Thursday, June 16, 2011

Facebook Fatigue

So here's the deal Facebook's this awesome site where over 500 million users can interact with their friends and associates. Its popularity has been unchallenged leaving companies like Google and Microsoft sitting up and paying attention.

But I've got a theory that Facebook's banking too much on the social connection. Facebook's a shiny new red toy engine. It's what everyone wants and needs to have. But over time the red paints going to wear out and we're going to go after shinier toys.

Facebook is cool because it's purely web based. Awesome, but to a user Facebook offers a platform for information sharing. This information is not random, it's personal information. It can be a video you like, a picture you love or just a status that makes you laugh.

But here's where I draw the line. Facebook's not doing enough to keep me dazzled. It's chat doesn't work as well as the Gmail Gtalk plugin. It's difficult to marshal content so as to control who views it. It's getting old and becoming advertising real estate which I'm not interested in. Maybe it is useful to advertisers but from personal speak I'm not looking at the ads. I just connect see if there's anything interesting happening in my social network and log off.

Facebook launched a new e-mail service with some yap yap difference. Well guess what I don't want to use the e-mail service.  Now Google's done well in attracting the masses away from leaders such as MSN Hotmail and Yahoo mail by offering unlimited e-mail storage. So you've got you're personal e-mail with all your contacts located int one place and you've got your social connections located in another. Interesting. You'd like to keep the two apart because if you're using Facebook for business you wouldn't want associates et al dropping in on your social life. It's the tendency to separate business and pleasure for fear of not being taken seriously.

People live different lives. Not many people can safely say they're the same person to everyone. You're most likely a serious person at work and a loose fun loving beer drinking friend at parties. There's a reason why you're not the same person. It's because you live in different social circles. Within each circle you're a different person.

Facebook's got along way to go before it can match up to my take on what the next big thing is going to be. In this Google's trying to claw its way up the social curve. But Google's got more and continuously strives to put a fresh coat of paint on the red toy train. Google's got millions of Gmail users who use Android phones and growing. This is where lies the value. You don't talk to strangers. That contact list of yours is your social network at least the important one.

For now Facebook's got to prove it's improving and drawing more users to consider it seriously. I truly hope Mark's got an ace up his sleeve until then I'm going to view his company as the Joker in the pack.

2 comments:

  1. Take what you like and leave the rest ..

    If you really care about who knows what about you, stick to the old phone call, facebook, orkut, buzz or any other social networking site is just not for you!

    To me, you don't have to be a different person in different circles, or rather you should not be. I don't mind being perceived as a dead serious taskmaster at work, and then be seen on facebook dazed and confused chugging down a beer! That's who I am!

    I don't really care if google is going to come up the next big thing, or if I'm gonna be using facebook for the next year... it's there, it's free .. so take what you like, and leave the rest!

    my 2 cents.

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  2. You're right you don't have to be a different person but people do it's a tendency.

    I've taken what I like but I'd want more even if it is free.

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