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    Thoughts on iTunes10 and Ping

    Like anyone else interested in technology I dutifully downloaded iTunes10 and clicked on the new Ping icon. Looking past the misuse of a common networking term as the name I proceeded to setup my account.

    Hmm... I can't just import my stuff from Facebook or Twitter to auto-populate my account? Okay, no Gravatar support, I guess I can understand that, but they have to approve my avatar? Are you kidding me?

    Okay, then they ask me to choose a maximum of three genres of music I like. Three? That's it? First, they can't figure that out from my damned iTunes library? Second, their categories are a joke. Nobody listens to Punk, Alternative, Swing, Folk? What the hell?

    Based solely on the profile creation section this looks like Apple has absolutely no clue what a social network is. But I digress...
    Then they show the artists they recommend I follow: Lady GaGa, Yo-Yo Ma, Katy Perry, U2, Jack Johnson and Linkin Park. This pretty much shows how little intelligence this app has. It is built into my damned iTunes yet it can't look at the music in my library and base recommendations off of that? What a bunch of obviously commercial recommendations. I'll bet these would have been recommended to me regardless of what three genres I chose to like.

    Then I use the search bar to look for artists. Twenty in a row and not a single one turns up. FAIL.

    This social network is empty and useless. There aren't any artists worth following and you can only comment on purchases or other people's likes. But then it hit me: This isn't about music and it's not terribly social. It's about buying stuff and celebrities. I'm amazed that nobody at Apple looked at Last.fm while building this. Last.fm has the last four years of my music listening history, has recommendations based upon what I actually like and listen to and generally is way more social and about music than Ping could even hope to come close to.

    Sorry Apple, how do I delete my Ping account?

    • 4 September 2010
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