Thursday, October 18, 2007

Social Email Graph (SEG) bringing all real social interactions online for all ages - Part 1

I cannot get this thought out of my head from the OpenFace panel from Social Graphing Pattern) (Dave, why do you organize such conferences and make us think so we cannot sleep for days?)

I've blogged this live; Chamath Palihapitiya's vision of Facebook is Huge! Inspiring!"- There is one real social network of 6Bil people in the world, we want all social information to flow through Facebook and reach the whole world"

Email is still the killer app of the net with all its limitations. I remember Om Malik saying at Web2.0 Expo in April07, "wish someone would make an email client that will help organize my work flow based on what interaction I follow to get a job done”.

It’s the Social Email Graph (SEG) as I'd like to call it.


Is the solution of tapping your email social graph an evolution for email companies or is it a transition out of email clients as we know them, into an existing social network (like Facebook) or is it a new product that offers email functionality with facility to tap into the social graph?

Who can bag this business? I am torn between my belief in building an open connected web and the business sense that every company would want to get users from another network, but lock in into itself to creative competitive advantage.

The entrepreneur in me says it is possible for any of them and it is a question of execution will power for existing companies or a startup (in stealth) or yet to be born! So I present all scenarios on what I see each player can do to provide a solution to get us - the consumers the best Social Email Graph (SEG) asking for minimum change in behavior and providing maximum value.

A new startup as a SEG player?

A new startup can create a new product that provides email's social graph use cases and current email functionality in one or can add a layer on top of existing email client to add a layer of social networking capabilities. Tim O'Reilly mentioned xobni at the Social Graphing Pattern conference. There is buzz about them because of being techcrunch40, they seem to be working with Outlook API for corporate customers asking us to include our emails to their close invitation list.

Yahoo and Google as SEG players?

I am more of a Y! mail and gmail user and they cover 500Mil users on the web which personally interests me more than Outlook and LotusNotes as a consumer. Y! Mail and Gmail have open APIs, and for what is not open, it is easy to screen scrape for smart developers.

So whats possible with Y! mail or Gmail is possible by any startup or by the companies themselves.

Lets not forget, Facebook can extend into the Social Email Graph (SEG) with its messaging.

As I started writing this article, Kevin Delaney and Vauhini Vara of WSJ wrote about what Yahoo,Google and AOL are going to do to make a social App out of email. I am a Kevin Delaney fan and am thrilled that it validates my thinking.

I'd like to take it one step further.

The real winner to grab the Social Email Graph (SEG) world will have to go beyond finding friends in email networks to providing means to bring more of their real social graph interactions online.

Lets look at it indepth for each player to understand strategic opportunities tomorrow. Got to grab some sleep now!

5 comments:

Sudha (Su) Jamthe said...

Part 2 of this post on SEG=Facebook is here http://coolastory.blogspot.com/2007/10/social-email-graph-seg-facebook.html

Part 3 on how Yahoo can tap into SEG is here http://coolastory.blogspot.com/2007/10/social-email-graph-seg-yahoolow-hanging.html

Some friends have comments on my facebook notes of this post and some are emailing me.

Pl share your thoughts as a comment or trackback from your blog. I am sure there more cooking in SEG space and I am not alone here.

Adi said...

Oes Tsetnoc Seo Contest one of the ways in which we can learn seo besides Upaya Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa. By participating in the Oes Tsetnoc or Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa we can improve our seo skills. To find more information about Oest Tsetnoc please visit my Oes Tsetnoc pages. And to find more information about Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa please visit my Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa page and other update like as Beratnya Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa, Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa di perpanjang and Jangan Berhenti Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa. Thank you So much.

Oes Tsetnoc | Lanjutkan Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa

Unknown said...

However, they are still a little added big-ticket than the affected replica Panerai in the market. Second, do bethink alone buy from the reliable sellers, and accomplish abiding the transaction is absolutely safe and secure. Compared to the apery or affected ones that are affected from the original, they are almost better.

nhl jerseys said...

Similar to worthwhile mom, as soon as cheap nhl jerseys Karen discovered which another baby had been on how, the lady would just what she may to aid quebec nordiques jerseys her 3-year-old boy, Michael, put together to get a fresh sibling. They will uncover the fact that fresh toddler will likely be a woman, plus every single day, nighttime right after nights, Michael sings that will his / her troy polamalu jersey aunt within Mommy’s stomach.

dormitorio juvenil madrid said...

Thanks for the article, very helpful information.