Time to grow up, bloggers

Microsoft’s quarter-billion dollar investment in Facebook is a litmus test for the maturity of the social media and social networking world called Web 2.0.

While it was fun for some (like Thought Leader colleague Ivo Vegter) to join a group of Facebook users who promised to quit the social network if Microsoft bought a share (he was one of the few who followed through on the promise), for others it really did spell doom and despair. In the blogging world, the deal was one of the major talking points for days after the 24 October announcement.

And then, as it was due to fade into the background of blogging noise, along came Google’s announcement just a week later, on October 30, that it would back a new social networking platform based on open standards, to be called OpenSocial.

While Facebook allows developers to build applications that will run only in Facebook (anything from a personal aquarium to the Mail& Guardian Online’s news feed), OpenSocial allows for applications that can run across all social networks that join the alliance. So far, these include browser pioneer Marc Andreessen’s Ning (see his blog on the topic), Orkut, LinkedIn, Friendster, Salesforce.com, iLike, Flixster and Slide.

Early on the morning of November 1, OpenSocial and Facebook were two of the ten most searched terms in all of blogdom, according to the international social media tracker, Technorati.
And when you do click through, the theme tune played by most bloggers is amazingly similar: Google is going to kick Microsoft’s butt. Some of the more seasoned bloggers, like Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch, see OpenSocial for what it is, a quick and nimble but business-driven decision by Google. And he highlights a sneaky strategy Google may have to sneak in Facebook’s back door.

Already, there are allegations that OpenSocial could herald a new era in data collection misuse — read “privacy threats” — like this quick-off-the-mark report from San Jose Mercury.

Here’s the irony in all of this. Until October 24, as far as blogdom in general was concerned, there was nothing evil about Facebook. There were always the contrarians, but they did not dominate the discussion. Overnight however, thanks to a 1,6% share sale, Facebook became evil.

Google’s announcement played neatly into the propaganda, since it immediately positioned the search giant as the white knight come to rescue the social networking damsel in distress.

But here’s a newsflash: Facebook was already becoming a near monopoly player in social networking. Yes, there are rivals. Just as Microsoft also has rivals in operating systems and office software. That does not diminish the extent to which they are coming to dominate their arena.

In search, Google is by far the dominant player, although it too has rivals. In music players, Apple has rivals, but the iPod dominates. And so on.

Every one of these is running a business on hard business principles. Apple and Google have won the hearts of their followers, and much of blogdom functions as their unofficial cheerleaders. For example, criticise the iPhone, and blogdom acts like a teenager whose favourite band has been dissed by his parents.

In this respect, it’s time for bloggers to grow up. Stop imagining businesses are your buddies. They are in it for the bottom line. And regardless of how cool they may seem, their bottom line is profit.

* The selection of the blogging player of the week will resume next week. Nominations welcome.