Let's Facebook it, we all have to social network

In the past couple of months, several professionals I regard quite highly told me I need to Facebook (it's now a verb, and a noun).  I've been very skeptical.  First, I assumed site is dominated by the college and just beyond crowd.  Second, I have been there and done social networking before.  Mostly, in memory:

Orkut.  In 2004, this was the in crowd's (had to have a Google contact to get in) uber happening site.  Basically, all it ever provided was the ability to form and join groups among any interest imaginable, and have a friend list where people would admire you and lavish you with "cool," "sexy," and other labels.  I am willing to admit I founded several groups, including the still active Orange Cat Lovers group (RIP dear Emma).  But the place became loaded with spam in 100 languages and had no long term utility.

Friendster.  Sure, we all did it.  I don't recall anything about it.  Same with Tribe.  And Ryze.

SecondLife.  This poor web app is down to 600k regular users.  Last time I logged on, there were only 3000 people on, of the 12M+ registered users.  It's been lonely as heck over there, with virtually nobody in any of the places I go.  Many companies, like Starwood, have pulled out, threatening the long term business model to make money from product placement.  Users find the application limited and primitive.  One of the only successful application is virtual churches, but gatherings are limited to 60 people (by SL software limitations) preventing any big community building.

Dogster.  Part of the micro-social networking phase, where you network with people with specific, common interests, such as dogs, cats and shoes.  I joined Dogster thinking I could meet people who would want to walk our dogs together.  As soon as we joined, Diego, the dog, not me, received dozens of emails asking him to be his friend on the site.  Most were like this one "You're cute, wanna be pals?" from Callie in Hermosa Beach, Florida.  First, my dog, as smart as he is, cannot read.  Second, he's not on the site to get hit on by a doberman/border collie cross from the other side of the US.

Bookcrossing.com.  I think this site meant to turn into a micro social networking site, a distributed bookclub of sorts.  Well, I released many dozens of books, and very few ever got logged (similar, if you recall it, to WheresGeorge.com), and interest in this community is so 2004. 

We just don't stick with most of these things.  Like flash mobs, most social networking is brief  phenomena with little barrier to entry and minimal stick.  There is one exception for me so far:

LinkedIn.  The only site on which I find long term interest and utility.  It's great for organizing my Rolodex and keeping up to date with people.  It seems to have reasonable utility in social networking in the sense you can really find people out there to network with for careers, and to find Kevin Bacon.  Of course, being a virtual Rolodex likely offers little long term value to LinkedIn as a company, so I am sure they are exploring how to monitize the concept.

Back to Facebook.  It's been said Facebook is for the geeks and straight A crowd (and the adult equivalent thereof) and MySpace has evolved to be the place for the bad kids who smoke in the bathroom (and the adult equivalent thereof).  I've also heard it termed that Facebook is for Lisa Simpson and MySpace is for Bart Simpson.  For the Lisas of the world (me), though, what does Facebook offer?  While I've built a profile, made friends, added a few widgets, I am really not sure what is stickier than the next network.

But I've been told, in theory, that Facebook will be the next portal, everyone's landing page, where anything you do in the digital connected world will go through Facebook.  I've heard email is now something only people over 35 use--everyone else talks through their Facebook.  In fact, blogging pundit Jeff Pulver talks pretty eloquently about Facebook (http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/007250.html, for example) and its utility.  In theory, FB could be where you talk, blog, share videos, share photos (the site has something like 5x the number of photos as Flickr), network for jobs, manage your entire social life...one can imagine the company developing more of a desktop application (a la eBay's San Dimas) that has more muscle.  And the greatest coup--FB asked the community to develop applications for it and people are racing to do so.  Could Facebook control all digital communications someday?  Honestly, I don't believe so, but I am hedging my bets and believe they'll at least be a reasonably powerful force, outlasting other sites.