A qeustion on Boom or Bust on Social Networking

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12939175/site/newsweek/

How much is too much.  How fast can the growth be?  Where do we go from here?  Who is the next big one?  And can the Big Giants control things?

The relentless innovators at America Online have done it again. This month, the Internet giant began rolling out a new service called AIM Pages, a social network that allows users to design their own Web sites, publish blogs and forge online connections with friends and colleagues. Last week, the firm also launched AIM PhoneLine, an Internet calling service that allows every user of AOL's instant messenger to make cheap calls over the Internet to anywhere in the world. It's original, ground-breaking stuff.

I'm being facetious, of course. AOL, the 21-year-old senior citizen of the Internet, is trying to duplicate the extraordinary success of youngsters MySpace and Skype. It's only fair to note that AOL does add a few new twists, such as assigning AIM users a phone number and allowing them to receive free incoming calls from regular phone lines. But these two new services are meant to fit AOL's business goals, not satisfy user needs that are overlooked elsewhere on the Web. AOL is trying to get the 49 million users of its successful AIM instant messenger to spend more time on AOL's Web site, so the company can sell more online ads and perhaps reap additional revenues.. More . . .

Let me know where you think it will go?

Jack

technorati tags:AOL, social+networking, social, communication, networking, growth, boom+or+bust