Information Technology Reference
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system allowed users to create profiles, join special interest groups, share photos, and so
forth. The product proved quite popular with users, but Google did nothing to advance it.
"The basic premise of social networking - that a personal recommendation from a friend
was more valuable than all of human wisdom, as represented by Google Search - was
viewed with horror by Google," Levy comments. "Page and Brin had started Google on
the premise that the algorithm would provide the only answer." Orkut was therefore nev-
er a priority at Google, and was never improved - specifically by moving the processing
to faster machines which would maintain performance as the user-base grew. "By the time
Google switched Orkut's code base to a speedier infrastructure," writes Levy, "Facebook
was beginning its rise." (Note: The remains or Orkut are included in Google's new social
computing initiative, Google+, launched in July of 2011.)
"As Facebook and Twitter have shown," comments journalist Michael Rosenwald,
"creating environments where humans control the information flow is a differentiating
factor. Google has been forced to play catch-up with Facebook, whose audacious idea may
be the most Googley of all. Google is responding by trying to socialize parts of the Web
it already dominates, though
Buzz
, a status updater and photo sharer, hasn't caught on.
Google's most recent response to Facebook's 'like' option allows user to assign '+1' symbols
to search results they like - which also sounds gratuitously algorithmic."
The social aspect of online experience is generally referred to as Web 2.0. Here's a more
formal definition: "The term 'Web 2.0' is associated with web applications that facilitate
participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration
on the World Wide Web."
One of the first major enterprises in this area - after the start-up Friendster, which rose
and fell with astonishing speed - was MySpace. This became the most popular social net-
working site in the United States in June 2006, a position that it held throughout 2007. But
by April of 2008, MySpace found itself surpassed by Facebook when it came to unique
monthly visitors. (As of May 2011, Quantcast estimated MySpace's monthly U.S. unique
visitors at a mere 19.7 million.)
What went wrong?
Launched by Intermix in 2003, and enjoying nearly instant success, MySpace and its
parent company were acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in 2005 for $580 milli-
on. "Mismanagement, a flawed merger, and countless strategic blunders have accelerated
MySpace's fall from being one of the most popular websites on earth-one that promised
to redefine music, politics, dating, and pop culture - to an afterthought," notes journalist
Felix Gillette. "But MySpace's fate may not be an anomaly. It turns out that fast-moving
technology, fickle user behavior, and swirling public perception are an extremely volatile
mix. Add in the sense of arrogance that comes when hundreds of millions of people around
the world are living on your platform, and social networks appear to be a very peculiar
business - one in which companies might serially rise, fall, and disappear. ... In February
