Facebook is going public… well, not quite. At least their data, or at least some of it, is…
”
Private by default has been a hallmark characteristic of Facebook, as high on the list as the lack of MySpace garishness. It’s been key in making Facebook the biggest social network on earth. Now that’s about to change.
“
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/06/24/24readwriteweb-the-day-facebook-changed-messages-to-become-18772.html
What makes Facebook the most popular social networking site? Here are my thoughts
- Slick, minimalistic interface
- Preference for usability over ad dollars. For instance, sending message content to your actual inbox , AJAX based photo albums, and of course the aggregation of friend data in the news feed.
- Idenitifying the “Web as a Platform” by following Microsoft’s strategy of an ‘open’ developer platform for third party applications.
- Geared toward a more mature audience than MySpace… where an emphasis on real relationships takes precedence over false identities and band loyalties.
I think an interesting observation is that none of these things really involve the concept of privacy and or the concept of access control. Facebook has been tremendously innovative on the web application development front. They have the best social networking tools and are constantly taking ‘risks’ by introducing new, controversial features.
Let’s also not forget that Facebook is one of the original social networks. Yes, Friendster and Myspace, came first. But Facebook, took some of the initial concepts of social networking and improved on them. Nonetheless, their brand, recognition and longevity are powerful for attracting new recruits, thus expanding what is the real value of the site, it’s marketplace -a huge pool of web savvy users that they directly advertise relevant products and services.
In this regard, this could be the smartest move for Facebook to make. Twitter is taking off like a rocket ship because there is no privacy between friends. Everything is public. Discoverable information in ‘irrelevant’ data is what makes the internet valuable. The more open and accessible content on the web is, the better. Why doesn’t this principle also apply to Facebook?
There is a huge market in search, and Facebook has a tremendous reservoir of searchable content that currently isn’t being searched. Their internal Ad Manager makes good use of it, but that’s it. Considering Google makes their billions in public search, I think Facebook would be quite eager to explore this market… not to mention those who have invested already, ***cough***, Microsoft.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see, once Facebook makes more content public, a key partnership with Microsoft in delivering a searchable Facebook data stream.
I’ll tweet this article, or maybe just Facebook it instead!
Related posts:
Nice points…I agree that Microsoft will have their finger prints all over the success of this (and the $$ made from it’s success). It’s interesting to note the recent statements by Google execs as well that nod to the fact that they understand and expect this shift in the organization of the web’s content.
Despite the arrogance of Facebook and Zuckerberg…Google understands and sees the threat. Here’s another great article about it:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwall?currentPage=all