Online dating or social networking?
By now, most of you have probably heard of the Web 2.0 evolution, the idea of the ‘second generation’ of the internet. Web 2.0 relies on a whole net set of applications and the Web 2.0 generation is privy to all kinds of new websites that allow online collaboration with other users like Flickr (www.flickr.com) or even Google Docs & Spreadsheets (www.docs.google.com).
However, it’s not just the applications that are changing, but the interests of the members of the Web 2.0 generation. According to Sarah Lacy (2007), the needs and interests of the users have changed. While users in the early 1990’s flocked to online dating sites like Match.com (www.match.com) or eHarmony (www.eharmony.com) (Lacy, 2007).
Since Web 2.0 has taken over as the way of the internet world, the online dating sites, vestiges of the Web 1.0 world, have been outdone (Lacy, 2007). Now, Web 2.0, or the social networking generation has taken over (Lacy, 2007). Instead of using the 1.0 websites such as Match and eHarmony, we’ve moved on to Social Networking sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com), Myspace (www.myspace.com) and other websites like Yelp (www.yelp.com) or Digg (www.digg.com). These sites provide the opportunity for users to meet other people and perhaps strike up a relationship, but it doesn’t provide a site just for the exclusive use of spouse hunting (Lacy, 2007).
All of this information isn’t just the opinion of one journalist, but is proven by the traffic patterns observed by comScore (Lacy, 2007). The number of people that visited the online dating sites dropped 6% in September 2007 from September 2006 (Lacy, 2007).
The implications of Web 2.0 are huge. For new applications and abilities to frame the direction the internet and users flow are virtually unheard of. Up until now, users and users needs controlled the development of the technologies and applications, but the new abilities of technologies and applications are sending the users in new directions. This change in influence is something to watched and not something to be scoffed at.
References
Lacy, S. (2007). A kiss off to online dating sites. Business Week. Retrieved on November 23, 2007 from
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071120_688300.htm?chan=top+ne
ws_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives.