Facebook, Doing It Wrong
[Note: this entry dates from the May 2009 revision of Facebook's site]
Facebook is bugging me. Not because they revamped their home page, but because their revamp suggests to me that they are ignoring a ton of opportunities that they’ve got every means to take advantage of, right now. But instead they feel threatened by another web app that has feeds (Twitter), and their response is to make their site look like that site.
It’s kind of a waste.
- Twitter, which, while cool and zeitgeist-y, does not itself seem to have a business model in place, other than to be purchased, I think (which has a much slimmer chance of happening this year than last, due to the downturn). Its only function is to broadcast status messages. Why is Facebook threatened by this? Oh yeah, because Facebook sort of does the same thing … as part of a much broader set of functions.
- I have to guess that the Facebook team thinks of status broadcasts as the main driver of users to the site. Otherwise, why would there be such an emphasis on it in the redesign?
- I also have to guess that Facebook has more users than either Friendster or Myspace did at their respective heights. I mean, my high school class is on Facebook. Your mom is on Facebook. Everyone is on Facebook. Given that this is the case, why does Facebook fail to leverage this network and instead concentrate on status-driven feeds?
If I were Facebook, I’d move toward features that would take on Upcoming and Flavorpill (and Evite, though it seems to be dying a slow death). Enable site members to click on an event in a feed to say “show me more events like this one.” Enable members to send notifications to members of a Facebook group when there is discussion board activity on a groups page. Allow me to leverage my network to solve a problem. Push Facebook to be much more than a collection of tweets. Charge for advanced groups management features, even. Create a Facebook Pro!
If Google were really bent on killing Facebook, all they’d have to do would be to shove Orkut over to the side and turn Gmail into a social networking app. No profiles needed — they could come up with really good groups and events management keyed off of each user’s address book.
Facebook is setting itself up, I think, to be knocked aside by another site that actually solves for something. Or do I have it wrong?
You know, from the vantage point of today, this is both prescient and funny:
“If Google were really bent on killing Facebook, all they’d have to do would be to shove Orkut over to the side and turn Gmail into a social networking app.”
Any updates to this post in light of current FB privacy activity?
Other than “Facebook refuses to figure this particular thing out, to their detriment”… no.
Facebook seems to have decided as a company that the social graph will be open, damn it, and clamps their hands firmly over their ears when it’s pointed out that this is not to everyone’s liking. It doesn’t strike me as a great business strategy.