SocialStartups.com

(As some of you know, I run an email list + brown bag meeting called Tech Chatter at work, where I comment on new developments in the community + personalization + e-commerce space. I’ve never cross-posted here, but I’m going to begin doing so. I will have to, of course, cleanse all of the non-public Amazon material from it. Here’s one from today)

Ah, finally something worth talking about.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/08/here-comes-yahoo-live-i-mean-yahoo-life/

Yahoo Life (and I agree with Arrington, it’s a poor choice for a name) co-ops your email as the basis for your social network, and makes assumptions as to who is close to you by looking at the frequency with which you email someone. They can then utilize that social network information in any of their existing services – mobile, finance, fantasy sports, movies, shopping, you name it. They are using Zimbra to build out a developer platform (Zimbra was a company they acquired that built a Microsoft Office competitor, but made for online). The TC article has a grainy image of their prototype http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/yahoolife1b.jpg

Now, couple that with some enticing rumors about a revamped, rethought Yahoo music initiative, and we’ve got ourselves an interesting direction from Yahoo. It’s been a while since they’ve done anything new and of note (and their Panama product is still not what I would consider a success, with mixed reports. And besides, that’s soooo last year.)

Dave

PS – Not sure if I’m obligated to disclose, but I do own some Yahoo stock.

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Tags: yahoo, yahoo life, social networking

Will Google “Friendster” Facebook? « Scobleizer

Scoble makes a really interesting point. He says “Can the social graph be componetized so that I could add a social network to my blog, for instance?”

OpenSocial is blasting open the door to the long tail of social networks. Every blog on the planet can roll it’s own “MyBlogLog”-like social network and applications that work with it.

So many angles to think about. How fun.

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Tags: facebook, google, opensocial, blogs, social networks

Google’s Response to Facebook: “Maka-Maka”

Amazing, I was just writing up something like this yesterday. I said:

For good measure, you could also add in GPhone data – who is in my address book, what I’m saying over SMS and phone conversation (transcribed into text via a service like Jott), and my location. The only part (and I admit it’s a crucial part) that I don’t understand is how Google will benefit by “out-opening” Facebook. My guess is that more data = googly goodness. Google will know more about you if you take Google with you, or bring the places you visit to Google.

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Tags: Google, social networks, platform

Web Warrior – Forbes.com

This article reminded me that the Facebook vs. MySpace vs. Google platform wars may be a little premature. The biggest platform, outside the OS, is the browser. Everyone uses it, and through the browser, everyone accesses all other sites. Your browser stores your account information, commonly submitted form fields like email address, street address, credit card numbers. There are already a multitude of extensions.

This article reminds me that Google is working on a Google-branded Firefox browser. My guess is that this ties right in with Google’s claim to release a platform that is more open than Facebook’s. What if they centered it around the browser?

Here’s how this would work. Google knows my social network from Gmail, GTalk, and Orkut (if I use Orkut). Google knows all of my login credentials for all sites on the internet because every time I log into a new site, Google asks me if I’d like to save that information with them so that I don’t have to be bothered with logging in to Amazon, Netflix, eBay, etc. Google has access to my areas of expertise by applying semantic analysis (like what Twine does) to my emails (Gmail), documents/spreadsheets/presentations (Google office suite), and local files (Google Desktop). Google knows my financial portfolio (Google Finance). Google knows what areas I’m interested in (Google Reader, iGoogle, and my browsing history).

Mozilla could do this too – Combining Thunderbird (email) and Sunbird (Calendar) with Firefox  would get you a social network, areas of interest, and login credentials. Various extensions have been created for RSS aggregation, messaging, bookmarking, etc. I think it would be a hell of a bold bet, but an interesting one.

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Tags: facebook, google, firefox, platform

Facebook Wish List: Five Apps I’d Actually Like to See

Sorry, but I think there is a serious disconnect between what Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins wants and what most Facebook users would want.

A podcast client? How many people know what a podcast is?

A Top 40 list? We know now that most adds are from the Profile box. So again, most users won’t care what’s in the app directory.

A PR Connection Tool? Right, because everyone needs to initiate a little PR.

IRC and FTP clients? How many people still use those? Way back when, Facebook launched a P2P media sharing client named Wirehog, which was a total disaster. I’m not convinced an FTP client would do better.

I admit I actually have no understand of his 5th wish list idea, so I won’t comment. I think he’s trying to describe Ning.

My top 5 wish list

1. A personalized version of Google News, taken from the shared items posted from your Friends.

2. Tagging of friends. This is something suspected is in the works. I want to be able to send messages or invites only to certain friends.

3. OpenID for all facebook users. Every facebook user should be able to easily link their Facebook account with their Amazon or eBay or Paypal or Skype accounts. E-Commerce has a large role to play in Facebook, and lining up who you are in facebook to who are you in Skype is crucial.

4. Stronger integration with local Neighborhoods. So yes, there are a few Neighborhood apps, but Facebook would be well served by growing the connectedness of a geographic community. Want to throw a party for the neighborhood? Find playmates for your kids? Tell your neighbors to look for your lost cat? The internet can help counteract what Robert Putnam describes in Bowling Alone.

5. A real email client. Sure, there is Facebook messaging, but what Facebook really should do is build Gmail right into Facebook. They could easily tack on features found in Xobni and Twine, and you’d get a heck of an email application.

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Tags: facebook