

Fred Wilson on Social Networking vs Email - taykh
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/04/social-networking-vs-email.html

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eplanit
So, let me get this straight: People _prefer_ non-private communications, with
advertisers, site operators, and a vaugue sense of "friends and followers"
listening in?

I don't buy it. Either he's focused on only one segment of the internet
population (individuals, not businesses), or it's more wishful thinking
regarding social networking.

Just what, exactly, is deemed so terrible about email? Shouldn't this be
analyzed via mass correspondence vs. individual-to-individual? I think the
author is greatly overgeneralizing, and thus drawing misleading conclusions.

~~~
hexis
This seems like a good place to mention that the author of the OP is an
investor in twitter.

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ohashi
This post doesn't make sense. It's comparing email to social networking all as
time spent communicating. It doesn't classify that time though, is time spent
reading emails really the same as any time I spend on social networking sites?
How many hours of farmville equals one hour of emailing?

~~~
hussong
It all comes out of the same time budget for computer-mediated communication.

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sh1mmer
If you have to have an email address to sign up to most if not all social
networks, how is the sign-up figure correct?

~~~
jfornear
You can use the same email address to sign up for multiple social networks?

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_pius
Key point IMO:

 _The Gotham Gal looked at me and said "why are you checking twitter and not
email?" ... I told her that email required a reply and twitter did not._

~~~
davidedicillo
The major success factor is that social networks are by default one to many,
while email is one to one. Think if you had to email all your friends to tell
them you are in town...

~~~
FluidDjango
If only email _were_ one-to-one. Unfortunately I have to keep on lots of
blast-email lists... where I'm expected to filter through what impacts my
responsibilities.

And sometimes I dare not ask to be removed from some senders' lists for
political reasons.

Time-sucking. Soul-sucking. grrrr...

EDIT: forgot to mention that sorting through the krap via Twit, FB, etc, would
_not_ be much more fun.

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plesn
So in 2007 we switched from the Republic of Email to the Kingdom of Social
Networking. Where is the Rebel Alliance of open distributed social networking
protocols?

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rokhayakebe
Facebook surpasses Google in US traffic. Does that mean Facebook is/will be
more important than Google? I think not.

SMS traffic grew rapidly as well, but it did not take away the voice business.

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ableal
In this case, the value vs. volume may be debatable.

Lately, I've been taking notes on this. These are not bad observations:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1223346> \- Networking advices from
legendary Silicon Valley networker, Heidi Roizen - 90% of my interactions are
on email (and I will say that is the same for almost all highly efficient
people I know)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1248503> \- Ron Conway Explained -
(quoted email) “AM ON IT.”

[http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/03/28/Compartmen...](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/03/28/Compartmentalization)
\- Communication Silos - They differ in their latency, reach, and persistence
and, on another axis, in length of form.

