Social Media Experiment, Parts 1 & 2

Let’s start small. First, I’ll be seeing what application options Google has, so membership to one site is all that's required of you (If you are a Gmail or Blogspot user, or a Google account holder, you're all set. If you're none of the above, it's easy and completely painless to link your existing email account to a Google account, so you can use Google apps like Google Docs. You're not getting a new email address or anything, just a whole new world of Google-invented opportunities.)

In order to install any number of Google Social Media apps, the first thing I needed was the Google FriendConnect app you see at the right. It appears that everything else runs through it. You can become a “member” of my friend network, and then experiment with any of the apps I add going forward.

App #1 I am especially excited about – it's an interactive playlist creator, through iLike. I’ve started a playlist of some of my favorite songs of the moment, which you can listen to on your own, or to which you can add your own favorites. Why is this a cool social networking option? I could also embed an individual playlist in one particular entry, and people could submit their own choices for, say, Song of the Year 2008 or Best Songs to Workout to. Cool, right?

Try it out, let me know what you think.

(Also, I think Google should pay me for the number of times I namedropped them in this post.)