facebook got lucky because it started at a college probably using its server and wide bandwidth to spread, I don't like it when things get too big there always needs to be competition to insure quality vs this is just what you use and thats pretty much it

To me Facebook has started something though. People who would go nowhere near a PC, probably didn't even know how to use one, seem to be using it. MySpace only managed to seem to get those already using computers but it appears at least to me, Facebook has managed to get people who wouldn't use a social network site, or even a PC, to sign up.

One thing I'd like to point out, about the new looks, is that I appeared or so it seemed, to be the only one who liked when Facebook changed the original look. Going back a bit now, all the applications where on your main profile page, all thrown about, making it hard to find information or get to a specific part of the profile.

This to me points out one of MySpace's positives but also it's flaw – the ability to literally design your own profile. Facebook is simply for putting information on – you can put bits about yourself, put media and other stuff on, but you can't really design your own profile. However you can do this on MySpace, however this means that profile users also have the ability to use HTML code. A lot of profiles use code by non professional web designers, and often because of their lack of knowledge mess something up. With bad code, and bad design skills, stuff are thrown around the profile, just like the original Facebook.

My question is, do people think MySpace did enough to keep on the ball, as they seem to be collapsing, with a lot of staff apparently also departing. Or could they actually do much?

It is my opinion that MySpace is doomed, simply because every0ne is currently on one place, well most of us, so why use another service? I believe that eventually, although possibly not for a while, Facebook will die out with a new service in place. Some believe this may be Twitter, although I think not. Twitter is basically the status side of Facebook, and that only. I think that people use Facebook because they can chat, put the statuses on, and also upload and tag photos and videos. Twitter would not fur fill many peoples desires.

As far as passivity is concerned and the type of relationship fostered, there’s probably a more scientific categorisation than mine, but I classify contacts on Facebook into three: active, day to day friends; passive friends (e.g. old classmates); and not friends (what many contacts on Twitter et al seem to be, which has spilled into many people’s friendlists on Facebook). Activity can be destructive to certain friendships, particularly if you don’t want to see activity from a person, and in my case, I really dislike when “not friends” try to turn my newsfeed into Twitter. But also when an old classmate (that I never really liked) starts writing about baby x or pet y, and posting lots of pictures about it.

I guess what it comes down to is that my opinion of Facebook has changed a lot since I wrote my original post. There is a responsibility we have when conducting ourselves with friends on Facebook; and, at the same time, “active friendships” will benefit most from maintaining contact beyond Facebook.

Personally, I agree that the friend list and feeds end up becoming a passive way to relate to people. However, this is only true about people you were never really friends with- that classmate that friended you the first week of college to make her friend number higher, the guy working in the mailroom who you never see or the friend of a friend who you met once while you were drunk… the beauty of facebook is that although a lot of these people you will never see again, you may find you have a connection with SOME of them through commenting on their status, looking at their pictures or reading their interests.

By the random sample of people who end up commenting on my statuses, I conclude that a least some people can see past the clutter of useless information that comes up on news feeds to actually connect with someone however superficial that connection may be.

For this reason, I don’t think facebook CAN fail. I want to sift through the clutter and find real connections. This is what keeps me coming back… every day.. several times

The dying out of Facebook has already started. Ever since it was opened to High School students, and then to geographic locations, more and more people have started hating it – a new, smaller-scale Eternal September.

Then there was the removal of the Networks page, even though it was used quite a lot. That got a lot of people to turn away from Facebook.

Now they keep redesigning the entire site. It’s been getting worse with each redesign – soon it will become a new Myspace. These redesigns are what’s turning me away from it.

that is why it is soo awesome!! *and is better than myspsace for the technologically impaired people like me *

But there is other stuff happening in the Facebook-camp, which will add an excellent viral angle beyond what Facebook’s doing in Facebook.com. I may write about this, when I have more to say about it.

I think they could change and move into this space with ease

The reason why mobile phones are doing so well is not only because they manage to convey more “chemistry,” but also because they fit into the context of everyday-life, something I think Facebook in its current iteration lacks.

Thanks Georgia, some interesting points which I’ll have to reflect on further. I’d love to have you blog for Tech IT Easy if you ever feel like it. If you’re interested, send me a mail at: techiteasyblog@gmail.com

Starting from cohesion: I agree that on facebook there is no organised game : everybody invents his own and it might get boring either due to spamming of mediocrity or due to continuous disruption. The initial advantage of having others doing the animation for them is being proved unsustainably chaotic.

Who cares?

Apart from Facebook creators, there are other organisations for which Facebook is equally and maybe more precious: marketeers, business intelligenteers and other statisctical observers. They would definitely care to develop more user-implicating apps. Will they have the creativity pools and the mathematical virtuosity on organisation to do so?

Why not?

Interfaced communication has always been “poor” for humans, emails were often a source of misunderstandings, msn a source of noise, groups and fora had a risk of personality overexposure. Thus none of them has been abandoned, the same way that people do not demolish their societies just because they’re fed up with taxes, politicians, superficiality of PR.

So leaving facebook might equal an act of anarchy adhesion.

Adding an invisibility application might save you some of the political drama caused to your entourage.

Wouldn’t one (one: in a sense of statistic random) go Swiss or Swedish rather than go outcast?

What’s next?

(face)Books make up libraries, and libraries can represent .dll files (or wikis in the web2 version). And then I imagine that we can make real applications or operating systems, I will have to refresh my engineering to decrease the naivety of my thoughts on this… But anyway it is now that it gets interesting with social webications and all.

Will it be “Big”?

So it might not be “Big” in terms of volume but it should be more refined

(Thanx guys, the choice of topics is really stimulating!)

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I think that the, somewhat ironic, pressures on Facebook to open up, will actually be the greatest cause for migration. If you can import your friends to another, “fresher” social network, or simply start communicating via mail again, do you then still need Facebook?

I’m sure all these bloggers screaming for Facebook to open up are given it a great big headache trying to figure out how to solve this problem.

Are the early adopters already dropping Facebook and searching for the next big thing? Will Facebook stagnate in 2008?

I have my complaints about Facebook as well, different approach, but feel the same about most of what your wrote: Good as a repository for some contacts, but not useful for business nor even more than 5 minutes of my daily time.

But at the end, will you be able to leave Facebook (I’m thinking about it)? I believe its hard once you reached a critical mass of contacts. Bloody mainstream, even it is much useless information. Still, there are some for example some pictures I don’t want to miss as they aren’t published anywhere else. So at the end I just will ignore those stupid applications. Not sure whether this will have Facebook fail, at least not making revenue with me…