GOINGON'S SPACE IS GETTING WARMER... FACEBOOK, WEB 2.0 MEETS ENTERPRISE, BLAH BLAH

Today there is news that Facebook is entering the corporate market. I'm not sure how an online directory for companies will work out, but it's interesting that these consumer plays are looking into the corporate sector after they've exhausted their primary market.

Our social interaction designer/consultant, Adrian, and I were talking about how we're both getting social networking spam (SNS) lately from MySpace. These are invites to be friends of a club, new TV character on an upcoming FOX show, or a company. The ones from companies don't really make sense in the context of MySpace because most of their users are not looking to be friends with companies. It's like trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole, or trying to strike a business deal in a dance club. For the most part, these efforts will lead to a dead end.

So I agree with Justin Smith's assessment on Facebook's recent move:

While the rollout will likely create buzz in some circles, I don’t think you’ll see the same phenomenal viral exponent or use patterns over time. Professionals just don’t talk to dozens of classmates a day or live in dorms with hundreds of peers, and they certainly don’t have 51 minutes a day to spend looking at cute members of the opposite sex and writing on each others’ walls… I’m lucky if I see my friends at Apple once a month. (full post)

It's interesting as we (GoingOn Networks) build out our platform how heated our space has become over the past month. There isn't that much direct competition, but definitely a lot of overlapping competitors that can make it difficult to position ourselves effectively and stand out above the noise.

Anyway, here's a related article from CNET:

Web 2.0 meets the enterprise
Long set up like a gated community, the enterprise software industry is quickly gaining a populist streak.

New ideas in consumer technology are rapidly creeping into the design and marketing of software aimed at corporations. For example, Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and AJAX are starting to show their potential behind corporate firewalls, analysts said. (full article)