I'm as guilty as the next person for having a social network portfolio that's too big. Aside from my Twitter account, I belong to Plurk and Identi.ca, and although I use Facebook most often, I still have MySpace and Hi5 accounts.
But now that 2008 has passed and it's time for us to evaluate what we did last year and try to improve upon that for 2009, why don't we start by cleaning out our social network portfolio and start using only those services that we like best in each category? After all, spending more time on multiple services isn't nearly as rewarding as getting more quality time with the best services, right?
Social bookmarking keeper: Delicious
Social bookmarking services are extremely handy when you want to remember a site at a later time, but that doesn't mean they're all created equal. In fact, Delicious, the leader in the space, easily sets itself apart from competitors like Ma.gnolia, Diigo, and ZigTag by boasting a better interface, more users, and better tagging, which makes it easier to find and share bookmarks.
Although Diigo's highlighting options are useful, ZigTag's semantic technology tries to improve bookmarking, and Ma.gnolia aims at providing a more thorough solution, none compare to Delicious. Yahoo's social-bookmarking service now features a streamlined search function, which makes finding bookmarks simple, and its new design makes it the most intuitive social-bookmarking service on the Web. But Delicious' most useful offering--its Firefox add-on--has nothing to do with the site at all. By installing the Delicious add-on, users can tag pages on-the-fly without being forced to visit the Delicious homepage. Granted, its competitors have Firefox add-ons as well, but after using each, it quickly becomes clear that they simply don't work as well as the Delicious tool.
Taking all that into account, I simply don't know why it's worth using another service besides Delicious. It's a superior tool with more convenient options, offering the same basic functionality as its competitors. It's the cream of the social-bookmarking crop.
Micro-blogging keeper: Twitter
I'll be the first to admit that I complain about Twitter as much as the next person, but after using competing services like Identi.ca, Jaiku, and Plurk, it's not hard to figure out that it's the only worthwhile micro-blogging tool.
Granted, Twitter still doesn't offer groups and I wish it had an element of open source like Identi.ca, but the sheer number of users who comment each day on Twitter makes it the best choice for your social-networking portfolio. If you want to be a part of a community that's both lively and engaging, you won't find it anywhere else but on Twitter. And now that it's more reliable and the Fail Whale is an occasional annoyance instead of a daily occurrence, Twitter has become an even more compelling service.
As the best place to find friends, colleagues, and thought-leaders in any industry, Twitter is the obvious choice as the only micro-blogging service that should be found in your social network portfolio.
News Aggregation keeper: Reddit
Trying to find the ideal news aggregator on the Web can be difficult. Depending on your definition, there's conceivably hundreds of services that package the best stories into one page. But it's the "social" news aggregation services, like Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon that lead the pack. And although Digg is the most popular service in that grouping, I'm a firm believer that Reddit deserves to stay in your portfolio as your chosen news aggregation service.
Normally, I would pick the social site that offers the largest and most engaged community. But when it comes to news aggregation sites, Digg simply doesn't cut it. Sure, it's the biggest and arguably the most important to content sites, but that alone doesn't make it the best. Instead, I find Reddit's site design, while simple and ugly to some, incredibly useful and designed to help users find the best stories as quickly as possible without gaudy extras. But the most important differentiating factor working to Reddit's advantage is its community. It might be smaller than Digg's, but generally, the comments on each story are more edifying and lack the invective that has become a staple for Kevin Rose's brainchild.
Reddit may not be the biggest, its site design may be odd, and its community not as rabid, but in terms of providing interesting stories on a slew of topics without as much "gaming," it leads the pack and deserves to be in your social network portfolio.
Social Network keeper: Facebook
Choosing the single social network to use while ditching the rest isn't easy, since most of us have friends scattered across Friendster, Hi5, and MySpace. But it's because of those few friends still clinging to the past that we hold on to all those social networks. Enough is enough. It's time to rebuff the rest and stick to Facebook.
Why choose Facebook when MySpace is still the world's most popular social network? It's simple: Facebook doesn't have the awful design found on MySpace profile pages, offers a huge, engaged community, and most importantly, it's growing at a rapid rate, which means all those friends who still hang out at Friendster, LiveJournal, or even MySpace are starting to make their way to Facebook.
MySpace still provides value and Hi5 could be a significant competitor in just a few short years, but for now, Facebook, with its addicting features, applications, and growing community, should find its way to your portfolio as you leave the others out.
Video site keeper: YouTube
Maybe YouTube is the safe choice for the only social video site you should keep in your network portfolio, but I simply don't see how anyone can choose anything else. Vimeo is nice, but much of its content is barely watchable and while Metacafe is still an interesting site worth visiting, it doesn't provide the professional content that YouTube does.
And it's that professional content that I find most valuable when it comes to YouTube. Sometimes, I want to find a music video that isn't available elsewhere and YouTube will have it. And when I'm feeling nostalgic and I want to watch an old clip from The Wonder Years, it's sitting on YouTube waiting for me. As a bonus, some of the user-generated content is pretty good too, though most of it is strange.
I know that anyone can make a case for why practically any user-generated video site on the Web should be the exclusive service in your portfolio, but when it comes to finding the obscure, professional, or just plain weird, YouTube is the only place to go. All the others are practically useless.
I hang out on Facebook a lot. Too much, maybe. Enough, certainly, to recognize a few types of unpleasant characters. I've come across five distinctive kinds of Facebook trolls, and I'm sure you've dealt with them too. Here's some advice to stop their onslaught and make your Facebook experience just a little better.
Troll type: Old-time Nobody
Confirm or ignore? Confirm
Social networks provide a slew of opportunities to connect with old friends, but that doesn't mean you need to befriend your third-grade buddy Bill, whom you haven't had a discussion with in 20 years. Usually they mention a time in your life the two of you shared when you were kids. Maybe it's not the end of the world, but it does get a bit awkward when they remember that time and you don't.
So how should you handle the Old Time Nobody? Be friends with them and don't think twice about it. Usually, they're harmless, and either really liked you when you were younger or just want to add another person to their friends list to show off. Either way, what does it hurt? You'll hardly communicate with them through Facebook and that will probably suffice you both. Don't worry about it and add them to your own list.
Troll type: New service addict
Confirm or ignore? Ignore
They became a friend of yours on MySpace, or maybe even followed you on LiveJournal, and ever since then, they've wanted to be your friend on every social network known to man. Sometimes you catch a really serious one who signs up for all the newest services before anyone, and they immediately send out invites like they're passing out candy to kids on Halloween.
Once you get their friend request on Facebook, ignore it. I hate to say it, but it's your only option. Unless you nip it in the bud now, you'll be getting requests to be your friend on even the smallest, most ridiculous social networks, and you'll never be able to stop it. They may send you a few requests before they get the message, which is fine, but unless you want to be annoyed over the next year with more friend requests and ridiculous notifications on Facebook, it's best if you turn the other cheek.
Troll type: Bar friend
Confirm or ignore? Confirm
How many times have you met someone who is a friend of a friend at a bar or party, only to come home and see a Facebook friend request sitting in your in-box? You probably don't remember their name, and the conversation you had with them was superficial at best. It's obvious they just want to add you to their growing list of friends and you honestly believe you'll never see them again.
Sadly, they've put you in a tough position. On one hand, the term "Friend" on Facebook indicates you actually like and care about that person, i.e. they're your actual friend. On the other hand, nobody thinks of it like that, and many want to have as many "friends" as possible. On balance, it's probably best to add them as a friend and not worry about it. You're sort of friends if you want to stretch the logic, and what does it hurt? You both get to add one more friend to your running total and it won't be awkward next time you see them at the bar.
Troll type: The stranger
Confirm or ignore? Think first
It happens to all of us: someone we don't know tries to be our friend on Facebook. Their profile claims they graduated from the same college and they live in your general area. You know you've never met the person and even if you did, it was for a fleeting second and you don't remember them at all.
Dealing with these people should be easy; just ignore them. But doing that without thinking could be a fatal mistake. What if you really do know the person and you forgot? That makes for an awkward reunion if you two ever see each other again. Simply deciding to ignore them probably isn't the best move, but then again, if you really don't know them, you probably shouldn't follow them to satisfy their desire to have the highest number of friends in their group. Decide carefully.
Troll type: The ghost
Confirm or ignore? Remove
Once you've become friends with people on Facebook, I think you enter into an agreement of sorts: you both decide to interact with each other and, most importantly, you both decide to use the service. But when your friends don't hold up their end of the bargain, it gets annoying, doesn't it? They sign up for the service, add friends during the first week, and never go back. They don't have a profile picture and the only information that's filled out in their profile is their name and birth date. They're a member, but not really.
When it comes to handling those people, it's best to remove them from your friends list. Sure, you'll lose a friend too, but don't you think they need to pay the price for agreeing to use the service and not following through? Call me old fashioned, but if someone decides to sign up for a social network, I'm a firm believer that they should use it for a reasonable amount of time and do their best to enhance the overall experience for everyone. If they're not holding up their end, they shouldn't be encouraged. A social network is all about interaction. If a friend doesn't want to interact, they shouldn't be on Facebook.
Plurk, the snazzier alternative to Twitter, has come up with a twist just in time for Wednesday night's final presidential debate: run your own "election" and maybe win a chunk of $5,000.
No working about chads, voter fraud, messy policy statements, U.S. citizenship, or nuts at rallies--just start your own plurk election and convince/cojole/con other Plurk members (or your friends willing to join)--to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain at your election. The Plurker whose election gets the most votes walks away with a $2,000, second place gets you $1,000, and so on.
Plurk's big claim to fame in the micro-blogging world is its great user Web interface, especially its timeline and conversation threading. Given the intense interest in this election, it's a smart idea and an interesting twist--not only are people voting for one or the other major party candidate, they're voting for you by voting at your Plurk election.
Considering the current state of the economy, Plurk's member-building gimmick may be the closest thing to a sure bet you'll see this election season.
Twitter's recent reliability issues and downtime have left a hole in the nanoblog market, to the extent that such a market actually exists. Among the bloggerati, FriendFeed is filling in the vaccuum and could become the new Twitter. It's got a good feedback system and it also has features that make finding and adding friends very easy. And FriendFeed reads in Twitter content, so users can have the best of both worlds.
Now there's an even newer Twitter clone: Plurk (about the name). Its big advantage is its user interface. You get a slick timeline view of all the posts from your friends. The system also has a good design for adding friends by finding them on your other buddy lists (AIM, Yahoo IM, Gmail, etc.). Also, there's a good method for responding to Plurk posts that shows you a conversation thread laid on top of the timeline. You can also post videos, photos, and links easily. And there's a decent grouping function for segmenting out sections of your friend list.
Plurk has an attractive timeline view, a karma system, in-line comments, and many other nice nanoblog features (click to enlarge).
It is a great interface for a nanoblog service, although it works best on a full-screen browser. There is a nicely done mobile version at plurk.com/m, but it doesn't give you all the visual candy.
Unfortunately, Plurk has a bit of Twitteritis: It's not the most reliable service on the planet. An influx of users over the weekend (which is being blamed on or credited to Leo Laporte) has apparently overloaded the system, and occasionally users may find elements of it not working.
The bigger issue with a service like this, though, is the network of users. Yes, Plurk looks great and has very strong features. So do Jaiku and Pownce. But Twitter is where people hang out, at least for now, assuming Twitter can fix its reliability issues.
Also, by focusing on the user interface to such a great extent and ahead of building an API, Plurk discourages developers from building their own clients (like Twhirl for Twitter), some of which could make the service more attractive to important subsets of users. (Although, to be fair, separation of interface and service hasn't done much for Twitter.)
Plurk is a creative nanoblog service but feels a bit redundant in the Twitter/FriendFeed era. There is the chance it could open up the nanoblog concept to a new group of users not on the current platforms, though.
You can follow me on Plurk or join up yourself.
See also: If Twitter weren't bad enough, now there's open-source Twoorl.
- prev
- 1
- next
