TechCrunch talks about event and activities-driven social networking. The Craigslist comparisons are tired and off-base but this post is yet another indicator that people/singles are looking to connect on things other than favorite football team and the ability to “look good in a little black dress or jeans” which is the kind of statement which should be stricken from all personal ads from this point forward.
I am totally biased towards HeyLetsgo. I feel about them as I did about YouTube last year. I have a strong feeling it’s going to be the winner in the event-driven space. Call it a gut reaction, but after checking the other services my feelings were redoubled.
MatchActivity is interesting and looks good but there is not local flavor or personality, which will most likely be what hinders growth of the site.
Who’s Going is almost too much like a web service, not much to do but search for events. Paying for access at a dollar a pop will never fly. Reminds me of tourb.us. Not very useful on its own, but when in-lined with other sites, the value is much stronger. Plus I need another profile on another social site like I need a hole in the head.
Microsoft’s Cardspace should make this less of an issue next year when it rolls out with Vista. If you run a dating site and don’t have a lock on the opportunities Cardspace bring to the table, let’s talk. At least peruse the pundits and experts such as Kim Cameron, who evangelizes Cardspace for Microsoft. I met Kim and many others in the online identity space this summer at the Harvard Identity Mashup. The people who spoke there outlined many different methods, technologies and use cases that mesh perfectly with many of the problems we see concerning identity, privacy, safety and effectiveness of online dating and social networking.
Big idea for the day: a Cardspace-enabled dating site which uses a person’s profile information on their card as their personal profile. You heard it here first.
Technorati Tags: cardspace, event+based+dating
