[RobertoMoir]

I think the biggest problem with Ping is that fundamentally, it wasn't clear what problem it was trying to solve.

So I can tell my friends what I'm listening to via ping
- what, so I can't talk to them?

But what if they're online, not face to face
- Facebook! I can post my "pings" to facebook right?

Er... about that...
- So what am I supposed to do?

Uh...
- You know what, forget it.

[theodorelee]

You missed one of the main reasons it failed - it was bolted in to iTunes. Ping should have been a stand alone web site that allowed people to search out and discover new music from others who had similar tastes. Instead, it was built to be a way for Apple to try and push tracks/artists on you who you probably had no interest in.

[darthed]

Personally, I stopped using Ping once I discovered that all of my iTunes Store reviews had been changed to show my real name instead of my pseudonym. Ping's insistence on using real names for all iTunes Store reviews was a deal-breaker for me. I post thoughtful reviews, not knee-jerk reactions or bashing or anything like that. I just wanted my reviews to be listed under a pseudonym that I had spent years cultivating. Google+ made the same mistake initially, and it hurt their nascent momentum. Some people just aren't comfortable using their real names so openly on the Internet, and social networks shouldn't force these people to use their real names if they don't want to.

[FlopTech]

And Ping also added yet more weight and complexity to the already-massive iTunes. Maybe it's time to break iTunes into smaller apps, like on iOS. Probably won't work on the Windows version of iTunes. So Apple would need to have completely separate code trees for the two versions. But the simplification would give (even more) value add to OS X over Windows.

[mainediver218]

I guess I must be a luddite because I just really don't get the whole social media thing. Ping, Facebook, Twitter ... who cares? I have actual conversations with the people that I want to "share" with and find that "face to face", the telephone, and email work pretty well for that. On top of that after my daily barrage of email, phone calls, and meetings I'm quite sure I don't' have lots of spare time to share and "like", read endless postings, and I'm not sure that I'm that into my circle of friends and associates that I need or want to know what they are up to all of the time. I mean, come on, I'd much rather spend the time in the gym, reading, or actually listening to music rather than browsing other people ramblings and rantings. So Ping ... RIP

[n00neimp0rtant]

No one wants to use "A Social Network About ________." People want to use "A Social Network." Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare succeed because they aren't about music, TV shows, food, or any other specific topic. They are about what you're doing, what you're thinking, and where you're going. People don't want to send their friends requests on 20 different networks; they want one or two places to post everything.

[bille3]

Chris, your point is well taken. I feel "Ping" was part social with a pinch of marketing for itunes. With so many social media sites and limited time, you can burnout a lot of people. I feel in a few years there will be a shakeout of these different social sites.

Thanks for sharing your thought and comments on "MacBreak Weekly" too. I always learn alot from you.

[n13331]

The last point is by far the best, also the reason I personally never used it. Something with BUY links on the first page - yeah that's an advert, which means I'll stop looking at it as quickly as possible, and I'd rather die a slow unpleasant death than bothering my friends with it!

All in all it's proof how Apple doesn't get social. They're not alone in this of course, apart from Facebook and Instagram, and a few things like those, nobody has really succeeded. All attempts by big, established companies that actually do something else have certainly failed.

As fake Zuckerberg says in The Social Network: It's like a party - it needs to be cool first, or nobody's gonna show up. Apple kind of forgot that with Ping. That's OK - Apple does actually rather often fail but its successes are so big they overshadow that - kind of like Michael Jordan in that famous Nike commercial where he recites how many games he's lost, how many times he's missed the last, game-deciding shot, how many times he's failed.

[Urandom]

The facebook integration is not "missing". It is the only positive thing about "ping". Btw, the name "ping" was a real awful choice. It is way too similar to "Bing" which makes a connection to Microsoft, and no Apple user wants a service which sounds as if it was from MS.

I do not know why Social Networks are the hype right now. But I am sure that the target group for social networks is not the same as the target group for Apple products (or Android, or any technical stuff). The people I know who are on Facebook are rather computer illiterate, happy to have one place in this large strange internet where they can do everything without the need to move around a lot. And they are mostly Windows users.

[bastion]

Urandom, on 07 June 2012 - 01:23 AM, said:

The facebook integration is not "missing".

It's certainly missing in the sense that it was intended to be there but was removed because Apple and FaceBook couldn't agree on terms of use. Now, whether the consequence of that reality is detrimental, positive or neutral for the service, users or Apple...I can't speak to because I don't use them.

Quote

I do not know why Social Networks are the hype right now. But I am sure that the target group for social networks is not the same as the target group for Apple products (or Android, or any technical stuff). The people I know who are on Facebook are rather computer illiterate, happy to have one place in this large strange internet where they can do everything without the need to move around a lot. And they are mostly Windows users.

I would point out that computers users are mostly Windows users, so it shouldn't be surprising that Windows users also comprise the majority of users of a platform-agnostic site or service. I don't think there's any meaningful disconnect between interest in using a Mac versus using FaceBook.

[tombcn]

mainediver218, on 06 June 2012 - 12:41 AM, said:

I have actual conversations with the people that I want to "share" with and find that "face to face", the telephone, and email work pretty well for that.

You talk as if interacting on Twitter and having real friends are somehow mutually incompatible. They're not. I've met people over Twitter in the real world, where we've continued our discussions over a real beer: it's just a handy tool for following news, trends and topics. Frankly, these days, dismissing social networks en masse is the mark of a Luddite.

But Ping is/was terrible.

[bastion]

tombcn, on 07 June 2012 - 08:16 AM, said:

mainediver218, on 06 June 2012 - 12:41 AM, said:

I have actual conversations with the people that I want to "share" with and find that "face to face", the telephone, and email work pretty well for that.

You talk as if interacting on Twitter and having real friends are somehow mutually incompatible. They're not. I've met people over Twitter in the real world, where we've continued our discussions over a real beer: it's just a handy tool for following news, trends and topics.

You are, of course, 100% correct that there's nothing fundamentally exclusive between participating in online social networks vs traditional socialization beyond the time that's committed to the "new" that *might* previously have been given to the old. Realistically, though, many people find that the amount of time being reallocated is very large and it *is* coming at the meaningful expense of traditional, local interaction. It's not a universal experience but it is increasingly common. Personal relationships have broken up over one member's withdrawal from that relationship in order to commit more time to social networking. You'd be entirely right to say that obviously that was a relationship that was in trouble anyway, but where it becomes problematic is that the person who has begun to turn away is in a very real way not *available* to reconciliation even if they're abstractly open to it. (And before anyone jumps to any conclusions and starts making projections and assumptions: No, I am not speaking from firsthand experience. I *am* however speaking from both direct observation and published data.)

It's known that on FaceBook in particular promiscuous "friending" is the norm and you do find a lot of people engaging in this detached, impersonal sort of activity *instead* of real-time interpersonal communication. (And yes, there is very distinctly a qualitative difference.)

Quote

Frankly, these days, dismissing social networks en masse is the mark of a Luddite.

Depends on what you mean by dismissing. I don't think I'm dismissive of them. I know they're real and they're popular and, as a result, they have real-world significance. But, as much as I acknowledge it, I do not understand the appeal at all. So if you consider simple non-participation to be dismissal then I guess I qualify. And bummer for me, because it's becoming increasingly the case that not participating "enough" in social networking is seen as cause for suspicion.

[JeriWalts]

An oversight believing in it's compatibilty.

[frd750]

mainediver218, on 06 June 2012 - 12:41 AM, said:

I guess I must be a luddite because I just really don't get the whole social media thing. Ping, Facebook, Twitter ... who cares? I have actual conversations with the people that I want to "share" with and find that "face to face", the telephone, and email work pretty well for that. On top of that after my daily barrage of email, phone calls, and meetings I'm quite sure I don't' have lots of spare time to share and "like", read endless postings, and I'm not sure that I'm that into my circle of friends and associates that I need or want to know what they are up to all of the time. I mean, come on, I'd much rather spend the time in the gym, reading, or actually listening to music rather than browsing other people ramblings and rantings. So Ping ... RIP

As you say, who has the time plus the eternal attempt to separate you from your cash. This was a marketing ploy first last and always. The software engineering involved would have been better spent fixing iTunes instead of adding more distractions. It was a mess before ping and ping did not improve it.