Thread: The Future of Social Networks

An interesting article about the future of social networking: Is Facebook a Fad?

This in particular is what I find fascinating:

Why is any of this important—why do these Web giants want to catalog your interests and relationships? There's an obvious answer—because doing so allows them to sell ads targeted to you—and a less obvious one: Social signals are becoming the primary organizing structure of the Web. Today most of the links you see online are determined by editors or algorithms—that is, by people who create sites manually, or by Google, which uses computers to guess what you might be interested in. But both these methods are imperfect. The people who create Slate's home page every day are just guessing what you'd like to read. Google, meanwhile, serves up thousands of links in response to your query, and even though it's often right, it's far from perfect. Web companies see social data as the solution to this problem: That trail of Likes you're leaving around the Web forms a picture of your deepest desires. With this picture, sites of all kinds—news sites, shopping sites, travel sites—can tailor themselves to your interests. In five years' time, you and your dad may visit the Huffington Post and not see any stories that overlap. The site will know, based on your social network, exactly what you want to read.

I really have a feeling that social networking online is still just scratching the surface of what is coming, and that a lot of internet marketeers aren't fully aware or don't want to be aware of the implications. Search is still the NO1 way people find stuff, but no longer the only one. This wasn't the case before. For a while the only real competition search had were perhaps directories, and that was dismal. Social networking on the other hand seems to have the potential to merge with if not swallow the search paradigm.

I wont make any bets, but this fits my general attitude about this. The future may prove to be more interesting than some of us expect (or want it to be). It pays to track this stuff, so we can adapt.

Social networks are the new email.
See, in one sentence all is said that needs to be said.

My wife and her family rarely use email anymore.
They are all on facebook and everything happens there.

But for most people the future will be just a phone.
Grandkids only text, they could care less about the internet, and all there is.
Text each other, at the most they go to facebook once in a while.

Iowadawg, I still use email for some transactions and communication which doesn't really fit Facebook. I think a lot of business communication still happens via email. When it comes to just chatting with friends and family, or making new contacts though, Facebook is indeed replacing that, in addition to IM.

How we communicate may be the one of the glues that brings us to social networks though, but it's not quite what changes the "customer acquisition" paradigm online. That's where the big change could be, when people's "likes" and other expressions of interest become crucial to whether you even show up on their radar.

It's a good thing I would say. Instead of all those rubbish adds if you get some which may be useful to you, than yes why not? so it's a win win situation.

Yes you're right. Most of my friends mail me in facebook. The reason is most people don't know or remember my e-mail but every body is on facebook. I think social network should improve their email quality and add options like attach so then we wont need the emails anymore.

---------- Post added at 09:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 AM ----------

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Social networks are the new email.
See, in one sentence all is said that needs to be said.

My wife and her family rarely use email anymore.
They are all on facebook and everything happens there.

But for most people the future will be just a phone.
Grandkids only text, they could care less about the internet, and all there is.
Text each other, at the most they go to facebook once in a while.

As you may or may not have noticed Facebook now offers an email address to their users. Emails sent to that email address go straight to the Facebook messages inbox. They also integrated chat and messages so if someone chats you it will appear in messages.

The future of social networks? hmm... Now is the new way that you connect with others.... Future: is the way others(big companies) connect you.

I am skeptical about social networks. It is good when you want to connect, but what happen when you don't want to be connected? Is not as simple as shooting down your computer. Your life is already online (public)

I don't see a good reason for people to post on their wall whatever they are doing during the day. Sometimes I read my friend's friend posts and I ask my self. Would this people are aware that I or any other person can read their posts? I bet they would not like that, unless they don't care.

Through your life, you make many connections with different type of people. Would you like all those type of people to get to know every aspect of your life? At Social Networks, there is no barrier between your professional, private and social life. All are mixed and it could get you an undesirable future. Think about that

~Mike

I'm curious too because i know many people who don't like social networks. Personally, i still don't have an account anywhere (not even facebook) except LinkedIn and i'm even considering trashing it.

Originally Posted by memenode

As you may or may not have noticed Facebook now offers an email address to their users. Emails sent to that email address go straight to the Facebook messages inbox. They also integrated chat and messages so if someone chats you it will appear in messages.

Facebook fills a need for a basic online presence. Google properties like Gmail, Jaiku, Picasa and Blogspot are probably more useful overall. But not as simple to integrate.

Originally Posted by Mike30

The future of social networks? hmm... Now is the new way that you connect with others.... Future: is the way others(big companies) connect you.

Not just big companies. They're supposed to connect everyone. But yeah, social networks have a lot to do with the future of marketing.

Originally Posted by Mike30

I am skeptical about social networks. It is good when you want to connect, but what happen when you don't want to be connected? Is not as simple as shooting down your computer. Your life is already online (public)

I don't see a good reason for people to post on their wall whatever they are doing during the day. Sometimes I read my friend's friend posts and I ask my self. Would this people are aware that I or any other person can read their posts? I bet they would not like that, unless they don't care.

People should learn to be responsible about what they post online and publicly, and this is true regardless of whether social networks existed or not. That said, a lot of people want that stuff to be seen, it's a new channel of easy self-expression. Other times, like you say, they probably don't care either way if it is seen or not.

Originally Posted by Mike30

Through your life, you make many connections with different type of people. Would you like all those type of people to get to know every aspect of your life? At Social Networks, there is no barrier between your professional, private and social life. All are mixed and it could get you an undesirable future. Think about that

Well, social networks are still evolving, but this particular issue is being resolved with Google Circles and improvements to Facebook with regards to their existing Friends Lists feature. In other words, it is becoming easier to make that separation.