> "Or, let's say, find 5 other people around me who want to play some 3 on 3 basketball, or a squash partner, whatever."
I don't think that's really the "people around you" concept he's talking about. There are lots of social sites out there that will find activity partners and groups in your city - Meetup being the most salient example. The "people around you" services are the ones that go "user123 is 3 blocks away!". Hyper-local, if you will.
I'm hanging out with friends at a bar, I couldn't give two shits that cutegrrl123 is a block away and also likes chess. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single moment in my life where "meet a random stranger based on an algorithm" is a substantially more attractive option than what I'm doing at that moment.
"user123 likes chess and challenges you to a game this week" might work
"user123 is two blocks away and wants to play chess right the hell now" is not a really good use case
This is a concept that really only works in your head - every implementation of it has landed somewhere between "creepy" and "really useless".
"In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single moment in my life where "meet a random stranger based on an algorithm" is a substantially more attractive option than what I'm doing at that moment."
As someone who hops around the country a fair bit, I can definitely think of one place where this would be an appealing option: airports. I am sometimes able to find a random stranger to engage in conversation, but it's often a crapshoot trying to find someone who's both willing to engage in conversation and interested in the same subjects; I usually settle for just the former. This actually doesn't work too poorly (I've found that on the whole, people who fly tend to be more interesting than a typical cross-section of the population), but I'd be more than willing to spend my hour-long layover with an algorithmically-selected stranger. If I'm also able to find activity partners, all the better; I'd be happy to start packing my portable chess set and Magic the Gathering deck in my carry-on luggage.
I don't think that's really the "people around you" concept he's talking about. There are lots of social sites out there that will find activity partners and groups in your city - Meetup being the most salient example. The "people around you" services are the ones that go "user123 is 3 blocks away!". Hyper-local, if you will.
I'm hanging out with friends at a bar, I couldn't give two shits that cutegrrl123 is a block away and also likes chess. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single moment in my life where "meet a random stranger based on an algorithm" is a substantially more attractive option than what I'm doing at that moment.
"user123 likes chess and challenges you to a game this week" might work
"user123 is two blocks away and wants to play chess right the hell now" is not a really good use case
This is a concept that really only works in your head - every implementation of it has landed somewhere between "creepy" and "really useless".