AdAge reports that “the future of online social networking doesn’t live within a single entity’s walls but instead permeates the web.”

Wow. Imagine that: A Web-wide social network. Maybe there would be ways to express opinions … like blogs? Or maybe forums? Or some sort of universal way to contact each other … like, oh, I don’t know, email?

“I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air,” says a Forrester analyst.

I believe that in the present, the Internet will be like air.

Social networks are like virtual worlds are like blogs are like forums are like countless other things you see online: tools for expressing one’s self and connecting with others. Motes of dust in the Internet air.

Virtual worlds will rise and fall, social networks will spring out of nowhere and disappear, new tools will be invented and some may even last for a while — but the desire to express and connect remains constant.

Takeaway for marketers: To the extent that these tools fulfill those desires well (or at least better than the other tools out there) they will be successful.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 7:16 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Social Media.