I meant to write about this earlier as Going.com Gets Extra Social On Events appeared in TechCrunch and I'm a member of Going.com but rarely use it.

I think what they've done sounds pretty interesting, if it works well:

"..Central to Going.com 3.0 is a new events and people recommendation engine that allows users to discover events and people in their area. The new features takes Going.com’s event focused social networking service to nearly a dating service. Where as before Going.com recommended events and tied together friends, the new version recommends new friends based on a users event history. Essentially it’s pattern based matching combined with Going.com’s event engine. For example if you’ve been to three or more events in the one city, and someone else has as well, they may recommend that person as a friend match."

Since I didn't use it much, I needed to get some "friends" so I could see their events, and letting Going.com use my Gmail Address book didn't really help that much - (besides letting some people I picked get unexpected invites to Going.com that it says are from me - or mailed in my behalf) - but I suppose if I used Going.com more to find events, it would start matching me up with other people who have Going.com accounts and like or attended the same everts.

While the jury is out on doing this kind of matching - it seems to me the engine behind it would be nice if it could be used on other sites, other types of services.  For example, I wish Kickapps had something like this - or other Social Networks could do something like this - IE: I attended this conference and read these books, recommend others in my related social networks that did have the same interests.

It should be interesting to see what happens with Going.com - still don't know how much I'll use it - and I'm wondering if many people who get the email, sent in my behalf, asking them to join, will be puzzled or annoyed with yet another Social Network to join, and just ignore the invite.

The other thing I notice when I invited a bunch of my email contacts in - because most live in other cities - Going.com asked me if I was planning to go to other events in cities I don't live.  While it's possible, while traveling, to want to go to events - like what I did with Meetup.com in Paris earlier this month with my Visit to Maxim’s in Paris, in practice, Going.com should only show me New York City events, unless I tell it otherwise.

But as Social Networks continue to evolve - they're becoming more sophisticated and matching up a member base with activities and then suggesting friends and dates seems like the next logical step, in this case.  

Again, though, how much am I going to use Going.com? Probably not much - so it's only going to be useful to me if I find it helps connect in ways that would not happen without it -  which is generally how I look at measuring Social Networks - do they make events happen that could not have occurred without them?