Sat, 24 Jan 2004

WASTED Social Networks

I caught this link from Slashdot today: it's to a new "social network" that's been launched by Google called orkut. It's similar to Friendster: the only way you can get in is to be invited by an existing member.

Remember WASTE? That was the private, encrypted P2P effort by Nullsoft,until AOL pulled the plug. It was designed from the ground up as a very private, limited scale network for chat, IM and file sharing.

All of these products require that you know someone who's already "in" to sign up. My question is simple: are we seeing the initial phase of the "Balkanization" of the Internet? Is the great public space created over the past three decades about to be carved up willy-nilly into much smaller spaces?

There are lots of private, subscription only sites out there: the new idea is the invitation to join. Heretofore, you paid your fee and you were in. Now you need to know somebody.

Large ISP's have been trying to get their users to stick inside their space to shop and chat on the 'Net for years. Is this latest trend just an extension of the (mostly failed) effort? And is this necessarily a bad thing?

I really can't answer my own questions now: time will tell, I suppose. But I do think it's a trend - it's just that even when you spot a trend (remember push technology?) it's tough to tell where it's going to end up.

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