501derful.org
MySpace? That’s so yesterday!
MIT Review is touting imeme, a newcomer to the social networking world.
The 21-employee company, backed by venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures,
makes a downloadable application that complements existing IM systems, letting
users build buddy lists, see rich profiles of each buddy, track who’s online,
and share photos, video files, and streaming audio instantly.
The idea of social networking is evolving so fast that one concept–like MySpace–is challenged in no time by others that have added more gimmicks. I suspect that customer loyalty in the social world is about zero. It also keeps you asking yourself, "What does ‘social’ mean anyway?"
The trend I like, however, is tools like Netvibes (my home page) that builds little modules that enable you to tap into other online services and pull many sources together as you like. I don’t need another do-everything site that is obsolete in a few months. I want something that enables me to integrate and aggregate at will from many services. Overcoming the horrendous fragmentation and incompatibility of everything on the desktop and on the net is–for my money–the killer app of the future.
