Webs within the Web

Right now, the web is the wild west. There are web pages everywhere, on everything. It is becoming increasingly hard to get a domain name that matches an idea or product, as so many names have been taken, even if they aren't being used. The popularity of MySpace and Facebook, above the "find a friend" social networking aspect, is due to the fact that it gives people a home on the web. Somewhere to hang your hat as it were. Obviously people can create homepages, but they aren't easily connected to other people.

This is where the "friend" aspect of social networking really pays off; it essentially creates a "Web within the Web". If I create a Facebook account, it is generally easy for me to hook up with friends and view their homepages (essentially visiting their web homes) and makes it easy for my friends to visit my page. If I create a homepage on the web, it sits there doing nothing until I announce it to the world. I need to hard code links to my friends and I need to communicate my web address to them.

The rise of the API for Facebook (and soon MySpace) shows that people want the flexibility, the content and the novelty the web provides, all from within their connected social network. People still want the breadth of the web, the full diversity, but from within a more connected and personal environment. People still want the freedom to create.

So, how then do you provide a true "Web within the Web"? Has Facebook et al. achieved it? Or is it a new web protocol? Or is it something else?

TBC.