Comments on: Thinking Out Loud: Facebook

By: katrina Onufer

katrina Onufer — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:59:09 +0000

go for it

By: SEO BB

SEO BB — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:46:02 +0000

You missed "Is the purpose of Facebook to give the chattering classes a playground wherein their behaviour may be studied and analysed and then they can be served with appropriate adverts?"

By: tom troja

tom troja — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:36:06 +0000

How does Facebook bring more and more large advertisers in and help them effectively interect with users so they come back again and again? Facebook sold off their banners to Microsoft partly so they could focus on generating big revenue on sponsored stories and sponsored groups. How is that going? Are brands/agencies doing a great job at getting invited into social circles through these stories and groups? Facebook is relying on agencies/brands to create hits with its users with one off “big ad ideas”, doesn’t that leave Facebook at risk if they don’t work? What will Facebook do to help brands succeed? What are your ad targeting plans? How deep will you go into the data? What is taboo? How far will Facebook go to help brands interact effectively/successfully with people?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:16:56 +0000

This might be a bit too late and way out west, but I’d like to know how the generational gap has influenced some of Mark’s business decisions. A handful of studies have shown that Gen-Xers don’t exhibit the same kind of loyalty that baby boomers have had with their company. In that respect, would you say that FB hasn’t yet “exploded” in the conglomerate world, based on the Enron, WorldCom and Tyco fiasco (too much hot fuss/greediness, not enough transparency)? Do you ever think that you won’t be able to trust anyone? Does age play a factor at all, and would you feel more comfortable dealing with someone your own age?

By: John Ferguson

John Ferguson — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:48:06 +0000

Same style of question as many above.

What does Facebook's roadmap look like? And as users, can we be involved in plotting the course?

Many recent Facebook additions, e.g. search-engine registration, etc. have been a bolt from the blue. It would be nice to know what's on the horizon and possibly to play a part in building it.

By: dmc

dmc — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:52:24 +0000

So my question around facebook is when they are going to allow you to separate (privately) friends, family and colleagues. I think there are different social uses, and being found for one may cause problems with the other. Despite its other issues, Gather.com did a great job delineating and keeping private the items posted privately or to select groups, so much so that the editors would not see content not meant for “editing” in the UGC context. Facebook + social cleavage = LinkedIn killer app.

By: andylockran

andylockran — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:36:30 +0000

I think an important question is how to deal with facebook’s transition from private-members site to publicly accessible (albeit limited access site). The question about which information is made accessible to search engines is quite a major issue. Why is it an opt-out, rather than an opt-in policy. Would you repeat the same policy for any further developments?
and why oh why isn’t their an app-blocker. Simply a check box that says “I’m boring, don’t allow my friends to invite me to share any of their applications, I’ll add them at my leisure instead.”

By: Patrick Dodds

Patrick Dodds — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:31:43 +0000

Great questions so far. I’d like to ask if FB is going to team up with a facial recognition tool at some point and allow for live people searching using a camera during a bus ride / on the street / on the tube? Scary. Is this going to become a possibility given the huge numbers of tagged pics in FB?

By: facebooger

facebooger — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:36:39 +0000

Many interesting questions - that unfortunately have the effect of injecting more hot air into into the irrational exuberance. What does it say about us that we are so desperate to touch the Philosopher's Stone that we'll project it onto such a bland cubic zirconium? If it weren't for all this manufactured talk of multi-billion dollar valuations, we could maybe begin to evaluate this so-called platform with honest eyes.

The interesting question to me is can the collective hallucination be sustained long enough for all those smart people they're hiring to develop a concrete business plan before everyone wakes up to this being just yet-another-social-network with new flavors of frosting and chocolate sprinkles? The current user experience isn't much more than the equivalent of jerking off to your high school yearbook while Twittering and tending a Tamagatchi. Stickyness and utility do not equate and users will burn out on playing in this walled garden at the same pace they have in all previous iterations.

Its interesting to me that so many who are fanning the flames of this flash in the pan online will speak quite cynically of facebook's chances offline. Like people who were buying houses during the real estate boom in the belief that dumber suckers were waiting further down the line.

By: John

John — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:16:45 +0000

Facebook found its original popularity with students. Are there any possibilities of collaborating with educational institutions on using Facebook in instruction? Have you heard of any interesting examples of an instructor using Facebook in a class?