tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2011:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972- 2011-04-29T12:20:25Z Comments for Facebook: What If More Is Less? Movable Type 4.35-en tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972 2007-09-28T02:53:45Z 2007-12-16T23:08:06Z Facebook: What If More Is Less? In our recent post, MySpace: Hot or Not?, we took a look at the social networking giant to understand what's going on with the site. We found that while 'MySpace' is slowing down as a trend, the site is alive and kicking and people are actively communicating (although some communication is focused on fairly... Alex Iskold http://www.adaptiveblue.com In our recent post, MySpace: Hot or Not?, we took a look at the social networking giant to understand what's going on with the site. We found that while 'MySpace' is slowing down as a trend, the site is alive and kicking and people are actively communicating (although some communication is focused on fairly questionable topics). While doing research for that article, the difference in approach between MySpace and its major rival Facebook was particularly striking.

While Facebook built elegant infrastructure and a clean look, MySpace allowed people to create a seemingly incomprehensible zoo of information on their pages. But after a closer look, one begins to see why MySpace remains attractive to so many users. MySpace puts communication and self-expression at the forefront, with communication with your friends really being the point of each page. Facebook, meanwhile, showcases different applications installed by its users on their profiles pages, and pushes one of its primary communication features, the Wall, to the bottom of the page.

At the center of Facebook today is the news feed - a dynamic listing of the collective activity of all your friends. The news feed shows updates from your friends, prompting you to explore their profiles and the site. When someone adds an application or befriends someone new or posts a video or a picture, the news feed directs you to their profile page to check it out. It may seem like these features and their minimalist design make Facebook simpler and easier to use than MySpace, but is it?

]]> Communication - The Very Point Of Social Networks

The primary goal of a social network is to connect people, to simplify their communication, and to help them stay in touch. Before the rise of social networking, online communication occured via email, chat and forums. The early social networks made their case by making communication easier. In particular, MySpace made it easy to communicate by leaving messages on people's profile pages. For many users, this was more convenient than sending email, but the reason this communication style really took off was because others could see the messages and become engaged - conversations between groups of users could emerge.

The communication on Facebook is not as simple. First, the message board is typically pushed way down a users' profile page, below tens of other applications. Just comparing the activity between random MySpace and Facebook profiles you see that MySpace members communicate with each other much more actively via messages. Second, Facebook has its own in-network private messaging system. The idea itself is fine, but it can't possibly compete with email. Fred Wilson writes about this problem:

"I see a different Facebook problem. Invite overload and application noise. I cannot keep track of all the invites I am getting, both the standard invites and the application invites. And what's worse, I can't keep track of all the applications that all of my friends are using."

Why The Tech Community Is Wrong For Facebook

Fred's frustration with Facebook is also indicative of another problem that exists today on Facebook - its mixed audience. Facebook was originally built for college students to stay in touch. After it opened up to outside users and later launched its platform, the entire tech community rushed to join in.

When you and I connected on LinkedIn, we did that for business reasons, we are not friends, we are co-workers or business associates. Taking this relationship and moving it to Facebook as is just doesn't make sense. So there's a problem there.

My sister, who is a student at Syracuse, was one of the early Facebook users, and uses the site to socialize with people she is friends with. But I am getting invites from the same people that I am connected to on LinkedIn. This is confusing and is actually the precise cause of Fred's frustration. Because the news feed is the stream of activity from all your "friends" you get bombarded with irrelevant information. You do not care about these people's pictures, videos and which applications they've added.

LinkedIn should still be the choice for our business connections. It is clean, simple and focused on the business vertical. If we want to "follow" what our business acquaintances are up to, there is Twitter. Twitter is actually a perfect example of a social network at its best, because it enables a new, improved way for people to communicate. Facebook can not replace LinkedIn and Twitter for the tech community, precisely because it is not focused on professional networking and instant communication. So, we all should stop pretending - mixing business and pleasure is not a good idea anyway.

Challenges Associated With Facebook Applications

Facebook has now thousands of applications available. The current top application on the site is Slide's Top Friends, with 2.5M active users.

The rationale behind the rush to build Facebook applications is that new applications have a potential to spread virally across Facebook's already mammoth user base. By leveraging the network effect, brand new applications have the chance to rapidly propagate through Facebook and gain hundreds of thousands of users in a very short period of time. While this is certainly possible, there is a big flaw in this argument. Lets take a look at the chart of some of the currently popular applications:

We sampled the number of active users from the 75 most used applications. From top to bottom, we observed a huge disparity in usage. The top application has 60 times more users than the least popular application. You quickly recognize that behind this picture is a famous power law, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule. If we were to plot all Facebook applications we would get a huge long tail of applications with just a couple thousand or a couple hundred users.

The laws of economics are behind this trend - supply and demand. Of course it is true that if a lot of my friends are checking out Flixster I am also going to check it out, but on the other hand, how many things can I possibly add to my profile? The sheer volume of applications makes it impossible to try them all. People who do risk cluttering their profiles to the point that no one, including themselves, can find anything. So while the network effect is certainly powerful, the spacial constraints and the laws of economics are pulling the other way.

Information Overload

Everything that we discussed, from profile complexity to the news feed to applications are indicative of a well known problem - Information Overload. There is just too much going on. The news feed filtering is weak, the applications that enter Facebook are not filtered and the fact that people can re-arrange their profiles each and every way seems flexible and cool but makes it hard to understand whats going on.

Of course, Facebook is being hailed as a great social platform (one that it seems even Google fears), but choice is typically good in moderation. A great recent example of a closed company that delivers outstanding end user products is Apple. Apple keeps options in its products to an elegant minimum. Could Facebook do a bit more filtering for us? That might make the site more useful. Why can't there be a relevancy algorithm that cleans up the mini feed? Why can't there be fewer applications that do the same thing? Maybe there should be a standard profile view, which would arrange things on people's profiles in the way that I like - that would surely make it easier to comprehend things. And most importantly, maybe Facebook should refocus on what social networks are about - communication.

But it is not clear that cleaning up is a priority. More likely, right now there is big pressure on Facebook to monetize. And that leads to an agonizing search for how to make money. Being married and a father of three, I am flattered to get things like this in my profile:

A helping hand is always nice, especially when it comes to meeting woman, but seriously, this seems so out of place on Facebook to me. There appears to be a lot of irrelevant content spread throughout the site. And it is dangerous, because ultimately, when the content is not relevant, people leave.

Conclusion

Facebook is certainly a great platform and a unique piece of the web infrastructure, but like all platforms, it suffers from clutter and too much choice. It is the choice and variety of applications and the information being pushed at us that makes it overwhelming. The next phase should be cleaning up and making things easy to use. Most importantly, Facebook needs to make it easier to communicate, which could be as simple as making the Wall more prominent.

Please let us know how you and your friends are using Facebook. What do you like and what do you want to see improved? Leave comments below.

]]> tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24223 Comment from Zach Krugler on 2007-10-06 Zach Krugler http://zachkrugler.blogspot.com/ I very much disagree with your post. You started out comparing the Myspace and Facebook as if that was the focus of your blog and then you tangent off and just point out the flaws that appear in Facebook. It seems as if you are saying Facebook has sold out and you point out zero of the more dramatic flaws in Myspace. You make some good points on the applications that are present right now in Facebook but I think that in the long run the applications are going to be one of the smartest thing that Facebook decided to do.

]]> 2007-10-07T02:08:18Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24222 Comment from Shanx on 2007-10-06 Shanx http://shanx.com Facebook is worlds better than MySpace, but it has the many issues:

1. Too defocused. Too many apps that do the same thing. How many film ratings do you need? How many Poke Pro, SuperPoke and all that drivel do you need?

2. Too un-private. I cannot control who sees what updates from me. This is the single biggest annoyance. Learn something from niche communities such as LinkedIn, which gives me hugely granular control of my privacy.

3. I cannot (easily) change friends to see my "limited profile" -- I can only do this when signing the friend on to my profile.

And so forth. Facebook is addictive because want to share pics and do idiotic things like send Werewolf hugs or Zombie pricks. Fine. Works for many simpletons around the world, so be it. I think eventually when the frenzy of novelty wears off, people simply go back to using a Flickr for photos, a Last.fm for music, and so on, and simply use Facebook for aggregation.

]]> 2007-10-06T14:42:14Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24221 Comment from Aisha on 2007-10-03 Aisha OK, so maybe since I'm young (29), I don't understand any of your gripes with Facebook.

1. You complained about communicating on the Wall. The Wall is for public comments. I make plenty of private comments to my friends, so I do use Facebook for communication and it's equivalent to e-mail (mostly because I can check it on my Blackberry, which I can't do with MySpace). Also, I communicate via commenting on their photos and notes. I actually *don't* like it when people use the Wall to have a conversation.

2. You complained about the location of the Wall. You can re-arrange the stuff on your profile. If you want the Wall above all of your apps, you can move it! If people haven't moved it, it indicates that they don't want their wall in that prominent of a position.

3. You don't HAVE to have the apps on your profile. You can add an app for your personal use without adding a block in your profile.

4. MySpace sucks. Really. It's so disorganized and crazy it gives me a headache. I can't find half of the people that I know because they change their names every day instead of using their real names (this is also the reason I never know who's sending me a message or commenting on my profile). Also, there is TONS of spam. I've NEVER gotten spam on Facebook. MySpace is the site with Info Overload. Colorful moving backgrounds, music, 50K diferent layouts...it's mind boggling. OTOH, Facebook is organized and structured. I can minimize content if I don't want to see it.

5. LinkedIn has its uses, but I don't know anyone who uses it. Maybe I'm not established enough in the corporate world or maybe I network through Facebook.

6. I don't have a need to know all the apps my friends are using, but the feed helps me find them anyway. For ex, I found out about Scrabulous bc a friend was playing and I saw it on the feed.

What I do find interesting is that the top app is one that mimics a feature of MySpace. I think that has to do with the fact that the high school kids they let on Facebook were on MySpace first, and they are trying to make Facebook more like MySpace. I think it's a ridiculously useless app.

Facebook is appealing for the same reasons as Google: a nice, clean interface.

By the way, the most interesting thing on Facebook is the status. You'll find that people like to deliver messages using their status, instead of saying what they are actually doing like with Twitter. It's entertaining, esp. when you know who the message is for.

]]> 2007-10-03T19:32:50Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24220 Comment from Tim Mansfield on 2007-10-01 Tim Mansfield http://www.timbomb.net/blog/2007/10/02/the-primary-goal-of-social-networks-is-not-communication/ I run out and write a blog post only to find the very first commenter makes the same points, but better :)

Thanks for inspiring discussion, Alex.

http://www.timbomb.net/blog/2007/10/02/the-primary-goal-of-social-networks-is-not-communication/

]]> 2007-10-02T00:30:23Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24219 Comment from Paulette Altmaier on 2007-09-29 Paulette Altmaier We also need less spam in the news feed. I left my regional network (Silicon Valley) when FB changed so that my newsfeed suddenly contained the Top Movies, Top Events, etc etc for the Silicon Valley network, none of which I had the slightest interest in. When I found I couldn't stop the feed from the network, I left it. That brought relief in a hurry.

]]> 2007-09-30T04:48:54Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24218 Comment from IdeaTagger on 2007-09-29 IdeaTagger http://www.ideatagging.com I read recenty that Facebook would soon introduce friend categorisation.

They could extend this further such that you could define what types of feed messages you want to send to and receive from each category of friends, and perhaps even define this at an individual friend level. If they did this then I think facebook could work very well, both for business and non-business networking needs.

]]> 2007-09-29T16:04:48Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24217 Comment from Bob Denny on 2007-09-28 Bob Denny Now that I have a month of FB under my belt (after dumping MySpace instantly), I'm OK with it. After discovering a simple way of stripping it of the really annoying "fluff" stories, I'm happier. Who the h**l cares about what's popular in xyzzy? Are you a sheep?

The Wall is the best part, so they put it below all of the promo stuff. Can you blame them? So move it and close or remove the promo bits. If someone's abstract thinking (or lack of same) is so pre-renaissance that they can't get that, I don't want them as friends anyway!!!

]]> 2007-09-29T03:23:35Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24216 Comment from Patrick on 2007-09-28 Patrick The newsfeed could be cleaned up simply with 2 or 3 tabs to cluster the torrent of news. I enjoy seeing who's friended who but the continuous updates about what apps someone has added to their FB profile is ridiculous.

]]> 2007-09-28T23:40:25Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24215 Comment from Robert Hacker on 2007-09-28 Robert Hacker http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com I find Facebook to be quite efficient and just ignore the applications which appear targeted at the original college audience. I think Facebook will be ported to the corporate environment as a better alternative than the clunky portals some companies use. Further thoughts on this are here
http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com/sophisticated_finance/2007/09/new-business-id.html#_

]]> 2007-09-28T22:01:15Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24214 Comment from anon on 2007-09-28 anon @Lisa Amorao - I'm curious as to what you're listening to through facebook?

]]> 2007-09-28T21:30:21Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24213 Comment from Seth on 2007-09-28 Seth http://www.crownpointsolutions.com Facebook has a higher learning curve initially than MySpace, for basic usage, but I find it far more useful than MySpace. Facebook's Wall-to-Wall feature (which MySpace has now copied) give context to the comments, rather than just a random stream of words.

As other have noted, MySpace comments are on the bottom of their page, if one can get to them after waiting for the page to load, then scrolling past all the videos, pictures, and other addons, and once there, maybe, MAYBE you'll be able to discern words above the template.

Facebook gives me a MUCH better idea what is going on with my friends, and this with minimal effort on my part. And once I changed the settings, I get to see the updates I want to see. Facebook will soon will adding friend 'groups' and hopefully we'll be able to be more selective in what we see and what we show.

I get a little confused about the idea of Invite Overload and people concerned about getting invites from co-workers and such. It's a closed system that you get to use as you see fit. If you don't want to be Facebook friends with certain people, don't! Different social networks can serve different functions.

]]> 2007-09-28T21:15:42Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24212 Comment from Alex Iskold on 2007-09-28 Alex Iskold http://www.adaptiveblue.com @Bernard - haha, that is brilliant!

]]> 2007-09-28T20:54:09Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24211 Comment from bernard lunn on 2007-09-28 bernard lunn http://bernardlunn.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ I have only been a casual visitor to both MySpace and Facebook but it seems to be mainly a question of style. Its like clothes, clubs or whatever, we like different things, thank heavens for that.
But I have just come up with a humungously brilliant idea for a Facebook App that will have at least two gazillion users by Tues 9am am EST and Goldman Sachs will be getting the IPO roadshow ready by Friday. But given that its late on a friday afternoon and I want to get home, play with my kids and have a glass of wine I will give it away to the Blogosphere for free. Call me the Linus Torvalds of the Facebook economy.
So many people have a very strong opinion on Facebook - its bulls and bears. So lets create a mock exchange. Float 1.5bn mock shares at $10 each (thats the $15 billion valuation they want) and then people can buy and sell and at the end of the day, month, year or whatever we can see who was right and who was wrong.

]]> 2007-09-28T20:52:24Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24210 Comment from RS on 2007-09-28 RS "I think one of the very first things a new Facebook user must learn is how to tinker with filters and privacy settings."

Amen to that.

Facebook's flexibility is at the same time its biggest strength and biggest weakness. Those settings are great to have for those that use them. But most people aren't going to bother to mess with all those settings - they're too busy adding a maze of apps to their page. I know how to use the filters and I don't even want to fiddle with them (which can grow increasingly cumbersome as you add friends.)

I tend to agree Alex's example of Twitter being an ideal example of a perfect tool from the current generation of social apps. It does one thing and does it very well (I don't even use it, but I do find it much easier to follow people on there as opposed to Facebook.) We have so many social tools now overlapping in various areas. Facebook can serve as a nice aggregator for a lot of these tools. But like most general tools, the fact that it doesn't have a central focus also means it's not very good at any one task IMO.

]]> 2007-09-28T20:13:16Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24209 Comment from Lisa Amorao on 2007-09-28 Lisa Amorao http://lisaamorao.wordpress.com @Emerson Direct: I'm in marketing. I use it as an additional channel for my content, but more so, I use it as my listening tool.

]]> 2007-09-28T18:50:38Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24208 Comment from Emerson Direct on 2007-09-28 Emerson Direct http://www.emersondirect.net I think both Myspace and Facebook have great social value but I would like to see more of a business application applied. What is the value proposition for me and my business, knowing that I only have so much time to spend on x amount of activities before I have to move on?

]]> 2007-09-28T18:25:17Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24207 Comment from Lisa on 2007-09-28 Lisa http://lisaamorao.wordpress.com I think one of the very first things a new Facebook user must learn is how to tinker with filters and privacy settings.

You can have your news feed set in a way that you get only certain notifications. More from this person, less from that person. You can set it so that you don't get notifications from people writing on each other's walls. You can set it so that you don't get notifications when people add applications. It is fairly flexible.

On your privacy settings you can also make it so that it only shows particular actions. And just recently, they added these controls for applications as well.

As far as application invites overload, I believe that's already been addressed by Facebook. They now limit the amount of application invites you can send to your friends.

]]> 2007-09-28T18:04:41Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24206 Comment from Michael on 2007-09-28 Michael From a design and functionality standpoint, the Facebook wall and MySpace's comments are almost identical. If anything, FB has easier navigation and the news feed let's you know when someone has left a note on your wall. As for the design, MySpace comments are, as a default, at the bottom of the page exactly like FB's wall. I am not aware of any way to change this unless you get quite hacky with the template code, which I would say is far more difficult for the average user than doing a drag-and-drop of the wall.

Furthermore, as someone else has already mentioned, the "in-network private messaging system" is found in nearly every social networking site, including both MySpace and Facebook. To suggest this is a flaw in FB and yet not even mention that MySpace has the exact same thing is pretty poor reporting. In fact, the MySpace messaging is very alive and well based on the umpteen spam mails I get on it a day - something that has yet to happen once on Facebook.

I detest MySpace, mostly for its hideous user-designed pages, but that isn't the point of this comment. If you're going to discuss two platforms like FB and MS, you really should be more aware of what you're talking about. As it is, you sound very much like you have an agenda in this piece.

]]> 2007-09-28T17:51:19Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24205 Comment from Nitin on 2007-09-28 Nitin Information overload is actually an opportunity for people who want to build some applications to simplify life. The key is to keep it really simple - life is complex enough.

]]> 2007-09-28T16:58:03Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24204 Comment from Morgan on 2007-09-28 Morgan Come on, 35 FB applications you use with business relevance? Not buying it. Nor that that is anything close to a stripped down copy.

Anyway, it's all interesting, I do not mix business with friends, I use MySpace and will continue to to keep in touch with people.

I use Facebook for business of my own, but rarely log in.

]]> 2007-09-28T15:57:55Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24203 Comment from kid mercury on 2007-09-28 kid mercury http://www.kidmercuryblog.com any general social networking site like facebook is going to have these types of issues. the future is niche communities.

]]> 2007-09-28T13:00:44Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24202 Comment from Annalie Killian on 2007-09-28 Annalie Killian http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=660250495 Isn't diversity a fabulous thing? So many different opinions and all valid. I have used every significant social network since 2002, and I am a heavy user but within a small and tight circle of thought leaders and acquaintances (roughly 100)-which blend happily with my friends (who happen to be professional people too and therefore interested in my extended network). as well as my child and my mother- all of whom share an interest in the bigger world of my life and this keeps them all informed without me spending hours doing e-mails.

I agree with comment 7 above....Facebook is a fantastic platform, clean, simple and as cluttered as you choose to have it. I"m done with LinkedIn and MySpace- reasons for their shortfalls have already been articulated.

In fact, I am SO impressed with the flexibility and fundamentals of Facebook, and how we can apply it to foster knowledge sharing and affiliation at work, that we are now building a stripped down copy with about 35 top applications that we see business relevance for....but, we are still keeping a few fun things because playfulness is part of how people normally interact and communicate within their personal networks and it fosters creativity. Humans are social creatures and thats why Facebook works...its a good customisble blend of fun and function.

]]> 2007-09-28T12:24:25Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24201 Comment from Dennis on 2007-09-28 Dennis http://www.thoughtandtheory.com Since when do I manually scroll down for my wall anyways. I only check my wall or other friends walls when it pops up on the news feed or I get an email. People don't really scroll down to see that unless they really want to.

I think you have to look at it through the eyes of a series of different users and not just one perspective. Although its a visual hierchy problem of having the "main" point of communication between users (i don't think its the main) so far down, the way the entire app works as a whole still gets you that information in a central space. So the optimal information flow is there, just in a different way.

]]> 2007-09-28T11:20:44Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24200 Comment from Social Shopper on 2007-09-28 Social Shopper http://www.crowdstorm.com/ Facebook is as complicated or as simple as the individual user wishes it to be. I joined FB early on when it was simple, because of it's simplicity, and even now as a personal preference, I ignore all invitations to pointless applications and look only at things like the message inbox and wall. All the applications do detract from facebook's initial appeal but sites like this have to evolve, and there is certainly enough demand for the applications to make it worthwhile doing so. Whether it leads to facebook's decline is still to be seen.

]]> 2007-09-28T09:33:01Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24199 Comment from Garri on 2007-09-28 Garri http://www.holidaypad.net Well, maybe I am missing the point of this article but the way I see it is myspace is a social networking website whereas Facebook is a social operating system - they are distinctly different beasts.

Yes, FB is cluttered and there's nothing wrong with that if the clutter is well organised, or in FB's case, they've given us the tools to declutter, move stuff around (the wall can be placed anywhere on FB if you drag and drop it, like many of the other modules)

I can envisage FB being the ultimate start page for people, as more useful apps are developed.

Brian: I've never felt that Web 2.0 is characterised by a any specific technology or idea such as rating, tag clouds, AJAX etc, but for me Web 2.0 is a philosophy, a state of mind, openess and transparency.

Sure, it uses these technologies but it is not defined by them, that's way too limiting.

The great thing about FB is that it exposes many people, non-techies, to the philosophies of web 2.0 and all that it promises. It raises the bar and makes it easier for ordinary folk to understand and appreciate web applications more, and more importantly, not be afraid to to use them.

]]> 2007-09-28T08:21:41Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24198 Comment from harry on 2007-09-27 harry http://www.spigit.com I seen facebook. its an interesting site with lot of good things!!

I have come across the site www.spigit.com
Spigit is an online platform for launching emerging technologies. It combines the aspects of a social networking and gaming site with both crowd participation and a proprietary simulation engine to determine which ideas, products, technologies, and companies emerge above the rest.

]]> 2007-09-28T05:55:17Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24197 Comment from Adam on 2007-09-27 Adam http://www.bladam.com/ Alex,

I think you've gotten one of your key premises wrong... or at least I strongly disagree with it. You say that the core reason-for-being of a social network is communication. But that's indeed what we have e-mail for (and phones and IM, etc.)

At least for me and a ton of my friends, we join services like Facebook so we can:
- be *informed* about what our friends are up to
- be *entertained* by their photos, their status messages, etc.
- be able to *share* our feelings and our stuff with others.

Some of that is, yes, "communication"... but you seem to focus on the concept of communication more literally, which I think is very, very wrong.

Other points of contention:

- You can move your wall to a higher spot on your page simply by dragging it.

- The newsfeed already *IS* filtered. I don't always think very highly of the filtering algorithms, admittedly, but Facebook is definitely picking and choosing what to include, I'm guessing based upon frequency of interaction, etc.

- You hold up MySpace -- a screaming mess of a place -- as a great communications venue, and then deride Facebook as cluttered?!

- "Twitter is actually a perfect example of a social network at its best, because it enables a new, improved way for people to communicate." My goodness, I'm glad I didn't have any coffee in my mouth when I read that. I mean, really, talk about unfiltered! I found Twitter to be worse than useless. Like drinking from a firehose... a firehose filled with cheese sandwiches and cats! If Twitter is "an improved way to communicate," then I'm going back to papyrus thank you very much. And a perfect example of a social network? I'm not even going to touch that one.

- "Second, Facebook has its own in-network private messaging system." Um, so does MySpace. Except it's about 90% slower and crappier to use.

- Your "Why the tech community is wrong for Facebook" is just, well, odd. Are we that monolithic? Here's a news flash: some of us geeks have friends. Yes, real friends. And we like seeing their photos and throwing sheep at them and posting geeky comments on their walls. If anything is "wrong" for the tech community, I'd suggest it's the godawful MySpace, with its blinky bling bling, four mp3s playing at the same time, horrendously obtrusive ads and slow slow slow page loads. Any self-respecting geek that can defend that with a straight face... well, there ain't such a creature! :)

Is Facebook flawless? Far from it. I still find some of its ads obnoxious, I'm bummed that it doesn't go very far in letting me *usefully* categorize my friends in ways that help us better communicate and share, and I find the app-proliferation often annoying, too. But all of this can be fixed. I think FB has the right infrastructure in place and the right attitudes overall; they can tweak the apps stuff, they can add connection strength/type usefulness down the line. In other words, they're heading in the right direction, whereas I think you've really missed the boat in your focus and overall assessment.

]]> 2007-09-28T05:47:41Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24196 Comment from Brian Brown on 2007-09-27 Brian Brown http://www.five7five.com I've only been on Facebook for a couple of weeks, and it's fun, but my biggest issue is Facebook's search. It's terrible.

Why can't I search for groups in order of most users? It's agonizing trying to find a good group when there are over 500 choices and they are listed alphabetically.

This leads me to another issue...why can't there be a user rating system? This could easily apply to both groups and applications. I mean, c'mon! Amazon was doing this ten years ago and Facebook is supposed to be so web 2.0, but you can't rate things??? That would make it so much easier when trying to decide on applications to try.

Just my two cents, Alex.

]]> 2007-09-28T05:16:03Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24195 Comment from Alex Iskold on 2007-09-27 Alex Iskold http://www.adaptiveblue.com @eli There is a rule that beats the rule of free markets, its called the rule of lazy. 90% of users would have no idea how to move the wall. Default is what we end up with.

]]> 2007-09-28T04:40:20Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24194 Comment from eli on 2007-09-27 eli Your math on the Daily Active Users bar chart is flawed. You sum all of the user's of Slide's apps and relate them to a number of individual apps' numbers. That is flawed for two reasons. First, you are comparing apples and oranges. Slide's number is not a unique reach number, while every other app's number is a unique reach number. Therefore, your chart is incorrectly skewed to make Slide look even more dominant than it is. Second, Rock You owns a number of the apps in that chart. You should give them credit for that. Those two changes will make your chart look less impressive.

Also, you seem to not fully understand the concept of free markets. "LinkedIn should be the social network for our business contacts"...people can choose how they want to act. If you want to ignore business contacts on FB, then feel free to do that. It seems like most people disagree with you and are, therefore, using FB incorrectly.

If people wanted to have the wall higher on their profile, they would place it there.

]]> 2007-09-28T04:22:24Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.2972-comment:24193 Comment from Nature Wallpaper on 2007-09-27 Nature Wallpaper http://www.eugenef.com Clutter? Are you kidding its beyond clutter. I hate it! The reason I originally signed up because of the simplicity of the site! Now it has turned into myspace but in it's own kind of way. On top of which they remove general features like the class feature, which would let you see who was taking what classes, which is the most beneficial aspect of FB, anyways they removed it. Instead an application was offered which would then mean that you have to let go of your privacy just because you want to use an app. Facebook may not sell your stuff, but those apps will!!!

]]> 2007-09-28T03:29:09Z