Making Friends

More social networking madness this week with the news that AOL is going to launch a MySpace-style social community Web site later this year.

The move is being taken as it looks to become an open content business and better compete against rivals MSN and Yahoo! and has been announced amidst a backdrop of speculation about who will buy AOL UK’s access business after it was put up for auction by its US owner earlier this month.

There is a rule in social networking called the rule of 150. It says that a genuine social network will not go above that level as it is the optimum level of contacts that people can deal with and also if you go above that number you start to deal with people who are not genuine and so the trust in the network breaks down.

Maybe there is a similar rule for the number of online social networks that can be launched in one territory. AOL UK’s late entry into the market leaves it with a lot to do to catch up with MySpace, Bebo, Faceparty and even Lunarstorm. How many social networks do we really need and how many can people really belong to and still use them in a meaningful way?

It may seem like a frivolous question, but these networks rely on advertising and advertisers will only want to pay for quality eyeballs, not just members who have signed in and never come back.

As for AOL, it needs to garner eyeballs quickly if it is going to remain as a content business in the UK once it sells of its connectivity division.