I think it is safe to say that there is at least one thing the majority of us find annoying about our social network(s). You wish it could do X, or you want to change Y. Well, Scott Spanbauer of PC World vents to us about 10 things he finds most annoying in this article, which was featured on the MSN.com homepage earlier this week.
Some of them I agree with - MySpace backgrouds that are too busy and just make it difficutlt to read. Others are new info – Ning users produce too much porn. Two have offered a solution or work in progress – Mobile advancements and network aggregation (i.e. Flock) or interaction. As for his comments about LinkedIn, I don’t necessarily agree. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the clean look and it does keep it professional, which is the point.
What do you agree or disagree with? Please share.
-Corey
Tags: social networks
This post is categorized in: Social Media
I would agree, like you Corey, with most of what the author stated. And I would heartily agree with annoyance #1. Trying to keep up with a bunch of different social networks can be a full time job and I seriously don’t have the time. This is probably why I never check my facebook account and don’t even bother to start new accounts on other social networking sites. My personal barrier to entry in social networking is the desire to sit at my computer after spending a full day at work looking at a screen (maybe I shouldn’t admit that…).
Oh, I see an opportunity to make money when some of these myspace designs. I think this proves a point that there is some sort of legitimacy for “expertise” in the social media space. You might be able to implement an open source application, but can you execute it with style? There will always be rules of design, rules of language, rules of…
The busy Myspace backgrounds and ridiculous glittery graphics that people pollute their pages with really make it an eyesore to look at. That and their inability to properly deal with spammers and accounts being hacked. I just love getting comments by close friends that mysteriously all the sudden want me to know how to make a million dollars from my room.
Here are my two cents.
In the end, only one social network will prevail – for the time being. According to Jeffrey Cole (Director, Center for the Digital Future, USC), social networking sites are like nightclubs. Everyone flocks to the site that is “the cool place to be”, but once the cool appeal wears off, they go and search for the next big thing.
On another note, I agree with Mark that many of us are way too busy managing our online networks. If there was one social networking site that had sophisticated privacy features (sorry to beat the dead horse on this), we would be able to manage all of our networks within one site.
Strategy and trends aside, aesthetics are important too. Simple is better.
animating spiders dropping down a blogpost?