Comments on: Why niche networks will flourish and Facebook will flounder http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/01/12/why-niche-networks-will-flourish-and-facebook-will-flounder/ Adventures in front-end consulting Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:45:48 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Rebecca http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/01/12/why-niche-networks-will-flourish-and-facebook-will-flounder/comment-page-1/#comment-48 Rebecca Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:15:23 +0000 http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/01/12/why-niche-networks-will-flourish-and-facebook-will-flounder/#comment-48 I think there's still something to be said for specialization tho: LinkedIn is going to be better at gathering and providing the data LinkedIn-type users are after than, say, Last.fm would be -- or Facebook. Niche sites will compete with similar niche sites to provide the data to the google reader-like application, just as the New York Times competes with USA Today to provide data to RSS readers, but doesn't compete with, say, Ajaxian. The winners will be sites that best serve a niche, and sites that provide the best service for aggregating data that arrives in a form as agnostic as RSS. The next Facebook won't be the gatekeeper of data, it will be a neutral recipient of it; and the winning niche networks will be the ones with the best data models. I think there’s still something to be said for specialization tho: LinkedIn is going to be better at gathering and providing the data LinkedIn-type users are after than, say, Last.fm would be — or Facebook.

Niche sites will compete with similar niche sites to provide the data to the google reader-like application, just as the New York Times competes with USA Today to provide data to RSS readers, but doesn’t compete with, say, Ajaxian. The winners will be sites that best serve a niche, and sites that provide the best service for aggregating data that arrives in a form as agnostic as RSS.

The next Facebook won’t be the gatekeeper of data, it will be a neutral recipient of it; and the winning niche networks will be the ones with the best data models.

]]> By: marcus http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/01/12/why-niche-networks-will-flourish-and-facebook-will-flounder/comment-page-1/#comment-46 marcus Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:04:08 +0000 http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/01/12/why-niche-networks-will-flourish-and-facebook-will-flounder/#comment-46 The world is really just waiting for a good way to aggregate social networks. This may come in the form of third party aggregator sites (think google reader for multiple RSS feeds) or it may come in the form of better end-user software (ie. all of the mail clients that support multiple POP/IMAP accounts). I find it hard to believe that a professional, literate, musical, social person is going to want to have to keep track of the goings-on on LinkedIn, Shelfari, Last.fm, and Facebook, every day. The world is really just waiting for a good way to aggregate social networks. This may come in the form of third party aggregator sites (think google reader for multiple RSS feeds) or it may come in the form of better end-user software (ie. all of the mail clients that support multiple POP/IMAP accounts).

I find it hard to believe that a professional, literate, musical, social person is going to want to have to keep track of the goings-on on LinkedIn, Shelfari, Last.fm, and Facebook, every day.

]]>