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This post has been sitting in my draft folder for a while. To be honest it really feels like an out there mish-mash of thoughts that have surrounding Google Reader (RSS reader by Google) and social networks.

I am really becoming tired of the buzz around social networking. Don’t get me wrong there is value in it and I am not saying it is dead or dying, I am just tired of reading TechCrunch daily and feeling like I’m reading the same post with a different startups name plugged in.

Anyways back to my point. Google Reader (GR) is great, I love it and swear by it. It allows me to follow and read some of my favourite topics, streams, memes, bloggers, blogs and insights. I think that I make fairly good use of most of the services on offer at GR.

Why do I think that Google Reader takes the form of a social network?

Basically for me, in my little world social networking means networking with others. Whether it is friendly-friend sort of stuff or basic “this is what I am reading”, I would consider it a social network.

Thus, therefore and hence, I believe that for me Google reader can be and is a social network.

There are two distinct features that I use in the process of connecting with others:

1. The “Discover” feature that was recently added to the service.
This feature allows you to discover feeds that GR thinks you might like. You can peruse them at your own pace and delete ones you aren’t interested in. This allows me to discover things that I might like and really get rid of things that I don’t. Therefore allowing me to spread my network of subscriptions and giving me more to share with my friends. Which brings me to point 2.

2. Shared items

This is my favourite and most sociable feature. I have a wide network of Gmail chat friends that I interact with daily. I can never find enough tim to talk to them all about valuable things relating to the web. Instead I simply view their shared items. How is that possible? Easy, GR places their shared items in my GR homepage under the heading of “Friends’ shared items”. I can then see who shared what, when and why. I can then interact with them on an effective level targeting a specific topic with them that I know they are interested in.

I can also share items. These items will also be sent to my friends GR pages as well as a specific url that the whole world can see if they want to.

All you need to do to share an item in GR is click the little “Share” button at the bottom of any post in your reader. Simple, effective, networking on a targeted content basis. Too easy.

Could Mixx be the Digg Killer that many have been waiting for? Maybe.

I think that Mixx has gotten something right because I immediately liked what I saw. The user interface is great, well laid out, clear and easy to navigate. Immediately I think that they have a leg up on Digg in this area.

To be honest, I really couldn’t have been bothered with yet another social, web 2.0, vote-up-vote-down site. So what I did was tell Mixx exactly what I was interested in and then subscribed to the RSS for things that interested me. Fantastic.

The next thing that I must note is that the content on Mixx seems to be more relevant. Fair enough, I am only subscribing to a feed that I asked for, but on Digg, finding things that interest me and are relevant is a hit and miss sort of affair. Mixx again seems to have attracted users who are posting relevant and important info.

If nothing else Mixx will become a great alternative to Digg. Have a look for yourself and tell me what you think.

I absolutely hate it when people talk about things without doing research or knowing what they are saying. I am sure I have done this on the odd occasion in the past but it still bugs me.

I just read this post that talks about social network sites as commonly known as dating sites too. Since when? This post has such an air of “authority” about it that ignorant readers would actually believe this rubbish.

Then the author proceeds to include god’s plan for our lives including these “dating sites”. The author then mixes things up by saying that one should join social networks (or dating sites) to network with people and make links to begin to build a network of people who can help you, over 3-5 years build the sort of life you want to lead. Uhu?

What a load of hogwash. And this sort of revelation comes from a website that looks like this:

It is very scary to me that there are actually people out there who are:

1. Promoting this sort of crap site as something people can and should use
2. Using these sites as their personal blogs.

I have a feeling that this is a Guy Mclaren website. This guy (no pun intended) seems to be promoting the very worst of the web as the contemporary web styles. What is he thinking? Can he not see that his user system is rubbish and outdated? Why would anyone want to use this sort of platform when even the dreaded blogger is better than this platform?

I am so shocked that anyone is registering for this service and this crap. Come on people. Wake up, make a stand. Don’t use this rubbish.

I will offer my somewhat inexperienced services to anyone who is thinking of using the rubbish service above. If you are thinking of starting a blog, email me and I will offer you some assistance on where to go and how to do it. Just as long as you aren’t using the above services.