1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works in Dieheart Radio and I love all 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: things tech. And as I record this episode, it's still 6 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: pretty early in two thousand nineteen. It's February two thou nineteen, 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: and the social networking site Facebook has been in the 8 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: news frequently for several reasons over the last many months, 9 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: mostly to the company's constern nation. These have not been 10 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: positive news stories for the company. Mark Zuckerberg himself said 11 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: that perhaps the social networking industry in particular might require regulation. 12 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,240 Speaker 1: And I've seen a few calls from lots of different 13 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: people that Facebook should either divest itself of some of 14 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: its properties like Instagram or else maybe the government should 15 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: come in and do it for them and bust it up, 16 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: kind of like busting up the old telephone monopolies back 17 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:09,960 Speaker 1: in the day before they kind of reformed. That's a 18 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: different story. Facebook is one of a few enormous companies 19 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: Amazon and Google would be two others that has so 20 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,759 Speaker 1: much access to our personal information that it's always going 21 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 1: to be a potential threat, and it could be a 22 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: potential threat either through internal company decisions, things that Facebook 23 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: itself does, or there's the possibility of external interference, such 24 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: as during the presidential election in the United States. It's 25 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: a powerful tool that could be used positively or negatively. 26 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: Facebook was largely able to grow to this size by 27 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: outperforming numerous other social networking sites, all of which aim 28 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,000 Speaker 1: to make a business out of connecting people online. So 29 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 1: in this episode, I want to talk about a few 30 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: of the social networking sites that attempted to carve out 31 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: a place online. Some of them even predated Facebook. But 32 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: this is just a small selection I'm going to give 33 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: you in this episode, because there have been lots of 34 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: different attempts to do this, and some of them are 35 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: really localized to specific countries or two specific interests, so 36 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,679 Speaker 1: I couldn't cover them all, uh, and some of them 37 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: didn't even make it past the early development stages. Also, 38 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: I do not plan to cover my Space in any 39 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: sort of detail, because I've done an entire episode, actually 40 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: multiple episodes, dedicated to my Space, and technically it's still around, 41 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: though it's not anything like what it was originally. So 42 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: some people would argue that my Space itself is no 43 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: longer a thing, at least not as it was originally intended. 44 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 1: So anyway, here's a selection of social networking sites that 45 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: ultimately failed, and a little bit about each of them. 46 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:50,960 Speaker 1: And I figured it might be a good idea to 47 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: start off with a couple of examples from truly huge companies, 48 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,240 Speaker 1: because that helps illustrate how hard it can be to 49 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: establish a social networking service that people actually want to use. 50 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: So if Google and Apple can't do it, these huge 51 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:11,399 Speaker 1: companies that have billions of dollars of support behind them, 52 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:13,680 Speaker 1: it's got to be hard to do, right. So we're 53 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: gonna start off with Google Plus, keeping in mind that 54 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: Google will pop up again and again in this episode 55 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: because of their involvement in trying to establish social networks. 56 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 1: But Google Plus is a pretty recent one and one 57 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: that has some more news coming up very shortly. And 58 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: you know, Google Plus tried a lot. It tried hard 59 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: for many years to become a true social network destination, 60 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: but as of April twenty nineteen, it's going to be 61 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: shut down for good. And honestly, it probably could have 62 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: closed up shop a few years ago and the world 63 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: in general wouldn't have noticed. Instead, it took a massive 64 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: data breach, or at least the possibility of one, for 65 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: Google to close the door on Google Plus. So let 66 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 1: me talk a little bit about it. So Google Plus 67 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: wasn't the Internet uh companies first foray into social networking. 68 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: As I had mentioned, there had also been Google Buzz, 69 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:16,600 Speaker 1: which was a tool that was integrated directly into Gmail, 70 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,839 Speaker 1: but was discontinued when the company prepared to launch Google Plus. 71 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: There was also Google friend Connect, which lasted from two 72 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 1: thousand eight to two thousand and twelve for all non 73 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: blogger sites. As in Google Blogger sites, even the blogger 74 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: sites had to say goodbye to it. In Google Plus 75 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 1: was supposed to take the best ideas from both of 76 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: those earlier efforts and add more innovation when it would 77 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 1: launch in And there's some other social networks that relate 78 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: back to Google that we'll talk about later in this episode. 79 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: So Google Plus would let you organize the people in 80 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: your online social circle into circles. That's what it called 81 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: the different groups. You had circles, and you could drag 82 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,840 Speaker 1: a person's picture into circles to sort them. So you 83 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:03,400 Speaker 1: could name circles whatever you wanted, and you could create 84 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: lots of them in order to sort people out into 85 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: specific groups. So you could create circles like friends, family, coworkers, 86 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: or you could create people who really like that one 87 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: joke I tell. In my case, I had a circle 88 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: just for people that worked with me at the Georgia 89 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:22,919 Speaker 1: Renaissance Festival because there were a few of them on 90 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: Google Plus back in the day. Then when you posted 91 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,600 Speaker 1: on the social networking platform, you could choose which circles 92 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,920 Speaker 1: could see your post. You might want the whole world 93 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:34,160 Speaker 1: to be able to view it, in which case you 94 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:36,880 Speaker 1: would just make it public. But let's say that you 95 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 1: wanted to address one group and leave out everybody else, 96 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: like maybe you're asking your friends about recommendations for a 97 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: job search, in which case you probably don't want your 98 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: coworkers to see that post. Then you would select your friends, 99 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: you would leave out your coworkers, and that would be 100 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: that you know, you would just post in The only 101 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: people who would see it were the ones that you 102 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: had authorized to see it. That was the basic idea, 103 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: and the platform had all the features that you would 104 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: expect to find on social networks. You could post updates, 105 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 1: you could share links, you can share photos, you can 106 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,840 Speaker 1: make new friends, you can join groups. There's a lot 107 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: of integration with Google's other services like YouTube. But apart 108 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:22,359 Speaker 1: from the initial excitement when the platform first opened, fueled 109 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: in large part by the fact that when it was 110 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: first open, Google held an invitation only closed beta, so 111 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: the only way you could get an account was if 112 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: you've got to invite. It gave the platform some exclusivity, 113 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: which made people want to be part of it more. Now. 114 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: I know because I was part of that first group 115 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,279 Speaker 1: and I was invited to participate, and it was kind 116 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: of fun because it was still a very small group 117 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,480 Speaker 1: of people, generally speaking, who were online, and they were 118 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: almost all business leaders or tech journalists. So I got 119 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 1: the chance to catch up with friends of mine who 120 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: also got in on that closed beta. Once it opened up, 121 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: and after I had that initial rush of everyone adding 122 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:07,600 Speaker 1: in their accounts, it had trouble catching on. And it 123 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: wasn't just the design that didn't really grab people's interests. 124 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: It was some of the policies that Google had put 125 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: into place. So this was around the same time that 126 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: Google had decided to make a single log in for 127 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: all its services, including stuff like YouTube, and they wanted 128 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: to link each account to the account owner's real name, 129 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: so they wanted to make sure that the name of 130 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 1: the account was the same as the person who created 131 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: that account. Never mind if you have an online following 132 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: that knows you by a stage name or a brand. 133 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: The intent was to create accountability, so I would say 134 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:50,119 Speaker 1: the intentions were honorable. Google figured people would behave better 135 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: if their actions online could be traced back to their 136 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: real identities. If you can't hide behind anonymity, ne're less 137 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: likely to be a jerk face on line. That was 138 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: the logic, but there was an intense backlash from the 139 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: online community due to this policy, and there were legitimate 140 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,520 Speaker 1: objections to it. It wasn't just people saying I don't 141 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: want to have my name on the internet. Some were 142 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: worried that they could be targeted if their identities were revealed. 143 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 1: Maybe they use online social networks as a way of 144 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 1: expressing opinions about an oppressive government. You know, they might 145 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: not live in a place where such things are are 146 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: tolerated and might even be actively punished. They don't want 147 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 1: to have their identity traced directly back to them, but 148 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: they still want to be able to share those views 149 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:43,680 Speaker 1: with the wider world. Some people had undergone extremely personal changes, 150 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: like maybe there was someone who had had a sex 151 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,800 Speaker 1: change operation and literally they were no longer the person 152 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: they used to be. They have transformed into a new identity. 153 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: They did not want their online presence to reflect someone 154 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:02,560 Speaker 1: who no longer existed. Google eventually backed off this policy, 155 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: but the platform never really recovered from that. In fact, 156 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: there was a lot of animosity, not just on Google Plus, 157 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: but particularly on YouTube related to all of this. Now, 158 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: in first glance, the platform seemed to be doing fairly well. 159 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: If you were just looking at numbers and you weren't 160 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: looking too hard, it looked like things were going pretty smoothly, 161 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: or at least there was an encouraging trend, because in 162 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:30,439 Speaker 1: six there were around three million registered accounts that were 163 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,199 Speaker 1: listed as active. Now that's not like the billion of 164 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,360 Speaker 1: accounts that Facebook was boasting, but still it's almost half 165 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: a billion. You're getting close to half a billion. That's 166 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:46,560 Speaker 1: a respectable population. Except cent of those accounts had nothing 167 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 1: in them. They were empty. They had someone who had 168 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: created them, but they weren't posting anything. The nail in 169 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: the coffin would be that data breach I had mentioned, 170 00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: or really it was more of a vulnerability the design 171 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: Google Plus would potentially allow a third party app developer 172 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,160 Speaker 1: to get far more data access than was intended. So 173 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: let's say that you have a Google Plus account and 174 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: you want to enable an app that will work on 175 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: top of Google Plus. You could give that app access 176 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,480 Speaker 1: to your information on your profile. Maybe it's just the 177 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,360 Speaker 1: public information, and you could also give access to the 178 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:32,520 Speaker 1: public profile information of your of your friends, so but 179 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: it's not anything that was listed privately. It would just 180 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: be the same sort of stuff you would see on 181 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: your friends profile if you were a total stranger and 182 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 1: you just navigated to that person's profile. So anything they 183 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:49,440 Speaker 1: chose that was public this app could see a security probe. However, 184 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: discovered that the app developers could also get access to 185 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 1: information stored in fields that were not tagged as public, 186 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:00,440 Speaker 1: so that meant that there this vulnerability would allow a 187 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,640 Speaker 1: third party developer to see all sorts of information someone 188 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: had voluntarily put into their profile but had not chosen 189 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: to reveal publicly. That can include stuff like real names, 190 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: email addresses, uh, the occupations. These are mostly optional fields, 191 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,640 Speaker 1: not ones that you had to fill out. But even 192 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,439 Speaker 1: if you had filled them out and told Google Plus 193 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: that you wanted them to be private unless you sorted 194 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,719 Speaker 1: someone into a friend bucket for example, or circle. I 195 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:34,079 Speaker 1: should say that these apps could get access to that information. 196 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: So Google posted a message that said it had independently 197 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: discovered this vulnerability. It wasn't brought to their attention from 198 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: a breach, but rather while investigating Google Plus, they discovered 199 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:51,840 Speaker 1: it and according to Google, according to their their experience, 200 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,800 Speaker 1: they didn't see any evidence the developer had ever discovered 201 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: or exploited it, and at least that's what they said. 202 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:00,960 Speaker 1: So the company patched the vulnerability in March two thousand eighteen. 203 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:04,000 Speaker 1: But the message was clear. Google Plus was actually more 204 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: trouble than it was worth to keep around, and so 205 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: there will be no more Google Plus after April nineteen. 206 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,840 Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense to keep uh expending energy 207 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: and money and resources on a product that very few 208 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: people are using. But what about Apple? I mentioned Apple 209 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: as well as one of the other big companies that 210 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,120 Speaker 1: attempted to create a social network and failed. Well. They 211 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: tried to integrate a social network like feature into the 212 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:37,600 Speaker 1: Juggernaut program, iTunes. So Apple launched iTunes way back in 213 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: two thousand one. They announced it at the Macworld Expo 214 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: that year and revealed to the world an enormous digital 215 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: music online storefront, which would end up changing the way 216 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:52,199 Speaker 1: people bought music and and would even change the way 217 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: that music would be recorded. The album experience became less 218 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:01,079 Speaker 1: important than the single experience became way more important, and 219 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:04,320 Speaker 1: then it would go on to support the creation of 220 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,360 Speaker 1: a burgeoning art form called the podcast. But nine years later, 221 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 1: in upon the release of iTunes version ten, Apple would 222 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:19,280 Speaker 1: introduce Ping. Ping was a music centric social networking platform. 223 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: So with your profile on iTunes, you could follow other 224 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: users or music artists. You could choose bands or musicians 225 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:31,360 Speaker 1: to follow, and you could search out their concert listings. 226 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:33,960 Speaker 1: You could also use paying to indicate that you are 227 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,720 Speaker 1: attending one of those concerts, you know, kind of be 228 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:40,040 Speaker 1: one of those super cool people, almost almost a social 229 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:42,120 Speaker 1: status sort of thing, like, Yeah, I'm gonna be at 230 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:45,720 Speaker 1: the concert in Brooklyn of this band that four people 231 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: know about, but don't worry, you'll all know about it 232 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:52,080 Speaker 1: in two years. Or you could create or peru's song 233 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: lists or album charts. You could see the photos and 234 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:59,439 Speaker 1: the videos that your favorite musicians were sharing, and ideally 235 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:04,360 Speaker 1: it allow for easier music discovery, something that is pretty tricky, 236 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,680 Speaker 1: but Ping did not get much traction, and one possible 237 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,280 Speaker 1: reason for that was that upon launch, there was no 238 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,920 Speaker 1: way to integrate Paying's features into Facebook profiles. According to 239 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: The Verge, that wasn't necessarily Apple's choice. The Verge reported 240 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 1: that there were rumors at the very least that Apple 241 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: had intended to integrate Facebook Support and Paying, but they 242 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: had to pull it out at the last minute for 243 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: unsaid reasons. I have no idea what the reasoning was. Now, 244 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: despite an early rush of users making profiles, just like 245 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: with Google Plus, Ping didn't really catch on. Apple chose 246 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,320 Speaker 1: to shut down the service just two years later in 247 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:49,480 Speaker 1: twent Both Google Plus and Paying were latecomers to the 248 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,120 Speaker 1: social networking party. Though after the break, I'll talk about 249 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 1: a site that actually debuted before Facebook and MySpace. But 250 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 251 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,360 Speaker 1: Back in two thousand two, three developers named Peter Chen, 252 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: Jonathan Abrams, and Dave Lee wanted to create an online 253 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 1: tool that would make it easy for people to connect 254 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 1: with one another on the Internet. You would be able 255 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: to link up with folks you already knew, and you 256 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: would be able to make new friends over this great 257 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: communications tool. No longer would your real world environment limit 258 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:34,360 Speaker 1: who you could befriend. So these three got together and 259 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,440 Speaker 1: they began to develop this tool one of the earlier 260 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:41,400 Speaker 1: social networking sites. Sometimes people refer to it as the 261 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:45,160 Speaker 1: first real social network, or at least the first real 262 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:49,320 Speaker 1: one to enjoy mainstream success. It was called Friendster, but 263 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: I want to be clear, this was two thousand two. 264 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,720 Speaker 1: There were sites that I would call social network sites 265 00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: that predated friends Ster. I do agree that Friendster was 266 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 1: the first one to be really successful. So they were 267 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: able to launch a prototype of this Friendster site in 268 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:09,760 Speaker 1: the spring of two thousand two, and within a few 269 00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: months they had more than three million users, which is 270 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: not bad when you remember that this was a pretty 271 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,120 Speaker 1: early idea. Still, even though there had been a couple 272 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 1: of other attempts at creating social networks, that was at 273 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,640 Speaker 1: a time when there were very few people online at all. 274 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: So this is still a new concept for a lot 275 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:30,280 Speaker 1: of people. So you had to explain to people what 276 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:32,360 Speaker 1: this was all about in the first place before you 277 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:34,960 Speaker 1: could even get them to decide whether or not they 278 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: wanted to join. And Friendster tried to turn everyone into 279 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 1: Kevin Bacon, and by that I mean Friendster would show 280 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: you how you were connected to strangers through a network 281 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: of mutual friends. So you might discover that someone you 282 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:51,040 Speaker 1: have never met, someone you do not know, is actually 283 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: very good friends with a couple of people you do know, 284 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: and maybe those people you know are actually in totally 285 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: different social circles. Like otherwise, you wouldn't realize that these 286 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: two people had anything in common. Uh. The example I 287 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:06,160 Speaker 1: would give is, say, let's say that I found out 288 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,959 Speaker 1: that someone I knew from my work at the Georgia 289 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:13,359 Speaker 1: Renaissance Festival was friends with someone uh that was also 290 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,680 Speaker 1: friends with a coworker, And I would have thought, well, 291 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,080 Speaker 1: I didn't expect those two worlds to cross because I've 292 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:21,960 Speaker 1: never seen seen them interact. But now here's this third 293 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: person or fourth person. Really, because I'm counting myself in 294 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: here too, this fourth person who is a connection both 295 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:30,960 Speaker 1: to my co workers and to the folks that I 296 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: work with at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Maybe I would 297 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,359 Speaker 1: like to be friends with that person too, because chances 298 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:41,400 Speaker 1: are I share more than a few common interests with them. 299 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: That was the theory. It was a very compelling concept. 300 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,679 Speaker 1: This idea that you could meet people that you would 301 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,480 Speaker 1: very much be friends with, you just hadn't had the 302 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:52,920 Speaker 1: opportunity yet, you hadn't met them yet, and this would 303 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: be a way to meet them. Unless I'd be remiss, 304 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:57,760 Speaker 1: I have to mention this was not a new idea, 305 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,880 Speaker 1: even for online social networks. Back in the mid nineties, 306 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,160 Speaker 1: there was a sort of proto social network site called 307 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 1: six degrees and it was built on that very premise. However, 308 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: it appeared online at that time I was talking about 309 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:15,040 Speaker 1: when there weren't that many people on the World Wide Web. 310 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: Very few people were aware of what the web was 311 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,119 Speaker 1: or had any experience with it, so there weren't a 312 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:24,119 Speaker 1: whole lot of people to sign up for it, and 313 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:28,040 Speaker 1: it eventually kind of faded away. Not many people remember it, however, 314 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 1: I will say the site did return years later, and 315 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: if you have an account, if you if you had 316 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: made an account for six degrees back in the mid nineties, 317 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: then you could still log in to that old account. Um, 318 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,200 Speaker 1: so it does technically exist, but there's fewer than like 319 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,760 Speaker 1: a quarter million people on there these days. In two 320 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:54,480 Speaker 1: thousand three, the developers of Friendster were able to secure 321 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,960 Speaker 1: twelve million dollars in funding from an investment firm. But 322 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 1: while that was a really good shot in the arm, 323 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: the site was finding it difficult to handle its rapidly 324 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:08,360 Speaker 1: expanding popularity. There were more people joining the site than 325 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:12,199 Speaker 1: they could accommodate, and so they were always trying to 326 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:16,439 Speaker 1: play catch up, trying to build out enough capacity to 327 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,640 Speaker 1: handle the people who wanted to use the service. There 328 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,200 Speaker 1: were glitches and server issues, the site would load slowly 329 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,360 Speaker 1: and users would become frustrated it had grown too quickly 330 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 1: for the company to manage. My Space, which launched in 331 00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:34,919 Speaker 1: August two thousand three, also began to get popular and 332 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,720 Speaker 1: siphon away users, and Friendster never really recovered from that. 333 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,640 Speaker 1: The site continued on for a few more years. While 334 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: it's popularity declined in the States, it did remain strong 335 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:49,040 Speaker 1: in Asia, so it wasn't like it was going obsolete everywhere. 336 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:54,800 Speaker 1: But then Facebook emerged and started to gain in popularity, 337 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,479 Speaker 1: and Friendster would continue its decline in the United States, 338 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,160 Speaker 1: and two thousand nine, the company launched a read as sign, 339 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: attempting to position itself as the cool social network. In fact, 340 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,520 Speaker 1: it actually tried to leverage the fact the more people 341 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:10,200 Speaker 1: were on MySpace and Facebook. It was essentially saying, why 342 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,920 Speaker 1: do you want to be where everybody else is? Why 343 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: do you want to be mainstream? Man? It's very hipster 344 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:18,280 Speaker 1: kind of mentality, like let's let's go someplace that not 345 00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:22,560 Speaker 1: everyone's already at. Later, in two thousand nine, a company 346 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:27,280 Speaker 1: called m OL Global acquired Friendster for around forty million dollars, 347 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: although when you subtract all the debts and everything, it 348 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:33,960 Speaker 1: was closer to twenty six million, so most most sites 349 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,680 Speaker 1: list the actual purchase price at twenty six point four 350 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 1: million dollars um. That's deducting stuff like Friendster's secured debt 351 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: or payouts to Friendster executives. This wasn't great news for 352 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,760 Speaker 1: the company in two thousand nine because way back in 353 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: two thousand three, Google had offered to acquire the company 354 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,920 Speaker 1: for around thirty million dollars, before all that debt was 355 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,600 Speaker 1: accrued and before all those executive payments would be necessary, 356 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: so this was actually a step down. Six years later, 357 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:07,200 Speaker 1: Friendster continue to operate as designed for a short while, 358 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,639 Speaker 1: but m OL would go back to the drawing board 359 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 1: and relaunch Friendster as a gaming social networking site. But 360 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,879 Speaker 1: even that effort failed, and in June two thousand fifteen, 361 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:23,439 Speaker 1: the site shut down and has remained that way ever since. Now, 362 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:25,760 Speaker 1: jumping back to Google for a second, I want to 363 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:30,640 Speaker 1: talk about or Cut, another early social networking site, Ork. 364 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: It would debut after Friendster and MySpace. It was one 365 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:38,679 Speaker 1: of the famed twenty percent projects so over at Google 366 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:40,639 Speaker 1: back in the day. I don't know if this is 367 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: still the case, but Google part of its reputation was 368 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,919 Speaker 1: that it had a common practice to allow employees to 369 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:53,440 Speaker 1: dedicate up to twenty of their work time to personal projects, 370 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: as long as those personal projects were aligned with Google's goals. 371 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,959 Speaker 1: So whatever your normal job was N five at Google, 372 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,320 Speaker 1: you would do that for eight percent of your time, 373 00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: and then for twenty of your time you could work 374 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: on something else. Sometimes those projects would grow into something 375 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: more than that. They might evolve into a feature or 376 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 1: even a fully fledged product at Google. And one of 377 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,200 Speaker 1: those was or Kit, which was named after its creator, 378 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: a Turkish developer named Orcit Bouya Cockton or Could joined 379 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,760 Speaker 1: Google or At the man joined Google after graduating from Stanford. 380 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:34,000 Speaker 1: He built a social network and called it Eden, but 381 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:37,680 Speaker 1: then discovered they wouldn't be able to secure the domain 382 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 1: Eden dot com so they needed to go back to 383 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:43,639 Speaker 1: the drawing board for the name, and ultimately he was 384 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: told that he should really name it after himself and 385 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 1: call it or Kit or kitt and Turkish means happy city, 386 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,000 Speaker 1: so it seemed like a good fit. Or Kit would 387 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: become a social networking site and became popular pretty quickly. 388 00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: It actually overtook Friendster in popularity, and by two thousand 389 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,119 Speaker 1: and six it was the second most popular social network 390 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: on the Internet. Number one at that time was my Space, 391 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,520 Speaker 1: and the majority of orchits users were in Brazil. Se 392 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,959 Speaker 1: of the users of orch at were in Brazil, and 393 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 1: in fact the site would maintain a dominant position in 394 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: India and Brazil for several years, but would eventually lose 395 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:28,440 Speaker 1: ground to Facebook, to all other domains in the United States, 396 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,399 Speaker 1: in India, and in two thousand twelve, they finally lost 397 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:37,440 Speaker 1: to Facebook in Brazil. Facebook would displace it and never 398 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,000 Speaker 1: look back. Google would continue to support orch at dot 399 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:45,160 Speaker 1: com until two thousand fourteen. Orc At, the man by 400 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,159 Speaker 1: then had already left the orchid team. In fact, he 401 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: had left the orch At team in two thousand eight 402 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: and became a product manager at Google, but then he 403 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,160 Speaker 1: left Google entirely. In the same year that the social 404 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,399 Speaker 1: networking site went offline, he would go on to found 405 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,880 Speaker 1: another social network called Hello, which still exists. It initially 406 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,960 Speaker 1: launched in Brazil and it expanded from there, so that 407 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,760 Speaker 1: one's still around. You could join Hello today if you 408 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: wanted to. Now there have been a lot of social 409 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: networks that have also been aimed at niche audiences, not 410 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:20,960 Speaker 1: just the mainstream general Internet audience. There's actually an Early 411 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff episode dedicated to these niche social networks, and 412 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:28,240 Speaker 1: it included stuff like Ravelry, which is a social network 413 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: site dedicated to knitting. This, by the way, isn't me 414 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,800 Speaker 1: dismissing knitting. As far as I'm concerned, Knitting is a 415 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 1: pretty awesome creative hobby. But it surprised me at the 416 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,600 Speaker 1: time that there was a social network dedicated to it. Eventually, 417 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: my horizons expanded. My wife started knitting, and then I 418 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: realized exactly how social and activity it can be. She 419 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,880 Speaker 1: does knitting circles and so of course it makes sense 420 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: to have a social network dedicated to it. But at 421 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,520 Speaker 1: the time I just thought that's just weird. Anyway, Ravelry 422 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 1: is not what I really wanted to talk about. The 423 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: social network that I wanted to mention escaped my attention 424 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 1: until I started looking into this episode. I didn't know 425 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,600 Speaker 1: about it, or if I had heard about it, I 426 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:16,160 Speaker 1: didn't remember it. It was called eons e O N 427 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 1: s Now. Part of the reason of not knowing about 428 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:22,679 Speaker 1: it was because I'm not in the generation that was 429 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,400 Speaker 1: targeted by that social network. It was aimed at baby boomers, 430 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,479 Speaker 1: people who were at least forty, although most reports at 431 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: the time said it was aiming at the fifty plus 432 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 1: crowd when the site launched back in two thousand six. 433 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 1: And while a certain former tech Stuff co host would 434 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:43,280 Speaker 1: take great joy in pointing out how old I am, 435 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 1: I was not in my forties back in two thousand six. Heck, 436 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: I wasn't even working for how Stuff works in two 437 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: thousand six, So maybe I can be forgiven for being 438 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 1: ignorant of this particular social network. Jeff Taylor, who was 439 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,639 Speaker 1: the founder of the site Monster dot com, also was 440 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: the founder of eons dot com. He created it to 441 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,719 Speaker 1: target this market of baby boomers, the fifty plus crowd. 442 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: He felt that they were under served in the social 443 00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: network space, and I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. 444 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,200 Speaker 1: Social network sites when they first launch, or at least 445 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,920 Speaker 1: when they first catch on, tend to do so within 446 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:25,639 Speaker 1: a certain generation band of users, a certain age range. 447 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,640 Speaker 1: In general, there's always going to be exceptions, but you'll 448 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:30,880 Speaker 1: see that the majority of your users tend to fall 449 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,320 Speaker 1: within a certain range, and unless the network is able 450 00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:37,880 Speaker 1: to adapt over time, that generation band remains pretty much 451 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,800 Speaker 1: the same it ages as the the demographic of the 452 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:46,840 Speaker 1: the audience. Ages and younger generations tend to opt for 453 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,160 Speaker 1: alternatives because, among many reasons, there are a quote too 454 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: many old people end quote on that other site. Eons 455 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:56,800 Speaker 1: dot com was supposed to be a site dedicated to 456 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,800 Speaker 1: those quote unquote old people now. The site aimed for 457 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:05,240 Speaker 1: a clean, easy to navigate interface. They wanted to get 458 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: rid of a lot of the things that would clutter 459 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:12,160 Speaker 1: up the profiles on competing social network sites. It had 460 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,920 Speaker 1: a simplified search engine, and it also boasted get ready 461 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,879 Speaker 1: for it, the world's largest obituary database. The goal was 462 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,160 Speaker 1: to aim at boomer's interests while keeping the features as 463 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: easy to understand and to use as possible for those 464 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,439 Speaker 1: who lacked computer savvy. In two thousand eleven, a company 465 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,879 Speaker 1: called Crew Media purchased the site from Jeff Taylor for 466 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 1: an undisclosed amount. At the time, the site had about 467 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,399 Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand registered users, very small number compared to 468 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 1: other social network sites, but you're also talking about people 469 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:50,400 Speaker 1: who have probably a lot of a lot of revenue, 470 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,040 Speaker 1: who a love income they could they could use on 471 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:58,440 Speaker 1: various advertising if if you were so inclined. The following year, 472 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,919 Speaker 1: in you Jers became concerned because the site went offline 473 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 1: without any warning, and after about a week, executive said 474 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,760 Speaker 1: the problem was that the server company they were working 475 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:13,800 Speaker 1: with had some sort of error and that this was 476 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,960 Speaker 1: all getting fixed behind the scenes. But after a little 477 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:18,920 Speaker 1: more time it turned out that there was a bit 478 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,600 Speaker 1: more to it than that, and in June two thousand twelve, 479 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:26,240 Speaker 1: the Eons team posted to the site's Facebook page the boy, 480 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,880 Speaker 1: isn't that fun that a social network site had its 481 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:33,040 Speaker 1: own page on another social network? Anyway, they explained that 482 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:37,400 Speaker 1: the sites service provider was asking for a financial commitment 483 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: that the company could not meet, and in return, the 484 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,760 Speaker 1: the service would end up fixing this problem and getting 485 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: the eons dot com site back up online, But because 486 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: they said they couldn't meet that financial commitment, they couldn't 487 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,440 Speaker 1: pay to have the site fixed, and so it remained down. 488 00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: The executive said they hoped they could get the site 489 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: back up and running, but that never happened. Users were 490 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:06,680 Speaker 1: told that their information would remain locked away and safe. 491 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,440 Speaker 1: It wasn't going to be sold off or shared with anyone. 492 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: But as of this date, the site has remained dark. 493 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,200 Speaker 1: I've got a couple more networks I want to mention, 494 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 1: but before I get to those, let's take another quick 495 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:30,040 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. Hey, it's been a minute. 496 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,239 Speaker 1: How about we pop back over to Google, you know, 497 00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: the giant social network killing machine. Now. Sadly, for Google, 498 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:41,400 Speaker 1: the social networks it has slain haven't been competitors. Instead, 499 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 1: they've been the company's own properties. Not all of them, however, 500 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: were developed within Google. Some of them came through acquisitions, 501 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:54,160 Speaker 1: like jaiqu or if you prefer Haiku, that's with a J, 502 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: I'm gonna call it Jaiku. So Jaiku was a service 503 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,800 Speaker 1: launched by a couple finished developers whose names I would 504 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,480 Speaker 1: absolutely butcher if I tried to say them, and I 505 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: already did that to poor or cut, so let's just 506 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:13,200 Speaker 1: move on. The crux of Jaiku was essentially the same 507 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:18,240 Speaker 1: as Twitter. It was founded as an SMS messaging service. 508 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 1: Kind of add on, it was called a micro blogging service, 509 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 1: and you were limited to one forty characters for your posts, 510 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: the same as Twitter's original limit. Now, the reason for 511 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,640 Speaker 1: that had to do with the limitations of the SMS format, 512 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: which could carry one hundred sixty characters. Some of those 513 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: characters needed to be set aside for user names, so 514 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 1: the limit for the actual message length was one forty characters. 515 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,520 Speaker 1: Users could choose to make their Jaiku stream public or 516 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,680 Speaker 1: private and thus invitation only, so in other words, it 517 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,600 Speaker 1: was really similar to Twitter, though in those early days, 518 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 1: early adopters said that Jaiku's implementation was slightly better, largely 519 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,320 Speaker 1: to a dedicated mobile app that allowed users to leave 520 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:07,400 Speaker 1: comments on other people's messages, almost like a Facebook post, 521 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: as opposed to the at reply method that Twitter relied on. 522 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: And keep in mind this was before the smartphone revolution, 523 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 1: so this is in the old symbian operating system days. 524 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,800 Speaker 1: Google purchased Jaiku in two thousand seven, which made some 525 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,480 Speaker 1: users nervous. Google had a bad reputation for this. They 526 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:31,360 Speaker 1: had already purchased a service called Dodgeball, which was an 527 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: early check in service, you know, one of those where 528 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:36,840 Speaker 1: you go someplace in real life and you open up 529 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: your phone and you open up an app, and then 530 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,840 Speaker 1: you check into that place, so it lets other people 531 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: know where you are. Well. The founders of Dodgeball would 532 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,240 Speaker 1: go on to later create four Square, which would kind 533 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,200 Speaker 1: of take that same same idea and run with it, 534 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 1: at least for a while. I'll have to do another 535 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,840 Speaker 1: episode about four Square at some point, because that's an 536 00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: interesting story too, about how that service changed dramatically over time. Anyway, 537 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: it turned out that the Jaiku fans had good reason 538 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: to be nervous because Google did very very little with Jiku, 539 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: or if it did do very much with it, it 540 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:13,640 Speaker 1: was never publicly disclosed. They did shut down the service 541 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,000 Speaker 1: two thousand nine, just two years after purchasing it. That 542 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: was around the same time that Google also shut down Dodgeball, 543 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: So if you were to try and visit the U 544 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: r L to Jiku dot com, you would get a 545 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:30,120 Speaker 1: Google four oh four error. Sad story. A similar micro 546 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,640 Speaker 1: blogging service called Pounce stuck around a little bit longer, 547 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,920 Speaker 1: but ultimately it also bowed to Twitter's dominance in the field. 548 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:44,880 Speaker 1: The founders of Pounds were Daniel Berka, Leah Culver, and 549 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:49,160 Speaker 1: Kevin Rose. Kevin Rose had co founded Revision three and 550 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: Dig Daniel Burka. Burka was a creative director over a dig. 551 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: Leah Culver was fresh out of grad school, and they 552 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,760 Speaker 1: launched Pounds in two thousand seven. The service had more 553 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 1: cheers than Twitter, including the ability to share stuff like 554 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,600 Speaker 1: photos or videos or MP three's you could embed them 555 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,000 Speaker 1: in messages. That was something that would take a while 556 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:13,239 Speaker 1: to get implemented into Twitter. Even so, the service just 557 00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,400 Speaker 1: wasn't attracting users at the same rate that Twitter was. 558 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,840 Speaker 1: It got launched just a little too late, I think, 559 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:24,280 Speaker 1: to take advantage of that, and one year after being founded, 560 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: a company called six Apart approach the founders and offered 561 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 1: to buy Pounds off of them, and they agreed, so 562 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,040 Speaker 1: six Apart purchase Pounds and then they announced that the 563 00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:37,960 Speaker 1: service was going to get shut down in just a 564 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:39,880 Speaker 1: couple of weeks. So you might say, well, why would 565 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 1: a company come in and buy something just to shut 566 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,720 Speaker 1: it off, And typically the answer to that question is 567 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: the company isn't interested in the product. The company is 568 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: interested in the people who made the product. Not necessarily 569 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:57,280 Speaker 1: the founders but the actual developers. So it's quite possible 570 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: that that was the whole reason why, apart when after 571 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: Pounds in the first place. Either way, Pounds was no 572 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 1: more just a short time after it had been founded. Now, 573 00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:12,440 Speaker 1: it's important to remember that for most social network sites, 574 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:18,440 Speaker 1: the users are in fact the product. It's we gotta remember, 575 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:20,960 Speaker 1: you know, you always asked if if a service is free, 576 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,520 Speaker 1: that really means that you are the thing that's being sold. 577 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,799 Speaker 1: Social networks tend to make money through advertising, and they 578 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,480 Speaker 1: attract advertisers because those social networks are privy two tons 579 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: of private information about users, and advertisers would kill for 580 00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: that sort of granular demographic information. I say that because 581 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 1: the next social network I want to mention came from 582 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,240 Speaker 1: a behemoth in the retail space that was actually launched 583 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: by the company Walmart, and a lot of people dismissed 584 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,920 Speaker 1: it immediately as a crass attempt to cash in on 585 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,879 Speaker 1: the social network trend, and honestly, it's hard to dis 586 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,319 Speaker 1: missed those criticisms. However, I would argue that Walmart was 587 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: just more blatant in its motivations than other social networks. 588 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,360 Speaker 1: A lot of social networks out there were just equally 589 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,640 Speaker 1: as concerned with leveraging a social network in order to 590 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: make money. They just it just wasn't as obvious. So 591 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,440 Speaker 1: while it's easy to to cast dispersions, I think we 592 00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:25,000 Speaker 1: need to cast them equally across the field. Anyway, let's 593 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,759 Speaker 1: talk about the Hub. So Walmart created the Hub in 594 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: two thousand six. And part of the reason why I 595 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,480 Speaker 1: think a lot of people criticize this is because of 596 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,840 Speaker 1: the target demographic. It wasn't meant for adults. It was 597 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: actually targeted toward teens. Now, according to the company, the 598 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,080 Speaker 1: purpose of the site was so that teens could quote 599 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:51,160 Speaker 1: express their individuality end quote. But this expression wasn't exactly 600 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:55,120 Speaker 1: free expression. It actually came with some very strict limitations. 601 00:35:55,880 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 1: For one thing, it would notify a user's parents that 602 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,480 Speaker 1: the user had joined the service. So you know, you 603 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,520 Speaker 1: had to provide email, I address I assume of your 604 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,120 Speaker 1: your parents, and as part of that, the parents would 605 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,919 Speaker 1: get a notification saying, Hey, your kids trying to join 606 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: the social networking service. Thought you should know just in case. 607 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,080 Speaker 1: Users were not allowed to send messages to one another 608 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 1: privately on the platform, so you couldn't send emails or 609 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,279 Speaker 1: anything like that to each other um. It screened all 610 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,920 Speaker 1: the content that was coming through the site, and it 611 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,800 Speaker 1: was largely geared towards the commerce side of social networking. 612 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,760 Speaker 1: So it was a restrictive platform that was obviously self serving, 613 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,080 Speaker 1: and it didn't work. It did not attract users the 614 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:41,880 Speaker 1: way Walmart had hoped, and after just three months, Walmart 615 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:46,000 Speaker 1: pulled the plug on the site and the hub went flat. Now, 616 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:50,840 Speaker 1: my last entry of all these failed social networks is 617 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:54,320 Speaker 1: just kind of sort of social network. It's it's social 618 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:59,520 Speaker 1: network adjacent, and that would be Yahoo Buzz. This one's 619 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,759 Speaker 1: also a weird for me to talk about because while 620 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: I cannot remember which article it was, I remember distinctly 621 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,760 Speaker 1: early in my career. It was shortly after we started 622 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,759 Speaker 1: adding more staff writers for how Stuff Works dot com, 623 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:16,160 Speaker 1: So this would be in the era when Josh and 624 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 1: Chuck of Stuff you Should Know had joined and a 625 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,320 Speaker 1: few others were just fresh on the staff. Yahoo Buzz 626 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,799 Speaker 1: started to really get a big push behind it, even 627 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:27,880 Speaker 1: though it had been around for several years at that point, 628 00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,400 Speaker 1: and one of my articles got featured on Yahoo Buzz 629 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: early on in this in this push, and as a result, 630 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:38,600 Speaker 1: the numbers for that article skyrocketed. It became one of 631 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,600 Speaker 1: the most visited articles on the house stuff works dot 632 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:45,040 Speaker 1: com site, and it was mine, which is fantastic. It's 633 00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:47,960 Speaker 1: a great feeling to see one of your articles just 634 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:52,200 Speaker 1: go viral like this. Now, as it turns out, manufacturing 635 00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:54,319 Speaker 1: that kind of thing is pretty darn hard to do, 636 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,080 Speaker 1: and people can typically suss out when you're trying to 637 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,080 Speaker 1: do it and they just dismiss it. So these days 638 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:03,200 Speaker 1: I just focus on trying to do a good job 639 00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,360 Speaker 1: and create good content and not worry about whether or 640 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:08,840 Speaker 1: not it goes viral, because I figure that's up to 641 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:12,239 Speaker 1: other people. That's not up to me. Anyway. Let's get 642 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,840 Speaker 1: back to Buzz. So technically, Buzz was a community news 643 00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,279 Speaker 1: site where users could share articles they had seen online 644 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,400 Speaker 1: with each other. You could have your own news feed 645 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,480 Speaker 1: of curated articles that you found interesting, and other people 646 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:27,920 Speaker 1: could visit your profile and read the articles that you 647 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:32,200 Speaker 1: had curated. It was pretty darn similar to what dig 648 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:36,000 Speaker 1: was already doing and what Reddit would go on to 649 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:39,360 Speaker 1: do in the future. Yeah who. Buzz originally launched in 650 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,719 Speaker 1: two thousand and Yahoo would sunset the service in two 651 00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:47,600 Speaker 1: thousand eleven, along with several other social media and blog services, 652 00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: all At the same time, the company had come to 653 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: the conclusion that Buzz and its companions were too challenging 654 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,799 Speaker 1: to monetize effectively, and so it made more sense to 655 00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:02,760 Speaker 1: drop those services and focus on strategies that did generate revenue. 656 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,799 Speaker 1: So along with Buzz, my blog log, Yahoo picks, and 657 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:11,680 Speaker 1: Yahoo bookmarks all got the acts and it all ended. Now, 658 00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:18,399 Speaker 1: these are all the social networks that for one reason 659 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,840 Speaker 1: or another went out of business, got shuttered, got shut down. 660 00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:26,480 Speaker 1: But there are lots of other ones that are technically 661 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,320 Speaker 1: still around but have very little activity around them or 662 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: a very small population where they don't get very much coverage. 663 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: They don't they aren't able to emerge from beneath the 664 00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,680 Speaker 1: shadow of the giants of Facebook and Twitter. For example, 665 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,440 Speaker 1: there's plerk, which is a Twitter alternative that a lot 666 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,120 Speaker 1: of people loved when it first came out. It still exists. 667 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:50,280 Speaker 1: There's l O E l l O that was pitched 668 00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 1: as an ad free social network experience and these days 669 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:58,040 Speaker 1: is largely populated by artists and creative types, so it 670 00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,879 Speaker 1: still exists. It's much more stripped down simple. Uh. Some 671 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,919 Speaker 1: people would say it's too simple, but uh, it's one 672 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,480 Speaker 1: that a lot of artists are using these days rather 673 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:12,200 Speaker 1: than Facebook. So there's still a few dozen smaller social 674 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 1: network sites that don't have the attention or influence of 675 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,239 Speaker 1: the big guys, and some people tend to put those 676 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:23,440 Speaker 1: on the same lists as as the defunct ones I've mentioned. 677 00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:25,799 Speaker 1: I don't think that's entirely fair because the ones I'm 678 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,600 Speaker 1: talking about literally they don't exist anymore, or at least 679 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,359 Speaker 1: they don't exist as their own separate entity. If they 680 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,840 Speaker 1: exist at all, they exist in the form of features 681 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:40,319 Speaker 1: that have been implemented into other social networks. Um. One 682 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:44,920 Speaker 1: person suggested, I do uh Diaspora as an example, but 683 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,400 Speaker 1: that one technically is still going. It's uh not incredibly popular, 684 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,120 Speaker 1: there's not a huge number of people using it, but 685 00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:56,840 Speaker 1: it hasn't gone away yet. So there are more that 686 00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:00,359 Speaker 1: I could talk about that are are still going. They 687 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,000 Speaker 1: still have a passionate base in some cases at least, 688 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,360 Speaker 1: but they don't, you know, they don't even have a 689 00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,719 Speaker 1: metric to compare against the big ones. I guess the 690 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:15,080 Speaker 1: point of all this is that maybe it is time 691 00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:17,480 Speaker 1: to go in and break up Facebook a bit. It's 692 00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:20,640 Speaker 1: essentially a monopoly when it comes to the social network space, 693 00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,040 Speaker 1: especially now that, you know, Google Plus. Google Plus probably 694 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: had a decent chance if it had been implemented in 695 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,160 Speaker 1: a better way, and if it hadn't had that data 696 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:33,560 Speaker 1: breach problem to have really challenged Facebook, but it never 697 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:36,880 Speaker 1: quite had the cool factor beyond that exclusivity when it 698 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:41,960 Speaker 1: first launched. Uh, no one else has really come close. However, 699 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: we said the same thing about my Space back in 700 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,440 Speaker 1: the day, and then Facebook was able to turn all 701 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 1: that around. So it may just mean that somebody has 702 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,239 Speaker 1: to come up with a very compelling approach to social networks, 703 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:58,880 Speaker 1: possibly one that appeals to a younger audience, and maybe 704 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,360 Speaker 1: then they could topple face it that way. But honestly, 705 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:03,520 Speaker 1: at the rate the company is going right now, they're 706 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,840 Speaker 1: doing a pretty good job toppling themselves, or at least 707 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,640 Speaker 1: sticking their corporate foot into their corporate mouth. But that 708 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,120 Speaker 1: wraps up this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If 709 00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,120 Speaker 1: you have any suggestions for future topics of tech Stuff, 710 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:19,280 Speaker 1: why not send me a quick message. The email address 711 00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:21,760 Speaker 1: for the show is tech Stuff at how stuff works 712 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:25,080 Speaker 1: dot com or dropped by our website that's tech Stuff 713 00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:28,120 Speaker 1: podcast dot com. You'll find other ways to contact me there. 714 00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:31,040 Speaker 1: You'll find the archives of the show. There. Go check 715 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,239 Speaker 1: that out, and don't forget to visit our store that's 716 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:35,960 Speaker 1: over at t public dot com slash tech stuff. Remember, 717 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:38,279 Speaker 1: every purchase you make goes to help the show, and 718 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,800 Speaker 1: we greatly appreciate it. And I'll talk to you again 719 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:49,840 Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. 720 00:42:50,080 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com