Facebook's Three New Products • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#11

Post by ugh » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:54 PM UTC

pstack wrote: post #10

I don't see any products, there. I just see a couple of lame features. Skype and group chat. Skype already does Skype, so I'm not sure why I'd load up Facebook just so I could skype through a webpage, instead. My IM client has done group chat for years, so I'm not sure why I'd load up facebook just so I could chat with a group of those people, either. This kind of falls in line with my confusion as to why people ruin…

It’s for people who already spend a lot of time on Facebook. They don’t have to bother anymore using dedicated software. Simple as that. You are looking at it from the wrong perspective.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#12

Post by ssclafani » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:55 PM UTC

michaelchisari wrote: post #2

Given their social networking dominance, their swimming pools filled with vc money, and the top engineers working for them, does anyone else feel like Facebook are underachievers? Considering they had to have known about G+ for a while before it launched, you would think they would really hit something out of the park in terms of competitive features. These are all pretty lackluster, imho.

Facebook doesn't need to have competitive features they only need to have comparative features. Google+ has video chat, now Facebook does. It doesn't matter that Hangout is better. People don't switch social networks based on any single feature.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#13

Post by smackfu » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

pstack wrote: post #10

I don't see any products, there. I just see a couple of lame features. Skype and group chat. Skype already does Skype, so I'm not sure why I'd load up Facebook just so I could skype through a webpage, instead. My IM client has done group chat for years, so I'm not sure why I'd load up facebook just so I could chat with a group of those people, either. This kind of falls in line with my confusion as to why people ruin…

Don't need a Skype login, or need to know anyone's Skype login.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#14

Post by michaelchisari » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

ssclafani wrote: post #12

michaelchisari wrote: post #2

Given their social networking dominance, their swimming pools filled with vc money, and the top engineers working for them, does anyone else feel like Facebook are underachievers? Considering they had to have known about G+ for a while before it launched, you would think they would really hit something out of the park in terms of competitive features. These are all pretty lackluster, imho.

Facebook doesn't need to have competitive features they only need to have comparative features. Google+ has video chat, now Facebook does. It doesn't matter that Hangout is better. People don't switch social networks based on any single feature.

Do you really think that attitude will allow them to maintain their dominance?

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#15

Post by ThomPete » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

pstack wrote: post #10

I don't see any products, there. I just see a couple of lame features. Skype and group chat. Skype already does Skype, so I'm not sure why I'd load up Facebook just so I could skype through a webpage, instead. My IM client has done group chat for years, so I'm not sure why I'd load up facebook just so I could chat with a group of those people, either. This kind of falls in line with my confusion as to why people ruin…

I think you are setting up a false premise here.

There are many people (including me) who have been using the internet for a very very very long time and don't see facebook as the internet even though we use it.

And I can see that I get quite a few sign-ups to my service that way.

Also the problem is not as much whether people use it for traffic generation. The problem is when they only use it for that.

I am actually beginning to consult my clients on how to build their own digital ecosystems so that they don't leave all the value inside the gates of facebook, twitter etc. but rather attempt to get the value transfered back inside their own ecosystem.

Once you start seeing it that way things start to look very different.

I made a longer argument about it here:

http://000fff.org/how-to-think-like-facebook-and-twitter/

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#16

Post by kenjackson » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #4

michaelchisari wrote: post #2

Given their social networking dominance, their swimming pools filled with vc money, and the top engineers working for them, does anyone else feel like Facebook are underachievers? Considering they had to have known about G+ for a while before it launched, you would think they would really hit something out of the park in terms of competitive features. These are all pretty lackluster, imho.

G+ launched with Group video chat (in the Hangouts feature) with no fanfare at all, as it if was nothing. FB's announcement today has spent a lot of time talking about how much work it was to implement... It's got to be a huge kick in the pants to them. I kind of feel bad for them.

Apple does this every release. Marketing is important.

Facebook is now the ubiquitous video chat social network, built on Skype. Google+ is Circles on your Gmail. Everything else you say requires some level of convincing.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#17

Post by wallnutboy » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

My god, Mark really isn't that good at this CEO schtick is he.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#18

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

michaelchisari wrote: post #2

Given their social networking dominance, their swimming pools filled with vc money, and the top engineers working for them, does anyone else feel like Facebook are underachievers? Considering they had to have known about G+ for a while before it launched, you would think they would really hit something out of the park in terms of competitive features. These are all pretty lackluster, imho.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#19

Post by ThomPete » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 6:00 PM UTC

It's interesting.

The very first feature they show. Is the one that Skype implemented which a lot of people hated. Personally I think it's a great great feature. But it is a feature.

Re: Facebook's Three New Products

#20

Post by smackfu » Wed, Jul 06, 2011, 6:00 PM UTC

benbscholz wrote: post #5

michaelchisari wrote: post #2

Given their social networking dominance, their swimming pools filled with vc money, and the top engineers working for them, does anyone else feel like Facebook are underachievers? Considering they had to have known about G+ for a while before it launched, you would think they would really hit something out of the park in terms of competitive features. These are all pretty lackluster, imho.

The video features built into gchat have served my needs perfectly. Between hangouts & youtube video sharing, I think google+ is out-shining them at this point in time.

The bigger question is still whether people will actually use these things. Where people means greater than 5% of the userbase.