Ping: Just Another Social Network or Another Breakthrough From the Father of Apple?

PingBy Tony Johnson, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Facebook is the current social network to beat, since Twitter is more popular with adults and Myspace is slowly fading away. However Steve Jobs, founder and father of Apple, is set out to release the next big thing: Ping, his version of the social network.

“I think [Steve Jobs] is going overboard with this because it’s very similar to Twitter or Facebook or Dig,” junior Keagan Wickerham said. “And he’s already created things like the iPod and the iPad and the Macbook.”

Though following musicians is similar to Twitter, Ping allows fans to follow musicians, shows which songs have been recently downloaded, and provides links to new songs, services that could benefit music lovers.

“It sounds pretty decent; that could be beneficial to me,” Oliver said. “But probably not, it’s like Twitter and I really don’t use twitter in general, so anything like twitter is, to me, kind of pointless.”

Though for some, Ping is a fresh way of expressing a user’s love for music, others may find it does not offer anything new, but if Steve Jobs is behind it it’s sure to gain some success.

“Since there are social networks such as twitter and Facebook and Myspace already established, and since I have accounts in all, I think I have as much social networking databases as possible,” sophomore Morgan Lial said. “I could just do that [follow music] on Myspace and have more friends.”

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