DecoyMusic.com

i kind of want to start a discussion on social networking.  some of us remember friendster, i'm sure most of us remember myspace, and i'm almost certain that we all have facebooks.  the question is where's it going?

a story was just published that twitter sign up's have stopped increasing, suggesting the end of twitter soon.  also, if you haven't noticed, formspring seems to be getting pretty big (formspring.me for those who don't know).

discuss?

formspring will be sort of a novelty type thing for dudes in bands n people other people care about i guess.  i have one, some people have asked me some questions which i have answered but unless you're somebody your friends already probably know most the answers.  myspace and facebook will probably get over-used and played out, maybe people will go back to actually communicating in real life (yea right).

i think even myspace has slowed down greatly.  none of my close friends use it anymore.

and ya i agree with formspring.  i see it getting up there with tumblr probably.

yea i deleted my myspace last week, no more use for it on a personal level.. more so for decoy and bands i work with.  but even the decoy account having 22k friends does nothing for our reach.. no one logs in or cares what people post over there, it's too cluttered with nonsense.

I don't think facebook will be going away any time soon. 

I agree with Rick, even though I wish they'd never allowed for things like Mafia Wars and all those other junk applications. 

I have a dream that one day someone will create an application for cellphones that lets you see who's around you, literally. Everyone who signs up for the app has a profile that says a little bit about them along with a picture. The program would use your location and let you know of others within a range (say 30 meters), allowing you to interact with them if you choose. You can turn the program on and off when you don't feel for it or the situation isn't right. It could help break the ice in big lecture halls at school or meet the neighbors across the hall. Creepy? probably, but no one is forcing this app on you - use it at your own discretion. 

AdultFriendFinder

Composing...just hover it with your mouse and hide that shit for good...I don't see Mafia Wars, Farmville or any of that junk anymore

Also, there's already several of Apps for the iphone that do exactly what you're looking for...Loopt, FourSquare, GoWalla to name a few...also, I remember the phones a couple years ago with the "Where You At?" ads that did the same thing...

But yea, to answer the question...at my job (a market research consulting firm that mainly works with schools and universities), we recently ran a study that looked into social networking and whether or not it could eventually be used to market to prospective and potential students.  We wanted to determine if our respondents were open to social networking being more prevalent in their everyday lives or if it was becoming too much already and would rather it be only for social purposes.  If you want to check out the report, you can do so here.

Personally, I feel that sooner, than later, there will be a single social networking site that will fulfill all needs whether it be social, educational, occupational, or whatever else I'm not thinking of.  It's looking like Facebook has the headstart to be the one and I wouldn't be surprised to one day see Google and Facebook become one entity.  This social networking site will follow us everywhere; our phones, our cars, in public (personalized advertisements), our tvs...you name it, it'll be there.  Facebook has already ended up on my gaming console. 

A new favorite social networking site I enjoy is Google Wave (If anyone wants to check it out, I still have several beta invites).  I don't see it having a lot of use as a social tool, but in a professional sense, it's pretty awesome.

Facebook is continuing to really kick ass. Twitter, while sign ups may have slowed, showed profits last year for the first time ever, and ahead of schedule. I think the reason these two sites continue to thrive is that the user experience is pretty great (very little spam, clean looking and easy to use, very few bugs in the system, instant communication and information sharing). These are things that Myspace doesn't provide, hence it's continual downward spiral.

The key to these sites maintaining their grip on the market is for them to continue innovating and improving upon their own sites before some one else does.

Loopt only works in the states, i'm sure it could pick up for me if they eventually expand to canada. I tried linking Foursquare to my fb and no one that I know is using it so it seems pretty pointless for me. Gowalla seems pretty cool and fun, but again, no one I know is using it - i'll give it a shot on my iphone though. 

on that note: does anyone have any other great apps that they recommend?