It used to be that MySpace was for personal networking, LinkedIn is for business networking, Flickr is for photos, Twitter is for short networked messages, and blogs are for long messages. But the rise in popularity of Facebook has changed all of that,…

seen it already, it’s called profilactic.com

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Drew, it is slightly similar to Profilactic; however, after signing up for the beta of ProfileLinker, I can tell you that they are really not much alike.

ProfileLinker is simply grouping profiles. Not that interesting IMNSHO. There needs to be a content angle as well if you want other people to care about viewing these pages. Also, they seem to limit you to a set of social networkings, rather than letting you create your own links.

Profilactic, on the other hand, allows you to group all of your profiles. But it also mashes up all of the content you create on all of those sites. It allows you to bookmark things about you from around the web. And it allows you to connect with friends and pull together all of their content, too.

We’re rolling out tweaks to the beta this weekend that will update the UI, an advantage I think we have over ProfileLinker, FindMeOn and Spokeo (no offense, guys), and add a couple of new features.

http://www.profilactic.com/mashup/smorty71

Thanks,
sm

MySpace has huge traffic, yet I truly dislike the poorly constructed interface. The lack of logic in the queries and sub queries of navigating means that you have to remember the MySpace way of doing anything. Did I say I wasn’t a fan?! I have spent a fair amount of time recently trying to get comfortable with the site…and it just hasn’t happened.

I tried profilelinker and in terms of usability…I really like it. I also like the depth it could allow you to go to in terms of what information you can willingly provide…although I intentionally left many fields blank. I think this element can appeal to a younger demographic that wants to stand naked on a roof top and expose their lives to the world.

Logic-wise…easier to use…less frustration…although in just an hour or so of using it, I found this strange:
1) Inability to delete photos made me laugh, as how can anyone allow ‘adds’ but not ‘deletes.’
2) Mobile profiles are a pretty good idea for cross pollination of their product, however as you are choosing colors etc, you can’t see what it will look like till you save it. If you don’t like it…you have to start from scratch…hmmm.

All the best

I suppose if you could create a social networking/dating site that generated good traffic and readership, you might end up getting bought by a larger company that just wants your membership to drive internet advertising revenue. Could be a pretty good pay-day as we have already seen with ohter companies in the same space.

https://davidchao.typepad.com

What we need is a service that allows you to connect to your friends, family, coworkers and such but NOT centrally stored. Plaxo and similar sites like Linked In have it somewhat right. Better though, is to store my data locally, as I know my data (who I am, address, phones, etc). If my computer blows up, I can reenter my own data very easily. The gold mine is not your profile data, as you can enter that anytime easily..you know it. The goldmine is the relationship management.. the ability to connect to users and have that managed for you. With something like this you may have to install a simple desktop piece and not be able to access it anywhere, anytime, but frankly, to me, thats security at its best. If I log in to yahoo at my brothers computer, with browsers remembering passwords and such, he can relog in as me quite easily and get my info. That’s no good.

Nope.. the best of the best is your data, controlled by you stored locally on your machines. You control who gets your data, and how much of your data they can have, be it your phone numbers, email, addresses, maybe more.

Just my .02 worth.

Post 17) Michael, We want all users to feel safe while using our site, so it is expected that potential users would have questions about safety. We do not take your comments / feedback as a negative but as doing the due diligence in managing your social identity. I agree with your comments that we have an uphill battle, but then again what company doesn’t face an uphill battle?

Thankfully for us, we’ve had a chance to get advice and speak to owners of tier-1 social networks to help pinpoint what is beneficial to them. Regarding the topic authentication, currently there’s no safeguard on major social networks to protect against this. For example, someone can copy your Myspace profile and be you within 5 minutes. This is not a limitation of ProfileLinker but more so of the network in which the fake profile is built. We are heavy users of social networks and have authentication methods on our product roadmap. It’s widget based and useful, all more reason to call 2007 year of the widgets.

On the topic of site differentiation – how are we different from Spokeo, FindMeOn, Profilactic, etc.? We have just got a different approach that focuses on the USERS. Why would I use this and how will this help me? In short, it goes along with Joshua Porter’s del.icio.us lesson of personal value. Our community will aid members manage their profiles, find friends on any network, and eventually will serve as a hub to aid members and their communities. We will do this while increasing traffic to all the networks.