Social networks poised to shape Net's future

[engine]

"The Google revolution is not over yet," said Safa Rashtchy, managing director and senior analyst at investment firm Piper Jaffray, referring to a fictional term, "Googlism." The search giant "has been inspiration for many new companies," as well as changing how many companies are formed today, he said.

Social networks, for example, are poised to shape the Internet's future, Rashtchy said, despite some skepticism about how they will make money. Social networks such as MySpace.com are already challenging traditional portals. MySpace, for example, has surpassed MSN and AOL by measure of monthly page views, Rashtchy said, and its traffic equals roughly 75 percent of Yahoo's, the No. 1 site on the Web.

Social networks poised to shape Net's future [news.com.com]

[linear]

In my experience, social network sites are aggressively filtered by corporate acceptable use policies, unlike a lot of other web 2.0-ish things.

Can social networks really "shape the future" if the corporate audience is denied access (at least while at work)?

[rogerd]

I think the "filter at work" policy will change as social networks are more accepted for business use. Right now, nobody is going to complain to IT if they can't access MySpace (or ESPN, for that matter). But I can certainly see the day when a VP of Sales demands full access for not only her department, but other support departments, to, say LinkedIn.

And all social networks may not look like MySpace. In one sense, WebmasterWorld is a social network, and there are many important business reasons to participate at work.

Even restrictions on mainstream social networks may change. Business are now starting to promote on MySpace, with sites for movies, bands, clothing, etc. Within a few years, it will be a requirement...

[linear]

Ebay just added blogs and wiki features [ww6.infoworld.com], so that's some evidence in favor of the OP argument.