What's Next for Social Platforms?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Web 2.0 Expo -- On a panel this morning, representatives from Facebook , MySpace , Bebo, Orkut/OpenSocial, and Six Apart talked about what we can expect in the coming year with regard to third-party applications, data portability/data sharing, monetization, and, of course, keeping the users happy slappy. The end result was clear from the start: Everyone is still a little fuzzy on where to go from here.

User data and data portability
Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook spoke a lot about data portability and Facebook's emphasis on giving users control of their data going forward. "Our intent is to enable users to take data with them and to enable the user and developer to have access to data they need to create great experiences," he said. "Our responsibility [as developers] is to work together to define the future, whether it’s called data portability... or privacy portability."

Or "all talk," suggested David Recordon from Six Apart (when he wasn't too busy using his phone to post pertinent, snarky updates on Twitter). "You can't just go out and say we need data portability, because you’ll lose benefit to the user. You need to think, 'How do I build something that adds real value to users?' and as a byproduct you’ll get data portability."

On the flipside of giving users "control" of their data, Morin also said one of Facebook's "core focuses" going forward is to keep a closer eye on what their users are doing at all times (i.e., beef up their already-perfected stalking capabilities.) "The recent actions you’ve taken or your friends have taken -- those things matter most each time you stop by somebody’s profile."

Third-party developers vs. social platforms
A new issue for social networking sites this year will be competition between their own platforms and those of third-party developers building within their sites.

"I think it would be arrogant to think we can build a better application than developers can," said MySpace's Allen Hurff, referring to MySpace Music, which could essentially compete with third-party music applications hosted on the site. "No doubt that as we expand this company we’re going to want to get in that space and do stuff related to music. It doesn’t mean we’re going to be the best."

Monetization
With regard to the big, green question that's been keeping the socialetes awake at night, the panelists talked of "hypertargeting," or using profile info to target ads, and data sharing (cough. Beacon. cough.) as ways they will be able to earn money going forward.

However, despite their optimistic projections, perhaps a better indication of the present state of the social media economy came at the start of the panel when the moderator asked an audience packed with developers how many of them plan to make money off their applications -- and two people raised their hands.

— Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Internet Evolution