Are special-interest social-networking sites the next big thing?
It should be obvious by now that we hope the answer to that question is “Yes,” but until we find out, we’re happy to see other people, like PC Magazine’s Tim Bajarin, asking it as well. In his column, “The Future of Social Networking,” Bajarin points out that the concept of getting specialized information from interest groups is nothing new–it’s been happening as long as the internet has been around–but it hasn’t been brought up to the technology standard set by the “social networking sites” of the past few years.
Bajarin uses Scuba Diving magazine–colleagues of mine when Scuba Diving was owned by Rodale–as an example of a “vertical” site which would benefit from social networking technology, but it’s also an example of how “old media” companies struggle to keep up with the pace of change on the internet. When I was at Rodale, working on runnersworld.com and its associated sites, the Scuba crew were always the ones pushing the envelope, doing new and exciting stuff in their Savannah office while those of us back at the mothership in Emmaus struggled with the IT department to implement message boards that weren’t painful to use.
Explaining why you’d prefer a “vertical” site to a general one is pretty easy. If I want information on how to bake good brownies, I don’t want to have to weed out all the hits from vintage photography sites. If I want to read about marathons, I don’t want to hear about Marathon Oil, or the other places where the long footrace is (ab)used as a metaphor. Sticking to a single interest makes your searches and discussions more powerful because they are automatically more specific.