the current buzz surrounding facebook

There has been an enormous amount of buzz surrounding Facebook in the last 3-4 weeks. It has to do with the platform they launched that allows outside developers to make mini applications that can integrate into your Facebook experience. And if you are a Facebook user you have noticed that there are all kinds of applications you can add, from enhancements to the “wall”, video add ons, even listing books, word processors and productivity apps. But there are also a couple other things going on with Facebook that deserve mention.

From my estimation there are 3 reasons Facebook is getting so much praise:

1. With the addition of this app platform and the apps that followed; Facebook now is a universal landing place for communications and productivity. Sort of like your virtual computer space that is connected to everyone your know. This is huge because it presents the web or server based apps “operating system” that many people have been saying would be the Microsoft killer. Until now there wasn’t one place where all that was available in a ways that felt overly threatening to places like Microsoft because of one reason: the biggest advantage of using a web app is the possible collaboration and connection to other people through that app, and its universal accessibility. But with so many different sites for each kind of app, or with no social network to connect them all, it was like putting a frankestein “operating system” together, and it is always a wild struggle to get people to sign up for something new.  So with your Word Processor and Spreadsheets at Google, Email and pim apps at Yahoo, chat at meebo or twitter or pownce, photos at flickr, bookmarks at del.icio.us and blog on Wordpress, there is no way you will get all your friends to make the exact same choices. Facebook has the potential to have elements of those apps in one place, and with a killer social network to connect them all to the people you know.

2. Social Networking for a long time in my mind is more fad and popularity contest. But now Facebook is shaping a social network that can fit for professionals and the workplace, which is a brilliant move. People like Robert Scoble have been raving about Facebook for several reasons, but one of which is the fact that it doesn’t feel like a place only for teenagers looking to score a date. And using Facebook as a professional is now an advantage instead of a “have to”.

3. Facebook, as software, doesn’t suck. Might seem a little simple but MySpace is the worse piece of software I have ever used (except for that label printing software for the Mac, holy cow…). But until recently people not in high school or college couldn’t use it. Now that they have opened it up, and it has a large critical mass of people, it is worth it to move to Facebook. MySpace sucks… sorry had to say it again…

July 22, 2007 | Filed Under Web Tools 

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