So the deeply crazy attempt to
solve dating is now live in a service called
SocialGrid, a service that could perhaps best be described as "geek code meets FOAF."
You describe yourself (example question -- rate your physical attractiveness on a scale from "Below Average" to "Model Looks" -- no points for guessing the gender of the UI designer *) and it generates a set of tags you embed in your page. Google then indexes those tags, thus letting you search for, e.g. 5' 6" brunettes of above average physical attractiveness interested in dating who live near you. (
And a pony.)
A quick check of member pages reveals roughly (wait for it) 90% men looking for women. The other 10% is divided among men looking for men, women looking for women, one man looking for transgendered women, and one 20 year old woman with auburn hair and exceptional writing talent, who is looking for men and probably astonished at her incredible good luck right about now...
Oh, and in case you were wondering:
Warning to Copycats & Clones
SocialGrid has retained one of the top intellectual property law firms in America. Everything on this site is copyrighted and trademarked, including our search and coding system. Our patent application claims coverage on searches for all complex objects using Internet search engines. Our goal is to ensure a search system that will be free to our members and keep individuals and corporations from profiting by charging for searches. We will marginalize every profit margin. There is no money to made in creating another ID coding system. The world needs only one system. If necessary, we will give SocialGrid and the patent to Google to insure one standardized coding system. Any copycats and clones will have to answer to Google. Please be advised that any copyright, trademark, and patent infringement will result in legal action.
So now you know.
----
* There's, more, much more, where that came from. The category "Hair", for example, includes "Blonde" but not "Blond" and offers the users the opportunity to differentiate between "Blonde" and "Dark Blonde." Inexplicably, there is no checkbox for "Dark roots"..."
1. Tim on May 5, 2004 1:00 PM writes...
That's hilarious. You should do a profile on this lass.
Permalink to Comment2. Clay Shirky on May 5, 2004 1:15 PM writes...
My guess is she's getting quite enough attention as it is...
Permalink to Comment3. Jeff Jarvis on May 5, 2004 2:49 PM writes...
A few comments on this here.
Permalink to Comment4. Zbigniew Lukasiak on May 5, 2004 3:25 PM writes...
I remember there was a story about a guy from Turkey who had unbelivably lame homepage and became a kind of celebrity (for his 5 minutes at least) just for this unbelivably lameness. I don't think anyone can consciously steer for that kind of publicity, but what if that became a next case of this phenomenon?
Permalink to Comment5. judith on May 5, 2004 4:51 PM writes...
yesterday i posted a 'track changes' comparison of the january version of socialgrid's copycats&clones warning as compared to the current version:
http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/8773457467945435/
the internetnew.com article really endeavors to make socialgrid sound so, well... believable... (-:=
Permalink to Comment6. Clay Shirky on May 5, 2004 5:05 PM writes...
That's because internetnews.com clearly didn't spend more than 30 seconds visiting the site -- their _soi disant_ reporting was so utterly credulous I didn't even bother linking to it.
The debauched nature of the trade press oughtn't bother me at this late date, but sometimes the utter lack of skeptical analysis still surprises me.
Permalink to Comment7. pb on May 5, 2004 5:06 PM writes...
This app might be dumb but it's an interesting way to add meta-data to a Google world.
Permalink to Comment8. phil jones on May 5, 2004 6:01 PM writes...
Jeff,
probably should look at this : http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html
Zbigniew, somehow I find that a hilarious idea : try to build the world's worst YASNS just so Clay will drive traffic to it. I wonder what features it would need to have.
Permalink to Comment9. Seb on May 5, 2004 8:10 PM writes...
Zbigniew: It was Mahir - http://www.salon.com/tech/log/1999/11/04/mahir/
Permalink to Comment10. Seb on May 5, 2004 8:16 PM writes...
pb: Right on, the prior art for this is blogchalking (http://www.blogchalking.tk/) - try e.g. the following search request to find self-reported male New Yorkers aged 31-35: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=blogchalk+%22male+31-35%22+%22new+york
Permalink to Comment11. Tim on June 28, 2004 3:47 PM writes...
Socialgrid is in Wired Magazine, I believe June issue. They have the picture of the founder with models on a 2 page spread.
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