Steve Kaplan

I keep stumbling on way too many of these social networking plays. They're all getting x-million dollars in VC but they're all me-toos.

Valleywag ran an interview today with Trent Bigelow, Founder & CEO of Palopia. What is interesting about Palopia is that they really see the "so-what" of social networking. As best described in the Valleywag piece:

""Social software sucks," a developer told me this weekend, "because it makes people autistic." Society arises naturally from interaction, not a friends list -- and forcing it into the latter makes users act autistic."

This really hits the nail on the head. What do we really get out of Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn etc? Sure, they're a good tool for keeping track of your rolodex. Sharing pictures is nice too. How many times do you find yourself just aimlessly on these sites surfing around profiles? What do you actually get done?

Palopia, still in private beta, recognizes this problem and has some great ideas to help solve it. They want to integrate blogs/e-mail/calendar/general PIM functionality into the social networking application as well as help to create easy online communities within the network. More details about their ideas here.

These are great ideas because they allow users to really leverage upon their networks/contacts. Instead of just telling you who your friends are, Palopia wants to help you organize and collaborate with your friends - the "so what" of networking.

Oh, and it's run by a bunch of USC undergrads!

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