Gmail as a social network

[Cain]

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/03/is-gmail-googles-real-social-network

There is a good case being made here that Gmail is in fact a social networking site in everything but name. A very private one, but still...

[Dr Goofy]

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/03/is-gmail-googles-real-social-network

There is a good case being made here that Gmail is in fact a social networking site in everything but name. A very private one, but still...

[LMNO]

Wait, I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

[Elder Iptuous]

hm.
his arguement seems weak.

- send messages to friends
- keep conversations with multiple friends together
- embed videos/rich media in emails/chat messages
- send messages to people beyond the Gmail wall
- use search operators to bring up all photos /other media from any past messages
- Account holders have profile pages with their picture
- Creating a Google account essentially gives you an account to a much broader range of products in Google

The first four could be said of any old webmail system.
the search thing is nice, but not really a social network specific trait, imo
By 'profile page' i assume he's referring to the contact details? (which you can put a pic on) that hardly seems on par with the social network sites...
the last point is the same as the search feature, i think, in that it is not really specific to social networking...

i'm just not seeing it.

[P3nT4gR4m]

The part that the author is missing is the fact that the internets is a social network. Web 2.0 is all about the mashups, lists of contacts and embedding applets where they hithertoo had no fucking business being embedded.

Myspace and facebook and and the likes didn't actually do anything new. They just took the inherent connectedness of the web and turned it into a big email address book with a personal homepage. Srsly social networking was old hat by the time they gave it a name. An email client, favourites list and instant messenger client on one webpage - revo f'kin lutionary

So now we have a name for it and some of the slow readers are starting to see something that was always there and freaking out. "OMGZ email is a social network", "OMGZ youtube is a social network", "OMGZ IP routing is a social network"

[the other anonymous]

I don't like Google anymore.

I just googled myself. I was the last result.

-toa,
is a sad panda

[Jenne]

Good point, P3nt.

[Dr Goofy]

I don't like Google anymore.

I just googled myself. I was the last result.

-toa,
is a sad panda

Google my name nothing google my handle I have a page or 2.

[Iason Ouabache]

I don't like Google anymore.

I just googled myself. I was the last result.

-toa,
is a sad panda

Google my name nothing google my handle I have a page or 2.

At least the first 5 pages of googling my user name is me.  I'm starting to get the feeling that using an obscure 8 letter French bastardization of a Miami Indian word was a bad choice.

[Dr Goofy]

Yea mine is lucky enough to have the buffer of Goofy. I have only 3 pages with quotations. 3 more pages if you take you the spaces.

I need a life other then virtual!

[Corvidia]

Laughtrack doesn't yield anything that's me (I only use it here, really), two of them on the first page are me with my usual handle, and four with my oldest one. Google my given name and you get an illustrator in Indiana and a lawyer who looks like Rosie O'Donald.

/off topic

Those are shitty arguments. I love my gmail, but I can't see it.

[Triple Zero]

most sites that I would qualify as "social networking sites" have the feature to browse your friends (contacts) friend-lists (contact-lists), in order to find more people you know via-via. GMail explicitly disallows this (and for good reason IMO).

another (smaller) difference with social networking sites is the profile page. while GMail does have profile functionality, a "real" social networking site either has a minimum of profile information to fill out in order to create an account, or some other incentive to get people to do it. as far as I know, hardly anyone ever fills out their profile in GMail apart from their (nick) name and sometimes a little avatar picture for GTalk.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't like Google anymore.

I just googled myself. I was the last result.

-toa,
is a sad panda

If you google my real name I'm the first result, but if you Google Nigel I'm NOWHERE.

If you google "Weaselpanties", you get me plus some interesting NSFW.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I don't like Google anymore.

I just googled myself. I was the last result.

-toa,
is a sad panda

If you google my real name I'm the first result, but if you Google Nigel I'm NOWHERE.

If you google "Weaselpanties", you get me plus some interesting NSFW.

Rule34 on ferrets?

I'm scared to look










but oddly compelled ....

[the last yatto]

http://yfrog.com/0dwoundedkneej