Years ago (OK, maybe it was just four years ago but that’s a lifetime in online world) we were contemplating making Spaces into much more of a platform that would allow others to build customized experiences on top, but using our ID, storage, relationships info and core user experience. By using the same infrastructure, a user could be in multiple niches and still find it easy to move between them with single sign on, content reposts, aggregation etc. Not that dissimilar to what Ning has been doing in some ways. It didn’t fit with the direction Windows Live was going in so we abandoned it.

Fast forward a few years and it’s great to see some validation to this approach. Ali just sent me a link to below website for Amish people dating. To be clear, according to this website, there are 233,000 Amish adults and children. Let’s say 10% are inclined to date …. that’s just 23,000 users target market. Even if you have 30% penetration, that’s about 6,000 users on your service. Pretty niche I’d say.

I’m not sure which way things will go. Facebook continues to be an all things for all people, where it is becoming increasingly unwieldy. But at least everyone I know is there. Niche sites offer closer communities, but I have to sign up for multiple sites. Best of luck to Ning in trying to make this a false choice by developing the back end to enable such niche sites to flourish.