Images via Flickr
Last week’s big story was the launch of Color along with an astounding $41m investment which generated much debate in the Twitter-sphere. I’m in the camp of the completely surprised and somewhat skeptical of the high valuation for Color, however, I am also intrigued by the vast potential of the Implicit Social Graph. Using the Color App (as instructed & not alone) failed to intuitively illustrate for me the power of an implicit social network based on location. I suspect this is the case with many as confirmed by the mere 2-star rating in the Apple App Store. Fred Wilson wrote an excellent post about his first encounter with an Implicit Social Graph, Last FM. I’ve been wondering how this concept applies to other sectors, particularly one like travel which is complex, dependent on recommendations, and captures meaningful discretionary spend from consumers.
How can you get the best possible recommendations for those treasured vacations – whether a weekend getaway or a dream holiday? If you happen to be friends with someone who has been nearly everywhere you’d want to go AND travels in the same way you like to (with or without children, backpacker or first class, resort or deep local culture), then all you need to do is ask. The connected world has been helping us create or tap into new networks for various situations when we need or want advice. Sometimes you’ll reach out to strangers on travel forums like Thorn Tree, which works if you’re sufficiently similar to the unknown people who help you out. And in most cases, we finally resort to taking a punt on Trip Advisor, all the while knowing that there are far more unhappy customers reviewing than blissfully satisfied ones. (If only we could apply Matthew Ogbourne’s Ebay reputation analysis to TA’s reviews!). However, the world is a big place and as with Fred Wilson’s example of Last FM, we don’t necessarily know or have an active connection with the people whose tastes are most like ours.
Currently no one knows whether Color will ultimately find success – certainly they have work to do in helping everyday average people see a use for their technology – but they have certainly sparked the discussion. I hope that the concepts and sophisticated use of data which Color is bringing to the fore will unleash a new way of thinking in many applications far beyond photo sharing.
How could you imagine using an Implicit Social Graph?
