So, the conversation went a little like this:
[Foe]: “I think Amazon would come up with a better social network service than Google would”
[Me]: “Haven’t they done that already?”
[Foe]: “What do you mean?”
[Me]: “Well, they’ve got straight to the part where the social interactions of thousands of people get them more cash, without having to deal with all that troublesome dating business”
[Foe]: “Heh… Yeah, I suppose… but what I mean is something where you see what your friends are buying and reading and wishing for, and that activity is what prompts connections and conversations”
Which got me thinking. Amazon already have incredible features for harnesses our connections and social behaviours, but they are all fairly anonmous, unlike the wave of social network services. Could Amazon benefit from some of the UI features of those sites?
I’ve mocked up a quick version of what I mean. I think that surfacing your wishlist networks and buddy reviews / recommendations would be great.
Petafloptimism 
suckers, the lot of the them
Aha, said man, those squid who use fluorescent bacteria to hide themselves against the background moonlight are a dead giveaway: they prove God must exist and therefore…QED, etc etc etc. God, as proven by the squid, is not without a…
Social networking
This would be a fantastic use of social networking. I mean, yeah, it’s a complete invasion of piracy – while I’ve got little problem with telling my friends what bought on the Internet recently, I’m sure some people would – but it would bring people to…
My social network ideal
In my utopia, all social network services would generate, import and export FOAF (as per TypePad but on request rather than automatically and invisibly). Other, useful, services like Amazon or the BBC’s audio player, could import and use FOAF to
Yay Amazon!
I love Amazon! I’ve also been interested in the whole social-networking thing ala Friendster and now orkut (which really seems to be creating some buzz, eh?). Even better would be, in my opinion, Amazons take on the social networking idea….
MapQuestster
My frustration at spatial annotation ideas and social networking nonsense spouted gently onto the Geowanking mailing list.