We had sites like myspace, xanga, wordpress, geocities etc., but I don't think any of them helped people organize like facebook. I thought it would just be another site like friendster or myspace, but I was wrong it is grown into something much greater. When a company or a website can help topple governments that is quite an achievement, and I can't really think of any other company that could do that. If I was google I would be scared cause I think facebook is doing something extraordinary.
It's the AOL of the 2010s. It makes the internet easy for the internet-challenged. I had this thought a couple of years ago. Recently John Dvorak put wrote an article that reflected what I thought: Why I Don't Use Facebook People are always baffled by the fact that I don't use Facebook. I don't care much about Facebook any more than I cared about MySpace and LiveJournal before it. In almost every way, these subsystems are too retro for my taste. Let me explain. The world began with online services like the Source and Compuserve. They then evolved into a myriad of BBS systems and then AOL was created. AOL became the kingpin and along came the Internet. The Internet had the versatility that no other system had—you could do whatever you wanted with it. You could start a website about your cat. You could do a storefront. You could do anything that came into your head. A lot of people still preferred the warm and cozy confines of AOL, and it continued to exist until it was clear that its growth was over. It then zigged and zagged in all the wrong ways. I concluded that AOL should have evolved into a MySpace-like system and then into Facebook. Facebook is actually the logical end-point of what AOL should have become. AOL had some web initiatives, such as Geocities or Hometown, which could have easily morphed into Facebook, but it didn't. It could have made the transition rather easily. I can't find anyone who argues with this premise. If AOL had become what Facebook is now, would I use it? No, not really. Facebook is retro because, like AOL, it's retro by its nature. It's a closed system. Some people like a closed comfy system and others don't. I, for one, don't. If I want a personal webpage with all sorts of information about myself, I'll go to Wordpress.com and make one. By doing this, I don't turn over any data, control, or information to an onerous third party to sell, use, or exploit. I can close down the site when I want. I can say what I want. I can pretty much do whatever. If I am the least bit worried, I can use my various providers or other services to post a WordPress blog right from my own server. None of this is possible with Facebook. It wasn't possible with AOL either. Which begs the question as to why anyone would use Facebook when it is essentially AOL done right? The fastest growing group on Facebook are people in their 70's. Oldsters are flocking to Facebook the way they once did with AOL. Facebook is a simple system for the masses that do not really care about technology and do not want to learn anything new except something easy like Facebook. Whenever someone tells me to check out something on Facebook, I recall the heyday of AOL with its keywords. "Go to the Internet at www.blah.com or AOL keyword: blah." This was a common comment on the nightly news or in magazines. The AOL keyword is replaced by the Facebook page name. There is no reason for anyone with any chops online to be remotely involved with Facebook, except to peruse it for lost relatives. So, next time you log on, remember it's really AOL with a different layout. Welcome to the past.
At some point, something else will come along. Techies will continue developing technology, and different platforms will arise to take advantage of those new advances. I have the feeling that the next big step will be something that we aren't even imagining right now.
FB is great for keeping in touch with old friends from high school and college. I never spend too much time on it. Those who spend hours playing the games, doing quizzes, or profile stalking need to find better use of their time. But yes, the next big thing is over the horizon and this too shall fade away.
I recently had the honor of singing "Sister Christian" at a party with Rock Band 3. It was like losing my virginity to Chuck Norris at Disneyland in the middle of a Skittles downpour. NIGHT RANGER FOREVER!
Thank you, thadeus, for taking time away from impregnating entire villages with a sneeze, to state what I also believe. I still can't believe MySpace was popular. I don't know which created the most hideous webpages, that or Geocities.
I agree with quite abit about the article in terms of how AOL should have adapted into a facebook style company. If you reflect, AOL did indeed try to do this. People were flocking to instant messaging just as people are flocking to facebook today. Unfortunately for AOL, MSN and Yahoo punched a big hole in the marketshare, thus competing for the same market, and all three companies companies have since floundered. Myspace is one of the worse to adapt. They brought a product in demand to the market and chose to purse the wrong demo graph. They simply did what AOL should have did, but a decade too late. Facebook chose to expand to the emerging markets of older adults and global markets and it took off. They simply did not stop there. They have since tried to muscle their way into all aspects of the internet, from "one click" connect to facebook logins,to massive multiplayer games, and to core content on mobile devices. Who knows how long it will stick around. As long as they do not give into corporate greed, continue to innovate and keep the competitors at bay, I'd say they are sitting pretty good. Now twitter is a dead man walking and nothing but a fad. People "tweet" all day long on facebook with status updates and generally people get annoyed with them.
This is how facebook stays on top of the game; Even though most of Egypt is on an internet blackout, Facebook has setup a number where Egyptians can leave a voicemail-to-tweet messages.
You take the advice of the same guy who said the "computer mouse" was a bad idea and that apple should had pulled the plug on the iphone seriously? He's the John McClain of the tech world. I still love him though.
I despise social networking, but friendster and myspace blew it. They had the opportunity to create a universal site that can link people together, but Facebook was able to do it better. Facebook has already taken several of Google's most talented employees so I don't see them going away for a long time.
