Most of the stereotypically “Web 2.0” sites… Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, etc, are largely focused on the general preferences of the masses… or at least, that’s how the “Popular” content seems to be sorted. I argue that this is a mistake. Instead, these web applications should focus more on trends within our own social group.
I’ll focus on just one example… YouTube. YouTube has some serious challenges. One of the most apparent is comments. For every video that hits the front page, you can expect hundreds of immature and often offensive messages. My solution would be to split up the comments into categories / tabs… “Friends”, “Top”, “All”, … where the default “Friends” tab would show any comments that any of your Gmail/gTalk friends left on that video. Also, you could leave comments publicly, or only for your friends to see.
If we start building websites like this, the web will be a much more personal experience, and welcoming to newcomers. Thanks for listening.