A Social Graph Can't Last 10 Years

Image by Spark Capital via CrunchBase

I am saying this before I have read the blog post. I am responding to the title of the blog post. Now let me go read.

Bijan Sabet: Can a social graph last more than 10 years?

Because the graph we have today is much more interesting and useful than previous graphs. We are connected in new ways that touch us deeply. And they have their own characteristics.

Hunter Walk: Trying to be the one true social graph is like trying to hold water in your fist

Facebook needed to buy Instagram because it was creating a mobile-first photo-centric social network. Snapchat is interesting to Facebook because it's creating a mobile-first ephemeral content social network. Twitter was threatening enough to Facebook because of an asymmetric follow graph that Facebook added the equivalent 'subscribe' option. And so it goes... I don't believe Facebook's position as the 'one graph to rule them all' is established. They'll continue to be successful and useful for quite a long time - and they may even be the largest single graph - but it's not going to be the only one of consequence. .... There will be another Instagram, another Snapchat. Facebook can't buy or fast-follow all of the innovations. Can they?

These guys are talking about particular products like Facebook, Twitter, and so on. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the real social graph, the one technology tries to emulate. Solitude is when you want to be left alone. What is your social graph then? A good service would know that. When you are with someone you really want to be with, you do not want to be bothered by anyone else. What is your social graph then? The most engaged people in your life - that list changes over time. What I am saying is none of the mentioned services have been able to grab that real social graph.

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Facebook Videocalling: I Am On Now

Image by jdlasica via FlickrIt was easy to do. All you needed to do was go read the official Facebook blog post about it. The post told you where to go if you wanted to get in right away.

http://www.facebook.com/videocalling

Call Your Friends Right From Facebook

Otherwise earlier in the day I complained I felt excluded.

Mark Zuckerberg is right. Facebook has the huge advantage that it has the social graph. Google might have to struggle to rebuild that graph. But I see me using both services.

Circles: My Idea

October 28, 2010: Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles
May 19, 2011: Social Concentric Circles

Has Google Finally Cracked Social?

A Social Graph For When Everyone Is Connected

Image via WikipediaBill Gates thinks the world population will stabilize around nine billion people. Let's say he is right. Already two out of six billion people are connected to the internet. Say the penetration goes above 90% by the time world population hits seven billion people. Would that have implications for the social graph? You bet.

The Color Social Graph Might Work Better For Books, Movies, Music

There is an old saying that everyone is connected to everyone else through six degrees of separation. Every random person out there knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows you. That magic number - six - might be lesser if the group size were smaller.

Project Noah: FoodSpotting's Sibling Company

Image by Nic*Rad via FlickrI just showed up at Fred Wilson's blog, and read through his post for the day. I quit coffee, but have not quit Fred Wilson's blog that I visit near daily. You know I visited because I leave a comment at the bottom of every post I read. I check in the AVC community way.

So I am reading the post and I am thinking, I just found a sibling company to FoodSpotting. Instagram is a sibling company to FourSquare, Project Noah is a sibling company to FoodSpotting.

This is exciting, and underestimated. This is nothing less than a quiet revolution. My first event of the ongoing Social Media Week was the FoodSpotting/Whole Foods panel. I blogged afterwards. I started working on another post right away but never got to completing it. And I am going to cannibalized that for this post. Or maybe it will stay a separate post, my next post: Turning The Table Upside Down With Food.

Food/Social = Physics, Coding = Mathematics

The Real Time Social Graph, Transient Social Graphs

Image by Laughing Squid via FlickrWhen you say social graph, you talk of friends, as in people you have known, people who were you friends yesterday, are today, will be tomorrow. That is a long tail. And there are many services that have done a good job of curating those social graphs. Facebook, of course, is the grand daddy of them all.

But I see a major void in the real time social graph.

I use several services to plan what events I wish to go to. And that is another space that could use much better services. I use PlanCast, but PlanCast is not populated enough with events. Users find it too hard to create events, and not enough events get created. And not enough event organizers are using it yet. I also use Charlie O'Donnell's events newsletter.

Facebook Will End Up The Social Graph Operating System

Image via CrunchBaseFacebook, far in the future, will likely recede into the background. Facebook will have its Google days. That is but inevitable.

Facebook did not create the social graph. It merely tried to map what already existed out there. But then a social graph where everyone is a friend is not the best possible map.

There are many social graphs. That is our reality. There will be many maps. Facebook is like a broad map of the world. And it can hope to become better and better, but sometimes you don't want a map of the world, you just want a map of the NYC subway system. Or maybe most of the time you just want that.

FoodSpotting Day: Thoughts

Image via CrunchBaseI have been fascinated by FoodSpotting. I am not exactly a meat and potatoes kind of guy, but I am only slightly above steamed broccoli. I would not describe me a foodie. I come from a country of subsistence farmers. I am sufficiently into food, don't get me wrong. But my fascination with FoodSpotting has been what it has meant as a tech startup, best caputured by a phrase I coined, that FoodSpotting is the next FourSquare. It is the leader in the what after check in space. It inhabits the royal vertical in that space.

World FoodSpotting Day 2011: January 15: Photos

So when I celebrated FoodSpotting Day yesterday - in two separate cities, Philly and NYC - I was on a mental hyper drive of sorts. I kept thinking, what next, what next? What next for FoodSpotting?

World FoodSpotting Day 2011: January 15: Photos

FoodSpotting's Social Graph: FoodSpotting Day: January 15

I came across this Facebook update in my Facebook stream when I logged onto Facebook Monday evening. The screen image I took later when I started work on this post. Update spotted! I took a screen shot.

FoodSpotting's Social Graph: FoodSpotting Day: January 15
Going Backwards: FoodSpotting, FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook
Fractals And FoodSpotting
FoodSpotting Is The Next FourSquare
Instagram Magic
Checking In, Tweeting, Spotting, Updating
StartUp Anxiety For FourSquare?
Self-Serve Makes Sense For GroupOn, Also FourSquare
Fractals: Mandelbrot
Making Dick Costolo An Offer He Can't Refuse
Congrats Zuck
Jai Ho
Gender Talks
Soraya Darabi
Should FourSquare Be Scared Of Facebook?

I worked on my blog post about Facebook going into search in a big way after that, scheduled to be posted Tuesday at 8:00 AM. And I sent out this tweet. The tweet is to Amy who left a comment at my last post about FoodSpotting. She does social media for FoodSpotting, and has a great foodie blog of her own.

Does Path Stand A Chance?

Path is a new social network - much talked about - that has some of the early, key Facebook people on board. Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends. Path limits you to 50 friends. Facebook does photos plus. Path does photos only.

My first reaction is I agree with Robert Scoble.

Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles

Facebook Needs To Revamp Email Next

Image by Ian Muttoo via Flickr

Mark Zuckerberg: The Facebook Blog: Giving You More Control

Facebook's revamping the Groups feature is pretty fundamental. This has been a demand a long time. People have been saying that Facebook thinks people have only one social graph, the truth is people have many social graphs. I have not used the feature yet, just read about it, but looks like Facebook now lets you have your many social graphs.

And the download feature is Facebook nuking Diaspora. This is a preemptive strike and a pretty big one too. On the other hand now suddenly there is room for some smart aleck startup to do something pretty phenomenal. This is Diaspora's death sentence or its godsend. Is the glass empty or full? I don't know. Let Diaspora decide.

What got my attention though is what is missing. Facebook has not yet revamped its email program. It needs to. 2010 is the year of The Dreaded Inbox. The original app of the computing experience has become a monster. And I think Facebook is uniquely positioned to tackle this huge problem.

How about giving every Facebook user a Facebook email address? So I might get paramendra@facebookmail.com. And give each user three inboxes. Inbox 1 is for people who are in my social graph. Inbox 2 is for people who are not necessarily in my social graph, but they are on Facebook and they are sending the email while they are logged into Facebook. Inbox 3 is for people who are neither here nor there, as in they are maybe sending you email from their Gmail account, maybe.

That simple, doable step would solve a lot of inbox problems for a lot of people.

Email has to be a scalable experience. Right now it has stopped being an experience for most people. And so people go hide. They hide on Twitter, and Quora, and, yes, Facebook.

Inbox 2 perhaps should have bells and whistles. You can email someone not in your social graph, but when you do, you are giving them permission to take a look at your full profile for perhaps one day of opening the email.

This is akin to the priority inbox concept. All emails are not the same. All human beings are equal, but that does not apply to emails.

I think the best part of the new Groups feature for Facebook might be that people now have the option to create robust Facebook work groups, and Facebook can now go Facebook Enterprise. Do you smell money?

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Graphic Reality

Image via CrunchBase

Albert Wenger: Facebook And The Net
Fred Wilson: One Graph To Rule Them All?

Both Al and Fred are saying Facebook runs the danger of repeating Google's mistake in some form or fashion. Google made several attempts to "get" social. None of them have succeeded in a dramatic way so far. But Google was the company of the decade, and for good reasons. An obvious example of a Google social failure has been Buzz. Gmail already had tens of millions of users. And aren't people who you email back and forth with the most your closest people socially? Let Buzz present to you your social graph. That thinking bombed in a big way.

For Google the starting point is information, and it is the best in the game with that. For Facebook the starting point is the social graph, and it has been taking the lead there. You could argue for FourSquare the starting point is location, and since that can not be the starting point for either Facebook or Twitter, FourSquare does not run the danger of getting under the Facebook, Twitter bus.

Yesterday I watched Mark Zuckerberg's keynote at the F8 conference. Today Fred Wilson was talking about it at his blog, and looks like he got inspired by a blog post by his partner in venture capital crime Al Wenger.

Since Facebook has taken over Google as the most visited site in the US, you can not blame Zuck for trying to suggest PageRank is b.s. That what really matters is the social graph. I think all the Facebook initiatives are robust and good ideas to take Facebook to the next level, but only if Facebook keeps the criticisms of the likes of Wenger and Wilson in mind. Respect that there is not just one social graph. LinkedIn a few days back came out saying they will also now allow for the sharing of updates, news items and links in general, and I am thinking, great, this can be the Facebook for your coworkers and bosses. Your work social graph looks different from your friend social graph. Your family social graph looks different. And what are the chances I will find a friend of mine read the same Time magazine article as me. The chances are minimal.

So I say, march forward, but march with caution. Always be iterating means always be listening.

(Al just got promoted to the A1 section of my blogroll. He is very good about replying to the comments you leave at his blog.)

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