Lazycoder

The online generation

a child of the online generation
Cameron makes some very good points in his post. Especially regarding the ratings service. I think the recent problems with the Amazon anonymous rating system show the dangers of anonymous ratings, but I think that a combination of the Amazon “Friend” system combined with an iTunes like list sharing system (or the core idea behind Camerons music blog system) is the future of online commerce services. I think these social product ranking systems exist already, but not in any kind of a service format. Actually they’ve been around since electronic communication first started. I remeber posting messages on my old WWIV net and FIDOnet networked message boards asking about recommendations for computer parts or hard drives. Any message board you read today, at least general ones, usually has a thread asking for advice buying some type of product.

Right now, as I talked about in my other weblog, experiments in social computing usually fall short. They end up being email harvesting services or just combining several services that are already available on the web.

Creating a social network that combines the “friend of a friend” functionality with a product ratings type functionality I think will be the next big thing. In fact, I think it will be so big that I’m almost afraid to talk about it here lest I give the idea to some underserving slobs who will run it into the ground with VC money and a complete lack of UI experience.