Social Networking Meets Instant Messaging: Why the Smart Money's on imeem

From Blog Business Summit...this is really nice, because the guys at imeem are awesome...it's rare to work with a group of such highly talented people who are also so nice and down-to-earth...

I’ve been waiting for quite a while for social networking applications to start throwing instant messaging into the mix. After all, there really isn’t any better social network than my AIM buddy list.

AOL and MySpace are the big heavy hitters in this arena, AOL with its hugely popular Instant Messenger network and MySpace with it’s huge social network are both vying for the undivided attention of tweens, teens, college students and young professionals. AOL is preparing to launch a social networking system based on its instant messaging system, while MySpace has already launched its instant messaging system. Unfortunately, when I tried to launch the MySpace instant messaging program to check it out, I got this message from Tom, “The IM is busted. It’s not working. It is going to take a few weeks to fix. I will post an announcement when its (sic) fixed. - Tom.”

Meanwhile, a cool new Instant Messaging/Social Netoworking Application has entered the fray. imeem is still in its beta version (very, very beta), but it’s incredibly promising. Of course, there are a lot of twists and turns ahead in the quest to create the perfect social network, but at this point, I’d say the smart money is on imeem.

Why? The success of any new social networking application rests squarely on its ability to reach critical mass quickly enough to keep the early adopters interested while simultaneously attracting new users. After all, what’s a social networking application if none of your friends are on it? imeem is the only social networking/IM application out there at the moment that allows you to interact with all your buddy lists (from AIM, ICQ, MSN, ect.) while simultaneously using the social networking features with those people who already use that part of the service. It’s the single most compelling feature that imeem offers, and it may help sustain the small startup while the 200 lb. gorillas bludgeon one another.

In addition, imeem integrates blogging into the mix. Users can post blog entries directly on their imeem profiles. It’s already a much better blogging application than the crappy one on MySpace. But it simply won’t do for any serious blogger. imeem needs to move quickly to allow users to integrate other RSS feeds into their profiles like ziki does.

Finally, unlike either AIM or MySpace, imeem actually gets the need for a clean, pretty, simple graphical user interface (GUI). Like the iPod and the forthcoming controller from Nintendo, imeem is intuitive and simple to use - while both AIM and MySpace are often clunky, counterintuitive and downright difficult to look at.

I might be an idiot for saying that a little startup can take on two behemoths, but I’m really looking forward to finding out.