COMMENT, Melbourne, Australia — Social networks are the next big thing, depending on where you are located in the physical world, they can be at various stages of adoption.

I asked this to a few people at WordCamp 2007 in San Francisco, and in a case of preaching to the converted, many felt blogs were already ‘established’.

But blogs & social networks have not gone mainstream yet in most markets.

(If one applies a model called the Innovation Diffusion curve, that is.)

PS. If you are reading this and twittering, you are probably not the ideal candidate for assessing when a product is mainstream!

Why Join social networks?

Simple. Networks online offer practical connections and information globally you can’t find. Many have basic features like access to others’ bookmarks.

Before you join any network actively you need to ask:

What will I get out of this in my life?

How is this network an improvement, an innovation, in my life?

If you are a veteran of myspace, digg, etal you may say the question is basic, but then how much time does each network you join soak up, and where is the benefit?

Here’s One Indispensable Network: StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon.com: Join this one. It’s all the bookmarks in one place. better yet you get to read human selected sites.

Here’s my profile: http://innovatorau.stumbleupon.com/

Please note I do not agree with all links I have found them worth reading for myself or others, that is all.

However, SU is the first place I post many of my favourite links or ideas for research.

Many others use it for humour or photographs. Some for topics of interest.

Stumbling random pages based on interests is also a great fun activity, and far easier than googling topics to find what you want, when you are browsing casually.

5 Wins for StumbleUpon

The real reasons why Stumbleupon is a great social networking site:

5. A really well-designed interface (especially the new version)

4. Ongoing interface improvement

3. Great selection of pages on almost every topic

2. It is a human-edited collection of sites
1. Stumblers are more passionate about their topic than directory editors

I think the last two are worthy of examination:

Humans editing with Passionate Engagement 

Algorithm Search cannot turn up as good a results as human editors, especially when those editors are passionately collecting sites on a topic.

Biggest Limitation

The biggest impediment on StumbleUpon is the capacity limits (especially # of friends).
Presumably there will be an option to remove these at a later date.

They also have progressive trust, which means that you appear to be more trusted the more accurate your stumbles and tags are. Incentives.

Of course one also has to be careful what links one includes in one’s profile, as all traffic is being recorded. I have erred on being inclusive, but stating clearly I do not agree with all links.

Anyway, StumbleUpon is experiencing huge growth in users and traffic, and is owned by eBay; much like the excellent product Skype.

eBay is building a great portfolio of brands.

Both Skype & StumbleUpon are potential market leaders in their category, like eBay itself.

So join if you haven’t install the toolbar. Stumbling is better than watching TV.

See you Stumbling.

Take care

Christopher