Monday 22 October 2007

Too many social network sites

Perhaps it is not the phenomenal increase in the number of active members on Facebook, Bebo, Myspace etc that we should be tracking. Perhaps the real phenomenon is the sheer number of new social networking sites that seem to get launched everyday. The Sunday Times announced that Mothercare will this week launch Gurgle.com (I really like that name!) - a social network for new parents. You can enter your expected "Date of Birth" and link to other parents in your locality expecting at a similar time.

The FT today gives news of resistance (Fear and Loathing on Facebook) to the new social networking craze with the launch of sites like Enemybook.com, Snubster.com and Hatebook.org.

As I have remarked before, I do not think people want to create loads of different social (or business) networking profiles. Personally I want just one which has different bits of it accessible to family, friends, work colleagues and business contacts. The company that comes up with this is on to a winner. But I think the proliferation of different sites is both a turn off and, to me anyway, a really good indicator that the social networking 'craze' might be nearing its peak.

2 comments:

Saikat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saikat said...

I fully agree to you. Social networks are everywhere and every person is involved in it (tragically sometimes).
If social networks grow at the same rate, we will never know which one is good and which one isnt.
I found a humorous piece on the future of social networks.
http://www.citipals.com/social_networks_mania