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Interesting read. However, there's one reason why Facebook and similar social networking applications fail for me, and I'm wondering just how many (or how few)

Interesting read. However, there's one reason why Facebook and similar social networking applications fail for me, and I'm wondering just how many (or how few) people have the same problem. Consider Scoble's words: You pull out your iPhone or Palm Pre or Android or Blackberry or Windows Mobile doohickey and click open the Facebook application. Then you type "sushi near me." It answers back "within walking distance are two sushi restaurants that more than 20 of your friends have liked." So far, there hasn't been a single social app I tried that managed to give me useful information like that. Why? Because they don't offer me a good way to differentiate and they don't learn. For these apps, all contacts in my network are the same and there's no way to teach them otherwise. On Facebook, I'm "friends" with: 1) People I see daily at work and we're friendly to each other. 2) People I've met in the past few years and we've been friendly back then but now were out of touch. 3) People from my ground school and high school, whom I haven't seen in more than 20 years. 4) A few relatives. 5) A few people with whom I have a lasting friendship. Depending on what kind of "friend" my contact is, I would treat their recommendations of sushi restaurants differently. The same thing happens to me on the Goodreads site. I've found many great books there, but every time I had to search for hours. I suppose it's just a matter of time before someone finally does it right, but I just wanted to point out what I find to be missing. And I'm really wondering whether other people feel the same or I'm just too damn picky...

jncraton 17y ago
I agree that current social networking applications fail at real world search at the moment, but what is preventing Facebook from adding a search component which searches the broader internet and uses information about your friends, interests, and activities to provide better results? It seems like Facebook has access to a boat load of information about you that Google doesn't have. Google has lots of information about past searches, browsing history, etc, but it lacks personal information such as the organization you are currently working for or your favorite TV shows and bands (or in the case of many of us, our favorite blogs and programming languages).
inerte 17y ago
I don't know if Facebook has this feature (probably), but on Orkut you can assign friends to Groups, like Family, Co-Workers, Best Friends, etc... It would probably solve your problem if an option to "Only consider the opinion of these Groups" were present. Of course, we'll fall into the problem of how noteworthy their opinions are depending on the subject. While I would trust my middle brother expertise on digital cameras, the youngest in the house is a chef, so each one should weight differently. Something so complete will never happen (never is a dangerous word), because that would require other people to constantly input information like "I trust Gustavo's opinion on digital cameras", and even that isn't enough, because my brother is a professional photographer, and isn't the best person to ask if you want a cheap camera. So, I don't think any of these "other people you know liked XYZ" will manage to give you things that you'll probably like (I enjoy different types of japanese food than my brother, for example), but they will help you socialize more. You'll at least know that your friend went to some restaurant, and tell him later about your experience.
elai 17y ago
There are apps like that. I've worked on a facebook/iPhone app exactly like that. Problem is that they don't get popular. It's the social game apps and similar trivial things that do well on facebook & social networks. You got to realize what people use facebook for. And there is a bit of a chicken and egg review db problem there. You got to get 20 of your friends to start using the "Food" app hardcore.

jncraton 17y ago

I agree that current social networking applications fail at real world search at the moment, but what is preventing Facebook from adding a search component which searches the broader internet and uses information about your friends, interests, and activities to provide better results? It seems like Facebook has access to a boat load of information about you that Google doesn't have. Google has lots of information about past searches, browsing history, etc, but it lacks personal information such as the organization you are currently working for or your favorite TV shows and bands (or in the case of many of us, our favorite blogs and programming languages).

inerte 17y ago

I don't know if Facebook has this feature (probably), but on Orkut you can assign friends to Groups, like Family, Co-Workers, Best Friends, etc... It would probably solve your problem if an option to "Only consider the opinion of these Groups" were present. Of course, we'll fall into the problem of how noteworthy their opinions are depending on the subject. While I would trust my middle brother expertise on digital cameras, the youngest in the house is a chef, so each one should weight differently. Something so complete will never happen (never is a dangerous word), because that would require other people to constantly input information like "I trust Gustavo's opinion on digital cameras", and even that isn't enough, because my brother is a professional photographer, and isn't the best person to ask if you want a cheap camera. So, I don't think any of these "other people you know liked XYZ" will manage to give you things that you'll probably like (I enjoy different types of japanese food than my brother, for example), but they will help you socialize more. You'll at least know that your friend went to some restaurant, and tell him later about your experience.

elai 17y ago

There are apps like that. I've worked on a facebook/iPhone app exactly like that. Problem is that they don't get popular. It's the social game apps and similar trivial things that do well on facebook & social networks. You got to realize what people use facebook for. And there is a bit of a chicken and egg review db problem there. You got to get 20 of your friends to start using the "Food" app hardcore.