Challenge to one of the blogger babes 

I'm not going to point to any of the year-end lists. They'll surface for you whether you look for them or not.

Would one of the women be prepared to step up and say she doesn't want the honor? I'm not putting it all on them. It's the listmakers who perpetuate it, but just one "no thanks" might do a little good.

You can't be enthusiastic about things in general 

The Top Social Networks of 2006, compiled by Mashable, counts people's choice votes, and lists judges' picks and hot-for-2007 mentions. Seeing the whole scene there together, wrapped up in a nice package with a bow, left me strangely unmoved.

I love the promise of the internet for connecting people, but somehow the 2-oh way of delivering on the promise feels too much like TV. Most of the plays are gunning for big general consumer audiences, because advertising is the only model in town just now. It's impossible that the desire for big numbers won't lead to the same generalized, lowest common denominator fare that's making us flee from traditional media.

Nobody much is listening to him yet, but I think Marc Canter has the right idea with his People Aggregator. Its newish descriptor, MySpace in a box, may help people get it.

People Aggregator is tailormade for creating communities of interest, and that's the whole power of the internet, IMO -- bringing together like minds, the narrower and more esoteric the interest the better, in terms of real engagement, loyalty, enthusiasm and a genuine feeling of connection on the user's part. That's gold, no matter what the business model. It's worth something now, in the ad bubble, and it's still going to be worth something when the bottom falls out of web advertising, no matter what replaces ads for generating income.

The sad thing? If you buy any or all of that, it doesn't even matter because the 2-oh MO is build it fast and get out quick. Maybe we should hope for the bubble to pop sooner than later. Then we can get on with the next generation of more meaningful and sustainable social networks.