What's missing in mobile social networks
Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 4:21PM Mobile/location-based social networks have long been considered a "next big thing," but despite the sharp increase in smartphone purchases and the release of the iPhone, adoption has been slow. I am one that agrees mobile networking is going to be a big thing. Maybe not THE next big thing, but it is going to have a significant impact on they way that people communicate and the way that businesses market.
Techcrunch had a nice rundown of location-based social networking on the iPhone in September and they highlighted some key things that these applications are missing. To me, the most important one was that these applications need to update your location while the phone is sitting in your pocket. Otherwise, it is too much work.
That missing piece is crucial to the feature that could serve as the tipping point for mobile social networks -- receiving alerts when your friends are nearby, without having to do anything. Whether your friend from another part of the country is within 40 miles or your arch nemesis from across town is drinking at your local bar, automated alerts that allow you to see (or avoid) people you know would be a game changer for mobile networking.
As far as I know*, no mobile social network is offering this feature, and it's a bit surprising that GPS enabled phones haven't made this possible. When it does happen -- and I'm sure it will, even if Garmin has to step in -- we're going to see a widespread adoption followed by smart brands moving into the space to converse (and market) on a local level.
Maybe this will happen in 2009. Maybe not until 2010. When it does, I'm looking forward to seeing what mobile networking can really do. *If I'm wrong, please correct me in the comments. And I will join that network immediately.
Update: Thanks to Ed Cotton for including this post in belated predictions for 2009 from influx readers.
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Reader Comments (2)
One thing I've slowly come to realize is that real power of twitter-like status updates lies in your audience not the subject. This may seem obvious yet the Brightkite folks don't seem to get it. (http://brightkite.com/places/3331f43eddf111dd931e003048c0801e is how I found your blog btw). If you look at Brightkite's Toscanini's Page, it's mostly people talking to themselves; People who are at a venue by themselves without any friends whispering updates to the wind. People with friends at that particular venue on the other hand tend to focus more on real-life interaction. So it's really lonely-stranger-to-lonely-stranger interaction what we'd be looking at. That of course goes against human nature, so it won't happen.
I think mobile social networks should help people socialize (ie break the ice) as opposed to serve just as plain collectors of social media and they should do it in small intervals (ie. without requiring the user to stare at her/his iphone for 10 minutes).Platform and carrier issues aside, I believe this is the major obstacle that's preventing mobile social networks from making it big.
I agree. Most mobile social networks tend to think that having a location in common is reason enough to people to want to connect with one another, but there needs to be a better reason than living on the same block or liking the same ice cream shop. They aren't doing much to create conversation, although I'll admit that Brightkite is better than a few others I have used.