So disappointed (Social OS, Part 2)

I am disappointed in Bob Barsons, whose vision for GoDaddy is limited to promoting a "somewhat tasteless and slightly inappropriate" image. Yeah, hot chicks sell domain names, but you could have been soooo much more of a contender than just a domain registrar.

I am disappointed in Richard Rosenblatt, who's not seeing the forest for the trees. I don't care how much Demand Media's .TV deal with VeriSign is worth. The "ChannelMe" concept has too much potential for it to be tethered to a little-used domain extension.

I am disappointed in Andreas Gauger, who's got accounts on every single Web 2.0 service but persists in (over)selling Web 1.0 bandwidth + disk space. Dude, how can you claim to be a pioneer with 1&1's lame customer interface?

There has been a whole lot of discussion on the openness of and interoperability between social networks:

Anshu Sharma says one solution to "creating multiple user id's, checking messages on multiple inboxes and accepting the same 75 friends on 10 different social networks" would be to aggregate one's "social capital" under one's Google account: "if you have my gmail address and my blog address, that is all that you need to reach me, read about me, see my pictures, date me, send me fan letters and/or harass me."

Dare Obasanjo also talks about interoperability through services that aggregate profiles across multiple social networks - but points out that none of the existing meta-social apps have achieved wide adoption.

Dan Farber thinks of social identity management as a federation issue: "There is value in federating a social graph, running algorithms to map individuals and groups, such as a company to partner networks or an individual to another person on different social network."

I don't understand why Bob, Richard and Andreas aren't taking part in this conversation and arguing for the adoption of domain names - rather than gmail addresses - as points on the social graph. If the three of you were to join forces, you just might be able to build a social operating system atop a vendor-neutral and well-established platform. So short-sighted of you not to make the connection :(

Comments

[Bling]

Bob Parsens is a goon. After his first sexy ads started showing up during the Superbowl, he of course received a backlash from people who felt it was inappropriate. His response to the backlash was something along the lines of 'we're not showing anything that you can't see simply by going to the mall'. The problem is, THAT'S the problem. Parsons chose to continue based on what he saw was acceptable from society, and rather than being innovative, he is a conformist and sell out. I don't necessarily disagree with a sexy girl selling domains, I just disagree with the method in which Parsons chooses to deliver his message... if you want to use a sexy girl to sell your domains, by all means do so.. but limit the contact to methods in which that kind of marketing is appropriate. Your response of "but you could have been soooo much more of a contender than just a domain registrar..." is completely accurate.

[Isabel Wang]

If I were Bob, I would promote GoDaddy Girls as stars of GoDaddy's social network. Register a domain to be their friend! His failure to take advantage of social media is especially disappointing because he doesn't even have to build anything! Could just spend a few minutes a set up a GoDaddy network on Ning!!

Same goes for Dotster Dots, BTW.

[Jeff Huckaby]

I don't see most social "networks" as very good networks. They are more like the bad country song "Islands in a Stream" (sorry Dolly and Kenny).

They are self-aggregating groups of people that simply sail away together.

When you see a LinkedIn or Facebook profiles with 100's of contacts, how much information actually flows along these links?

The useful thing is not that Jane knows John though Peter, but what Jane gets from John because of Peter.

I've been on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and others. To me, the network part of these applications is still untapped. The real networking comes when based on your profile, postings and other feedback, I can identify information of interest to you and connect you to a new island. Once you get these connections, the islands disappear and a true network emerges.