Fred Wilson on Social Networking vs Email

Fred Wilson on Social Networking vs Email(avc.com)

20 points by taykh 16 years ago | 12 comments

eplanit 16 years ago |

So, let me get this straight: People _prefer_ non-private communications, with advertisers, site operators, and a vaugue sense of "friends and followers" listening in?

I don't buy it. Either he's focused on only one segment of the internet population (individuals, not businesses), or it's more wishful thinking regarding social networking.

Just what, exactly, is deemed so terrible about email? Shouldn't this be analyzed via mass correspondence vs. individual-to-individual? I think the author is greatly overgeneralizing, and thus drawing misleading conclusions.

hexis 16 years ago | |

This seems like a good place to mention that the author of the OP is an investor in twitter.

ohashi 16 years ago |

This post doesn't make sense. It's comparing email to social networking all as time spent communicating. It doesn't classify that time though, is time spent reading emails really the same as any time I spend on social networking sites? How many hours of farmville equals one hour of emailing?

hussong 16 years ago | |

It all comes out of the same time budget for computer-mediated communication.

sh1mmer 16 years ago |

If you have to have an email address to sign up to most if not all social networks, how is the sign-up figure correct?

jfornear 16 years ago | |

You can use the same email address to sign up for multiple social networks?

_pius 16 years ago |

Key point IMO:

The Gotham Gal looked at me and said "why are you checking twitter and not email?" ... I told her that email required a reply and twitter did not.

davidedicillo 16 years ago | |

The major success factor is that social networks are by default one to many, while email is one to one. Think if you had to email all your friends to tell them you are in town...

FluidDjango 16 years ago | | |

If only email were one-to-one. Unfortunately I have to keep on lots of blast-email lists... where I'm expected to filter through what impacts my responsibilities.

And sometimes I dare not ask to be removed from some senders' lists for political reasons.

Time-sucking. Soul-sucking. grrrr...

EDIT: forgot to mention that sorting through the krap via Twit, FB, etc, would not be much more fun.

plesn 16 years ago |

So in 2007 we switched from the Republic of Email to the Kingdom of Social Networking. Where is the Rebel Alliance of open distributed social networking protocols?

rokhayakebe 16 years ago |

Facebook surpasses Google in US traffic. Does that mean Facebook is/will be more important than Google? I think not.

SMS traffic grew rapidly as well, but it did not take away the voice business.

ableal 16 years ago |

In this case, the value vs. volume may be debatable.

Lately, I've been taking notes on this. These are not bad observations:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1223346 - Networking advices from legendary Silicon Valley networker, Heidi Roizen - 90% of my interactions are on email (and I will say that is the same for almost all highly efficient people I know)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248503 - Ron Conway Explained - (quoted email) “AM ON IT.”

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/03/28/Compartmen... - Communication Silos - They differ in their latency, reach, and persistence and, on another axis, in length of form.