Social networking sites have been the axle of the web for the last few years. Everyone belongs to one, everyone has thought about building one, but where will the social networking ball roll? It seems the moment I create an account on a new social site and try to get all of my friends to join, a new site pops up that offers a better way to communicate with my friends.
Unfortunately, moving to a new site is not as easy as switching search engines. It’s kind of like moving to a new house in a new town and trying to get all your friends to move to your new neighborhood. This is one of the largest problems with social networking today - we don’t want to have to rebuild our network of friends, nor do we want to fill out another profile. There are several people working on this problem, but it’s a tough nut to crack. A small group of people are working on OpenID, a standard that is gaining adoption among large sites and has raked up more than 90 million accounts.
This past week there has been a ton of buzz about Google’s OpenSocial project, a set of API’s for application developers to create applications that work on any social network. This works by host sites, such as Myspace, LinkedIn, Ning, etc, accepting API calls that would return user data and allow cross communication. The three API’s are People and Friends Data, Activities Data, and Persistance Data. I feel this project will be huge and could open up a whole new field for developers and possibly advance social networking to the next level. This will also be great for niche sites to be able to tap into the user data. I’m very excited to see how OpenSocial develops.
Tired of the crowds?
Niche social networking sites have emerged as a result of the dominance of the big social sites and all of the jolly goodness that follows. These sites provide a way for people to connect with smaller groups that are based around specific topics. Niche sites don’t focus on the mass-popularity model that Facebook and Myspace rely on. There are tons of niche social networking sites - for people who knit , love sneakers, even a social site for your pooch. Niche sites can be rewarding, LinkedIn.com is a example of a niche site that has succeeded with over 9 million members focused on advancing their career.
My Take on The Future of Social Sites
Even though Facebook and Myspace dominate the web today, chances of them sustaining their growth 5 years from now are slim. My bet is that in five years there will be a slew of new sites that dominate the web. The question is, what will they offer to draw the crowds? I’ve heard some folks say that social networking is a fad. I disagree. The concept of a social network dates back to the birth of the web. Isn’t the web one big social network? Unlike some people, we know that Google was not the first search engine. We also know AOL is not the only way to send email. Way before Facebook, Myspace and Friendster, there was Geocities, an online community full of similar networking capabilities found in the popular social networking sites of today. I believe we will see file sharing make a return to social sites, not necessarily for sharing music and videos, but other types of files. I also think the OS will adopt social networking technologies and be the hub of your social life, which will interact with the web, phones, GPS, and other gadgets. What’s your take?
Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Web 2.0, Niche
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3 Comments
On Monday, November 5, 2007 at 9:54:am
I totally agree with you! The issue with the MySpace and Facebook’s of the world is that their life cycles are typically on a 4 to 8 year expiration cycle. Simply because their demographic is the highschool and college students whose social context changes every 4 years (dramatically so). We went from AOL to Yahoo to MySpace to Facebook — almost exactly on that cycle.
My thoughts on the future are on par with yours — the next big thing is going to be a focus on the niche. Ning is a perfect example of a temporary solution to a large problem — everyone wants their own social network. I believe that the Facebook’s of the world will be able to survive, but the content that drives those sites will be powered by the smaller niches. You can already see this with the influx of Facebook apps arising.
On Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11:20:am
Doug,
you are right on. If you can relate social networking to the way things work in real life, you’ll begin to see new opportunities pop up. Think of Facebook and Myspace as the large cites (LA and New York). The niche social sites are like the small towns. Technology like OpenSocial will be like transportation (busses, metro, etc.) Think of real world solutions and you’ll eventually solve the issues found with socializing online.
On Thursday, January 3, 2008 at 2:59:am
The one thing that really sucks for niche sites is they are compared to the larger sites - such as, Facebook, Digg, etc. It seems any site with similar features and people make a comparisons.
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