Jeremy Wright says Myspace scares the hell out of him. He lays down a few choice comparisons and points I want to riff on.
According to Wright, by the end of the year, MySpace will account for roughly 10% of all web traffic and, by the end of 2006 (if growth and acceleration curves maintain), it will account for about 40%. Mind boggling numbers.
Myspace is definitely the most prominent version of the hive mind. Myspace is accelerating faster than blogging. No doubt more posts per day, but then he compares the number of profiles to the number of blogs. Apples and oranges.
I love the idea of what happens if/when Myspace blows up. How do people reconnect? Simple, they export their data and import it into another social network. I'll take "FOAF to the rescue" for 800. A cottage industry will grow up around Myspace.
Google and Yahoo have Adsense and Overature. Myspace will have similar SEO tools and services. There are already many companies offering ad-ins for profile pages, applications to create pages and so on.
Myspacers connect better and faster. Faster, yes. As fast as you can click "Approve" button. As for better, I disagree. It's perceived as better because connecting with people is easy. Nobody knows a thousand people, it's too easy to click yes or no when someone wants to connect to you.
Myspace is all about your reputation. But how do those dissed by their peers redeem themselves? When you label me a jerk, and then no one wants to connect to me, or lets me connect to them, what then? I've become a social outcast to thousands of people I will never know.
Jeremy goes on to ponder what will happen to Myspace from various angles.
The Myspace elite. What form will it take? My guess is purchasing power (music & clothes), social responsibility and political ramifications.
Jeremy thinks that Myspace will make blogging obsolete. Jeremy has a book out called Blog Marketing, so he knows a thing or two about it. However, I don't buy that. I'm surprised he considers what kids write on myspace blogging. Why are you confusing personal journal entries for, ahem, professional bloggers and citizen journalism? Arguable point of course, A-list blogger vs. 16 year old girl talking about boy bands. Or 1,000 fake profiles created by music industry interns, singing the praises of the next breakout band.
No doubt, it will be fascinating to see who emerges as the A-listers of Myspace. FoxNews will bite first.
Will Myspacers self-organize themselves to preserve their culture, or will that come from outside influence? Could there be a king, a senate, or board of overseers that keeps things in check?
People expressed similar fears when Friendster's growth was exponential. Myspace may well "jump the shark", just like Friendster did.
As we know, Myspace was better to latch onto music and youth culture much more effectively. It has been truely amazing to watch it grow, albeit from a distance due to the fact that if you're over 30 you're probably on another site.
Jeremy may be scared of Myspace but advertisers are too. Major advertisers are freaking out. Schools are blocking it, as well as Facebook. Why? Because the number of assaults on women who meet men on Myspace are growing.
Myspace is the perfect blend of R-rated voyerism, and it's free. I wonder if the porn on myspace and Flickr could start to take away from the revenues of major adult sites.
To think that Match.com had a social networking component years ago and failed to capitalize on it, what a missed opportunity.
Danah Boyd recently wrote about "Identity Production in a Networked Culture," which talks about how teenagers are using Myspace.
February 15, 2006
Posted by David Evans
MySpace employs a staff of about 12 who do nothing but look at all 1.5 million images uploaded each day for inappropriate photos, including pornography. Despite their efforts, some illicit images still get through.'
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| Category: Safety & Identity
October 18, 2005
Posted by David Evans
After SafeDate made a big PR splash and threw a great party in Miami Beach this year at iDate, the company went way under the radar and a few executives left the company.
SafeDate is back, having recently struck an alliance with DatingHeadshots, to "provide online daters with quality dating headshots and background checks."
DHS is a New York photo-shoot company that is the only real competition to LookBetterOnline that I've seen.
Introductory prices start at $120, which is less than LBO charges for a photo-shoot alone.
Here's how it works:
The first step of the verification process is for the DHS photographer to verify the person's identity based on information used in the online credit card purchase, including driver's license verification. This validation process is done to verify that the person purchasing the package, sitting for the photo shoot and participating in the background check are the same person. The next step for the online dater is to submit the necessary information to complete their SafeDate background check. The online dater then chooses their DHS photos. Once the background check is completed, the date of the photo shoot and a SafeDate verification watermark are placed on the photos.
DHS charges less but doesn't have the national footprint as LBO.
I wonder how dating sites will take to having personal images uploaded with the SafeDate badge on them? I can't believe that's going to float with most services, as they will rightfully want a cut of the "preferred dater" action.
Press release.
[tags: datingheadshots, lookbetteronline, safedate]
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October 05, 2005
Posted by David Evans
Techcrunch has a good review of iKarma. I've been on the site for a while now and agree with most of what they said, both the good and bad.
Tagging can wait, it's usefulness to average customer is lost. I spend a lot of time talking about tagging, and most people have to let the concept sink in for a while before they can take advantage of the power tagging unleashes in Web 2.0 applications.
Contextually sensitive profile sharing is important but partitioning on email address won't work.
Opening up the API is key, no new web service can survive without doing this.
They need deals, and not eBay deals. They will not get that until they have a track record and bring their feature set more in line with what eBay users are used to.
1-5 rating scale won't work, not near enough granularity for reputation management.
There seems to be some movement at Opinity, which is patenting several features, including it's dispute resolution process. They also have added tags, although the usage is not clear past being able to promote the reputation you want, which seems counterproductive.
I like the Network Visualizer, a step further than the simple visualization I created for the dating industry. I would love to be able to extend the visualization and add it's back end to enhance it to do what I feel is useful, not that they think. Enter the open API.
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August 31, 2005
Posted by David Evans
Social Software post about Flickr and Yahoo supporting open identity standards.
My old roomate use to work for Sherry Turkle, who nails why Flickr users are upset at being lumped in with Yahoo members. Part of the Flickr draw was that it is a small group (well smaller than Yahoo at least) who identified with each other. Now that Flickr is being institutionalized as a Yahoo Property, Flickr members are sounding off.
Date warehouses like Match and Yahoo have always had the feeling of a big-box retailer, although Yahoo Premium is an attempt to create a VIP level of service at a higher price point.
Expect to see more dating sites adding VIP areas with more pay-to-use features as a way to differentiate. I have yet to see a vendor offering VIP services in a bundle, which is something I have advocated at ProfileDoctor since the beginning.
Side node: I've merged the Identity and Safety categories because there is so much overlap. I'll be using tags to further identify posts. Soon enough there will be tag search here for you to peruse similar posts.
[tags: flickr]
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