Apple Thoughts: Ten Things About Ping

"Ping, Apple's new social network, is the standout feature in iTunes 10, the most recent update to Apple's music management application. Within Ping, you can find and follow your favorite bands and your friends as well as recommend or leave notes about the music you listen to. Ping adds a new layer to iTunes - a social layer focused on discovery, not only of new tracks you'll want to buy (as is the obvious goal), but it also lets you discover news from artists you care about, including concert updates, photos, videos and more."

Apple has done a pretty good job integrating Ping into iTunes, and, for anyone concerned about privacy, the default setting is OFF, so you need to 'opt-in' (Turn On Ping). Setting up your profile allows you to specify up to three genres of music to 'follow,' and you get recommendations on artists that you may (or may not) like. Ping is, so far, very unobtrusive, and, due to the fact that it runs only in iTunes, doesn't need a lot of time for setup or ongoing administration. The sole privacy decision in this first version is setting up either a public (allow people to follow me/with or without approval) or a private (don't allow people to follow me) persona. Using Ping, some of your information like name and photo are exposed to the internet regardless of your privacy setting. Pretty simple, pretty clear. I like what I've seen so far, but, of course, it's only been a few days, and this is just the first iteration of a work-in-progress, so expect more to come.