The web has been characterized by frivolous services that never catch on. Do you remember VRML and the exciting, immersive 3D worlds we were all supposed to be shopping in now?
The web has shown that technologies that stay do so because they connect with people in the real world. Look at email and digital photography services. The key to the survivability of a new system is its real-world benefits.
Enter the newest trend in web services: social networks. LinkedIn understands what it takes to last. LinkedIn hands over direct contact information once a connection has been made, instead of trying to build its own virtual community. LinkedIn doesn’t have pictures, which most users on other systems use to show off their Photoshop skills or cleavage, real or otherwise.
Social networks like Tribe and Orkut reward power users who rack up hundreds of contacts - which are meaningless in the real world. Being connected for the sake of being connected is still dumb. I don’t think the day of immersive internet communities is here yet. And I do think social networks that aren’t grounded in real world contact will pass like a hundred other web trends.
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