Tuesday 13 May 2008, 6:07 PM

Facebook, Google pave the way for the next wave of social networking

Posted by wecando.biz

I have long believed that the next wave of social networking is the proliferation of smaller, more focused sites appealing to special interests or specific needs. With MySpace and Facebook having opened our eyes to what the medium can do, I expect it to evolve toward sites with much more niche, relevant content -- good for us and good for advertisers, the lifeblood of free web sites.

The fly in the ointment, however, was that each one of these interesting new socnets would require me registering, setting up a new profile, remembering a new password and establishing yet another network of contacts. All necessary to enjoy the benefits, but tedious nonetheless.

News of the past few days suggests a solution to this problem may already be at hand however. And from who? Facebook and MySpace -- the very sites I'd be less likely to use as a consequence or it being easier to use the new more relevant sites.

I'll skip over the specifics of the announcements, as they are well documented elsewhere on the web, but the upshot is that MySpace, Facebook and even Google users will be able to take their details with them -- that's mainly their profiles, pictures and friends -- anywhere else they go. Well, anywhere if you use your Facebook identity, but only a few other sites if you use the other two.

What it means is that sites like mine at WeCanDo.BIZ will be able to allow users to bring over a profile already configured on another site, and easily invite friends from the other network to come and join them on our network. Or at least that is how it seeems; much like the OpenSocial announcements earlier this year, this is currently all Powerpoint slides and flipchart diagrams rather than real live examples that we can use today.

All the same, it sounds great. But I can't help wondering what's in it for the guys who have announced it. I guess if the web is to open up to become one big connected place where any website will allow you to log in with one identity, either Facebook, MySpace or Google would be happy enough you are using the identity they gave you. But I can't see the reasons it would take me back to their site, which is surely their ultimate aim. And I especially can't see how they are going to make money from it, unless they place a condition on the other sites that they pay for access to the data or carry their advertising.

Can anyone else take a guess at how they make money from this?

Let me be clear, I welcome the news. But I do wonder whether some of these announcements were made in a hurry to keep up with The Joneses and that once the commercial realities of the initiative sink in we'll probably never see any of it come to light.

Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

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