41–50 of 67 posts
Well this guy clearly has questionable sense. Myspace absolutely had a use. It just wasn't generic/clean enough for a mass audience. And as for his criticisms about Facebook. I personally have never experienced any of them. Meanwhile the only 'mess' I see around is the Google+ feed. It's nothing but a geeky, low-brow clone of Reddit.
The publicly admitted target is to provide social networking for people. The obvious business target is to make money. But they have to make money while not annoying their users. We know their users are not their customers, because the users do not pay to use the service. The customers are the advertisers. Thus the balance between making sure the advertisers get their wares in front of as many eyeballs as possible while annoying the minimum number of users. And it seems to me that they have this balance wrong at this point. This will happen and if they are monitoring carefully, they'll tune the balance and people will be happy.
The longer-term challenge is that nothing lasts for ever (thanks 2nd law of thermodynamics). Facebook do not need to turn into MySpace to no longer be the top dog. Google wants the top position in the social networking space and they have lots of money to spend their way into it. Or Facebook can drop the ball and get their balance of advertising to their users wrong (see above). Or a new service could come along that finds a way to survive without being beholden to advertisers. (Open-source projects to the rescue?) Or, people could just get fed-up of all the mindless banter on Facebook and decide that they have more important things to do. Or, new networks will arise that actually interoperate, so you can connect to someone on another network. My prediction is that some of all of these will take place.
I have no preference. I am a pastor, so I go where the people are (people business after all) and right now, the people are on Facebook. If MySpace successfully restarts, I'll go there as well.
For those who scale down how they use it (make profile private, engage only w/ real-world friends, post some pictures) Facebook can be rewarding and useful. It's when you follow Facebook's own druthers to have a public profile and connect with everyone under the sun (and like every product under the sun) that Facebook suddenly becomes shit.
Mostly it's that old quote "Hell is other people", and other people tend to post crap, invite you to every group under the Sun and invite you to play every game they see.
Well, people's engagement with facebook has certainly declined from its peak years ago. However, all your "friends" are on it. Nobody wants to go back through that process on an upstart network. Nobody has the energy or motivation. There's plenty of room for new entrants that take slices of your friends and optimize that experience. For example, another network for just your family... offering a close, intimate exper…
No. That said, they do seem to be either making mistakes or getting their eye off the target. The publicly admitted target is to provide social networking for people. The obvious business target is to make money. But they have to make money while not annoying their users. We know their users are not their customers, because the users do not pay to use the service. The customers are the advertisers. Thus the balance b…
Nice one.
if facebook is myspace and google+ is dead on arrival, what tool a normal person have to share photos and stories with his close friends and family? there is still a need for this kind of tool.
No. That said, they do seem to be either making mistakes or getting their eye off the target. The publicly admitted target is to provide social networking for people. The obvious business target is to make money. But they have to make money while not annoying their users. We know their users are not their customers, because the users do not pay to use the service. The customers are the advertisers. Thus the balance b…
You provide pastoral care over Facebook? Nice one.
Haven't taken on anyone outside of the congregation yet. I suppose that could happen.
Facebook has been faking it for at least a year. By faking it I mean not growing under their own power. Now "Fakebook" either has to buy users (like the Instagram deal) or its growth is due to mostly fake users with fake likes giving fake metrics. People are leaving Fakebook now. Not in droves (yet), but the opinion leaders within groups and families are. The ones that are informed are. And the rest will follow once…
I don't see why people keep clinging to this line of reasoning. There is zero evidence of this, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. Not enough people care enough to make any significant changes. The blogs and news articles try to paint a picture of user unrest over privacy issues, but it's all a fantasy.
People will leave when and only when it stops being the place where everyone else is. There will be no mass exodus. The only way facebook will lose its perch is through a slow trickle over many years.
This comment caught my eye: "...I have learned that most content inside of Facebook is real crap. 'Ouch, I broke my toe' is one of the more interesting posts." This and other anecdotal evidence suggests Facebook is slowly turning into an online public square -- a place where it's in one's best interest never to do, say, or share anything private of real significance, because sooner or later the whole town will find o…