If you have many "friends" how many of them are really friends?

That sounds awful.

What is scary is, how much private info is revealed to your so-called friends (and thereby friends of friends) by default. FB offers the opportunity to "opt-out", as the Gorg does with some things, but the explanation of this fact is carefully hidden, and the savvy user must be interested enough to dredge it out and unclick "Allow".

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/community_building/4120058.htm [webmasterworld.com] by rogerd - 8:48 am on Apr 22, 2010 (edt -5)

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Yikes! -- these guys need some serious help -- I could be wrong but this sounds rather strange to me.

For the life of me I just do not understand why so many people want to be in each other's pockets all the time?

Have they absolutely nothing else to do with thir lives but lead an on-line soap show existence?

HuskyPup, I agree. Wait until some of these folks apply for a job and their potential employer somehow gets a look at their facebook page. I have a facebook page for a very specific reason, but I hardly participate and certainly don't play those silly games. I'm often shocked at what some people post, or how much time they post drivel. I mean, who cares if you had a tooth extracted.

Saying that, are we website owners in trouble if we don't post a Facebook "Like" on our pages?

"makes it easy to make any page (on the internet) a Facebook page"

My pages don't want to be FaceBook pages.

...

...who cares if you had a tooth extracted.

The supplier of your toothbrush and 10,000 other dental products, for a start. Companies providing pain relief - pharmaceutical, herbal or natural. Healthcare and dental care insurers would want to know. Ice cream makers may find it of interest. Cosmetic surgeons might find your news fascinating. Providers of face masks would not be able to disguise their curiosity. Psychologists and assorted self-help therapists would undoubtedly be mindful of this development and be confident in their ability to coach you through the trauma of it all. Confectionary manufactures could stand to make a mint in advertising breath freshners to you.

It's got nothing to do with friends in reality. We all know that. It's just a means by which data about you can be gathered and mined and put up for sale to anyone and everyone.

This is the "personalised online experience". If you're a marketeer, great. This is way more personal than store and loyalty cards. But if you're a human being, this will be the joy of losing anonymity online.

Of course, it's not as simple as that. For starters, people have to want this. At the outset they need to be well-informed about what the loss of privacy means. Let's not forget humble website owners. They have to be shown some value in this, especially if the plan that "makes it easy to make any page (on the internet) a Facebook page," is as ominous as it sounds!

I'm sort of ready to get rid of my FB page/account. Am I the only one, or is the beginning of the end of FB?

I'm sort of ready to get rid of my FB page/account. Am I the only one, or is the beginning of the end of FB?

I thought so too a while back but you underestimate how much people crave attention. Wall posts, status updates, photo albums...they need to feel important somehow. "Look at me! Look at what I did! Look at what I'm doing right now!"

Sadly, I think Facebook is here to stay.

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING:: The Internet can cause chronic megalomania.

"don't build your brand on another company"

goes for commercial activities as well as your own personality. the two things that are increasingly crucial for your identitiy on the web is your own brand and your own website. even if everyone and his dog is running towards facebook or other social networks over time, i swear i would never hand my website and my published content over to a foreign proprietary entity i have no control over and who could do with the data whatever they like. i'm convinced that social networks rather dilute your identity than strengthen it.

Perhaps webmasters may find that, though they are loath to use FB as members, they may be hot to use it as tools for sales to its many members - a large market.

And... because the large market may well lead to large $... the analogy: Some webmasters are loath to use IE and favor Firefox, but find they must use IE now and then to test their sites. Similarly, some webmasters may become FB members, if only to see how their website "likes" work out.

OK, I was skeptical of FB before I looked into it, yesterday. Now, maybe I'm green or a newbie, but there are interesting avenues for revenue and new customer creation, so I'm giving it a serious look.

I'm the same guy who didn't believe in Adsense until I started getting regular checks in early 2004. Been getting them ever since. The social aspect of the web is nothing more than just another means of communication, just like looking at or creating and posting a web page.

If anyone thinks webmasters aren't exploited by Google (they are, after all the mother of all scrapers, aren't they?) please rethink how Google makes money.

It reminds me of Gandhi's quote: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I'd say Facebook is somewhere between being laughed at and fought with.

Face the facts. The internet is organic. Search never was and likely never will be the only method to connect people. In fact, since Google's owned the space for the last 8 years, I'd say it's probably about to be taken down off the throne.

Don't be left behind by your own laziness or ignorance.

Don't be left behind by your own laziness or ignorance.

The big problem I have with all social networking sites is that I cannot get enthused about them and nor too can most of my real world friends.

I honestly do not find them interesting whereas search and learning I do, that is the difference, reality v fantasy! :-)

Husky, think about a high school reunion. That's what got me to finally set up an account; my 40th is next summer and the old gang is already planning the event. Then, connect with some old friends (I'm certain you must have some). Next, look around at how you might persuade some extra traffic to your site (post some links, mention something you're doing, selling, wanting, etc.). There are plenty of options for it.

After that, let your imagination run free. Like any webmaster, it's largely our resourcefulness and creativity that made us webmasters in the first place. (Some of us just don't like what most people would call "work.")

You need to find a way to become enthused. Remember when you were a kid, and you'd see old people stuck in their ways. Don't become one of those. You, and I, and anybody who uses the internet for income, simply cannot afford that.

For my next trick, I shall purchase and learn how to use a smart phone.

Facebook, like a mirror, will feed our narcissistic egos, and will survive for a long time.

Does anyone else take issue with this idea of blocking off the internet and creating a "virtual internet"? Why do this? Isn't Facebook successful enough? How much is enough?

This leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

Isn't Facebook successful enough?

Has it made a profit for its investors yet?

...

"We are building toward a web where the default is social," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder.

Delusional. You are building toward a web where you are at the center of it Mr Zuckerberg, for better or worse.

Self-importance definition: Having or manifesting an exaggerated idea of one's own importance or merit.

I would say that if Facebook closed today there would be an instantaneous increase in production on a global scale.

Step away from your 'ville people.

Samizdata - They can cash in and walk away.

Well, I opted-out in the privacy settings immediately.

My usage and the usage of friends, "friends" and family on facebook has declined dramatically over the last year. It has been a good medium to reconnect with people, much like classmates.com was for a while, years ago (I don't go there anymore). Once we reconnected and traded email addresses/phone numbers, there really wasn't a need to visit classmates.com.

I sense the same trend might be starting to happen with facebook (despite all of the traffic reports out there) and maybe they're trying to nip it in the bud with this "awesome" new feature.

From what I've read lately, it appears as though people playing Zynga's games on facebook has highly increased a user's time spent/return visits on the site -- and actually, Zynga might wind up creating more in revenue for itself than facebook does this year. (I couldn't find any information on whether there is a revenue share involved or not.)

After delving into Mr. Zuckerberg's past, I found myself shaking my head and thinking about deleting my facebook account. Their new plan sounds like it might have evolved out of desperation, desire for fame and possibly, just outright greed.

I think what's also rather over-stretchingly ambitious is this 'open graph protocol'.

To my mind, it's a means by which Zucherberg is seemingly seeking to position Facebook as the provider and arbiter of new web metric standards. However, it just sounds like Digg, et al, gone mad.

Self-importance definition: Having or manifesting an exaggerated idea of one's own importance or merit.

That's the definition of arrogance.

Nice posts fearlessrick!

Husky, think about a high school reunion.

I am not remotely interested in such things.

Even though I have worked and travelled all over the globe my home base is still the town where I was born and went to school. If anyone were that desperate enough to want to find me it would probably be the easiest thing in the world to do...heck, how many successful 170 year old family businesses are there still using the family name?

I understand completely if that is what you and many others wish to do, it's simply not my thing. It's my choice and I'm not having it thrust down my throat...I'm not saying you're trying to do that, FB are.

I would say that if Facebook closed today there would be an instantaneous increase in production on a global scale.

Please add Myspace etc to that list...unfortunately I have some desirable images that these social networking sites like to use as backgrounds with over 100k requests a month for them, they are hotlinked protected so don't worry about that.

The point I would like to make is that the traffic request drop for these on a weekend is massive which leads me to the conclusion that much of this site buidling must be carried out at work!

I just thought everyone on this thread would like to know that I found a stray calf that had wandered onto my farm today. OK, back to work everyone...

I just thought everyone on this thread would like to know that I found a stray calf that had wandered onto my farm today. OK, back to work everyone...

StoutFiles and 3 other people liked this.

Is that the Lincoln Red calf I lost last night?

Trav, you're not the only one. I'd say among my peers there's more FB attrition than adoption at this point. There's also a migration away from Google after "personalized search". But think I'm seeing this among my peers because we are generally older, tech savvy, heavy Internet users and the privacy issues give us the heebies. Whether your average user gets creeped-out is another question entirely. Let's hope so.