I think Facebook will have a very rough time unless they make some HUGE changes; Because it’s a fairly closed network that is trying to “replicate” open internet protocols.
I fully understand that the goal is to improve/tighten these methods of connection within a community — but shouldn’t that goal be the whole internet as a society (across sites/platforms/etc)? Or is this much too simplistic a view?
Read something interesting this AM that sums up a lot of it (and how tough it will be);
http://scobleizer.com/2008/03/26/the-real-roadblocks-to-data-portability-on-social-networks/
And yesterday we had a discussion about identity online; I quickly listed out “stevey” on the internet; Interesting to see which one seems to be the ‘odd man out’.
https://stevey.wpengine.com/
http://www.twitter.com/stevey
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevey/
http://www.vimeo.com/stevey/
http://del.icio.us/stevey
http://stevey.muxtape.com/
http://friendfeed.com/stevey
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=564665540
i use twitter 100x more then i use Facebook. it’s big and unwieldy. too much time. too many people sending me dumb requests. if all those people that i’m friends with on facebook, were on twitter, we’d talk a lot more.
FB was close to perfect before all the add-on apps were introduced. It was successful for a reason – finding and communicating with old friends and organizing events and like-minded people in a very simple way. Everyone used it for that reason. Now, it’s just bloated.
Friends of mine know that I’ve been a Facebook hater from the moment it took off in the Montreal community. I much prefer email and chat to communicating with my friends, than logging into an environment where people ‘poke’ me and invite me to gamble or whatever. After the buzz of gathering friends and reconnecting for a few brief chats with people I used to know, Facebook doesn’t really offer me anything but irritation. Thank God you can turn off all the email notifications.
I agree — as a simple “find old friends” app – it was great – everything beyond that was nonsense.
someone should do a “muxtape” simple find old friends app. super simple. no frills, no add-ons
I think the strength of Facebook for the “find old friends” – was it’s ability to search/group people by location/school/job/hometown.
That was it’s killer app.
Facebook delivered a “fast and easy” fix to community for a generation caught in a fast paced world. Thing is – it may be nice to know your old friends are alive, it’s something else to actually see them. The initial connection is there, but the web is about CONTENT. Most users post info or pictures only monthly. It needs a built in blog feature. I think most people will realize this shortly, and abandon FB. Also, unfortunately it has become ALMOST as annoying as MySpace with all the apps/pokes/forwards. My 2 pennies
I can only see them adding features — not improving or removing them. It’s tough to see how they will move forward.
The rumor is they are about to release a built in FB chat app.
I’m all for building a improving internet – but not when it’s closed.
GaryVee had it right “Zombie Invites”. (?!?!) i spend 90% of time clicking the “ignore” button.
It comes down to more and more “open” hooks between them – stuff that is built in form the beginning.
I’m so sick of the ignore button too !! – must be away to set a “please don’t bother me – only for makin’ friends”.
You know you CAN block an application.
Easy app by app:
http://www.tylerreed.co.za/facebook/how-to-block-facebook-applications-completely.html
Extreme approach
http://tech.karbassi.com/2007/09/19/automatically-block-facebook-applications/