Social networks and blogs are two huge forces on the Internet. These phenomenons drive a significant amount of online interaction. Search drives much more, of course, but search produces a different type of experience. Despite every effort to make Google return accurate results, it's still software on a machine. When a human blogger or Facebook friend sends out a link, it's often just as relevant as a Google search with one big advantage: you didn't know you were looking for it. It's landed in your lap with no effort.
If this were 1999, you might bring up the push vs. pull debate. Blogs, with RSS feeds, and social networks are driven by push-like behavior, while Google search is essentially a pull.
Enthusiastic people read blogs for the same reasons they (probably) have a shelf full of books they've never read. Not because they are lazy or poor readers, but because they want excess information. They want to be able to pick up a book at random and learn something new. It keeps the mind active, open, and occasionally inspires unexpected perspectives in other areas of life.
So blogs and social networks clearly fill a void. Yet there's a belief floating around that blogs are dead. Even amongst bloggers I sense that some are struggling to find inspiration to keep going. Social networks have issues too, as evidenced by Myspace and Friendster's recent struggles and this month's Forbes article that suggests Facebook has peaked. And now, when the party keg is seemingly cashed, mainstream media outlets are joining the fray. Surely a sign of bad things to come.
Am I the only one that sees opportunity here?
Centralized social networks are suboptimal. Just like the move to OpenID allows my identification to be used across the Internet, an analogous technique could work for my friends list. My blog acts as my OpenID so why can't it also be a social networking node? This could be implemented using a widget, plug-in, API, a 3rd party provider (like MyOpenID), or a simple XML feed layer.