Convergence

Web 2.0 and the Future of Pervasive Computing

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Stalkerati - Formalizing a Phenomenon

Somebody is finally admitting what everyone else is doing on social networks - STALKING! Stalking is by far one of the single most popular activities on social network systems today. MySpace, for instance, has managed to achieve a massive network effect not only because their platform enables actionable communication via social networks, but also because the very same tools that enable communication with friends also enable "MySpace Stalking." In other words, since there are a ton of folks on MySpace, there is a much richer base of people to stalk. And because there is such a rich population of potential targets to stalk on MySpace, folks stick around - classic Network Effect, right?

You all know what I am talking about. Chances are that you have searched for someone (friend, foe, goat...) on MySpace, or some other social network like LinkedIn. And, chances are that you have kept up with the multitude of changes in their profile over time. Now you may try to tell yourself that you are simply keeping up with the crowd. And, if that let's you sleep at night, so be it. But let's be serious, you are stalking people.

Anyway, the folks at Stalkerati are apparently more than willing to admit that folks actively stalk one another on social networks. Accordingly, they have made a search engine that enables you to search for your potential "targets" across multiple sites. For example, imagine that for some insane reason you want to stalk me. Wouldn't it be nice to go to one site to find all my information, instead of visiting multiple several social networks?

This is a neat little idea. The bad news is that the folks at many social networks have closed the gates. You need a login to see others. As such, Stalkerati requires you to login to multiple sites in order to really get down and dirty.

Stalkerati has some fantastic and scary implications for where the world is heading. Apprently, it even made the front page of Digg. In short fan-boys, watch yourself - because someone else is most definitely already watching you.

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posted by Hooman @ 11:09 AM  

7 Comments:

  • At 5:07 PM, Blogger Gary Rosensteel said…

    Come out, come out were ever you are! I'm stalking you!

     

  • At 7:37 AM, Blogger Hooman said…

    Thank you, kind reader.

     

  • At 4:05 PM, Blogger Kim Greenlee said…

    Actually Stalkerati was put together by one guy, Jared Kim. What’s even more interesting is that he’s not even old enough to drink yet. When I was in high school I worked on the state-of-the-art TSR-80. Now, young people, like Jared, have grown up with the Internet. Look at what he’s done at 19, imagine what he’ll do by the time he’s 30. While Stalkerati is neat, and for all the reasons you stated, I think its creator and what he represents is even more interesting.

    Disclaimer: I have met Jared several times at technology events and my relationship to him is as a very, very distant acquaintance.

     

  • At 7:42 AM, Blogger Hooman said…

    Interesting points, Kim. I definitely agree that you can do a lot more with a lot less these days.

    I am hopeful that as the relative barrier to entry for technology goes down more folks will be empowered with the ability to contribute creatively to the growing web ecosystem.

    By the way, checked out Digipede - interesting concept. Will have to dig in more soon.

     

  • At 10:30 AM, Blogger Kim Greenlee said…

    Thanks Hooman. If you have any questions about Digipede let me know.

     

  • At 11:36 AM, Blogger Hooman said…

    Will do, Kim. Thx!

     

  • At 5:04 PM, Anonymous south beach condos said…

    Interesting article. Some people may call it stalking, some may call it research, either way it's fun for them. It's one of the advantages and disadvantages of being in a social network. People get to look you up.

    Thanks for the article.

     

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