Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Message from Facebook: this could be war

espresso.economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 75 posts

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#21

Post by golergka »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #5

Ugh. At least the world has managed to have "Email" as a standard, a medium, that is not controlled by any huge corporation's grubby claws. Why not with chat? What happened to this? Why is there a war for my data with these big companies, who do NOT have our best interests in mind, and never will? Why can't we have a federated standard for chat, controlled by no one? It seems that we have come close at various times…

Because open-source chat platforms lack features that make apps like WhatsApp good for regular users.

How long does it take you to set up a Jabber client? Can you add a person to Jabber using just their phone number?

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#22

Post by calvin_c »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #12
tomp wrote: post #6

In the UK, there have been quite a few TV ads from Facebook recently. Yesterday, after watching another one, my girlfriend commented: "Even Facebook is making ads now - this tells us a lot about how well things are going for them."

Heh, good point. Google advertises on Google but I have hardly seen a Google ad outside of a page that displays Google ads. Disclaimer: I don't watch TV.

I recently started watching live TV through a digital antenna and SlingTV, and I've actually seen a handful of ads for Google. I've only seen one or two search ads, but a bunch for Android thought their new "Be different, not the same" campaign. Still, many more than I've seen for Facebook.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#23

Post by golergka »

ColinWright wrote: post #2

Facebook is expected to say that it will turn its app - called Messenger - which has 500m users, into a "platform". That means others will be able to develop software for it (for gaming, hotel bookings, tickets and so on). Doesn't FaceBook have form in encouraging people to use its interfaces and facilities, and then either cutting them off or starting to charge unexpectedly? I wonder what guarantees they will give t…

You don't have to trust them. But using their platform, you can reach such a gigantic amount of users, it's better to use it anyway. Even if they screw you afterwards.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#24

Post by antihero »

Morgawr wrote: post #17
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #5

Ugh. At least the world has managed to have "Email" as a standard, a medium, that is not controlled by any huge corporation's grubby claws. Why not with chat? What happened to this? Why is there a war for my data with these big companies, who do NOT have our best interests in mind, and never will? Why can't we have a federated standard for chat, controlled by no one? It seems that we have come close at various times…

>Why can't we have a federated standard for chat, controlled by no one? It seems that we have come close at various times but it has never happened. Will it ever happen? Or is it already too late? This is why I simply love IRC.

But IRC has failed, colossally, because it is old-school technology for old-school people. The vast majority of users don't want to think about servers, clients, etc. They want to at most get the app, and start talking to their mates.

I mean there may be some way to do this with IRC where you don't have to piss around with ident and nicks and nets and netsplits and all this other ridiculous stuff, but the proof is in the pudding.

IRC is great, for geeks.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#25

Post by msl09 »

danbruc wrote: post #15

First they separated messaging from the Facebook app where you can have games and apps and stuff and now they are integrating all that back. Why? Personally I absolutely prefer a slim messaging app not bloated with more or less unrelated stuff.

My thoughts exactly. Seems like facebook bought Whatsup to bring it to the ground.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#26

Post by evgen »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #12
tomp wrote: post #6

In the UK, there have been quite a few TV ads from Facebook recently. Yesterday, after watching another one, my girlfriend commented: "Even Facebook is making ads now - this tells us a lot about how well things are going for them."

Heh, good point. Google advertises on Google but I have hardly seen a Google ad outside of a page that displays Google ads. Disclaimer: I don't watch TV.

Then you missed the massive TV campaign Google did last year telling you how they were going to track your child's life from conception to death. Uber-creepy.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#27

Post by blowski »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #12
tomp wrote: post #6

In the UK, there have been quite a few TV ads from Facebook recently. Yesterday, after watching another one, my girlfriend commented: "Even Facebook is making ads now - this tells us a lot about how well things are going for them."

Heh, good point. Google advertises on Google but I have hardly seen a Google ad outside of a page that displays Google ads. Disclaimer: I don't watch TV.

I've seen loads of Google ads - on TV, in the press, and especially outdoor advertising. It's typically conceptual stuff, about security, privacy, etc.

In addition, I get a lot of direct mail with vouchers for using AdWords.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#28

Post by antihero »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #5

Ugh. At least the world has managed to have "Email" as a standard, a medium, that is not controlled by any huge corporation's grubby claws. Why not with chat? What happened to this? Why is there a war for my data with these big companies, who do NOT have our best interests in mind, and never will? Why can't we have a federated standard for chat, controlled by no one? It seems that we have come close at various times…

Because companies are set up to cater for a mainstream user base. They have succeeded in making it exceptionally easy to use their apps with little if at all precursory knowledge or effort.

Re: Message from Facebook: this could be war

#30

Post by lmm »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #5

Ugh. At least the world has managed to have "Email" as a standard, a medium, that is not controlled by any huge corporation's grubby claws. Why not with chat? What happened to this? Why is there a war for my data with these big companies, who do NOT have our best interests in mind, and never will? Why can't we have a federated standard for chat, controlled by no one? It seems that we have come close at various times…

Because Jabber is awful but too many people were so enthusiastic about its open-source nature that it blinded them to its faults (specifically poor groupchat and a bunch of bad choices about the behaviour when logging in from multiple clients at the same time).

I don't think it's too late. I know the people working on http://matrix.org/ and I trust them to get the technology right. But as we know, popularity depends on a lot more than the technology.

Post reply on HN