When One Friend Is Too Many
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What happens when one member of your social network comes to push the others aside? |
That question has come up twice in less than 18 hours. Last night, I instant messaged with an analyst who was exasperated that he might have to remove Robert Scoble, of scobleizer.com, as a Facebook friend. The analyst complained that Scoble had overpowered his Facebook news feed.
Today, Dare Obasanjo, a program manager for Microsoft, expressed similar Facebook Scobelizaton in a post, "How Robert Scoble Hijacked My Facebook News Feed."
Scoble, a former Microsoft evangelist, is a high profile and presumably connected blogger.
Obasanjo writes: "There are over a hundred people in my social network on Facebook, many tagged as coworkers, high school friends and family, yet 50 percent of the content in my news feed is always about Robert Scoble."
No disrespect to Scoble, but if he were my Facebook friend he would have to go.
Maybe online social networks are where the "six degrees of separation" concept might make people like Scoble too close. That idea, if true, is somewhat contrary to the online social networks' purpose.
Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy proposed the six degrees of separation concept in the 1929 short story "Chains." The concept proposes that no two people are separated by more than five intermediaries.
But what happens when one person you know knows 20 other people you know? Suddenly the number of intermediaries becomes very few. I could see how in a situation like that, a social networking algorithm might push a know-everybody person ahead of everyone else, including people who really are closer friends or family.
Facebook is the social network of the hour and a potential platform, although information going in doesn't easily come out. "Fricking...social lock-in," Obasanjo writes. He's right.
My question: Can Microsoft do better? The company has spent a zillion years getting together its set of Web services and construction continues. Being late to market is an opportunity for Microsoft to put friends at the right distance—assuming people don't want to keep their enemies closer.
About three years ago, Microsoft's MSN team laid out for me its social networking approach: relationships. The big Internet problem is sprawl; there are just too many people and places online. Microsoft's Web services goal has been connecting people who know each other, such as family, friends and coworkers.
Facebook has a similar concept and has brought it realistically to the market ahead of Microsoft. The opportunity is for Microsoft to learn from Facebook's mistakes and those of other social networks like LinkedIn or MySpace.
To date, Microsoft's relationship-building effort is rudimentary, through Windows Live Messenger and Spaces. But the company has big plans for Windows Live ID, which could be a better way to connect people. Who you know—and who other people you know know—shouldn't put the most popular person in the room right next to you.
Can Microsoft do better? Let's hope so.
Related Posts:
- Is Windows Live a Killer?, Microsoft Watch, July 26, 2007
- Microsoft's Face in the Book, Microsoft Watch, July 19, 2007
- Which Comes First, Software or Services?, July 10, 2007
- Live Lives, But How Well?, Microsoft Watch, June 27, 2007
