[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]When the inventor of the web says something, people tend to listen, even when he's trotting out that semi-controversial phrase of the moment, the "social graph".
Much like "Web 2.0", "ajax", "crowdsourcing", the "wisdom of crowds", "UGC" (user generated content) and other catchy terms before them, the social graph looks set to become a bullet point on every web startup's VC pitch in 2008. The blessings this week from Tim Berners-Lee make that inevitable.
Let's leave aside the fact that the "graph" isn't a graph in the sense that most people think of it (most would describe it as a "network") or that the phrase "social network" could already serve this purpose: there's a sense that we need a new word for the concept now that these networks are becoming portable, and the term can ride a wave of Facebook hype to become the de facto nomenclature for this latest piece of the portable identity puzzle. Beyond that, the Webfather's latest blog post gives us a meandering introduction to the social graph's role in the development of the web.