hmm..interesting March 10, 2008 posted by Nigel

Social Networking is just CB Radio?

socialnetworking2 Social Networking is just CB Radio?

Cringley reckons that social networks are just a new version of the CB Radio fad. Destined to crash and burn as he puts it. And to be honest, I have to agree with his central premise, which is that they don’t supply *enough* real value, long term, to survive, in the same way that Geocities faded away because of user apathy. The only thing I would say is that the vertical networks like LinkedIn do offer value for job and reputation seekers, which may give them more longevity. But as for Facebook and the rest? Hmm…

It’s not that I don’t see value to social networks, it’s that I generally don’t see ENOUGH value. Yes, keeping my address book synchronized with reality is nice, but isn’t that likely to be shortly absorbed into the operating system or perhaps into networked applications like Gmail and Yahoo Mail?

Tags: cringely, social+networks, cd+radio, fad

About the Author:

Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don't we all?

Nigel – who has written 5164 posts on The Red Ferret Journal.

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http://www.krisjohn.net Krisjohn

Uh, GeoCities died because Yahoo ruined it when they killed the Community Leader program, amongst other changes.
John

So I read this article and then saw your related link.

A social network alarm clock – WHAT?

So i checked them out ( http://sleep.fm/blog.html ). It’s an alarm clock that wakes you telling you the day and date and then plays what sounds like voicemail. Is this where the Internet is going???
Kainnon

Thanks for pointing out the article, Nigel.
=D
http://www.redferret.net Nigel

Krisjohn, yes but maybe it was destined to disappear with the onset of blog tech anyway? :-)

John, it’s been and gone, did you miss it? :-)

Kainnon, pleasure! :-)