Every One Has A Social Network Dream

When he filmed Crouch Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee once said that every Chinese man has a swordsman dream. That's probably true. Recently I become more and more confident to say that almost every company has a social network dream, meanwhile I'm still suspicious about what strategy they should adopt to really make 'social' an integral part of their offerings.

Three cases from this week make me pop out the question above.

The first one is about Microsoft. Microsoft moves a step further with its 'Live" community strategy. It changed the interface of MSN Live. I guess I do need a learning curve to get to what Microsoft wants to bring us together. But I'm upset to lose my favorite page that I can see all the new posts abridged from my friends, in which way I could take a peek at the content and decide whether to read the full article. But in the new interface, I can only see 'what's new with myself', which I already know very well, and 'what's new with my network', which has only the activity update with little description. It appears that I am given a simpler page with more functions and even cute themes. But all I need is to read the abridged posts to get to know what my friends are up to, instead of the glossy icons listing on my network page. A few friends shared their frustration, and one of them left the popular emoticon 囧 on my space.

The upside is that Microsoft has the strong MSN user base, which is the core for the Live community. I've been writing blogs on my MSN space for 4 years. The drive behind not changing to a cooler blog service is that MSN messenger is my hub for friends. So Microsoft still has its advantage. But they probably like to do more user research before making the next move.

The second case is about Google, Microsoft big big competitor. I'm not sure if the timing is nothing but a coincidence. Google's not making a big move. The interface stays familiar. But they do provide more social-network-styled functions if you take a closer look. I notice Google reader started to offer recommendations based on your existing subscription. That's not a new trick for Google considering their super analytical power. I have to say the recommendation is surprisingly accurate and hit to target. The top five recommended sites from Google were added into my subscription without a second thought. Another new thing is Google's Picasa album started to offer tagging service, just like how it works in Facebook. I think personally, tagging is one of the core functions that connect people in the social networks. 

The third case is about a new mobile phone called INQ. This handset calls itself the world's first social mobile phone. That may not be an overstatement. A long list of Facebook, MSN Live, last.fm, Skype, eBay, Yahoo and Google is built into the handset. As the social and mobile user base is growing exponentially all over the world, this seemingly niche phone has a good chance to get a piece of the pie.

The world is moving faster and faster. We are spinnig to get dizzy. Every organization has some kind of community per se. How to leverage the power of community is a question even from the Stone Age. Everyone has a social network dream, so to speak.