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I'd argue this way: Search is not easily distributable and will remain silo'ed up for a long time. GMail is huge. But SMTP is still a distributed protocol, yo

by moe 15y ago

I'd argue this way: Search is not easily distributable and will remain silo'ed up for a long time. GMail is huge. But SMTP is still a distributed protocol, you can switch providers in a blink and not lose anything other than a shiny interface. NNTP was always run in a hierarchical fashion and more importantly is centered around discussion groups. People a) prefer more control over their publishing/group-comm (blogs, forums) and b) demand the "follow individual" pattern (RSS). Consequently the Usenet-monolith shattered into said services, all of which you can either run on your own server, or rent from a service-provider. Sharing always sucked and that is the niche (apart from the social graph) that made Facebook big. However, today we can build mashups that plug into all these services and present them under a unified interface - just as pretty as facebook. The only missing bit to lace it all together is the social graph. Today our little mashup has to load the graph from either facebook, twitter or google. In the future some smart kid will come up with a "DNS[1] for social relations" and everyone will start using that, just because it's the natural thing to do and because futzing with proprietary API-keys is so 2011. [1] As in Domain Name System

Lagged2Death 15y ago
But SMTP is still a distributed protocol, you can switch providers in a blink and not lose anything other than a shiny interface. I think you may underestimate the importance of the shiny interface. Regardless, the use of an outside provider is still a move toward centralization. Ten years ago, the small offices I did software work in all had local email servers. Today, running an email server well is a big job, and those offices all outsource their email service to much larger companies. People ... demand the "follow individual" pattern (RSS) ... In the future some smart kid will come up with a "DNS for social relations" It's interesting that you bring up RSS. I was thinking about that too. I think RSS is already very nearly a "DNS for social relations." But it's also failed to catch on outside the circle of techies, early adopters, and web-potatoes. I'd say the failure of RSS to achieve mainstream popularity is an example of a decentralized system losing out to centralized alternatives. Like Facebook. Facebook is just plain simpler to get started with than a self-administered approach like RSS or a hypothetical next-generation DNSfSR would be. And Facebook and Twitter both killed off their RSS feeds once they'd felt they'd achieved a certain critical mass. They understand that RSS is an alternative for much of what they do. I don't celebrate any of this. I use and like RSS. I wish I didn't feel the need for a Facebook account (but that's where my real-world friends are). But the pattern I see is that convenience beats out control every time. For complicated devices like computers and for complicated situations like the (real, human) social network, the inevitable complexity that comes along with local, personal control is often a problem, not a feature. Under such circumstances, I don't see how Facebook (or its successor) will be overtaken by a distributed anything.
jamii 15y ago
> Search is not easily distributable and will remain silo'ed up for a long time. Faroo seem to be doing a pretty good job, although their UI could do with some love.

by moe 15y ago

Lagged2Death 15y ago

But SMTP is still a distributed protocol, you can switch providers in a blink and not lose anything other than a shiny interface. I think you may underestimate the importance of the shiny interface. Regardless, the use of an outside provider is still a move toward centralization. Ten years ago, the small offices I did software work in all had local email servers. Today, running an email server well is a big job, and those offices all outsource their email service to much larger companies. People ... demand the "follow individual" pattern (RSS) ... In the future some smart kid will come up with a "DNS for social relations" It's interesting that you bring up RSS. I was thinking about that too. I think RSS is already very nearly a "DNS for social relations." But it's also failed to catch on outside the circle of techies, early adopters, and web-potatoes. I'd say the failure of RSS to achieve mainstream popularity is an example of a decentralized system losing out to centralized alternatives. Like Facebook. Facebook is just plain simpler to get started with than a self-administered approach like RSS or a hypothetical next-generation DNSfSR would be. And Facebook and Twitter both killed off their RSS feeds once they'd felt they'd achieved a certain critical mass. They understand that RSS is an alternative for much of what they do. I don't celebrate any of this. I use and like RSS. I wish I didn't feel the need for a Facebook account (but that's where my real-world friends are). But the pattern I see is that convenience beats out control every time. For complicated devices like computers and for complicated situations like the (real, human) social network, the inevitable complexity that comes along with local, personal control is often a problem, not a feature. Under such circumstances, I don't see how Facebook (or its successor) will be overtaken by a distributed anything.

jamii 15y ago

> Search is not easily distributable and will remain silo'ed up for a long time. Faroo seem to be doing a pretty good job, although their UI could do with some love.