Marking the latest entry into the ever-expanding field of social networking, Apple has introduced Ping, social networking for music. Launched on September 1 in conjunction with the tenth major release for iTunes, Ping was able to boast an impressive audience of about 1 million registered users within its first 48 hours. Usage has steadily decreased, however, due to many users’ complaints that the new social network tool is not very social.
Ping, which is available strictly through iTunes (you can’t open it in your web browser), allows users to follow artists as well as other users to see what they are listening to and provides a place for them to talk about and share their musical interests.
One of the major drawbacks of Ping is that average users have no way of updating their status. Users can “like” and comment on others’ purchases and artists’ posts, but may not create their own.
Another complaint for some may be that every time you purchase a song on iTunes, it shows up for all your followers to see on Ping. So be careful, all you captains of the football team. Now everyone will know that you have secretly been rocking out to “The Best of Cher” on your playlist.
A final feature, or lack thereof, is Ping’s inability to connect with other social networking sites like Facebook. Apple had reportedly planned to launch Ping already integrated with Facebook, responding to user complaints of no music focused aspect on the Facebook site. However, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “Facebook wanted onerous terms that we [Apple] could not agree to.”
With a few updates, including integration with other social networking platforms and the ability for users to create their own posts, Ping could prove to be a real heavyweight in the social networking field. Until then though, odds are that Ping will not be garnering many “likes” from users.