1. Golly, I'm pretty darn confused.

Craig (getting too old for this.)

Craig

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Craig Newmark

2. Include FunChain in the list... it introduces the concept of FriendBlogs... a socially-networked collaborative blog system.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Jason Banico

3. Our wiw.hu was already featured here:

http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/7717250836182348/
http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/9254838848437927/

We currently have 46,000 (Hungarian-speaking) members, About 19,000 of those is a regular visitor of the site.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Daniel Varga

4. ... many business and communications applications will just have social software built in. In another year it will be a like a WYSIWYG editor or email support.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Jason McCabe Calacanis

5. It is interesting (to me atleast) that the comments are mostly people that didn't want their companies to be left off of the list. I had the same intention when I started to post as I am the president of WhizSpark.

I had the same reaction when kottke posted his job opening for a social network coordinator at craigslist. I was elated to be included on that list, though. (and it was even shorter). http://www.kottke.org/04/01/metaster

There are certainly your copycats out there that are riding the ryze/friendster wave. However, to group all of these together into one big lump is kind of silly.

Like Jason said in his comment above, social software (or tools that enable social discourse) is a feature. And should and probably will be included in most software.

Also, I think this list is a great indication of how many people are innovating in order to better serve people in communicating and leveraging their social networks for their benefit and the benefit of their network. Each of these sites represents a team with a purpose of trying to develop software and a business to address latent needs and/or market opportunities. Not all of them will be successful and people will only support and use the ones that are useful.

All that said, I believe that interoperability is key. The use of FOAF and web services I think can deliver this. Hopefully, the established leaders will enable this interoperability like google has done for search and amazon for product information and commerce. I also anticipate that blogs and associated plug-ins will be the biggest innovators for social software.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Pete Caputa

6. Over time I intend to create a classification system and describe each service -- as it appears 'in the news' -- in a more granular fashion. I agree that in a 'lump' this list appear daunting, but certainly points to a desire among 'Netizens' to gather, self-define, form 'tribes', announce 'communities', share experiences, etc.

As Jason commented above, social networking software will become integral to any and all services that require 'interactive' components. Many organizations that value their knowledge and networking assets are currently integrating 'industrial strength' social software components into their enterprise systems.

No intention to trivialize or make 'silly'... Simply wanted to start a conversation about these 100 + services, and it seems we are doing that... [-:

Best regards... Judith

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by judith

7. add www.econozco.com , it's a new business oriented spanish site

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Josu

8. First, the question should be: How many social network *services* are too many? The number of social networks themselves is infinite, and it's been that way for thousands of years. Social Networks are not web sites - they are relationships between interconnected people. Two social network services is too many because web sites should not define or limit (or duplicate) your social relationships. Social networks need to exist as separate entities from the services or web sites that facilitate them.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Mark Carey

9. Would be interested in a slice /dice of these players by architecture. How many are ASP's, how many are enterprise apps, how many are P2P?

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Bill Geiser

10. It is an excellent compendium of links. I am sure it took quite a bit of effort. It is appreciated (obviously). My point was that these are (mostly) very different sites: different purposes, functionality, revenue models(if one), layout/design, etc.

As a social software developer/designer, I certainly can't actively investigate all of these. Therefore, I am definitely looking forward to your categorization and descriptions.

I'd also be very interested in what you think of the pluses and minuses of FOAF and how these sites could integrate with it, in order to make the deluge (of services) less daunting. It isn't included in your list, but it is definitely an online way of sharing networks.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Peter Caputa

11. It's like the datings sites now, you need a search engine just to find them.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Raul

12. A couple of comments...

Social software is great stuff. GrowingCo isn't social software. The software we use to power http://www.GrowingCo.com is a readily available open source portal application.

I'm flattered that we were included in this article but the reality is that the real benefits of growingco are the in-person meetings, speakers and other off-line activity. The portal is simply a chaotic repository for some of the stuff that happens.

Also, since we have no revenue model for the meetings and community interaction, I don't know if we should really be included in this study. For kicks, keep us on the list because it does improve our search engine placement.

In my opinion, GrowingCo is simply a group of early stage business owners that have banded together to help each other grow. Technology is secondary to our mission.

Ben Bradley
http://www.growingco.com

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Ben Bradley

13. i am going to close comments on this post and continue to accept comments on the post in which i begin to categorize these 100+ services... thanks!

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by judith