Making Social Networks Profitable
In its nonstop effort to redefine everything, Google is now trying to change how we depict influence. Using an algorithm similar to that which the company used in its popular search engine, Google is now trying to measure your influence on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, to provide a new tool for online advertisers to measure the efficacy of internet marketing initiatives. Here's how it would work. Depending on factors ranging from how many friends your friends have to how often you are successful in getting others to view internet media, a "Google Number" would be generated to measure your influence, which could then be used by Google to sell its online space to advertisers.
Google is anxious to enhance their social network influence (no pun intended) after their 2006 investment in MySpace has so far failed to prove especially profitable. Not to sound like an antiquated individual, but this is another example of why I'm not all that eager to participate in online social networking. I may sound like an alarmist, but doesn't such an mechanism beg the question of just how much farther Google or other online companies (or anyone for that matter) can intrude upon your privacy? Do I really want some complex mathematical algorithm tracking who I speak with, and do I really want to define my influence by the comparative superiority of my Google number? I'm not sure I have much of a choice. I suppose the real solution is to accept there is no such thing as privacy on the internet.
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