As our Internet devices get smaller and more powerful with time, the natural course of action would be to leverage their mobility and handy-ness to become more socially aware. The services we have (like Twitter and Pownce) at present rely on manual updates from people regarding their activities. What we need is a smart system which understands your presence, and uses it to leverage your social networking. The one who gets there first, will definitely benefit. Techcrunch gives the example of Fon11, which is currently in alpha. Screenshots look promising, and it seems to be going in the correct direction.

We already know that iPhone-ers are the majority of the mobile Internet users, so developers don’t need to worry about a new service of this kind being used. What they should worry about is adding the basic features that might help people share their presence with others. This could include GPS tracking, or wi-fi goodness.

Social networks have to break out of the box here. It’s ironical how a “social” network today involves people sitting in front of their computers, away from the same people that they’re checking up on. There is only so much market for a one that connects people “on-line”. People today are much more inclined to meet others in person, rather than post messages and carry on conversations on their wall. Sure, it makes sense when the two people stay far apart, but for friends in the same locality or city (like most college students), it seems almost absurd. Just like one uses the phone to call up the person living a few houses away and not IM them, it’s the next evolutionary step for networks to show more presence information to friends in the neighbourhood — on their mobile devices.

Privacy and compatibility issues

With great features (and powers!), comes great responsibilities. The privacy and security features of such networks will have to be spot-on, and ever-unfailing. One glitch, and a user might end up revealing their presence to people they didn’t want to let know. This will also be Christmas for stalkers and the likes. Hence, everybody needs to be very careful when using devices and services in such a way. A white-list approach rather than a black-list one will definitely help.

The second biggest concern is that of compatibility. The iPhone comes with GPS tracking cellular triangulation (thanks Deepak), and I gather that Blackberry does too (triangulation/GPS, not sure). There will have to be a standard established (or maybe just a common pipe through Google Maps for everyone) so that the services work seamlessly on all devices, regardless of their make, model or software. It’ll be sad to see a IE vs. Firefox vs. Safari vs. Opera in the mobile market, because it’s the people who ultimately suffer.

The providers’ concern would be a way to generate revenue using their mobile network. Phone screens aren’t really adequate for displaying advertisement alongside content, which means that they will have to come with new and innovative ways of displaying non-intrusive advertisement. That is, if they plan to keep things free. I don’t want to think of paying to be part of a social network.

This seems to be the ultimate foray market for the existing players. With news of people burning out on social networks¹, this is probably what it will take to get them connecting again. This is a whole different way of integrating social networks into our lives — putting the “social” back into social-network.