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Re: Facebook Home

#211
This falls into what I'd categorize as "solving the easy problems". It's something that companies do all the time. And sometimes it's worthwhile, but often it means that a company doesn't understand the business it's in very well and doesn't have a clue how to innovate.

Personally I believe that there is a huge amount of room for improvement and innovation in social, and when I see a company like facebook merely working on the "make it prettier and easier" aspect I can't help but wonder how long until a disruptor wrecks their world.

Re: Facebook Home

#213
post #69

Funny how the video contains only women... like if facebook was the only site most women would go on :)

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at but it's weird to me too. You never know what lead to that decision (target markets, promotional video production issues, or maybe they just wanted to play off the "girl at home on the phone with friends" archetype) but it is odd.

Yes I get your point, mine was simply that they seem to really target women, for whatever reason :)

Re: Facebook Home

#214
post #35
post #8

To echo a complaint that is common when designers show off prototypes/imagined-redesigns...what does all this look like when your friends aren't as attractive/good at photography? I'm talking about the Cover Feed function. In the life stage I am now, I'd say that my Facebook Phone would be showing random baby photos 80% of the time, food photos 10% of the time. I'm also curious how that feature interacts with what I'…

I’ve heard that this was a concern when Graph Search was being developed, and that the query they used in testing to find people with crappy profile pics was “people who like Insane Clown Posse”.

Quick, sure-fire "unfriend" test:

My friends who like Nickelback

https://www.facebook.com/search/6248267085/likers/me/friends...

Re: Facebook Home

#215
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a Facebook. Same problem as ~4 years ago when people first saw the iPad: "What exactly is it?" "It's iPad." "How do I quantify it in my paradigm of notebook computers?" "You don't." You're trying to quantify it as a smartphone. Facebook is positioning it as...well...a Facebook.

No, because the iPad is pretty obvious: you touch to screen. I can't even tell what's going on. Is it replacement for the lock screen? But then what's up with the messenger? Why is there an ad for an htc phone, but it's also android.... It's just confusing what they are trying to communicate other than attractive people. Frankly

It's just confusing what they are trying to communicate other than attractive people.

They aren't trying to communicate anything other than attractive people. The target market doesn't know or care what "htc" or "android" or "lock screen" etc are. The target market spends money to be attractive people.

Re: Facebook Home

#216
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Facebook is your phone's home screen, it is hard to not be "on Facebook" for a second.

It's not hard to not make facebook your home screen.

Sure, but the topic of the post is Facebook creating a home screen. If you find it inappropriate at work, then I guess you just don't use it at all, and you are not the target audience for the application.

Re: Facebook Home

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like he isn't a good candidate to use this particular app. Seems pretty clear a younger audience is going to be the core demographic for this product. College aged and younger who spend tons of time on facebook and socializing in general and typically do not have office jobs where "work appropriate" is even a concern.

That seems a bit illogical though as it's the people with jobs that have the money that advertisers are gunning for.

There was a time when I'd say the HS & college students soon will have jobs. Now I'm not so sure about that.

Re: Facebook Home

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is, this rarely occurs and really isn't that bothersome. We've been building Frontpage - a similar product for making RSS, news and social feeds all available from the Lock Screen - for a few months now. Same idea, no inputting passwords. No fumbling through multiple apps. Just easy access to your content. http://www.frontpageapp.com

Got this when I attempted to install it: "This item cannot be installed in your device's country."

Well for starters, where do you live? Let me know where you're at and we can fix this for you.

Google Play requires that you list the countries that you would like your app to be available in. We kept our list relatively short for our beta release, which is effectively what you're trying to download.

Re: Facebook Home

#219

I think it really is bad news for Apple... if more such stuff starts coming exclusively on Android, then it is bad for Apple. And very good for Google. (posting this to get some insight, not to initiate ugly debate among Apple/Google fan-boys)

I'm not so sure about that. Hijacking Android like Facebook does it, might mean trouble for Google. Google's revenue comes from advertisement in their products. If you use an app to rebrand the smart phone, so people won't use Google services anymore (and won't see ads), that's very troublesome for Google.

Google is not earning money with Android. Facebook is kind of backstabbing Google, in my opinion.

Looking at the App, I don't get why I should install it or what the advantage is over using the normal Facebook App ... then again I don't use Facebook that much.

We'll see how it will play out.

Re: Facebook Home

#220
post #8

To echo a complaint that is common when designers show off prototypes/imagined-redesigns...what does all this look like when your friends aren't as attractive/good at photography? I'm talking about the Cover Feed function. In the life stage I am now, I'd say that my Facebook Phone would be showing random baby photos 80% of the time, food photos 10% of the time. I'm also curious how that feature interacts with what I'…

Don't forget all the "Like if you hate cancer, ignore if you love Hitler" pictures. Then again, marketing doesn't really work when you show the reality of the product. The Wii probably wouldn't have sold as well if the ads showed people slouched on the couch in their underwear rather than fit, active people with Big White Smiles.

Such images litter my Facebook news feed. I remember FB must have used me as an involuntary beta tester, because one day the news feed for me was replaced with just newly uploaded photos by friends. It was beautiful, it was actually about my friends, it was wonderful. I would love it if Facebook would make that a feature proper, because the URL for that feed only worked once for me.
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