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AOL Launches Its Own Social Network Around ICQ
from the it's-about-time... dept
I've had this discussion with a few different people, but no one has been adequately able to explain why none of the companies that have large instant messaging users have jumped into the social networking fray by simply leveraging the instant messaging buddy lists. It's tailor made for that sort of thing. In fact, instant messaging is basically an early social networking product. It's easy to turn that into a Friendster-wannabe service, since everyone already has their friends listed. There's no empty room problem where no one wants to join when no one else is there. Also, because people use IM all the time, they have a direct tie-in to keep people coming back and using the service - rather than most social networking services, which seem fun for a week or two and then lose almost all utility. It appears that, finally, one of the major players is starting to grasp this idea as AOL is launching "ICQ Universe" for their ICQ instant messaging program. Of course, ICQ's usage is dwindling compared to that of other services (including AOL's other AIM product).
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So true
i am asking that same Q for the last 3 years.
but actually, We are now working on a third party tool that uses existing IMs to do just that.
we are small team in israel, and we will be happy to get some help...£$£
Gil
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aol is not orkut
Yeah, so google has an NSA guy on staff and gives you a 35-year cookie so they can compare your searches. We still trust google. AOL's consistently shown that it is NOT community-minded, and therefore nothing like the company I'd seriously trust with the contact information of all my friends and the knowledge of how I interact with them.
Uh, no. I'll NOT be using any networking toy created by a company that has no concept of community. It'll just be a pathetic attempt to build something passable enough to squash competitors, completely for the sake of another channel down which to stuff more ads.
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nice typo
"large instant messaging users" ...
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