I’ve always warned that starting a new search engine, no matter how unique the offering, is a risky proposition. Even if you do create something different, what’s to stop Google from rolling out the same functionality? If I can get it at Google, why go else where?

The same appears to be holding true in the social networking space. After reporting Monday that Thoof might challenge Digg - as the new site will make it easier to track updates to the story – Digg has taken a (small) step in making it easier to follow conversations. Mashable is reporting the testing of threaded/nested comments, which make it easier to reply to a particular comment – and read the ensuing conversation – than before.

The NYT continues to impress me with their coverage of search and social media, this time reporting on the invite-only launch of Thoof.com. Thoof is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Ian Clarke and appears to offer a news submission and voting site similar to Digg, but with the ability for users to edit the submissions and update the content, a la Wikipedia.

Mr. Clarke expects that a small percentage of the site’s users will contribute links to articles, while most readers will come to the site because it will match articles with their interests.

Active members of the Thoof community will be able to alter the contributions of other users, changing headlines and even substituting a link to a better article on the same subject. The community will then vote on the changes.

There’s an interesting column in the New York Times that documents a mother’s attempts to connect with her daughter by joining Facebook- which is where the daughter hangs-out.

Things don’t really go well, with the mother being shunned by here daughter and even experts telling her that she’s messing with her daughter’s head.

…Professor Wesch reminded me that what Facebook’s younger users really are doing is exploring their identities, which they may not want to parade in front of their parents.

“Can’t I explore my identity, too?” I asked. “Why does everything fun have to be for them?”

He pointed out that there are a number of other social networks — sober, grown-up places like Linkedin.com (for making business contacts) and Care2.com (for social activists) and Webbiographies.com (for amateur genealogists) — where I could cavort without offending my daughter.

LiveJournal faced a user backlash, when it deleted hundreds of communities, as part of its efforts to clean up pedophilia-related discussions.

Apparently, the company’s noble efforts included the removal of many fantasy communities where users share sexually-explicit fictional stories.

The mass reinstatement means that the deleted science fiction and fantasy “fandom” groups–many of which boast sexually explicit fiction written by fans about characters such as those from the Harry Potter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer universes–began reappearing Thursday.

The community retaliated and LiveJournal apologized and is in the process of reinstating the accounts that don’t violate its policy. It’s a tough decision for LiveJournal. The sites are not breaking any laws, but do violate LiveJournal’s terms of service which ban “objectionable” content.