Comments on: Two Reasons Facebook is in Deep Doo-Doo

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m pretty much off the Facebook bandwagon – checking it less often. That said, there are millions of people lovin’ Facebook, and millions more Facebook members on the horizon.

By: Nater Kane

Nater Kane — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

i posted this on my flickr awhile ago. http://flickr.com/photos/naterkane/2122439211/ there was also a short blog post written, but it was turning into a tangential rant and never got published. beacon doesn't scare me, but i do find it both annoying and intriguing... when i went to the movies the other week and just happened to buy my ticket through fandango, it showed up on my Facebook profile. without realizing what i was doing, i approved for fandango to publish my activities to my facebook feed, and now i have no way to turn it off... i prefer letting my twitter friends know if i go to see a movie and having that content made available on facebook over having the business who sold me the movie ticket let everyone know.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

i don’t see the blog post so I assume you kept it unposted? thanks for the photo!

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen, like you, I have a bare-bones Facebook profile. I never intended to use it, it’s only there because of peer pressure – those notification emails from real friends in the real world.

But since beacon, I introduced two safeguards, which essentially render FB useless for me, and me a “non-user”:
– I don’t install ANY FB apps at all
– I only accept session cookies, and the few times I have to log in to check some message, I make damn sure no Facebook related cookie stays on my machine.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I mainly am not in FB because I find (some) users and commenters annoying, along the lines of Apple fanboys. Most of my friends are on MySpace, so that’s why I’m there, and it’s plenty annoying for me to have just one.

I do not understand the FB valuation at all either. Time will tell, and that valuation is not exactly a traditional valuation as with public stocks, so there’s no telling what they’d really get for the company. I just don’t get where the money really will be coming from. The moment I start getting more marketing email and pages than I can take, I will no longer have any account, MySpace or Facebook.

By: Kevin Dugan

Kevin Dugan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen – I’m thinking that different soc nets have different points of differentiation.

MySpace – a must for music, way personal and not professional/business per se.

LinkedIn – In the past year it evolved from an online rolodex into a business socnet. Facebook was the best thing to happen to LinkedIn in my opinion.

Facebook – The bridge in the middle of the two would seem to be Facebook. Can a personal/professional socnet thrive? I think they need to focus on making their network appear less spammy personally. Beacon is a part of this issue.

By: The Real Drama 2.0

The Real Drama 2.0 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There has been some speculation that these “endorsements” may represent a misappropriation of the user’s name and likeness, which is a violation of privacy law. This is utter nonsense. Privacy laws do not apply to Web 2.0 startups and certainly not to Facebook.

Let Mark Zuckerberg do his thing, Allen. Just as the charismatic genius indicated that he’s not worried about the ConnectU lawsuit because Facebook has attorneys dealing with the issue, I’m sure that Mark is not losing any sleep over this. And that’s a good thing. If he was distracted by legalities and business issues (i.e. revenues), he wouldn’t be able to focus on making the world a more open place.

By: Aidan Henry

Aidan Henry — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think that Facebook needs to implement some sort of management system for applications. This isn’t directly related to your post topic, but it is very close. I posted about it here:

http://www.mappingtheweb.com/2007/10/19/facebook-app-management/

The same can also be said for groups. Let me know your thoughts…

Cheers,
Aidan
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com

By: robojiannis

robojiannis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I really think that after data portability becomes more user friendly, serious competitors will emerge for facebook. Some of them are already there (kaioo, plaxo), which give a much simpler impression of social networking. Kaioo is also doing charity! There are many options to be explored…

By: Dorian

Dorian — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It seems like both of your issues with Facebook are pretty easily addressed – should they decide you (and others) are correct in your summation of these problems.

So why would you characterize Facebook’s overall strategy and bplan as “Deep Doo-Doo” which implies something fairly dire?

I’m sure there are plenty of reasons to question their current valuation. I’m just not sure the two issues you mention here are at the core of the debate.

Just my two cents. Cheers.

By: Trush

Trush — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Most groups in FB seem more like badges of honor (or dishonor). My experience is that joining a FB group is more like saying “I support the topic of this group” and less about being an active member, getting something done, or saving time.

Facebook isn’t a real-life productivity tool and, with an ad based business model, it’s not in their interest to have you spend less time exploring.

Where they do excel is in the notifications cycle that makes you more prone to click around to see what’s around the corner and informing your friends to what you’re doing. It cleverly and informally appeals to the whole voyeur / reality tv curiosity.