MySpace recently announced the launch of a new service called “Data Availability” which will allows MySpace users to share their public profile data with other Web sites like Yahoo!, Twitter, eBay, and Photobucket and exercise a degree of control over what information is to be shared, as also, with whom. Instead of updating information on every site, MySpace users will be able to update their profile in one place and share that information with other sites. The key goal is to use the abundance of information already stored in MySpace and use it to be distributed across the Internet so that the information does not remain in an island.

MySpace will be rolling-out a centralized location within the site that allows users manage how their content/data is made available to third-party Web sites. For now only the 4 partners mentioned above have been announced. Over time MySpace envisions all websites being able to integrate this information.

(Picture Source: Tech Crunch) 

Facebook too announced a similar platform following MySpace’s announcement called Facebook Connect. Facebook’s initial partner will be Digg and they too hope to allow Facebook users to link their Facebook Identity to sources across the web.

Both moves are significant because they indicate that:

The Web is increasingly getting more ‘Social’, or at least that’s what we will see. Currently we are only seeing tie ups of the social profile with other social sites but in the future even non social platforms will have a social element because your personal profile will be integrated into them and you will be able to mine data out of them and share it with others and vice versa.

Your Virtual identity will be of most importance. People will do more to augment their virtual identities at a single source and that identity will become so important that it will be referred to for job recruitment, character analysis, dating etc. That is already being done but this trend will only strengthen in the coming months.

The Economist presented a very interesting view a couple of months back which we too have subscribed to. They think one will see the death of the walled garden of social networks and more integration between all of Internet media. This move shows that happening. Islands of information are going to be isolated no more.

(Picture Source: The Economist)

I don’t agree with the Economist however when they say that social networks “will be like air”. To take it further, they seem to be subscribing to the view that there will be ‘No more logging on to Facebook just to see the “news feed” of updates from your friends; instead it will come straight to your e-mail inbox, RSS reader or instant messenger. No need to upload photos to Facebook to show them to friends, since those with privacy permissions in your electronic address book can automatically get them.’ So they seem to be touting the email inbox coupled with an RSS reader of sorts as the gateway to the Internet. That probably will not happen because the inbox as we know it is not ‘social’ and intuitive enough to present all the information in a consumable manner.

I think that the social network will be the new inbox (that is not to say that webmail will die) and all information aggregated across sites will be presented across social networks. So social networks will be more like gateways to the internet of individuals in sync with their friends. So there will be more ‘social surfing’ – everything you do on the internet will be documented and presented in a consumable format for you and for others to see. We have already seen the advent of Social surfing with Facebook’s Beacon platform, which allowed third party information to flow into Facebook. This failed miserably because of privacy concerns. Consumers need to be taken in the loop with such moves and their privacy is of utmost importance. I subscribe to Esther Dyson’s view of control being of more importance than privacy. So as long as consumers have control – they will not have privacy concerns.      

The web itself is destined to “open up”. Email initially was only allowed within networks eg. (hypothetically) A hotmail account holder could mail only another hotmail account holder and not a gmail account holder), IM was only restricted between users of the same ID – till Meebo (Meebo founder on WATShow) came along. Social networks also so far have only allowed interactions within their islands. They must open up and integrate themselves with the Web more and then, because of the importance they hold in the consumer’s mind an life, they will become hubs through which we view the internet. So the biggest ‘hub’ will probably benefit the most. Niche networks will get integrated into larger hubs for one point management.

 Facebook for $15 Billion – anyone?

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