

Social Networks What's missing? - piyushyadav

Facebook is the largest social network till date with the user count about to reach 600 million registered users. It has changed our lives entirely. This social network has taken a better place in our social lives and has proved itself well.
Facebook is no doubt better than the rest present in the market. But still it is not perfect and moreover, it should never be perfect because being perfect wipes out the chances of improving. 
And, social networks made for empowering the social circles of people are now actually damaging the real world social relationships because they are addicted to them. People have time for playing social games but not for meeting friends in person. They prefer online chatting than sitting in some cafe and talking. Though it's internet age now but still real world relationships matter a lot.<p>So there is our question. What do you think should be there in a social network which will actually enhance the real world social relationships and what things are missing in popular social networks like facebook, myspace, orkut, etc.?
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qntm
Privacy. Friend of mine travels all over the world. He wants to keep track of
where he's been, which photographs he took in which locations, what he did
there. He _doesn't_ want to have to share all of that with everybody. It's
just for him, so that he can remember and reminisce.

There are wonderful, powerful web apps for this purpose, and many others. But
they make him share it all. Social functions are primary. Private apps where
you can do what you want are becoming niche.

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stevenj
Honestly, I don't think there's much to improve with online social networks.
If there is, then Facebook will build it.

Instead, I think people should think about how to improve people's offline
social lives, perhaps via online means.

You could say online social networks are doing that by enabling people to
communicate more, but I think online social networks would love it if you
spent more time on them, not less.

Which is interesting, because I think most would agree that your offline
social interactions, however frequent, are much more fulfilling.

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Killah911
Totally Agree! Matter of fact building something right now to do just that...
Hopefully will have something to show by end of this month!

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stevenj
Cool, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Perhaps you'll show it on HN?

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Killah911
Definitely! Probably be one of the first places I debut it :)

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mgh2
The trend is moving towards mobile networks. In the future, mobile interfaces
are going to be a bridge to meet real people and serve as an 'ice breaker' in
the real world. The world needs relationships, and the right ones. Social
networking is just beginning to meet that need.

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triviatise
these are not revolutionary: would like a much better way to give fine grained
access to my network based on who I want to see what. Today it is clumsy and
very error prone it might as well not be there. From management of my friends
(terrible) to publishing and the types of things I publish

would like the ability to create a family tree with special propagation of
family members and include dead people. Would like one person to be able to
manage the accounts for their family since not all family members will
participate, but they are still in the tree. Would like a visual interface to
manage family connections that way. As people marry into the family I would
like to see the extended tree

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smpappas
Geni does the family tree thing pretty well, including dead relatives, in
laws, and links to family trees related through marriage and such. Family
members can add other family members, which is how we do it in my family due
to the non technical nature of the older members. If you're talking full
integration with facebook, that's another story.

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ethank
For me the "socializing" is loosing relevancy as the number of types of media
I can create increases.

I'd love to see social networks function as pathways for my media in a better
way than Facebook currently does it.

