Over the past few days I have been receiving more and more of these, maybe you have as well (fill in the blank for some random contact you have in some address book):
___________ would like to be your friend on hi5!
I set up a hi5 profile and I want
to add you as a friend so we can share pictures and start building our network.
First you need to join hi5! Once you join, you will have a chance to create a
profile, share pictures, and find friends.
Thanks,
_____________
Now, I do believe in social networks, so don't get me wrong. But I also believe in fairies and peanut butter, but don't want any of the above to be shoved in my face or sent to be under false pretenses.
After receiving quite a few hi5 "friend requests" I then received this message (from an actual real world friend):
Hi All,
I appologize if you got in the last few
days an invitation from me to join hi5. It seems this website acts as
a worm - taking my address book from gmail and sending invitation to
all.
Now, I am giving the folks at hi5 the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they utilize one of those "next-next-next" approaches that ask for user data and in fine print say they will suck all the contacts out of Google, etc to build your network. i.e. not really a bona fide worm, as my friend above suggests.
But it is a good indication that venture backed social networks have lost all sense of differentiation (TODAY ONLY...FIND FRIENDS....SHARE PICTURES....), and are taking measures coming very close to spam, so that even a relatively sophisticated user like my friend above (a super-smart programmer, just so you know) slanders them with the "worm" label.
One social network that is impressive as a business is LinkedIn, not only because they were one of the first but because they have focused on a few key areas of nice revenue generation that simply work. LinkedIn is quickly turning into a real business. hi5, doubtful.
For sharing pictures I have many good solutions out there by teams who are focused on just that, ranging from Picassa to Flickr (and obviously Facebook has that functionality built in on a basic level). And for finding friends, well, I have my real lfe, and the untold hordes of virtual friends as well who keep sending me hi5 invitations...
Its time for all the social network companies to turn themselves into businesses, and lay off the spam. Forget "user growth," focus on monetization. Unless one of your board members is on the board of a cash rich company that could buy you, then do whatever they say...hey, if you have it use it. End of the day this game is about making money for investors and creating wealth for founders and management.