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Hey Facebook! Don’t be evil!!!
I’m amazed at Facebook. I really am. I’m all for new features and innovations. Those who know me know I take stands for increased flexibility, more unconferences, proliferation of almost all new technologies, and not to mention throwing out suits. But I do believe that after a while a business just needs to grow up. This means stop trying to copy every new kid on the block and focus on doing what you do very well. Even if that new kid is popular and got a sweet funding round.
For Facebook that means making the things we already do on Facebook better and monetizing them, NOT adding ME TOO features. Does Facebook not have the slightest inkling of how its users are taking FB/twitter app integration?
Over the last 2 weeks alone my twitter integration with my FB status led to charged discussions between Facebook friends and me in person and on my Facebook wall. Shirley Lin even came up with a new and very helpful feature for FB: give users the ability to filter status messages by kind of message at any given time. This way if I am tweeting an event Shirley can collapse that to see what else is going on with her friends without me dominating her friend newsfeed.
Clive added that “FB already auto-bundles pictures based on poster id, topic frequency / same source. [We] Need same for Twitter feeds.” Seems simple right.
But oh no Facebook doesn’t listen to simple needs from its users. But then again it seems like it doesn’t even listen to its own employees either.
Meanwhile to keep my Facebook friends happy I will now be tweet updating status messages sparingly. Those who want all other tweets can see my friendfeed on my Facebook profile. Other than friendfeed Seesmic desktop’s new integration with Facebook allows me to have fewer status messages for my Facebook friends. Now that’s a company that listens. Go Seesmic! Please don’t become evil like Facebook. I doubt friendfeed would since the famous Google phrase “Don’t be Evil” was coined by Paul Buchheit when he was at Google. Paul is the founder of Friendfeed. Gooooo Paul!
I’ll be fair. I will give credit where credit is due. Thank you Facebook for allowing Seesmic to integrate Facebook status messages into it with your new open standards.
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3 Comments
May 4th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Spot on Sana, I hope Zuck reads your blog.
BTW – Goodness you told me how to hide your Tweets from my News Feed. I had been un- friending other folks, cause there was too much Twitter posts on my wall.
PS. Is posting Status updates between Social Networks called mustaching?
May 4th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Sana,
Wonderful blog post and thank you for mentioning me in your blog regarding grouping friends’ tweet-like updates in one block.
For example, Sana was in a conf. She’s been sending a string of short updates via Twitter and on Facebook. But on Facebook, her numerous updates cluttered updates from my other friends.
Noticing quite a few ppl on FB display similar behavior pattern where they love to tweet about a conference or an event, some even non-stop pimp their products or services, I suggest that FB should be intelligent enough to group updates of the same topic (based on the mesh) into one block under the person. That way, I can see one “umbrella” update from Sana with the same mesh topic. And if I’m interested, I can then click to see all 15 updates from her from that conference without those short tweets cluttering my page and blocking me from seeing other friends’ updates.
But like Sana said, FB is not exactly in the mood of listening to every complaints under the sun. And that’s understandable in a way since their customer base grows exponentially, it is close to impossible to smooth every feather. The pattern of their practices seem to be hinged on how loud the complaints make into the ears of their executives and then it becomes a mandate. Democracy rules. Even if the company corrects the course after a seemingly major PR stunt, for Facebook, such publicity has not turned into a run-away disaster. Not only that, every stunt just seems to garner even more publicity and generate more users.
All said, the power of balance can still be tilted by the crowd. There is a Chinese saying, “the waves can tumble the boat; the waves can forward the boat too.”
May 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Your welcome clibou and Shirley!
clibou–of course I’d tell you. I’d rather you get what is most important for you from my tweets then to unfriend me completely.
Also even if Zuck never reads my blog and other entrepreneurs do and take that to heart my blog will have had its intended impact–people making better, less evil products.
Not sure if that is called mustaching. Have you read this somewhere? And if you came up with it that’s sweet!
Shirley–one of the posts I linked to asserts that Facebook doesn’t listen to a loud clamor from users and employees either. They don’t smooth every feather just the one’s that are deeply against founder’s mission. I love facebook but its becoming an exec product rather than a product for the users!
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