The increase in bandwidth and pervasive connectivity is putting an end to the passive web. As a result, the nature of information and media is changing. By offering something like Socialthing, AOL is only trying to get ahead of the trend instead of getting pummeled by it. AOL’s in-house publishing unit, MediaGlow, is the first to deploy Socialthing on its 75-odd blogs and many other web sites. “Socialthing turns any media into social media, making it easy for people to share their experiences in real time with their friends, wherever they are on the Web,” said Joanna Shields, president of AOL People Networks. Think of it as a beefier and smarter version of CNN’s experiments with Facebook Connect during the recent election. They are leveraging a user base on their AIM and ICQ platforms of 60 million-plus to give this new effort a jumpstart, but the new platform is quite open and embraces other services as well.

Unified Sign-on — today use your AOL screen name and password and soon you’ll be able to use them for Bebo, Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo or OpenID.

Social Syndication — share what you’re reading or talking about with friends on Bebo, AIM, ICQ, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter friends.

On-site Chat and Instant Messaging — for having real-time conversations with others around the same topics.

The Lifestream Platform — a real-time, open platform for aggregating and distributing social feeds across different networks, including Bebo, AIM, ICQ, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. Socialthing-enabled sites can send updates to other Socialthing sites from mobile devices such as the iPhone and through the AIM and ICQ desktop clients.

The AIM & ICQ Messaging Platform — adds chat and Instant Messaging directly to Socialthing-enabled web sites. That means people can easily alert AIM and ICQ buddies to breaking news and interesting stories from across the web.

The AOL Open Authentication API (OpenAuth) — enables third-party web sites and applications to authenticate AOL and AIM users through their web sites and applications. OpenAuth will be extended to include support for single sign-on from Facebook, Google, Yahoo, OpenID and many other services.

So what do I make of this news? It’s a well-thought out approach to the increasingly social web. My only problem with AOL is the same one I have with Nokia: Despite the vision, they fail to deliver. I hope AOL proves me wrong.

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“Someone told me that ‘social’ is so over,” he said, lamenting that his company name may already be dated.

Is “Social” already over? That’s news to me. Those immersed in web work may be sick of the (over)use of the word “social,” particularly if, like me, they’ve been working in the social media space back before anyone called it “social.”

Back in 1995, we called it “community” and “communication.” Heck, we all became social online when we first realized we could communicate with others via our computers on traditional phone lines. Out on the speaking circuit, I talked about how the Internet was all about “connection – not just connecting us to information but also connecting us to people, to one another.”  Sure, we didn’t have the powerful sharing tools that we have today and social networks weren’t even a glimmer on the horizon. Does anyone remember Andrew Weinreich’s “failed” online community SixDegrees.com that paved the way for LinkedIn and the like? That was a social media before it was called social media.

So is “Social” just 2008′s buzzword and on its way out?

For anyone with a company that has “Social” in their name, rest assured, I don’t think that it is over yet. And for anyone out there searching for any available combination of social with another word that might make a good name for a social media business, don’t worry. “Social” is not over yet.

In fact, the general consumer out there is still struggling to understand what a blog is much less a microblog. The term “social media” isn’t even on many people’s radars. The nice thing about “social” is that any non-techie does get what “social” means. But then try to explain to them that “social” now refers to Web 2.0 tools that facilitate collaboration and sharing, and their eyes glaze over. At least many people have now heard the word “social” used in combination with the word “network” often enough in the media, but many of them still think social networks like MySpace are dangerous. Lesson? Let us not forget the learning curve that every new technology and new terminology must go through before mass adoption.

Socialtext, Socialminder, Socialthing? These aren’t household names yet and might not ever be. I’m not knocking any of those companies but for every Socialtext there is a Yammer. For every Socialthing there is aFriendFeed. For ever Socialminder, there’s another contact or CRM management tool.

Think about who these “social” companies are targeting at this time. Not really Mom or Pop. Nor John or Jane Q. Public. Their current customers or members or subscribers tend to be industry types, the iindy Web workers who “get it” or a small pool of IT guys in corporations who also get it.

“Social” as a buzz word simply has not hit the masses.

What do you think of the term “Social?” In your opinion, is it grossly overused or still a useful and viable buzzword that hasn’t even peaked yet?

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