Thursday, February 03, 2005

Friendship Overrated?

The Long Tail today makes the point that friendship "is a pretty blunt instrument when it comes to describing relationships, especially in matters of taste".

Strangers are actually more reliable recommenders which means that social software networks like Friendster are likely to be less effective taste filters than the blogosphere. The latter is more like a trust network, consisting of people that don't hang out anywhere else other than cyberspace.

Indeed it strikes me that part of growing up is gaining the confidence to have friends whose tastes are entirely different from your own.

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