Comments on: Competing for Attention in the Social Networking World http://staging.blog.biakelsey.com/index.php/2008/01/10/competing-for-attention-in-the-social-networking-world/ LOCAL MEDIA WATCH. The Nexus of All Things Local Mon, 01 Jun 2015 22:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.39 By: Mike Boland http://staging.blog.biakelsey.com/index.php/2008/01/10/competing-for-attention-in-the-social-networking-world/comment-page-1/#comment-143413 Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:30:17 +0000 http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/01/10/competing-for-attention-in-the-social-networking-world/#comment-143413 Good comments Ned. This also gets back to the important distinction between destination vs. function. Social networking and social tools should be looked at as an important feature – not necessarily the sustainable centerpiece of one online destination.

The value of myspace is its massive user base and traffic levels but those can disappear as quickly as they came. Social tools should be looked at as a value added feature of all online experiences of the future, not the standalone focus of a few. More on that here:

http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2006/11/08/live-from-the-dow-jones-consumer-tech-ventures-show/

(scroll down to bottom section)

thanks again.

]]> By: Ned Hayes http://staging.blog.biakelsey.com/index.php/2008/01/10/competing-for-attention-in-the-social-networking-world/comment-page-1/#comment-123136 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:41:04 +0000 http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/01/10/competing-for-attention-in-the-social-networking-world/#comment-123136 A pause to critique….

Do you remember when you thought Pong or Super Mario was the coolest thing? How about the first phone with a browser? Remember when everyone wanted Windows 95?

And all these things have retained their intrinsic value, right? Thought not. I think the same thing will happen within 3-5 years with MySpace and Facebook.

See, Facebook and all other social networks (yes, that’s intentionally broad) are just repositories for fake users and crappy apps, and I think their utility is highly limited as stand-alone platforms.

Occasionally, it’s really cool to connect with an old friend — as I recently did with my friend Wilson. But how much of the connection was a driver to get me back onto Facebook, and how much quickly moved into e-mail and phone? Why the heck did I need Facebook to make this connection?

Now if I could use social networking features in any number of computing instances — ie. if Google rolled social features into the GMail interface, or MS Outlook did the same, or if I could use social features to collaborate within Google docs or MS Office — then the features would be nice value ads. And I wouldn’t use them to throw drinks or pinch my boss (much less vampire-kiss him).

And finally — pounding my own drum for a moment — I’ll note that on WhitePages.com, you get real connection information — which is often what I want (and hopefully, I can soon get a private way to connect with Wilson thru e-mail or IM or whatever method he wants on WP.com).

Ned Hayes / WhitePages.com

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