You my dear chap make a lot of sense. (really)
I would like to friend you on Facebook ;-)
Facebook the Devourer
21–30 of 101 posts
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#22The thing I find myself hating about all of these anti-Facebook rants is that they all seem to operate under the assumption that Facebook has "subsumed" all of this functionality from the internet at large, which seems spectacularly false.
The number of people who "switched" from doing all of these things (blogging, IM, photo-posting, online gaming) on other sites to using Facebook for them is a tiny tiny minority compared to the number of people who never did any of them before.
It assumes that if Facebook went away, that all of these people would just go "back" to using Blogger, or Flickr, or AIM, or Armor Games, and the internet at large would be a better place.
I don't think that's even remotely true. Nerds can happily continue to use those services, and regular people will keep using Facebook.
Sure, someday there'll be a "new Facebook", and then people can complain about that walled garden.
People whining about Facebook feels very much like people whining about American Idol (or stupefying-ly popular CBS sitcoms). Like if 2.5 Men was suddenly cancelled, people would all start watching Mythbusters or assembling Arduinos.
Providing "free" online services to a billion people seems like a giant win for society.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#23> Remember Facebook? This delusion that Facebook is somehow dramatically more replaceable than Google or Amazon is kinda amusing. There are plenty of other places to buy online and plenty of other places to search. I can't imagine the mental contortions that are required to hold both of these beliefs at once: "Facebook is replaceable," and, "Google is irreplaceable." They are both replaceable, but it would be tough i…
Google has a search algorithm that outperforms any other. Their value proposition is that they can help you find what you are looking for better than their competitors can. Amazon has a vast network of suppliers and infrastructure. Their value proposition is that they can provide better selection and delivery than their competition. In both cases, the value is provided by the company. Facebook is a website that lets…
Have you not done the Google-Bing side-by-side stuff? Personally, I can barely tell the difference. It's far from clear that Google outperforms any other algorithm by enough of a margin to matter. Certainly, Facebook outperforms all other social platforms by a much greater margin, both in terms of the network and ease of use.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#24Of course we can replace facebook. If you think about it, we don't really need a "social network" - all these things can be done via e-mail, xmmp and irc (all of which are standard open protocols). Use mail groups instead of "pages" and "communities", set up your mail client to neatly arrange incoming messages in folders and voila. Use xmmp for private conversations. Use irc for group conversations. It's easy.
The thing is, most non-technical users won't be able to do it. Can you imagine your grandma using irc?
The value of facebook and similar social networks is that they unlock the power of internet communication for people who would otherwise be unable to use it.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#25People get bored of looking at the same thing for too long.
The combination of HTTP, Browsers, HTML, etc provides a broad canvas for artists, designers and makers to paint on. Facebook and Twitter are trying hard to take all of these amazing experiences, content and sites and package them up into a wall post or tweet. This is going to get boring for the majority of users and another solution for finding great content will catch our collective interest.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#26If you want to hate on Facebook there should be less focus on Facebook the tool, which is a useful communication service, and more focus on Facebook the company, which is horrible.
Terrible business model, "shadiness", and being part of an ongoing mass of wealth evaporation (Zynga, as we speak) is what bothers me the most about Facebook.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#27I reap enormous value from Facebook and frankly feel that the tradeoff is well worth it.
Anytime I see an update in my feed that is either inane, useless, irritating, cloying, etc., I simply update the settings for that user's updates to "Only Show Important". After over a year of cultivating my feed, I am treated to a birds-eye view of the experiences of important people in my life every time I log into Facebook. This is nothing short of miraculous to me.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#28Nitpicking, but missing disclosure:
OP works for a company named Instrument that does work on several things for Google. Google is a competitor to Facebook.
My name is Thomas Reynolds. I'm a Technical Lead at Instrument, lucky denizen of Portland, active Crossfitter, a foodie, a cocktail enthusiast and all-around nerd.
http://weareinstrument.com/work/
In late 2011, Google came to Instrument and tasked us with designing an online product experience for the global launch of Google's first phone with Android 4.0, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
Partnering with Google, we crafted a new identity for their “Developers” brand to educate and inspire those who embrace their open-source platforms.
To welcome the arrival of one of the biggest days in sports, we created “Game Day”, in partnership with Google, to speak directly with football fans around the world about the many helpful features of Google Search.Re: Facebook the Devourer
#29It's either this or HTTP. I like the current level of abstraction the net has, I wouldn't like seeing it transforming in a closed platform on a single domain. I made radnation.com to be another place to be or thing to do in the internet, what we need is more indie sites like these creating different dynamics of use and features that are unique enough that copying all of them would be hard for a site like Facebook, then letting FB do one thing and stick to it.
Re: Facebook the Devourer
#30At least someone had the motherfucking balls to write this article. Good for him.