There is a tipping point in technology where a company goes too far and signals the end of things as we know them. In TV terms this is called ‘jumping the shark‘, but it’s been appropriated into all avenues of life including technology. An example in the first dot-com bubble might be any of the now defunct web brands that spent millions on Superbowl ads without actual revenue or profit. This time around, Google may have jumped the shark with their new launch of Lively - a new social network built around avatars. Think, cheesy cartoon avatars that come with your Yahoo IM and World of Warcraft, only without the interesting levels, battles, and magic.

Maybe it isn’t Google - maybe social networking has jumped the shark. Or maybe the whole web is about to go virtual and wrap inside Google’s version of Second Life. I’m just surprised that with all that money and all those really smart people, that this project went live before Android (the upcoming phone OS that will compete with Apple and Blackberry for smartphone OS share.) To me this is like Meebo - an extremely niche idea with limited potential. Google could have developed a social media analytics solution, or pushed an OpenID concept into the forefront, or even extended Adwords into the social media realm for content creators - but didn’t.

So which is it - Google or social networking - that has jumped the shark?

Tags: Google, social-media, social-networking

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 6:01 am and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.