A Smart Phone Book is not Social Networking

Yesterday I posted a small bit on Social Networking apps and how I didn't want them to be a numbers game.  Dion Hinchcliffe posted that numbers and good warez go hand in hand.  I can buy that as a premise, but not really as a conclusion.  The numbers in Web 2.0 roll up fast all the time.  It's because we've got a large audience of people out there logging in and checking out the next big thing.  Yes, there are good and popular things and You Tube is really great.  But is it really social software?

Today, Microsoft Launched Windows Live Spaces.  What is Windows Live Spaces?  It's blogging with a buddy list.

If I glue a buddy list to my cat, people would call it the first social networking feline.

I am willing to go out on a limb here and say, "Social Networking is not merely a buddy list." 

A list of people in your network is obviously the first step to a social networking application - but simple connections are not the end of the equation.  And my growing concern here is that Bubble 2.0 will someday be known as "The Buddy List Era."  How do you make something Web 2.0?  Buddy List.

But the potential is much greater than this and it has to do with what is not being done.  Windows Live Spaces should be a real platform.  It should integrate my existing social networking needs.  I should be able to access my You Tube buddies, my Flickr buddies, my MSN messenger buddies, my email buddies, my LinkedIn buddies, ... all my buddies.

I could integrate content from the other sites using Live Widgets.  I could make it my central world.  Right there.  One spot.

Networking implies connections, connections implies information exchange.  We have now proven that we can fully buddy list things and we can use AJAX to make interesting interfaces and marry them up to cool data.  Now, let's make this stuff do something.

VCs are free to call and here my pitch for the next generation of social networking, btw.  ;-)

The Space Craft: Windows Live Spaces - It’s Here!

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Comments

[Mike Torres]

"Windows Live Spaces should be a real platform. It should integrate my existing social networking needs."

I 100% agree with this. We're sincerely hoping some enterprising developers build some kickass gadgets to do just that! This is the primary reason we integrated with the Windows Live Gallery.

[Jim Benson]

Mike,

I understand that. I've had a few longish conversations with people in your group over the last several months. I know that's the desire - but I've not gotten a sense that there was ever a firm action plan behind the desire.

When I see the Live offerings, I don't get a good read on specific activities that MSFT is undertaking to foster that vision.

I have been looking into building gadgets myself on the Live platform. The stuff that's coming out is really quite impressive. But there is a gap between what's the grand vision and what's actually hitting the streets.