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Corporate Monsters Come Out for Halloween

I am really looking forward to the next celebrity snafu or new PR tool to come along to shake up my recent string of posts.  If I have to type Google, Microsoft or Social Networking again I may go cross-eyed.  Now, one could argue that I just don’t have to write about these topics.  I’d agree but how can you avoid it? The story is everywhere..in fact I think someone just left me a Wall post about it…

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Google is trying to channel the social-networking boom by releasing technical specifications for other Internet companies and software developers to follow, a move that could heighten competition with Facebook. and MySpace. The Mountain View, Calif., company plans to release later this week a set of technical specifications software developers can use to write Web-based applications that run within a number of different social-network services and also tap into user information. Google says its 12 initial partners for the OpenSocial specification include social networks Hi5 Networks Inc., LinkedIn Corp., Ning Inc., Friendster Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc., and also Oracle Corp., which sell software and Web-based services to businesses. Google says a number of application developers for social networks -- which allow individuals to set up personal Web pages and communicate with friends -- have signed on as well. The partners don't include the biggest U.S. social-networking services, MySpace and closely-held Facebook, setting the stage for a possible standards battle between them and Google.”

 Yes! This is just what we need - another corporate battle over standards.  It almost makes me want to stop using these sites altogether.Image:Goodfeathers.jpg  Maybe if they’re not “hot” anymore big business will leave them alone and people can go back to using these tools for keeping in touch with their friends and peers.  I’d call for the return of the carrier pigeon but I’m scared that within a few weeks I’d be reading about the standardization of which pigeon to use.

Am I the only one who wants to get off this ride?

Posted by Matt Trocchio on October 31, 2007 12:32 PM |

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Do you sometimes feel like our consumer choices are expanding exponentially and with the web 2.0 phenomenon people can dictate their own brands, but at the end of the day, we're being told what's "cool", what's "hot" and what's "happening" by about 20 people across the world? (Of course, we don't HAVE to listen to them. But we do.)

I just went to a chocolate tasting this Sunday at a boutique factory in Berkeley, and it's owned by cardboard tasting, gigantic consumer food company that shall not be named. Ugh!

I feel you, and sadly, it's not just with social networks.

Posted by: Jany | October 31, 2007 08:13 PM

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