I think we are defining social networks different. Not everything that is social is a social network, IMHO. I don't see really any networking going on in Amazon, or in no way that is really connected. I don't create friends, I can't even say I want to buy everything this review buys. I can't make that reviewer a favorite or anything like that. Sure PEOPLE are engaged, but the network is not, IMHO.
I don't use eBay enough to really know what is going on there, but it does seem again, that it is social, but not networked, IMHO. As for the "experiment" I was wondering, what features are valuable to the END USER, not the business. Often there can be a conflict between the 2. Adding monetization could be detrimental to the end-user experience, but then again, w/o it the service won't live long, now will it. But just as people pretty easily have moved from one IM client to another, and from AOL to MySpace to Facebook and so on and so forth, the end user is a lot more flexible than the business. Your focus on the business is GREAT and as designers interested in "stakeholder centered design" it has to be considered. -- dave On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 9:09 AM, Jared Spool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sep 22, 2008, at 5:34 AM, David Malouf wrote: > > But Jared, those are businesses that have ADDED social networking >> (especially the Amazon case) as a means of adding value to their core >> commerce business. >> > > I don't know what "added" means. eBay, from day 1, had their community and > reputation management system. Amazon, from day 1, had their reviews and > ratings. Both of these are core social networking features, albeit different > than the Can-I-Facebook-You? pickup-line approach. > > So, your complaint about my bringing up eBay and Amazon is that they > started with a viable business model instead of praying one appears to them > in a burning bush before the investor money runs out? I guess I'm just > lacking the faith that FB's mgmt has. > > But to be honest, as an end user, if FB can last 10 years w/o a >> viable business model. I could care less. In 10 years something else >> will get my attention and so long as I can keep using FB the way I >> have for free, it serves my needs quite well. >> > > So, is that it? FB is just a decade-long experiment to disprove the Dunbar > number theory? Once it's outlived its usefulness, we just let it plummet > back into the atmosphere and burn? > > I wonder if anyone has let the investors in on the nature of this > experiment. > > :) > > Jared > > -- David Malouf http://synapticburn.com/ http://ixda.org/ http://motorola.com/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
