elearnspace

It’s been a year or so (I think) since mybloglog introduced the concept of having our identity (and network) trail behind us as we visited different websites. A site that set up mybloglog would allow visitors to connect with each other beyond simply comments. Not much happened with the concept after the launch. A few blogs added the widget, but I haven’t seen significant adoption. Of course, as Google has learned from Facebook, relationships are more important than content in determining loyalty and commitment to a site or service. While I can happily post on my site, the real value for readers is in the connections they form with other people. Google has to date monetized content with services like adwords. But what do you do to monetize relationships? How do you get people to use your service as a source for forming relationships? Facebook answers with Facebook Connect and Google responds with Friend Connect (their marketing department wasn’t involved in the “let’s give this thing a creative name” discussion).
What does this mean? Do all of our comments belong to Facebook? or Google? I’m personally less concerned with these companies owning my content than I am with their knowledge of my relationships/connections. Facebook in particular is very good at mining data based on relatedness (oh, look, many of George’s friends list these topics of interest…or this political orientation…or religion). Both Facebook and Google desire to know us, not just our content. That’s what doesn’t sit well with me. Oops, gotta go login to Google mail…then off to check my Facebook account.