Friday, March 20, 2009

The Future of Social Networking Sites

The Future of Social Networking Sites is that most of the Social Networking Sites Have No Future. MySpace and Facebook have battled for new users, climbing up the demographic food chain. MySpace has struggled to hide the migration of their user-base over to Zuckerburg's much more hip interactive site. All the while, the giants of online have been eyeing the now-established online phenom and have plotted their own fast-track into the social media cash pool.

VS.

Much like XM and Sirius, this will become a market where only one can survive. Social media users have watched as the two majors, MySpace and Facebook, each reporting over 65 million U.S. monthly viewers, revamped their user profiles and interactive applications into a strikingly similar format. Both now incorporate FriendFeeds, both incorporate (limited) customizable layout options, and both feature a Twitter-like status update.

Facebook boldly steps towards the next obvious plateau in social media networks, the Universal Profile. Rather than creating multiple individual profiles or even cutting and pasting your favorite quotes, pictures, and About Me's from one site to the next, you will be able to create one profile and export it across platforms. Right now, Facebook only offers this feature with "partner sites" (see highlight), but soon it will have to expand the service to their top competitors, like MySpace, Bebo and Google's Orkut.



What Facebook says about its new Exportable Profile:
Real Identity
Facebook users represent themselves with their real names and real identities. With Facebook Connect, users can bring their real identity information with them wherever they go on the Web, including: basic profile information, profile picture, name, friends, photos, events, groups, and more.



Friend Linking
People count on Facebook to stay connected to their friends and family. With Facebook Connect, they can take their friends with them wherever they go on the Web. Developers can add rich social context to their sites. Developers even can dynamically show which of their Facebook friends already have accounts on their sites.

4 comments:

TOPolk said...

Here's to facebook finishing Myspace off once and for all. While it's changed considerably over the past few months, Myspace is known as being a wasteland where anything goes -- a reputation its been having a hard time shaking off.

As far as facebook connect goes, I've used it on a few sites and I dig it. It's very simple, easy to use, and definitely saves me the time of having to create a new profile. I've also noticed that on site w/ fb connect, conversations tend to be more civil and adult-like. Guess that happens when you don't have an alias to hide behind...

Jerome Harrison said...

it's gotta be only a matter of time before all of the social media sites are fully and completely connected. nice article!

Shawn Butler said...

@TOPolk & @Jerome Harrison It does seem inevitable that someone has to go... MySpace seems like the likely candidate, and it won't be without a fight. I see that, like iPhone dropping its proprietary stance on creating Apps, MySpace will adapt by allowing (and even promoting) the cross-platform profile.

Just like the smartphone business, It's really "Evolve or Die" for any of these new technologies.

rachaelgking said...

Myspace still exists? For reals?