These new tools enable any website to become ‘social’ – allowing users to share, recommend and comment on content, while even being able to chat to other friends outside of Facebook. The site is therefore weaving a social fabric into the web, which all leads back to Facebook. This allows Facebook to collect massive amounts of personalised data on its users. Sound familiar? Just as Google uses search and its other products (the Chrome browser, Gmail email service, YouTube etc.) to collect user data to serve relevant advertising, Facebook is building an extensive and massively detailed database of their users’ needs, activities, interests, you name it. This is now no longer confined to only within the Facebook walled garden. For all intents and purposes, Facebook – like Google with search – is becoming an advertising company by winning the social game.

So where does this leave other social networks? Sure, countries like China might just not be a cultural fit for the Facebook model (not to mention insulated and limited via censorship). However, as a general-purpose social network, Facebook is probably unassailable at this point. Which leads us to the question: how does a scrappy social service compete with the mighty Facebook?

In my opinion, there are a few ways for niche (as opposed to general) social services to compete:

• Specialise – focus on a particular social aspect and excel at it (i.e. LinkedIn offers business networking and operates as a ‘stealth recruitment service’)
• Exclusivity – limit access to users of a certain, social, economic or other metric (i.e. ASMALLWORLD is a private network which started out as the Myspace for the rich and famous and limits invitations to ‘trusted’ members)
• Be distinctive – offer a service that Facebook doesn’t (i.e. Foursquare is a combination of a game and social network and uses a user’s location to allow venue check-ins)

Using one or more of the above elements, these niche social networks have been able to carve out successful and sometimes highly profitable positions in the face of Facebook’s growing influence. Some others I can think of are Flickr (for photo-sharing), Last.fm (for music lovers), TripAdvisor (for travellers) and Club Penguin (for children).

Are there any other successful or up-and-coming niche social networks you can think of? And do you think there are other ways for these services to compete other than being specialised, exclusive or distinctive?

We have a few positions vacant at the moment – have a look:

In Sao Paulo, Brazil – we need a junior front-end developer. You are highly skilled in front-end development, with specific skills in CSS, HTML and Javascript. You are a competent programmer, but you prefer to work on the front-end. You will be working under the guidance of an experienced and expert engineer. You like working with bright and clever people, and you are passionate about the web. The successful candidate will speak English, and will be a paulistano, or be willing to relocate to Sao Paulo.

In Johannesburg – we are looking for a senior technical architect. You will have the opportunity to establish the blueprint and create the framework for truly cutting edge media delivery platforms that will change the face of media in South Africa. And that is no exaggeration. You should have outstanding technical skills, including the ability to code as and when required. You must be able to interact with a team of highly skilled professionals. You will ideally have experience of VOD, digital TV, IP-TV and related technologies. A background as a developer is essential – you will have in-depth knowledge of the Microsoft .Net platform, but also wider knowledge of open source platforms and languages. You are comfortable dealing with executives and senior managers. You’re not only an ubergeek, but also an inspirational tech leader. This is a challenging position – but it represents a massive opportunity to the right person. Detailed requirements here.

In Cape Town – we are looking for a junior tester, who will devote a great deal of time to ensuring that a large corporate social network meets the right quality standards. You will be part of the SWAT core team – you must be prepared to work with some of the best developers, architects, geeks and web-heads you are ever likely to meet. Can you execute tasks on your own initiative, prepare and execute test plans ? More details on the position can be found here.

Cape Town – we are looking for someone to play the role of Internet Evangelist. This role is available to anyone who is absolutely passionate about the web, who is capable of conveying this passion to diverse audiences, who learns quickly … and who can teach others. Your role will be to evangelise the use of Web technologies (and other Internet related technologies) into the larger group – the challenge is to make people from all non-internet businesses see the Internet as an opportunity not a threat. In addition you will perform tasks as assistant community manager for the corporate social network, and you will assist the Analyst in the team with research tasks. You must be willing to travel in South Africa and abroad, as required. To apply for this job, you will have to demonstrate passion, interest and knowledge of the Web and related technologies. You are a well-spoken, confident geek, web-head and proud to be a Web addict.

Finally, and also in Cape Town – we want to recruit a PHP developer. You will be have outstanding technical skills, wide experience in web based development, and you will be able to hold your own amongst an elite group of developers and architects. Javascript, Zend Framework, AJAX, OO, Web 2.0, REST, SOAP and UML will be old news to you. You are passionate about the web. If you think Twitter is silly, you don’t need to apply. More information here.

If you are interested in any of these positions, please send your CV to Melanie Koch. We look forward to hearing from you.

There is, however, a small crack in this routine: some emails do not require immediate action, but cannot be archived and forgotten either, and they keep lurking in my inbox, stealing bits of my attention every time I go there to check for new stuff or find higher-priority things to do.

Enter I Want Sandy, a web application that combines email and calendar in a very smart way. It allows me to literally time-shift email: I just forward it to her, with a subject such as “Remind me to read this tomorrow in the afternoon”, and the email comes back at the specified time (I can be as specific as I want – she is quite good at guessing the details when I get vague).

This way I can keep in my inbox just the items to which I need to pay attention on the spot. Everything else vanishes and returns only when it is the proper time for it to be handled. And soon I started to using her to remind me of less-important things (after all, it’s just sending an email) – also uncluttering my iCal/Google Calendar.

After having been captured as a user, I started wondering – as a developer – what makes this application so interesting. Of course it uses technology in a very smart way, provides lots of features besides the ones mentioned here and has interesting origins, but I strongly believe it stands out from the crowd due to three usability factors:

a) Besides supporting sophisticated ways of interaction (such as Twitter and SMS), its core is pretty much the combination of two very tried-and-true technologies (email and calendar), but in a very novel approach: by using email as an interface to calendar;

b) It presents itself in a way compatible to its paradigm shift. I know that it is an application and not a person – but the metaphor works so well that not only do I really feel as if I’m asking someone to help me rembember my stuff: I also refer to it as a person (as you have seen multiple times in this text – it’s unavoidable after you begin exchanging more emails with her than with anyone else);

c) It simply works. For every request that a cleverly constructed algorithm can reasonable be expected to undertand, it does what I expect it to do. Comparing it to clumsy, more-misses-than-hits systems (such as the ones on Google Calendar and Outlook) reminds me of the quantum leap of going from Yahoo/AltaVista to Google.

(One might argue that “c” is a technology issue – but I see it more as focusing the technology efforts on the right place than anything else.)

Will it be a hit? Nobody knows. But it is a rare case of a real novel approach to an existing, “solved” problem. I would have been proud of creating it – and still hope to be able one day to help creating something as ingenious as this.