BitDepth 649 - October 14
13/10/08 10:45 Filed in: BitDepth - October
2008
Why
Facebook is crap
The new Facebook and its owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
Here's the thing about Facebook.
It isn't a new idea, and it isn't a particularly original one. What it is, though is free. In that it doesn't cost you money. What it does cost you is the learning experience of working with the web directly.
The idea of putting a more accessible face on the hardcode guts of the Internet is as old as the Delphi online service, which was overtaken by Prodigy and then by America Online, the most successful effort at creating an online community until the Internet exploded.
AOL death watch began when accessing the Internet became something easily separated from using that company's software. Free protocols for creating web pages, transferring files, sending e-mails and chatting online trumped the commerce driven convenience of AOL's business model.
Now Facebook is bringing simplicity back. You can send fellow Facebook users e-mails, text chat with anyone who's online, create community pages and post photos and information on what seemed to be a customer focused web service.
The new Facebook
The first inkling that avid Facebook users had that the company hosting all these delightful services wasn't a benevolent sugar daddy was the announcement of the "new" Facebook.
Facebook users comfortable with the old interface immediately went ballistic and the company added a text link to user's pages that allowed them to switch between the new design and the old one.
Then a few weeks ago, Facebook pulled the trigger on their redesign, announcing "the new Facebook is the only Facebook." The new interface, with a few adjustments, became the only option for Facebook users.
The group "I Hate The New Facebook" currently has 1,544,351 members and there are many more in various "Facebook sucks" pages. To its credit, the company and its 24-year-old founder leave these dissenting group pages alone.
Shouldn't change be good?
Part of that change, and the one that annoyed hardcore users the most, was the relegation of non-Facebook applications, the bits of code that made the website's experience so interesting, are now relegated to a sidebar and to a ghetto of "boxes" three tabs away from a user's home page.
Many of these third party applications don't work on the sidebar and some don't work at all any more. Developers are likely to be concerned about creating and updating features for the website that most casual users will never find.
This wouldn't be so bad if Facebook were paying attention to what their users like and use, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Photos, one of the most popular parts of any user's Facebook page, have no prominence on a user's home page and Facebook native features that link to external websites don't work particularly well. There is no functional RSS reader and the web clip software, which claims to share links to external websites is simply abysmal.
Why bother?
So why create this massive upheaval and change the user experience so fundamentally? You can deduce a lot from the result. Today's Facebook is spare and clean, with no cows being thrown at anyone or vampires being chumped. It looks like an effort to position the service for the kind of maturing users who prefer the spare, business focused interface of services like Plaxo and Linkedin.
But Facebook's history of playing fast and loose with user information may deter business from embracing the service, though the misguided users who make their pages private (hiding on a social network?) will probably be pleased.
Still, that shouldn't be a problem for Facebook's business. Ranked fifth in the world by web traffic monitor Alexa, the site has 110 million users and more than 70,000 from Trinidad and Tobago alone. It clearly has the eyeballs to lure advertisers.
But Facebook's lack of interest in the virtual world outside its tasteful blue and white walls may ultimately be its undoing.
You can post and share on Facebook, but there's little incentive to create work that lives on the site.
Blogs are still better handled using purpose built sites like Blogger and Typepad, and nothing touches Flickr for sharing photographs and tracking visual trends. When users grow weary of Facebook's web training wheels, there isn't much sophistication to keep learning; growing web citizens interested.
The new Facebook and its owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
Here's the thing about Facebook.
It isn't a new idea, and it isn't a particularly original one. What it is, though is free. In that it doesn't cost you money. What it does cost you is the learning experience of working with the web directly.
The idea of putting a more accessible face on the hardcode guts of the Internet is as old as the Delphi online service, which was overtaken by Prodigy and then by America Online, the most successful effort at creating an online community until the Internet exploded.
AOL death watch began when accessing the Internet became something easily separated from using that company's software. Free protocols for creating web pages, transferring files, sending e-mails and chatting online trumped the commerce driven convenience of AOL's business model.
Now Facebook is bringing simplicity back. You can send fellow Facebook users e-mails, text chat with anyone who's online, create community pages and post photos and information on what seemed to be a customer focused web service.
The new Facebook
The first inkling that avid Facebook users had that the company hosting all these delightful services wasn't a benevolent sugar daddy was the announcement of the "new" Facebook.
Facebook users comfortable with the old interface immediately went ballistic and the company added a text link to user's pages that allowed them to switch between the new design and the old one.
Then a few weeks ago, Facebook pulled the trigger on their redesign, announcing "the new Facebook is the only Facebook." The new interface, with a few adjustments, became the only option for Facebook users.
The group "I Hate The New Facebook" currently has 1,544,351 members and there are many more in various "Facebook sucks" pages. To its credit, the company and its 24-year-old founder leave these dissenting group pages alone.
Shouldn't change be good?
Part of that change, and the one that annoyed hardcore users the most, was the relegation of non-Facebook applications, the bits of code that made the website's experience so interesting, are now relegated to a sidebar and to a ghetto of "boxes" three tabs away from a user's home page.
Many of these third party applications don't work on the sidebar and some don't work at all any more. Developers are likely to be concerned about creating and updating features for the website that most casual users will never find.
This wouldn't be so bad if Facebook were paying attention to what their users like and use, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Photos, one of the most popular parts of any user's Facebook page, have no prominence on a user's home page and Facebook native features that link to external websites don't work particularly well. There is no functional RSS reader and the web clip software, which claims to share links to external websites is simply abysmal.
Why bother?
So why create this massive upheaval and change the user experience so fundamentally? You can deduce a lot from the result. Today's Facebook is spare and clean, with no cows being thrown at anyone or vampires being chumped. It looks like an effort to position the service for the kind of maturing users who prefer the spare, business focused interface of services like Plaxo and Linkedin.
But Facebook's history of playing fast and loose with user information may deter business from embracing the service, though the misguided users who make their pages private (hiding on a social network?) will probably be pleased.
Still, that shouldn't be a problem for Facebook's business. Ranked fifth in the world by web traffic monitor Alexa, the site has 110 million users and more than 70,000 from Trinidad and Tobago alone. It clearly has the eyeballs to lure advertisers.
But Facebook's lack of interest in the virtual world outside its tasteful blue and white walls may ultimately be its undoing.
You can post and share on Facebook, but there's little incentive to create work that lives on the site.
Blogs are still better handled using purpose built sites like Blogger and Typepad, and nothing touches Flickr for sharing photographs and tracking visual trends. When users grow weary of Facebook's web training wheels, there isn't much sophistication to keep learning; growing web citizens interested.
|
BitDepth 648 - October 07
03/10/08 13:21 Filed in: BitDepth - October
2008
An
advance look at futurist thinking
Gerd Leonhard. Photograph by Friedel Ammann.
Futurist thinking is always an iffy business. Attempting to figure out what happens next based on the indicators of today is a guessing game that's easily overturned by completely unforeseen developments.
Thirty years ago, it wouldn't have been out of line to have expected a cure for cancer by now, but a popular self-organising, self-sustaining communications network with no central management? Who expected that?
This is the world that Gerd Leonhard lives in, and he focuses his thinking to media and communications over the next five years. That really doesn't make his job any easier. He's picked the move volatile, challenging and fast moving aspect of modern technology development as his speciality.
He speaks tomorrow at the Hilton Trinidad along with Jeff Swystun, Global Communications Director, DDB and Jeroen Matser, Strategy Director, Tribal DDB on the rather sweeping subject, "What does the future hold."
Leonhard agreed to an interview via Skype last Wednesday at his home office in Basel, Switzerland.
We had a brief movement of amusement when the connection came up, two people chatting thousands of miles and six hours apart on a free but functional voice connection delivered by free software.
"You know, British Telecom did not invent Skype, it takes an outsider to do that," Leonhard said, laughing.
In some ways, this whole chat is pretty redundant, since his lectures are widely available on YouTube and he offers his book, "The End of Control" available for free download both as a PDF document and as a homebrewed reading of the work in MP3 format.
This is clearly a guy who eats his own dogfood when it comes to content distribution.
"I do a lot of work with film, music, publishing and they have always been of the view that the more control they have the more money they make," said Leonhard. "But I try to tell them that the change is pretty much inevitable. Once you throw away your preconceptions, then you can begin. It's not about copyright, it's about getting paid for the use."
"The idea of giving away things for free is very difficult for companies; it feels uncomfortable. Once you have gotten used to total control over your customers, it's very hard to give that up. I try to give people a picture of what it might look like so that they can dip their feet in."
Concurrent with the rethinking of content control is the development of distribution, which Leonhard sees as a system still in its infancy.
"It's still a minority market. Only three percent of the world is on broadband, so the market has to be focused on mobile devices.
It can't be the only means of distribution yet because the numbers don't support it. You're talking to a percentage of a small percentage of potential consumers. I always tell content creators that they have to get ready for when the system works and the market arrives."
Creating that online channel is the real challenge, because it means both building the infrastructure and providing cost effective mobile devices for the potential audience for all this content.
Leonhard believes that the best way to do this is for governments to subsidize a free wireless network that can be accessed by low cost mobile devices, but that open connections bring with it a new chaos as information now flows to the least connected, least enabled members of the community.
"There has to be a broader consensus on connectivity and pricing and making devices available," said Leonhard. "The future belongs to the underprivileged of the world. When we enable people who are not wealthy to participate in the networks, then everything becomes better for everyone."
Links...
Gerd Leonhard's blog
The End of Control website
Gerd Leonhard. Photograph by Friedel Ammann.
Futurist thinking is always an iffy business. Attempting to figure out what happens next based on the indicators of today is a guessing game that's easily overturned by completely unforeseen developments.
Thirty years ago, it wouldn't have been out of line to have expected a cure for cancer by now, but a popular self-organising, self-sustaining communications network with no central management? Who expected that?
This is the world that Gerd Leonhard lives in, and he focuses his thinking to media and communications over the next five years. That really doesn't make his job any easier. He's picked the move volatile, challenging and fast moving aspect of modern technology development as his speciality.
He speaks tomorrow at the Hilton Trinidad along with Jeff Swystun, Global Communications Director, DDB and Jeroen Matser, Strategy Director, Tribal DDB on the rather sweeping subject, "What does the future hold."
Leonhard agreed to an interview via Skype last Wednesday at his home office in Basel, Switzerland.
We had a brief movement of amusement when the connection came up, two people chatting thousands of miles and six hours apart on a free but functional voice connection delivered by free software.
"You know, British Telecom did not invent Skype, it takes an outsider to do that," Leonhard said, laughing.
In some ways, this whole chat is pretty redundant, since his lectures are widely available on YouTube and he offers his book, "The End of Control" available for free download both as a PDF document and as a homebrewed reading of the work in MP3 format.
This is clearly a guy who eats his own dogfood when it comes to content distribution.
"I do a lot of work with film, music, publishing and they have always been of the view that the more control they have the more money they make," said Leonhard. "But I try to tell them that the change is pretty much inevitable. Once you throw away your preconceptions, then you can begin. It's not about copyright, it's about getting paid for the use."
"The idea of giving away things for free is very difficult for companies; it feels uncomfortable. Once you have gotten used to total control over your customers, it's very hard to give that up. I try to give people a picture of what it might look like so that they can dip their feet in."
Concurrent with the rethinking of content control is the development of distribution, which Leonhard sees as a system still in its infancy.
"It's still a minority market. Only three percent of the world is on broadband, so the market has to be focused on mobile devices.
It can't be the only means of distribution yet because the numbers don't support it. You're talking to a percentage of a small percentage of potential consumers. I always tell content creators that they have to get ready for when the system works and the market arrives."
Creating that online channel is the real challenge, because it means both building the infrastructure and providing cost effective mobile devices for the potential audience for all this content.
Leonhard believes that the best way to do this is for governments to subsidize a free wireless network that can be accessed by low cost mobile devices, but that open connections bring with it a new chaos as information now flows to the least connected, least enabled members of the community.
"There has to be a broader consensus on connectivity and pricing and making devices available," said Leonhard. "The future belongs to the underprivileged of the world. When we enable people who are not wealthy to participate in the networks, then everything becomes better for everyone."
Links...
Gerd Leonhard's blog
The End of Control website
BitDepth 647 - September 30
29/09/08 20:31 Filed in: BitDepth -
September 2008
Jill Greenberg’s political differences
with Republican candidate muddied some professional waters for
photographers.Read More...
BitDepth 646 - September 23
20/09/08 13:47 Filed in: BitDepth -
September 2008
The iPhone versus the
Blackberry.Read More...
BitDepth 645 - September 16
20/09/08 13:38 Filed in: BitDepth -
September 2008
Putting the iPhone to work and messing
around with Apps from the store.Read
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BitDepth 644 - September 09
08/09/08 19:45 Filed in: BitDepth -
September 2008
Ode to the iPhone. Getting to know
you, getting to know all about you...Read
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BitDepth 643 - September 02
01/09/08 19:41 Filed in: BitDepth -
September 2008
Ten years ago, Apple was a very
different company and the iMac was its unlikely
saviour.Read More...
BitDepth 642 - August 26
31/08/08 09:10 Filed in: BitDepth - August
2008
Complaining is sometimes necessary,
but it can be done artfully and usually, beneficially.Read
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BitDepth 641 - August 19
22/08/08 23:39 Filed in: BitDepth - August
2008
Microsoft presents an update to the
IDC’s 2006 state of IT report.Read More...
BitDepth 640 - August 12
12/08/08 20:47 Filed in: BitDepth - August
2008
Backup should be easier, given the
pain you’ll have to go through without a good, reliable copy of
your data if your hard drive fails.Read
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BitDepth 639 - August 04
04/08/08 23:23 Filed in: BitDepth - August
2008
Adrian Foncette’s recovery from the
kind of limb injury that normally ends in amputation speaks to the
potential of science to change lives.Read
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BitDepth 638 - July 29
28/07/08 20:08 Filed in: BitDepth - July
2008
The Universality Fund may pave the way
for improved telecommunications infrastructure in remote areas of
Trinidad and Tobago, but its implementation must be
transparent.Read More...
BitDepth 637 - July 22
22/07/08 09:03 Filed in: BitDepth - July
2008
The Digital Divide in Trinidad and
Tobago breaks out pretty much as you might expect it to, but there
are some surprises.Read More...
BitDepth 636 - July 15
14/07/08 22:35 Filed in: BitDepth - July
2008
Hancock re-imagines the anti-hero at
its extremes.Read More...
BitDepth 635 - July 08
08/07/08 13:28 Filed in: BitDepth - July
2008
Sometimes upgrades go bad and it’s
time to get back to where you once belonged.Read
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BitDepth 634 - July 01
30/06/08 21:06 Filed in: BitDepth - July
2008
Firefox 3 adds powerful features to
Mozilla’s flagship browser.Read More...
BitDepth 633 - June 23
23/06/08 22:39 Filed in: BitDepth - June
2008
Amazon’s Kindle takes the e-book
reader to a new level of sophistication.Read
More...
BitDepth 632 - June 17
16/06/08 23:03 Filed in: BitDepth - June
2008
Phillip Emeagwali delivered the
inaugaral lecture at the Kwame Ture Lecture Series this
year.Read More...
BitDepth 631 - June 10
14/06/08 14:02 Filed in: BitDepth - June
2008
There’s still some life yet in the
Trini “double.”Read More...
BitDepth 630 - June 03
02/06/08 18:30 Filed in: BitDepth - June
2008
Flash has added a lot of excitement to
web pages, but it's also created some hurdles as well.Read
More...
BitDepth 629 - May 27
26/05/08 20:29 Filed in: BitDepth - May
2008
Microsoft wants to sell more Vista and
end XP's reign. That's proved to be a challenge.Read
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BitDepth 628 - May 20
19/05/08 19:41 Filed in: BitDepth - May
2008
Scanning film can be a chore, but with
the right scanner and settings, you can move photographs from one
medium to another.Read More...
BitDepth 627 - May 13
12/05/08 23:22 Filed in: BitDepth - May
2008
Problems with my broadband connection
revealed deeper issues with Flow's support.Read
More...
BitDepth 626 - May 06
05/05/08 20:18 Filed in: BitDepth - May
2008
Derren Joseph is developing a mix of
virtual and human interfacing to address Trinidad and Tobago's
still developing Internet accessibility and credit phobia. He's
going to sell airline tickets over the phone.Read
More...
BitDepth 625 - April 28
28/04/08 19:21 Filed in: BitDepth - April
2008
Warp and Netscape are gone, here are
some final words.Read More...
BitDepth 624 - April 22
21/04/08 23:12 Filed in: BitDepth - April
2008
The five year mission of Spock, Kirk
and McCoy ended in the 1960's. Or did it? Fans of the series
believe otherwise and have been winning attention for their unpaid
work in keeping the spirit of Star Trek, TOS alive.Read
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BitDepth 623 - April 15
14/04/08 23:14 Filed in: BitDepth - April
2008
Software for browsing images is
steadily improving.Read More...
BitDepth 622 - April 08
07/04/08 23:06 Filed in: BitDepth - April
2008
Photoshop, not chicks for
free.Read More...
BitDepth 621 - April 01
31/03/08 21:15 Filed in: BitDepth - April
2008
Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor is
aggressively pushing alternate distribution methods for online
music.Read
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BitDepth 620 - March 25
24/03/08 21:24 Filed in: BitDepth - March
2008
Writing on the web can now mean
writing on the web. Online options for word processing are
improving.Read More...
BitDepth 619 - March 18
17/03/08 19:08 Filed in: BitDepth - March
2008
Microsoft has built virtualisation
into Windows Server 2008. I try to figure out why that's
important.Read More...
BitDepth 618 - March 11
10/03/08 17:51 Filed in: BitDepth - March
2008
Microsoft launches Windows Server
2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in a Caribbean
"Wave."Read More...
BitDepth 617 - March 04
03/03/08 20:14 Filed in: BitDepth - March
2008
Recording shows off your television
can be done with company supplied boxes or home-brewed
solutions.Read More...
BitDepth 616 - February 26
26/02/08 09:10 Filed in: BitDepth -
February 2008
Microsoft's new Unified Communications
technology platform makes it possible for you to get in touch with
your people, anywhere.Read More...
BitDepth 615 - February 19
18/02/08 21:52 Filed in: BitDepth -
February 2008
In the rush to push broadband sales,
service seems to have taken a real hit.Read
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BitDepth 614 - February 12
11/02/08 21:01 Filed in: BitDepth -
February 2008
Carnival
thrives in spite of the worst efforts of those charged with its
commissioning.Read More...
BitDepth 613 - February 05
04/02/08 19:16 Filed in: BitDepth -
February 2008
The annual masquerade has shifted
steadily from portrayal of characters to wearing
costumes.Read More...
BitDepth 612 - January 29
28/01/08 19:32 Filed in: BitDepth - January
2008
Calypsonian Crazy takes his first
steps in online sales.Read More...
BitDepth 611 - January 22
21/01/08 18:48 Filed in: BitDepth - January
2008
I've spent months fraternising on
social networking websites. Here's what I've picked up.Read More...
BitDepth 610 - January 15
14/01/08 23:09 Filed in: BitDepth - January
2008
Once a
model of enterprise and entrepreneurship, why has Carnival become a
pageant of dependency?Read More...
BitDepth 609 - January 08
27/12/05 12:17 Filed in: BitDepth - January
2008