The net needs this.  We all need this.  It’s a personal URL that can track you forever.

Some are asking whether it's a good idea.  Some hate the idea, but whether you like it or not, something like .TEL is in our future.  It's just a matter of time.

Have you ever hunted for a person after their email address changed and you lost it?  What about that old friend who changed his phone number?  .TEL hopes to be the new world directory.  Every person, every organization, every business, in one handy directory. 

Will they be successful?  I think so, but even if they bungle it, some one will do this eventually.  It's inevitable.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it will cost you $10/year to be in the directory.  This is masked as a TLD (top level domain) registration fee, but there will be other ways to monetize this and I hope they bring the price down.

Check out this post for another review:  Featureless Social Network for $10/yr

The tipping point is in sight for Open Social, the Open API for social networking initiated by Google, which is supported and promoted by an increasing number of of Social Media titans.

Open Social Primer/Tutorial: Open Social is an emerging standard API for social apps.  It allows sites that support it to support any app or widget that uses Open Social.  This is great for the users and great for the app/widget builders, but it diminishes the advantages of the social networks that use it because their users can get similar apps/widgets/services on other networks that support Open Social. Despite this, none of the really big networks can ignore Open Social because all their competitors will adopt it which will eventually shift the balance of power.

The following graph demonstrates the growth potential for second and thrid-tier social networks that adopt Open Social.

CNET's story is here Ning's Open Social support goes live.

Tributes.com wants to be the place where you memorialize your loved ones.  Does it make sense?

Create a web page for your dearly departed, right?  Many of us have thought about doing that from time to time.  It was bound to happen, and it has. 

Tribues.com is a great idea.

Many people would love to be able to create a memorial in cyberspace, to pay tribute to the life of a loved one. 

Tribute.com also looks great.  And, at first, it makes you want to jump in and get started, but that's when reality hits.  First you have to find their death record.  Huh?  I can't create a tribute without an official death record?  What's that all about?  Are they afraid I'm going to fake my own death to collect on the insurance? 

Then you have to jump over 4 more hurdles.  By then you are ready for the afterlife yourself.

This reminds me of the craziness that is Ancestry.com.  I care about my family tree, so I went there many years ago to create one.  Well, it was one roadblock after another.  Then, about 2 years ago, Geni.com came along and, Bingo!  The Geni folks did it right.  Want to add a person to your tree, just add a person to your tree.  Ancestry had the lead.  They had the model, and they blew it.  I now have a family tree on Geni that has over 6,000 people in it!  How can that be, you ask.  I'll tell you how, by connecting the dots.  One person adds a few people, another person adds a few, and pretty soon (it only took us about 1 year) you have 6,000 people in your tree. 

I tried.  I really tried.  My tree on Ancestry was all there.  I dutifully went through their process.  I added my dearly departed family members.  I published my tree so others could connect to it.  But that's where it ended.  I have a tree with perhaps 30 people on it there today.

But with Geni, I added and linked, and invited, and presto, 6,000 people in the tree. 

This is what happens when a business really understands the power of connections and making it easy to connect.  Learn from this.