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While the obsession with mobile facebook and twitter engagement continues to proliferate, it is interesting to think about how a different set of products might one day be connected to our social networks. What would it look like if our home appliances were automatically connected and publishing to social networks? Imagine making a coffee on your Nesresso machine in the morning and the appliance automatically informs your friend network that you just consumed a Ristretto capsule with some foamy milk. Useless information maybe but what if the communication had a greater purpose. What if your home electric meter broadcast your power footprint to your kids’? What if your electric cookbook broadcast the recipe you were cooking to your friend network? What if your Tivo or cable box used facebook connect to inform your friends of the show you were watching? Or think about the wine cellar of the future: what if each bottle had an RFID tag and every time you pulled a bottle out of the cellar it updated your inventory list and triggered a tweet.

Some of the submissions for the Electrolux Design Competition. Some very interesting ideas but none that connect to our favorite social networks.

The first sign of this near future came from Zojirushi in 2005, the Japanese countertop appliance maker that launched the i-pot (NO, not a next generation medical marijuana device, but short for “information pot”), an electric kettle designed for the elderly and their families. The device not only boils water for instant ramen noodles and green tea but it also records the times the user pushes a button and dispenses the water. A wireless communication device at the bottom of the i-pot sends a signal to a server. Members of the service can see recent records of i-pot usage on a Web site. In addition, twice a day the server e-mails the most recent three usage times to a friend or family member. Here’s how it works: http://www.mimamori.net/service/04.html

Since then, there have been numerous new appliances that can connect to a home network or the internet but almost none that link into social networks and contemplate the social vaue of the information they generate. It will be curious to see if, when and how LG, Whirlpool, Phillips, Siemens, Electrolux, Tivo and others start to leverage tools like facebook connect in their products. Maybe this even presents Sony with an opportunity to once again become relevant with their products.