Comcast to buy Plaxo: Will Social Networking become “corporate?”

The Philadelphia Business Journal reported today that Comcast Interactive Media intends to buy Plaxo, the operator of an online address book and social network called Pulse.

What does this mean for those who value the social Web as a tool to:

• share ideas freely;
• build and nurture connections; and,
• experiment with innovative ideas, products, and services?

According to Ben Golub, CEO of Plaxo, here’s what Comcast has in-mind:  "Comcast has an exciting vision to bring the social media experience to mainstream consumers…To help users connect with all the people they care about, across all of the devices they use, with all the media they love to consume, create, and share…"

Comcast  Comcast Interactive Media is the Internet business unit of Comcast Corporation  (NASDAQ:CMSCA,CMCSK), the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services.  Comcast is
principally involved in the development, management and operation of
broadband cable networks and in the delivery of programming content. Some statistics about the company:

• 24.7 million cable customers
• 14.1 million high-speed Internet customers
• 5.2 million voice customers

Have you looked at your Cable-TV bill lately?  The cost of your Internet Service?  The cost of your land line or cell phone contract?  If yours is like mine, the cost has grown exponentially while the value of the service has remained fairly constant.

Now think about what you pay for social networking tools like Pulse, Facebook, LinkedIn.com, MySpace, etc?  To paraphrase George Orwell’s famous line in Animal Farm, it is good and necessary for communications tools to change, but not all communications changes are good or necessary.

What do you think this acquisition will mean for users of the social Web?