etailology

To scrobble is to grab information on a users personal computer, upload and add it to a database online, and then make it available to other services or social networking applications.

An important aspect of scrobbling is how it’s different from “uploading” or “updating” or “linking” in that information which is suitable for scrobbling is both trivial and frequent data which holds LITTLE OR NO meaning without some sort of social networking connection.

To be fair, Last.fm is the only social networking application that uses the term “scrobbling” in the way I describe. So, this post is more a prediction than a definition. I predict this term — and the activity it describes — will become increasingly important and prevalent to the growth of the Internet and may even perhaps be the seed of what gets called Web 3.0. (Assuming we all just don’t phone it in right now and declare that Web 3.0 is the mobile web.

In much the same way that my mere presence at my computer is “scrobbled” on to AIM as “he’s online now” and becomes a veritable invite for my friends and associates to communicate with me, other information can be scrobbled and connected in ways that increase meaning for both me and my associates/friends,/colleagues/neighbors.

Imagine if the mundane details of your life are suddenly and easily scrobbled online, where they can be managed and related too. All the sudden, my grocery list can become a tasting menu for my friends (or an online order for my grocer, or a nutritional analysis for my doctor), the books my friends read become a recommendation for me… the shows my in-laws watch become the source of Thanksgiving table conversation.

[techtags: scrobbling]