It could be argued, of course, that supplementing one's everyday, real-life interactions with virtual ones through social-networking sites simply adds to the overstimulation. But if users weren't gaining some benefit from their online networks, they wouldn't be signing up by the millions. In the future, membership in an online social network may seem as commonplace as belonging to a more traditional organization like the Boy Scouts, the PTA, or the local Neighborhood Watch. The only difference? By ponying up a subscription fee or enduring online ads, you'll be paying for the pleasure. |
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Flocking Together on the Web
05/07/2008
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
Guest (Sangmin Ahn) on 11/21/2005 at 1:12 AM
1
tobto on 01/31/2007 at 2:18 AM
1
morganwardztas on 08/17/2008 at 9:31 AM
2
__________
GAYATHRI
http://www.esteembpo.com
Guest (Justin ) on 12/03/2005 at 8:15 PM
1
Guest (Sangmin Ahn) on 11/21/2005 at 1:12 AM
1
Guest (Cynthia) on 04/21/2006 at 12:00 AM
1
Guest (Ravi) on 07/05/2006 at 12:00 AM
1
tony008 on 05/24/2008 at 3:32 AM
1
Zonzia.net is a step above the rest with top notch Video technology on it’s way. Video dating, resumes, profiles, and online conference will revolutionize online communities. This site is raising eyebrows in the social networking crowd and attracting a lot of attention. It’s “touch of class” personality puts it in a league of it’s own, drawing “gurus” of the social scene in for a closer look. Video being in the spotlight, there are many extras to Zonzia.net. Music, forums, groups, classifieds, and chat rooms are but a few, there is even a Zonzia.net .
sandranewman on 05/25/2008 at 8:28 PM
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michael1960 on 05/25/2008 at 10:28 PM
1
Zonzia.net provides plenty of networking features to customize your personal profile and to get you on your way to establishing a large network of friends. Discover other avenues of expression by posting blogs and joining forums. Choose from a variety of extra features like Internet radio, videos and groups.
Zonzia.net would have been awarded our #2 spot if they were more diligent about monitoring their content.
Networking Features:
Zonzia.net has an assortment of features to customize your profile page. Upload photos, graphics, music, videos and choose from over 40 skins to make your profile unique.
Privacy settings allow only your friends to view your full profile while a limited profile is still accessible to other Zonzia.net members. You can see the last 100 people who have viewed your profile and if necessary, you can block individual members.
Ads appear around the periphery of profile pages, which some members may find annoying but they are not obtrusive.
Click on a member’s photo or name to view their profile page. View their photos and videos; read their personal blog, post comments and invite them into your network of friends. Narrow your member search to specific criteria like gender, age, relationship status and location.
sloppyjoe25 on 09/05/2006 at 4:11 PM
1
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
1
http://blog.meetmoi.com/
cms168 on 09/11/2007 at 1:00 AM
1
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!
Lareen Fox on 05/28/2008 at 1:34 AM
1
morganwardztas on 07/29/2008 at 6:49 AM
2
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GAYATHRI
Wide Circles