PC World List Of Tech Disappointments Includes Social Bookmarking

Hmmm. I like PCWorld but this guy is making predictions about social bookmarking I find hard to believe. It was a list of the 15 tech disappointments of 2007. I’ll share a couple of them.

#13. Web 2 Woe: Social Networks

Memo to Badoo, Bebo, Catster, Dogster, Facebook, Faceparty, Flickr, Flixster, Hi5, Hyves, Imbee, Imeem, MySpace, Mixi, Pizco, Pownce, Takkle, Twitter, Virb, Vox, Xanga, Xing, Zoomr … and the 3,245,687 other social networks clamoring for our limited attention spans: We got it. Making connections between friends is cool. Sharing photos and videos, even cooler. But it’s all so… 2006. Haven’t you got anything new to show us?

Here’s a safe bet: Two years from now, 90 percent of these networks will be gone and their founders will be back working at Starbucks. I’ll have a double mocha frappucino, please.

I would not call that a safe bet with DIGG selling for $300 million.

#4. In a Sorry State: Yahoo
We can’t say we really expected much out of Yahoo in 2007. Giving CEO Terry Semel the boot was probably a good thing–especially after his $230 million compensation package came to light. Installing the original Yahoo, Jerry Yang, as head honcho also seems like a smooth move, even if the company seems permanently stuck in the number two position behind Google.

Yet there’s one area where Yahoo can lay claim to being number one: creating political prisoners. At least three times over the past five years, information supplied by Yahoo to the Bejiing government has led to the incarceration of Chinese dissidents.

This year, Yahoo executives admitted they’d lied to Congress when they claimed not to know why the Chinese demanded their subscriber data. Yang and general counsel Michael Callahan were forced to deliver a humbling public apology in front of a Congressional committee. Shortly thereafter, the company settled a suit brought by two of the dissidents’ families.

Not so smooth.

Hmmm. I agree. Not too smooth.

#3. The Anti-Social Network: Facebook Beacon
We have to give props to Facebook for stealing the social networking spotlight from MySpace this year. But once it got up on stage, Facebook laid an egg. For example, opening up the Facebook platform to third-party developers was inspired. Now, six months later, those viral-to-the-point-of-influenza Facebook apps are mostly just irritating. (For the 27th time: No, I do not want to spam everyone in my network with another movie quiz, thank you. Now go away.)

The introduction of Facebook’s Beacon advertising program was more than disappointing–it was disturbing. Suddenly, anything you purchased on Amazon, Overstock, Fandango or three dozen other sites would be broadcast to your Facebook friends. Worse, even when you were logged out, Facebook still gathered the information, though the company says it didn’t use the data.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized and offered subscribers easier ways to opt out of Beacon, but the damage was already done, says Richard Laermer, principal at RLM PR in New York and author of Punk Marketing.

“The idea behind Beacon is fascinating, but the fact that it was being done for subscribers by someone else was less than cool,” he says. “It’s like me fishing in your trash can for your store receipts (you haven’t spotted me yet?) and then telling other people what you’ve bought. Not illegal, but oh so creepy.”

How much damage has Beacon done to Facebook’s rep? “Their PR value just went down about 40 percent,” he adds.

Good try on the whole beacon thing Facebook. That qualifies as a really huge backfire more than just a disappointment.

Windows Vista was number 1 on his list. I’m sure that is a surprise.