The Genome for the true social web?

Google perceives itself as providing the DNA for the web. But could Russian startup Genome actually hold the key to the future of the social web?

I have been banging on about the next wave in social networking forever. MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook may have opened our eyes to the possibilities of social networking, but I have always been convinced that the REAL value for web users will come through smaller, more focused social networks appealing to specific needs or special interest groups. And where there is value, there is money. In my view, sponsorship of these niche sommunities is the way for advertisers to see returns from social networking and for social networks to make money.

What has frustrated me is that the development of these niche networks requires three things:

1) A better way of publicing them than listings on Google
2) An easy way to be able to log in to many of them without needing to remember a long list of IDs
3) An ability to easily take already established contacts with you, so you don't have to build up a whole list of "friends" from scratch each time.

I have watched initiatives like OpenID and OpenSocial closely for nearly a year in the hope they would help -- they probably can, but there are few successful implementations of them. Projects like Clickpass, Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect offered another glimmer of hope that our identities and connections may become portable, but have failed to gain a foothold. If Facebook and Google can't make it work, will it ever? To be clear, I have also questioned WHY either of those two would want the proprietary data they hold on us and our relationhips being used elsewhere...

Well, news reaches me today of an exciting new project from a team of developers in Russia that may yet provide a solution to our problems, making it easy for us to carry our identities and relationships around with us. The name of the project, Genome, could hardly be more appropriate.

Details are scarce, although bit by bit details are emerging through their developer blog at http://bloodcarter.wordpress.com . But from what I read so far, Genome would hold your identity and your friend list and then that would be passed to social networking sites you visit to allow you to use them as normal. It uses only open methods of doing this (presumably those I mention above). It filters out the rubbish that some of the socnets generate. It also helps make advertising more relevant to you. Connections to it could be deployed on any website, making it possible to "socialise" your site and enjoy the benefits of viral, word of mouth marketing within hours.

At this stage, it seems to answer every prayer I have ever had and I am convinced, if they can do it, that it will kick start the "next wave" I have been talking about. We might only have to wait until October to find out, as that is when CEO Vladislav Chernyshov plan to launch a public beta so we can all try it out.

In the meantime, I have requested a private beta and I'll be reporting back on whether it is the panacea that many of us are hoping it might be.

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