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Dec
16
Steve Rubel talks about the significance about the new “Friends’ Shared Items ” feature on Google Reader. I was about to write about this, but Steve’s put it better than I’d planned.
The popular RSS reader now lets you easily see what your friends are sharing from their river of news and allows you to do the same. This turns Google Reader into a social network, complete with profiles… (Google) is tapping into the Gmail address book and using it to transform all of its static services into on-the-fly communities.
Well it’s true. I find myself logging in to Reader more often because I’m interested in reading what my friends have found interesting (in addition to what they’re blogging about). But most importantly,
Social networking isn’t just about a few standalone sites but a bunch of different address books that actually make the entire web more social.
Which is exactly what makes Facebook such an attractive acquisition. Not just for the opportunity to server ads on its pages (Microsoft’s planted its flag firmly there), but to drive traffic to _other_ properties for serving more advertising.