Althouse: "Facebook is waging a 3-pronged war on websites."

September 7, 2010

"Facebook is waging a 3-pronged war on websites."

Discuss.

26 comments:

chickelit said...: FB ~ Beatles ~ Microsoft

Twitter ~ Rolling Stones ~ Apple; 9/7/10, 8:54 AM
Skyler said...: The subject is provocative and slurs a favorite bogeyman, facebook, but it's not shown very clearly how websites will be ended.; 9/7/10, 8:56 AM
rhhardin said...: 3-pronged is good for fresh grass clippings.; 9/7/10, 8:58 AM
Scott M said...: Facebook allows one to see just how fat your high school crushes, ex's, and rivals have become. In some cases, ludicrously...

It may not end web pages, but it will certainly put a ding in high school reunions.

(snark obviously as it has done nothing be make reunions better for everyone I know); 9/7/10, 9:05 AM
Paddy O said...: "Facebook Success Summit" !!

Beware people predicting precisely what they will be profiting from should their predictions be true.

He's "slurring" facebook, but doing it in a way that instills a fear in people who think they should be on the cutting edge so have to pay for all kinds of new training to better deploy whatever new thing has to be deployed so as to keep up conversation with people who are talking about what new thing should be deployed.

Facebook definitely has its place. But just about everyone I know uses it but is more frustrated by it than anything else.

Plus, any prognostications about Facebook dominance must keep in mind the terribly unsettling word Myspace.

We are a fickle people. We will abandon you the moment something better comes along.

Anyhow, I thought Twitter was the end of websites.; 9/7/10, 9:13 AM
Leon said...: from where i'm sitting face book is looking largely dead. about 18 months ago everyone i knew was on there and posting and loading pictures. today not so much. still happening but drastically slowed. if no one cares they can do all they want but it will come to naught. right now i'm reading blogs that update regularly like this wonderful one.; 9/7/10, 9:26 AM
KCFleming said...: "...waging a 3-pronged war..."

Either Facebook is appropriately grounded, or it's a salad fork.; 9/7/10, 9:30 AM
Paddy O said...: "from where i'm sitting face book is looking largely dead"

People I know still post pictures, but I think the site really has descended in user created content. It's basically a twitter feed for updates, that allows for posts from multiple sites.

Facebook has really undermined its own potential over the years by becoming increasingly heavy-handed about content. One can't really do anything without falling into the widening non-privacy net that Facebook has developed. I think there's a growing wariness about Facebook, even as its still so totally convenient mostly because just about everyone a person knows is on it. Makes it very easy to communicate simple messages, but is still immensely mediocre for real conversations or any kind of developed content.; 9/7/10, 9:42 AM
virgil xenophon said...: IMHO the whole myspace/facebook/twitter thing is for the unserious "trendies"--the HS/extended HS mentality crowd. Plus selected "hipsters" (mainly childless females--both married and unmarried--in their mid-20s. Oh, and lets don't forget the aging "creamy hippy chicks" :) ) for whom the terms "social media" and "performance art" seem to have been custom-drawn. That commercial interests would gravitate to the functional equivalent of impulse buying is no surprise. This leaves the blogosphere to the adults for their own amusement/purposes--both whimsical and serious.; 9/7/10, 9:49 AM
SteveR said...: Facebook is pretty much always pissing me off and I seldom do anything beyond posting and commenting. I don't like they way they handle links, etc. Yeah they have 500 million members and 75% use it about once a month. Of the twenty five percent left, most are under 21.; 9/7/10, 9:56 AM
MadisonMan said...: IMHO the whole myspace/facebook/twitter thing is for the unserious "trendies"--the HS/extended HS mentality crowd.

I just made this my status.; 9/7/10, 9:57 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny... and I say... F*%k Facebook today... F*%k Facebook tomorrow... F*%k Facebook forever ;); 9/7/10, 10:02 AM
Paddy O said...: "I just made this my status."

like.; 9/7/10, 10:06 AM
GMay said...: I have to agree that the article isn't very clear on how websites are endangered. FB is basically the AOL of e-mail: party line messaging capability with content.

Also, I have over 300 friends on FB, even though the only reason I log on is to accept new friend requests, or respond to the occasional message. I go weeks at a time without logging on.

There used to be tons of activity among them all, but not really anymore. The newness really seems to have worn off. The security issues alone have pissed off a ton of users. Hell, my account was hijacked by a spam bot and I practice pretty safe computing.

FB will look like e-bay in another year. E-bay is just a front for a lot of stores now. From a business marketing perspective, FB is a huge deal, but only a passing fad I think.

Wait until the spam bots grow in even more sophistication and FB realizes how much more money they can rake in from exposing their users to more invasive advertising features.; 9/7/10, 10:15 AM
GMay said...: "I just made this my status."

GMay likes this.; 9/7/10, 10:17 AM
SteveR said...: "I just made this my status."

You, GMay and one other like this; 9/7/10, 10:59 AM
Paddy O said...: I thought this survey stuff was GARBAGE but i just went out a shopping spree at walmart thanks to FB = http//apps.facebook.com/lookshinythings/, this won't last long so good; 9/7/10, 11:53 AM
Paddy O said...: I thought this survey stuff was BS but i just used the Best Buy giftcard they sent me here http//apps.facebook.com/snugglewithme/ to buy a new laptop!; 9/7/10, 11:53 AM
AllenS said...: The best thing about Facebook is that you can post a lot of pictures, so that people who live a long ways away can see what you've been doing. I don't understand this Farmville stuff. What's up with that?; 9/7/10, 12:40 PM
Scott M said...: I don't understand this Farmville stuff. What's up with that?

That's for people that can't hack Eve Online or any of the Total War titles.

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into using Facebook, but I'm glad I did. I've caught up with quite a few people (mostly from high school and college). After the initial flurry of communication, it sort of dies down to a very dull roar, but it's nice to have an easy avenue to get in touch with people like that.; 9/7/10, 12:47 PM
AllenS said...: Scott,

I've also found a lot of people from high school. Then I give them my email address so we can communicate that way. Which is more better.; 9/7/10, 12:55 PM
Der Hahn said...: As a regular FB user I have to say I just don't see where he is coming from. From my perspective the FB interface makes you absoultely incapable of finding the kind of information I go to a website to obtain. It's great if you want to push ads to people but even then someone with a moderately active news feed (and anybody who plays FB games or is friends with people who play FB games, which I guarantee are 99% of FB users, has a VERY active news feed) is likely to miss the ad. Only someone who doesn't use FB regularly, and doesn't understand how it's structured, is going to be convinced by a pitch that you absoultely need to spam FB users.; 9/7/10, 2:14 PM
virgil xenophon said...: AllenS/

That's "mo' bettah" :); 9/7/10, 6:22 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I hate Facebook. My one excursion ended when I ran into a whole lot of people that I would prefer to never see again.

That, and continual invitations to Mafia Wars, ended my involvement with social media.

No, thank you.

Facebook will suffer the same fate of all other internet fads: irrelevance once the next emerging technology appears.

How are blogs doing? Seems to me that they fossilized around 2006. Nothing new is happening. Popular people do facebook and twitter. That's too bad, because I like the blogging format. But what I like doesn't matter very much on the internet.; 9/7/10, 8:58 PM
Known Unknown said...: Twitter at least seems useful in that I can follow people to create a custom newsfeed from people I trust and enjoy, but don't have to travel from blog to blog to collate or aggregate all of the content.

I work in advertising, so of course social media is big right now. Most practitioners of social marketing do it poorly, but there are a few who understand the nuances in communicating directly with customers outside of the selling situation.

WV: Shimpl -- Shemp Stooge's blemish?; 9/7/10, 10:09 PM
Phil 314 said...: Prof;

Are you fishing for more web traffic?

Are you getting a kickback from this gentleman?

Will you be headed in the Glenn Reynolds direction (i.e. "Great deals in MP3 players")?

Inquiring minds want to know?; 9/8/10, 9:11 AM