Apple might be about to drop Ping

APPLE MIGHT BE ABOUT TO WITHDRAW its toe from social networking and close down its Ping service.

Ping is an also ran social network that seems to be based around Itunes. We have never heard anyone speak of it outside the industry, but Apple has persevered with it for almost two years.

That grace period might be over though, according to a report on the Allthingsd web site, which has it that Apple is already holding an axe over the head of its two year old social network.

We've covered Ping in the past, but rarely in a good way. When Apple launched it the service was beset with spammers, while some overzealous filtering gave the impression that homosexuality was unwelcome there.

A faltered launch made way for a swift update, but users complained that Ping was not as social as they liked and would not let them share things across other web sites like Facebook, which is easily the largest social network.

Allthingsd sources have told it that Ping will be dropped from Apple's next major Itunes software release to clear a path for cosy arrangements with Twitter and Facebook. We are waiting for Apple to comment on the report. µ