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Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

raysun.blogspot.com

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Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#41

Post by kristiandupont »

bad_user wrote: post #32
ray_sun wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is my point. Abstracting away SMS vs. email is an interesting intellectual exercise, but it doesn't solve any user problems. The sender is the best judge of what transport to use. It's unfortunate, but it's the way the world is today.

> It's unfortunate, but it's the way the world is today. You're saying it as if it's a bad thing. Email is asynchronous. IM and SMS are disruptive. And on IM versus SMS, the sender of a SMS usually doesn't know if the recipient received the message, while the default behavior of IM is to notify your contacts list if you're online. These are different mediums people use for different kinds of communication / contacts.…

I agree with the different mediums part of your comment but I fail to see how fb is "disregarding" the way people interact with one another. Clearly, they understand that very well and this is the primary reason for their success?

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#42

Post by l0nwlf »

"Without a Steve Jobs, Facebook is going to become the new Google. A technical powerhouse that can't build usable software"

I disagree that. Google have made some usable softwares. Before Gmail came, webmail was a mess. I guess people remember those popups and irritating ads from Yahoomail, hotmail etc.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#43

Post by allenp »

l0nwlf wrote: post #42

"Without a Steve Jobs, Facebook is going to become the new Google. A technical powerhouse that can't build usable software" I disagree that. Google have made some usable softwares. Before Gmail came, webmail was a mess. I guess people remember those popups and irritating ads from Yahoomail, hotmail etc.

Yeah gmail is good, and google maps, and I'm really happy with google docs, and also I like their Chrome browser ...

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#44

Post by galactus »

mgrouchy wrote: post #39
Maro wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps he meant that the users who are sending the message [to the "email list" with an SMS number on it] will pay.

I dunno, I'm in canada before I got my unlimited txt plan, its 15c per txt to receive and 15c per txt to send. Its highway robbery.

Canada is the worst country ever for cell phone users.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#45

Post by random42 »

allenp wrote: post #43
l0nwlf wrote: post #42

"Without a Steve Jobs, Facebook is going to become the new Google. A technical powerhouse that can't build usable software" I disagree that. Google have made some usable softwares. Before Gmail came, webmail was a mess. I guess people remember those popups and irritating ads from Yahoomail, hotmail etc.

Yeah gmail is good, and google maps, and I'm really happy with google docs, and also I like their Chrome browser ...

I like search and youtube too.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#47

Post by JunkDNA »

This article is really astute. The headline initially scared me off because I thought it was going to be some kind of Apple/Jobs love fest.

My first reaction when I read about this new Facebook component was that it would be hard to use without being annoying. The medium of communication matters. For example, you might be forgiven for using txt-speak in an SMS, but when I get an email written like that, it gives me a negative impression of the sender.

I'm also trying to get my head around what problem this is actually trying to solve. It is much the sort of "meta problem" that programmers like to solve. The devil is in the details though, and usually those fall through the cracks. Witness all the mostly awful attempts at "write once run anywhere" desktop GUI implementations.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#48

Post by smackfu »

apl wrote: post #35

SMS and email are different. SMS costs $ per message. Email does not. In the Facebook UI, if you add a SMS user to an email thread, he will receive numerous SMSes from email users who don't realize that they're racking up his bill. Wait a minute, is that true? Do you pay for receiving text messages in the US? That does seem a little crazy from a European perspective.

Most heavy users of SMS (aka teens) have messaging plans that are either unlimited or very high numbers, like 1500 per month. Usually $15-20 per month, which seems high but they generally replace actual phone talking so it works out.

Also, it's funny that Apple is being brought up in this context. The iPhone treats SMS messages just like chat messages (using the iChat UI), which is exactly the "problem" being described in the article of mixing messaging types carelessly.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#49

Post by ryanjmo »

This post reminds me of the David Platt post on why the iPhone will fail: http://suckbusters2.blogspot.com/2007/06/apple-iphone-debut-...

Both articles essentially state that the company (Apple/Facebook) should not try to innovate, because their implementation will suck and then go on to mention problems that are rather trivial and will not actually be problems.

Sorry, but I think Facebook is good enough at product design that they can pull this off. Facebook doesn't need Steve Jobs; Zuckerberg is pretty bad ass at making products people like and use extensively. If you need evidence you should look at Facebook, a lot of people REALLY like that service.

Re: Why Facebook badly needs Steve Jobs

#50

Post by batiudrami »

l0nwlf wrote: post #42

"Without a Steve Jobs, Facebook is going to become the new Google. A technical powerhouse that can't build usable software" I disagree that. Google have made some usable softwares. Before Gmail came, webmail was a mess. I guess people remember those popups and irritating ads from Yahoomail, hotmail etc.

Graphic and GUI designers like to get antsy with Google because Google refuses to hire them.
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