One of my first Radar posts was on how social networking ought to be: people connected to people via things. I know Larry through Perl, I know Tim through work, I know Robin through a really great party, etc. Build those connecting things into the fabric of the social networking system, and it’ll start to represent reality more than the state of the art “friend or foe?” classification.
Social networking startup (remember when those words were the kiss of death?) imeem appears to have taken this on board. As a Wired News piece reports, they’ve created meems for sports, TV show, etc. I get the sense they’re currently thinking of these things that connect people as little more than the blog/Flickr version of a chat room, but it’s good to see social networking moving.