So Apple has launched iTunes 10 with Ping. It's unusual for Apple to enter the social world and so far it seems pretty odd.
Once downloaded you can start Ping and and create your profile with the usual photo, location, about me and genres of music you like. You also choose what is shown on your profile and whether people can follow you or not. If they do, they will be able to see all your purchases and reviews etc.
Ping then recommends artists and people you should follow. I found it quite strange that it recommended I follow three individuals who are linked to the music industry somehow but were in no way connected to me or the music genres I chose.
It appeared that they were perhaps just the first people to sign up as they each had 20,000 followers! Who are these people and why are they the only three being recommended?
Ping says that you can invite friends but seemingly the only option available was to type in their email addresses. With all other social sites allowing linking to email accounts which automatically invite contacts, this seems a little backwards. According to the guidelines you can connect via Facebook but Apple didn't follow Facebook's rules for this and Facebook removed the connection.
Perhaps Apple should have thought more socially when launching and communicated with Facebook about this to ensure an agreement was in place. Without automatic linking distribution amongst networks will be limited.
So, first impressions are not great, but once friends and connections join then maybe it will become more compelling!
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