The Problem With Profile Aggregators

In a number of my posts I have talked about how there will eventually need to be a way to bring all of your social network memberships together in one place. This will definitely become more evident as niche social networks who offer more engaging features become more popular.

“Profile Aggregators” such as ProfileLinker, Spokeo, Profilactic, Iceflake, and FindMeOn are already trying to solve this problem. I commend all of their efforts in trying to solve a growing issue. ProfileLinker is currently the best, however, all in their current state still aren’t very compelling. (Disclaimer: All claim that they are different from each other, however I am speaking to the point that they all in some way bring together your web presence into one place.)

The main problem I currently see is that most Profile Aggregators currently take the “efficiency” stance. That by putting all of your profiles in one place, it is more efficient and therefore a better experience. But do these sites make your social networking life more efficient? And secondly, is this even what people want?

To answer the first question, I currently don’t think that profile aggregators even accomplish the goal of efficiency. Users usually only have read access to their other networks. It now becomes just one giant notification tool. But to actually respond with a comment, post a photo, write to a persons wall (in other words, where the value actually lies in a social network) you still end up having to visit the sites individually. Social networks are not like news articles or blogs that you can just stick into an RSS reader, they require engagement and participation to become valuable to the user.

Secondly, is efficiency truly what people want? I think we know from the MySpace lesson, that people are willing to sacrifice efficiency in exchange for active user involvement, self expression, and nearly naked 16 year olds. Social networking users don’t want all of their social networks in one place because it takes them some extra time to click from one bookmark to another, they want them all in one place because they realize (consciously or not) the distinct value each one brings to the table, and combining them gives them everything they want on one location. The Walmart of social networks?

Bottom line, you still get a better user experience by visiting each social network individually then if you use a current profile aggregator. A better experience isn’t created just because everything is in one place.

I will post on the below points more at another time, but here is what I think a successful profile aggregator needs to have:

a. Still keep users within the context of each social network

b. Allow users to not only read from their networks, but also engage. (i.e. write access not just read access)

c. Design compelling features that leverage the uniqueness of each individual social network and the fact that everyone is one place.

Now we just have to ask, is this vision even possible?

[tags]Social Networking, Social Network, Niche Social Network, Social Media, Online Community, Profile Aggregation, ProfileLinker, Spokeo, Profilactic, Iceflake, FindMeOn, Brian Balfour[/tags]