Looking at the whole Web 2.0 phenomena, and how the different kinds of websites are adding features and integrating with other sites, it makes us wonder one thing. Are all the social networking sites leading to convergence?
Convergence is not in terms of only one website dominating the internet, but one kind of website dominating the internet. By convergence, I do not say that there will not be numerous sites having different contents - but if all of them would be technically doing the same thing in terms of features.
There are different kinds of websites - forums, blogs, directories, news sites, services, review sites. It is a list I dare not attempt to make it exhaustive. All these sites are evolving to be social networking sites.
For example, a forum that I frequent, that runs on IPB recently upgraded. Among the features that got added, one of the notable ones in this perspective was a set of inter-user interaction. All the members could connect to other members - tag them as friends, leave messages, rate them and more. Sending messages to each other had been a standard in all forum softwares.
One of the directories that I frequent, Pixel2Life, is basically a directory. It is a directory of tutorias on various subjects. But it has now grown to a point where the members interact with each other so much, that I dare call it a community. It has evolved to be a social site.
Blogs, seem to a bit behind on this front in spite of being a forerunner in the Web 2.0 phenomena. But as a blog grows and matures, more and more of them are having forums of their own, and it turns out to be a place for people to hang out.
All sites seem to include more and more features that has a basic theme to it - make visitors into members who hang out and spend more time at the site. The point that emerges now is, will this make it harder for the social networking sites to survive?
The question is hard to answer, because the social networking sites seem to approach this from the other end. They integrate several forum like features into their sites where a group or subset of the community can discuss. They are integrating blogging systems, that let their members to go on a ranting rampage. They are even opening up doors for other non-social networking sites to integrate with them.
The outcome of this developments, as seen now, is quite hazy. But it is going to be an interesting ride.
What are your thoughts?
