So I got an account on Facebook a couple of weeks ago.
It’s protection – in the personal SEO era, you need to lock up accounts on popular services with your actual name. Amazingly enough, I’m John Koetsier on Facebook.
After being on the service for all of about 25 days, I’ve already formed some conclusions:
- Facebook is the anti-MySpace
- MySpace is gaudy and busy; Facebook is boring
- MySpace is full of ads; haven’t seen many on Facebook
- MySpace is web 1.0; Facebook is web 1.0 too. Only difference: it’s designers weren’t on LSD
(I know, I know Facebook is doing all kinds of API deals, I know, I know, it’s a platform now … blah, blah, blah. I’m talking about the visual feel, the scent you get from using it. It’s all been done so, so, so many times, and it’s all very 1.0) - MySpace was programmed by Hammy, the hyperactive squirrel in Over the Hedge, and few things work as advertised; Facebook actually works, which is good, but still does stupid stuff.
Case in point: check out this screenshot from the homepage of Facebook …
Facebook wants me to give it access to my online email so that it can check if any people that I sent messages to and from are also on Facebook … it’s an auto-friend feature.
Cool? Uncool.
I don’t have a Hotmail address. Or a Yahoo, MSN, AOL address. I don’t know too many self-respecting technically-proficient over-20 people do. (I have a Gmail account, but that’s mostly for subscriptions and possibly spammy stuff.)
So the feature is useless to me. But can I get rid of it? Can I edit it? Can I dismiss it? No, no, no.
So every visit to the boring uninspired homepage of Facebook is punctuated by the uselessness to me of the largest element on the page.
And that’s just annoying.
I did the same thing, with a Gmail account, just to shut it up. Then, when it said which addresses to send invites to, I unchecked ’em all. Then, no more bothering form.
Good idea, John!
Social networks are useful for one reason – efficient communication. However, their closed nature is ultimately limiting. What if gmail only delivered e-mail to other gmail accounts? Want to send an e-mail to your friend at Yahoo? Too bad – make him get a gmail account. That’s what social networks are saying to me, and that’s why I despise them.
People use it to keep in touch with friends… but their friends must co-exist on the same platform. That’s useless IMO. Maybe 40% of my friends are on MySpace, 20% are on Facebook, 10% are on Orkut, and the other 30% use only e-mail. How can I keep in touch with all of them? Most likely, they all still have e-mail addresses (you need one to be part of a social network).
People say e-mail is dead (or close to it). It’s not dead, it just needs to become more social. It needs to be more like social networks, while social networks need to be more like e-mail (open).