What Will Shake Out Of the Social Networking Sieve?

The idea and allure of social networking is pretty simple. It’s like that old Faberge commercial where the woman’s picture multiplies as she tells two friends about the shampoo and then they tell two friends and so on and so on and so on.





It’s been called word of mouth on steroids and, for the savvy marketer, the idea of linking up like-minded people to spread good tidings about their brand is much like manna from heaven.

Of course starting your own social network is the problem. Launching a blog is easy. But posting content and managing comments can be a drain on a marketing department’s already limited resources. Forums are a great idea and have been around since the beginning of the Web but who will monitor the forum for abuse and, aaargh, negative remarks about the company?

Even off-site marketing initiatives are proving cumbersome. Do you spend Monday morning updating the company’s Wikipedia entry, MySpace page or Facebook account?

Social networks are the killer application of the new century. Most if not all of the top sites on the Internet have some kind of social aspect to them so either this is a popular feature or a big coincidence. Still, even Adam had issues in the Garden of Eden.

One bugaboo has been the portability of content and information across networks. It’s great if someone gives your site a shout out on their MySpace page but what happens when your fan outgrows MySpace and opens a Facebook account? Is it realistic to expect people to carry over content from one platform to another?

The social networking community feels your pain and there are a slew of tools coming onto the market to help add social networking to sites large and small. The good news is that almost all of these applications are free, the bad news is deciding which one to use. It’s the latest version of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war or Betamax vs. VHS for you old timers.

Google entered the fray this week with Google Friend Connect, a free program that allows Web sites to add social networking features without major programming. Google Connect lets site owners link out to other popular social networking platforms, including Yahoo, AOL and Facebook.

Perhaps most impressive is Google Connect’s single access login. Users can type in their existing AOL, Yahoo or Google passwords to login to any site with Friend Connect installed. Essentially, Friend Connect accepts any login that uses the popular OpenID standard. Once logged in a user can activate and set up one or more social networks.

In theory, a user logging into a Google Friend Connect site can see other friends who are also on the site, send out text messages and see who in their networks have bookmarked the site. Applications are almost endless, from sharing guacamole recipes (as Google shows in this example) to doctors creating networks of patients on their sites.

Of course there are more issues: privacy, access, implementation and the ubiquitous free application wait list all need to be sorted out.

Google’s isn’t the only company fishing in this pond (MySpace and Facebook have similar products) but they do have the biggest net. Friend Connect may not be the Holy Grail social networkers are looking for but it’s a sign that the killer application of the early 21st century is here to stay.