Sortroom.net

hi5, the ‘new’ social networking software for the teen market who’ve been picking up the slack of bad marketing and a lackluster presence by companies like Friendster, is bounding onto the web scene with a speed that’s alarming. One of the interesting points about the program is how it interfaces with the MSN Hotmail service, grabbing all the names and email addresses of people who’ve offered their ‘Passport’ information and using that to invite your ‘friends’ to take part’. This ingenious touch makes it incredibly easy to get others to join the network, and allows them to invite others and those others to invite yet more. One can easily see how a network such as this can literally expand exponentially without some of the tedium-induced slog brought by Friendster and Co where one has to input and every contact in order to invite them.
What’s interesting is that the company makes no claims about what they are or are not going to do with your information, since they potentially now know your email and MSN Messenger passwords and all of the email addresses and names of your contacts. This is a database crying out to be hacked; because this network isn’t popular with the older market, being too clunky, funky coloured and crudely fashioned. There’s not flickr-like slickness, no genius of being the first from friendster, or the near competitor like orkut, Myspace and FriendsReunited. In this world of rapidly evolving social groups, not only do we not have time to capitalize names, but can’t even stick with one service.
They are however, learning from one another: hi5 feels like a vector for selling advertising in a way that friendster hasn’t until very recently. The splash homepages used to be a place to start the session, now the most prominent thing about them is the horoscopes and “sponsored links” boxes. Friendster has never taken off in the UK to the extent that it’s worked in the US; people just don’t know about it, but the new networks are booming. Out of my hotmail contacts, four people had invited me before I decided to reluctantly look at hi5 and another eight or nine had previously registered with hi5 without carrying out the membership blitz.
Why did I hesitate to join? Perhaps it was/is because of the desire to remain aloof, and look on observing this additional trend grow, perhaps it was because of the idiotic “Who’s in?” tagline, or perhaps just because I don’t want to be associated with yet another proprietary operation. One I can understand, but there’s a reason people lose touch. If someone’s really a great friend, really cares, I believe they’ll make the effort. Otherwise, why bother?