Social networking has under gone 2 major shifts in the last 15 years of the world wide web. The first social networks came in the form of real-time chat services like ICQ and AIM. These services allowed you to talk to your friends anywhere in the world and provided a type of communication connectivity not seen before. After a number years as king, chat services declined, in terms of hype at least (I imagine the number of people chatting is still growing), and the second generation of social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, gained the crown as the hip place to hang out.
However, cracks in the foundation of the second generation have begun to appear. The rise of extremely powerful cellphones, such as the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices, are creating a 3rd generation social network as these devices become more than phones and email devices. They are the new social network. As these devices gain functionality that make them more general purpose computing devices than phones, you will see the rise of social networking applications specifically for the phone.
There is far more potential with these types of social networking tools. By 2010 most, if not all, smart phones will have integrated GPS. This will enable large scale, location based networking (i.e. meeting people in real life instead of over a computer screen) and advertising. Since the phone knows you are standing in Starbucks, a well done social network application will be able to provide the phone owner with a coupon for the tasty dessert in the display case with their purchase of coffee. That is the real value in the future mobile social network.
If you are looking to position your company for the future rather than trying to keep up with the present, drop us a line at info@downtowncartel.com. We can help you build the future social network.
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