Comments on: WordPress the New Facebook?

By: Should Google Have a “People Search”? : Codswallop

Should Google Have a “People Search”? : Codswallop — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:16:11 +0000

[...] comment on my last post and it got me thinking. First, in case you missed it, here is what he said: while Google makes it pretty easy to find someone, I think the search engines are going to get [...]

By: Nathan Ketsdever

Nathan Ketsdever — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:11:43 +0000

@ Chris. For Wordpress to make the jump to social networking it will have to look more like Vox, MyBlogLog, or perhaps Mashable or one of the more newspaper looking sites. I heard that from Chris Brogan that Google reader made the jump to profiles, which suggests they are moving in the same direction too.

@ Aaron. I believe as long as a blogger gets a profile or two on the main social networking sites with their real name, not owning their domain name isn’t a problem. Also, if you have an original name and run a website–Google is quite good at finding you. Finally, Wink, although not perfect is moving in the direction of people finding in the social networking space.

Great post Chris. Cheers to all!

By: Aaron Stroud

Aaron Stroud — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:34:32 +0000

@Tony, I’ve always felt the social networking sites were a waste of time. I think peer pressure is a large component of their success. I know my son sends far more electronic messages via myspace than email.

@Chris, while Google makes it pretty easy to find someone, I think the search engines are going to get even better at this. They’re going to have to with millions of people starting their own sites on domains that don’t sync up with their real names.

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:56:24 +0000

@Tony – So far most people who have found me have done so through my blog. One or two old school friends through “friends reunited” and workmates from facebook, but I have to think I am not hard to find in Google

@Adam – I wonder why I have had zero traffic referred by FB when you do so well out of it? Perhaps I just haven’t been active enough?

By: El retorno del bloguero » los sueÃ±os de la razÃ³n

El retorno del bloguero » los sueÃ±os de la razÃ³n — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:52:30 +0000

[...] Se explica muy bien en la entrada de Gigaom que recomienda La BrÃºjula Verde. TambiÃ©n en Codswallop se comenta el asunto. Todo esto a raÃz del inicio de un proyecto llamado DiSo (distributed social [...]

By: Adam Snider

Adam Snider — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:56:06 +0000

I mostly agree with you and others, Chris. Facebook is becoming increasingly useless to me. I do, however, use it to promote my River City Writer blog—and it works, Facebook is second only to Google for new traffic. Same goes for Twitter (though, I find I actually do get a lot of value out of Twitter, but the value you get depends largely on who you follow).

To me, Facebook is a fun little toy—there are some fun games, and all of my friends are there—but it has little practical value beyond promoting my external projects.

If Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, I wouldn’t really be upset. If I was suddenly unable to publish my blogs, on the other hand, that would fairly devastating.

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:43:40 +0000

The social networking sites, in my opinion, are a huge waste of time. Plus there are so many popping up that I have a hard time keeping track of them. Every few days I get an invite for LinkedIn, Spock, Facebook, etc.

I agree that investing the time in blogging is probably time better spent. I will say that I was able to connect with a few friends via LinkedIn and Facebook that I would never have found without these sites.

These sites definitely play on the addictiveness that they create with users. All of the widgets in Facebook and you just have to get your profile in LinkedIn up to 100% complete.