Social Networking
In February of 2005, my younger brother introduced me to MySpace. I was hooked instantly. I spent the next few nights and dawns exploring this strange new place. I knew right away that this social networking site was different. I had played on Friendster and some others, but MySpace was different. After a few months of playing on it, I started telling people about it. I was fascinated by the reactions I got from people. Most people I told expressed disdain. Many thought I was weird or only into it because I’m a geek. I told them, “One day you’ll look back and remember the day you first heard about MySpace.” Sure enough, almost ever person that nay-sayed the site when I first told them about it has their own account now.
2005 was a very good year for MySpace. In fact, MySpace was the top gaining search query in Google for 2005. When I joined in February of 2005, there were around 20 million profiles. Now, there’s almost 120 million. Many people predicted the site’s demise when News Corp. bought the property for just over half a billion dollars, but instead it rose to be the #1 volume traffic site on the Internet, despite it’s penchant for technical failure. In the last few years, social networking sites are sprouting faster than kudzu to try and grab a piece of that shaky marketspace. Many are asking what will be and looking for the next MySpace?
But, if you ask me, there isn’t going to be a next MySpace. Just like there will never be a next iPod. iPod will loose to the smart device market (not other MP3 playes), just as MySpace will loose to the Internet (not other social networking sites). You see, MySpace didn’t bring anything new to the Web as far as blogs, galleries, commenting, and groups are concerned. What they did was bring it all together through a peer network and add user permissions. As soon as someone makes a plug-in or a mini-app, then social networking will rejoin the rest of the Web.
I’m about to play with an interesting player that isn’t possible through the rest of the Web—Second Life. While is uses the Internet, it is not based in the World Wide Web. Second Life is like a mash-up of Simms, MySpace, and a MMORPG. It’s really fascinating, and I’m going to dig in there and figure out what the buzz is all about. Wish me luck.
Comments
Have you read Snow crash? It is a cyber punk novel I read, its version of the internet uses avatars and other programs to access info from the net. It made Time mag. top 100 english books written since 1923. (I have read Animal Farm, Are you there God it is me Margaret, The Lion the Witch… Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies, 1984.. and tried to read invisable man.) I know a little about 9 others on the list any you recognize?