ariel :: annotated

Great. No sooner do I kvetch about online so-called social networks than a whole new giant one emerges. It’s not that I hate the concept, I don’t. It’s just that, no one has done it justice yet. If anything, they seem to be evolving the idea backwards, toward walled gardens with ever-taller walls. I know pure, semi-anarchic democracy is hard, but that is the challenge set before you, social network creators. Right now you’re just bamboozling a bunch of people into your baroque little pens so you can inflict hypertargetted advertising upon them. It is fatiguing, and you’re not giving them much in exchange for their trouble. As long as that remains the rule, people will desert you as quickly as they adopted you the moment a finer experience is to be had elsewhere. Just ask MySpace or — gasp! — remember Friendster?

Nevertheless, I’m keeping an open mind, being a dutiful little web monkey, repaying The Big G by beta-testing the service and posting my opinions there. Happy plussing!