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Internet Social Networking Sites Must be Useful to Make Money
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - March 27, 2008 6:27 AM

15 comment(s) - last by Smiting Eye.. on Apr 10 at 6:42 PM

Analysts say that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace need to be more usefull to make that bank

Few will argue that social networking sites are some of the most popular websites online. Facebook and MySpace are the two biggest websites in the social networking realm.

Reuters is reporting that while advertising spending on social networking sites is around $1.6 billion per year, the sites need to change to continue to make money. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “I don't think we have the killer best way to advertise and monetize social networks yet.”

Brin made this comment on a conference call in January when Google announced a lower than expected Q4 revenue. Other reports are saying that visits to social networking sites are dropping. ComScore shows that the number of U.S. visitors to MySpace fell from 72 million in October to 68 million in February.

Visitors aren’t the only statistic dropping; the time spent on Facebook profiles per user dropped from 195.6 minutes to 161.3 minutes. Reuters quotes Andrew Lipsman, a comScore spokesman, as saying that this drop shows social networking sites are in the mature stage.

Widgets were one of the main components of social networking sites that made them so popular to start with. Things like a vampire widget that allowed users to bite friends or a poke widget that sent messages to friends saying you were poked helped push the popularity of the sites up.

These widgets need to become more useful to get more users to interact with them and become viral marketing tools. Some analysts say that the future widgets that will make social networking sites more useful are things for checking weather, stocks and concert dates.

Facebook was in the news earlier in March for hiring away a Google executive to act as its chief operations officer. MySpace has had problems with protecting its user base and reached an agreement in January 2008 with 49 states on measures to protect its user base.

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So annoying

By Marvlarv on 3/27/2008 8:24:47 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Things like a vampire widget that allowed users to bite friends or a poke widget that sent messages to friends saying you were poked helped push the popularity of the sites up.

widget and other gadgets do tend to get annoying, but I do understand ware they would need this for the advertising revenue, that way the sites remain free for us to use

RE: So annoying

By helios220 on 3/27/2008 9:23:36 AM , Rating: 4

I tend to agree. Facebook applications started innocuously enough, ranging from entertaining to some that were/are very useful.

A quick glance today though, for every application that is somewhat useful or well built I have an order of magnitude other invites to p.o.s. spam apps.

A few years back when Facebook was college only I jumped from the growing scam/spam clusterf#$&k that is Myspace to a cleaner interface. Now Facebook has become almost the same way and rather than looking for some new site, I find myself just not caring about these sites anymore.

I'll take a get together with real friends and a few pints over the coolest networking apps anyday.

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RE: So annoying

By Marvlarv on 3/27/2008 9:39:55 AM , Rating: 1

Must of my myspace friends are freiends in real life. Got to stay safe ^_^

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RE: So annoying

By therealnickdanger on 3/27/2008 9:46:36 AM , Rating: 2

Since all but a few of my friends regularly use FB, it's so much easier to set up outings with them. A single unifying calendar where you post something like, "Brit's Pub - let's get sh*tfaced" and set the time and date and friends from all walks show up. If anything FB has led (for me) to even greater real-world interaction, not less.

As far as ad and widget clutter: ads are eliminated with a little update to your HOSTS file and the widgets are completely optional. When a friends offers to Vampire Bite me or E-Poop On My Chest (jk), I just ignore it and ban that widget from interacting with me.

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RE: So annoying

By helios220 on 3/27/2008 2:13:59 PM , Rating: 2

I still use Facebook and I am well aware of its many endearing features. I was moreso attempting pointing out that I've observed the trends noted in the article about declining use in myself as well as other friends.

It may be just an issue of the novelty wearing off, in 2004 when we had to petition to get it expanded to our University which we eventually did I think in '05 it was like crack to me and my friends, every party posted as an event, as many stupid groups created as possible. Over time though my interest just began to wane, and post-graduation I find myself using it even less and less as could be expected.

For better or worse, I'm sure I'll always belong to at least one social networking site to keep in touch, but unless they really do something to blow my mind I don't see how they could expect usage to not start dropping off as time passes and the novelty of online social networking wears off. Case in point, I saw a friends parents commenting on a picture of him participating in some 'collegiate recreation' aka drinking. Not the end of the world, but it made me realize how much social networking has changed over the last few years; now my family can be on facebook, my employers and co-workers already are. There's just some people I don't need to have seeing me do Kegstands... and yes I know you can restrict access to your pictures and so forth.

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RE: So annoying

By VahnTitrio on 3/27/2008 10:35:40 AM , Rating: 2

I collapse all of the applications I find annoying, so about 95% of them in total. I have a few just for fun ones, but those I don't even have a box in my profile for. I like to keep it clean.

Supposedly facebook has a new cleaner interface coming out (from what I saw it was a tabbed interface, where basic info, the wall, and applications would each have their own tab). It looks like a solid improvement over the current setup. I'd like to see it stretch to fit a resolution though, as it's 50% whitespace on my 1680x1050 monitor. I also saw that facebook was going to add an IM feature, which could be good or bad, depending on how well they pull it off.

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RE: So annoying

By MicahK on 3/27/2008 10:42:52 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
I'll take a get together with real friends and a few pints over the coolest networking apps anyday.

X2 ... I agree, people switched to Facebook because it was clean, now its just terrible... A few of my friends deleted all their friends except for a their really close ones and just use it now for pics and events and stuff... I'm considering doing the same.

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The following post......

By eye smite on 3/27/2008 8:17:20 AM , Rating: 3

is dedicated to all the facebook and myspace users. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQVFy5HHac

RE: The following post......

By Smiting Eye on 4/10/2008 6:42:43 PM , Rating: 2

That is funny.

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yet another article on DT not proofread

By tastyratz on 3/27/08, Rating: 0

RE: yet another article on DT not proofread

By wordsworm on 3/27/2008 9:14:21 AM , Rating: 4

You know, it's a blog, not a scientific journal that gets passed around to 100 people before it gets released. How about being a bit more discrete or at least polite?

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Social Networking sites are useful?

By MrBlastman on 3/27/2008 9:22:02 AM , Rating: 2

Could of fooled me. Last time I checked they are a bane of our society and we'd do just fine without them.

All I ever hear about them are people putting lewd and suggestive pictures on them, pictures of being drunk and just another way to show off your ego.

No thanks.

RE: Social Networking sites are useful?

By xti on 3/27/2008 10:44:15 AM , Rating: 2

did no one give you a beer at the last party?

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Useful vs Valuable

By dever on 3/27/2008 1:41:02 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Social Networking Sites Must be Useful to Make Money

The foundation of this statement is so obvious, "useful things are valuable." However, we are rich enough that we find many non-useful things valuable.

Useful is a broad term that can mean different things to different demographics. Valuable is probably a better metric. I would wager that social networking sites that provide "non-useful" value, ie entertainment, can definitely make money. And, of course, adding "usefulness" to a site that's "entertaining" will only add to the value.