Social tools from Facebook to Uber

One of the most common words to hear these days is social. Indeed, Facebook is today's biggest and most successful Web service.

But there is a problem behind the Giants: what you see is probably just the butt. and newer, cooler networks and mobile web apps are rethinking "social".

Facebook: Social is the purpose

For Facebook, socializing is the purpose of his design.

Two-way confirmation is natural, and personal status push is genius: not afraid to disturb, I'm afraid not to disturb. We speak Chinese, we should most clearly disturb the importance of social interaction: you go to other people's home, the first sentence can be: "Excuse me."

Twitter: Fade Social

Twitter has also been a good social tool. But a one-way focus on the relationship that builds up is relatively weak. Moreover, he has chosen to downplay social attributes and to strengthen the spread.

Today, Twitter is more like a news superhighway, but less suited to a one-night stand.

Quora and StackOverflow are also social networks, but they are further. Quora has introduced more Wiki attributes (everyone can edit the problem, etc.). StackOverflow has a better way of organizing content (Tags use the acme of Perfection).

They have succeeded in diluting social attributes: Users are more concerned with questions and answers than by answering people's marital status.

Path: Reverse Social

Facebook needs two-way confirmation to build relationships. Twitter only needs one-way confirmation. and the path against Twitter, he is a reverse social: people need to invite you, you can pay attention to him.

This highly controllable small-scale network is also very interesting and, like Twitter, he has fundamentally innovated the way in which relationships are established.

Color: Flexible Social

Continue from the perspective of how relationships are built, and you can understand why color, a completely without-feeling App, attracts so many eyeballs: color also creates a new way to build social networks.

With the GPS feature, Color can build a social network based on location and common interests at any time. Immediate, and the involvement of the relationship can be much less, full of flexibility.

Uber: Not Social

The newest and coolest mobile Internet solution today is Uber: an open taxi network.

The application uses mobile phone GPS to match passengers and to log on to the Uber network of private car drivers, providing taxi services and earning fees. It is also a short time to win tens of millions of dollars in the valuation of the company, but he is not so social.

Uber is not socially not. For example, the part that gives the driver a rating can bring a lot of imagination. Alternatively, you can Checkin when you get on the bus like 4SQ. But they are more focused on areas that can solve problems directly: efficient algorithms using GPS data. Mobile payments and so on.

Socializing is no longer an end, it's a tool.

From Facebook to Uber, the "social" attribute can change at will in the hands of the top entrepreneurs. Even, in some cases, abandoned.

In the post-Facebook era, "socializing" is no longer an end in itself. Like the vast amount of information on the network, GPS and other environmental data, your personal identity and social network, also become a resource or tool.

In any era, those who are good at integrating resources and tools, and creative problem-solving, will win.

by Linan (Newkhonsou@gmail)