Comments on: Social Media is Just Getting Started

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:41:42 +0000

“I’m not sure that it’s fair to label them as bigots.”

I didn’t. Read my post. I said it SMACKS OF bigotry. In other words, it gives the impression of that. Bad image to give out, IMO. I have recieved an invite from someone else, but thanks anyway.

“Invitation only” roll outs make sense, if you handle them right. I don’t think these people did. No response for weeks is ridiculous. Anyway, I’ll play along with them for now. But I’m not impressed. Support is slow and spotty too. Nice design, but interface is confusing. I suspect we’ll see if they get their act together or self-distruct soon enough.

By: Jay Thompson

Jay Thompson — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:04:27 +0000

Jim –

With all due respect, BrightKite is still in Beta. I’m not sure that it’s fair to label them as bigots. Using an “invitation only” system is pretty common during a beta-only phase of roll out.

Google’s Gmail began as invitation only. It’s a way for a new company/service to control the volume of users in the beginning. Otherwise they would likely be flooded with requests, their servers overwhelmed and then people would start writing about how much they suck — killing the network/project before if ever got off the ground or gained any traction.

Sorry that you haven’t gotten a response from them for weeks. I suspect tens of thousands haven’t either. Not that that makes it right, but I can understand why they are starting off as invite only.

I just sent you an invite to BrightKite.

By: Chris Shouse

Chris Shouse — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:08:37 +0000

Oh sorry my email is Chris@ChrisShouse.com

By: Chris Shouse

Chris Shouse — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:07:53 +0000

Jim I have three invites to brightkite send me your email and I will send you one:)
Chris

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:44:52 +0000

BrightKite is another "invitation only" social network site and appears to be turning into an elitist group. I've tried for weeks to get in, no response from them. I'm not sure who determines who "is good enough" to get into some of these groups, but it smacks of bigotry to me. BrightKite Not for Everyone

By: Shailesh Ghimire

Shailesh Ghimire — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:33:06 +0000

Morgan – good points. For a site like mine though who owns the date isn’t important necessarily. I want to connect with people who may be interested in doing business with me. Hence, if I can be introduced or referred to via an on site social network then I can take it a step further towards a close. At PQ time I’ll collect the data I need and it will be mine.

Trace – it’s interesting that Facebook is not giving Google access – I guess there is a turf war going on there.

Carson – I’m with yo on that – I don’t know if I want to have all my worlds interconnected. Kind of like George Costanza problem.

By: Veronique

Veronique — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:16:50 +0000

That’s really cool. I guess the more important thing here is that google is continuing to grow, not just trying to be a one or two trick pony. While I do thing social media and networks will continue to grow, I don’t think we’ll see another myspace or facebook for a while. A lot of people might say twitter is going to be the next myspace, but it seems like much more of a novelty site given its limited content. Maybe that’s what draws so many people, but I’m more interested in how big companies, like google in this story, is trying to grow and expand its reach.

Great post.

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:53:04 +0000

The parallels between the MLS/listing aggregator debate and the FriendConnect/Facebook/etc. debate are stunning. It's not just social media and it's not just MLS data - it's information and how who is going to control it.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:41:41 +0000

the problem with friend connect is:

1. the site using it doesn’t own the data – google does – so you’re essentially channeling users to Google so they can leverage their data for their advertisers (not ideal)

2. you don’t have detailed access to the information to leverage for your business. you can have community you just can’t know much about them which makes it difficult to leverage the benefits of said community on your site.

that said, with friend connect being banned by facebook look for google to find ways to open up the data transparency so that they aren’t so greedy (or is it evil?)

By: Brad Coy

Brad Coy — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:33:20 +0000

> Andy

http://friendfeed.com/ is doing an excellent job of aggregating these activities, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Me too on the recommend. That’s the first thing I though of when I read this. It’s very simple and effective. Let’s see if it catches on.

Great find on the Friend Connect Shailesh. Looking forward to seeing how this works to bring things together.