Volpagirl I think Douglas has missed one, fairly fundamental point. His assumption is that facebook as a "venue" will be something people grow tired of. However facebook as a service or communication tool has fundamentally and, I suspect, irreversibly changed the way people communicate. It is, in many respect...
more
I think Douglas has missed one, fairly fundamental point. His assumption is that facebook as a "venue" will be something people grow tired of. However facebook as a service or communication tool has fundamentally and, I suspect, irreversibly changed the way people communicate. It is, in many respects, the new telephone. And as with any new inventions, there's bound to be a few crap versions before we get to one that works best. Which is why facebook is streets ahead of it's competitors, and linked in ( which I gave up on about 5 years ago) is miles behind. I'm not a betting man, but i'd be willing to put good money on fb being able to commercialise successfully and move beyond "venue" to "service".
Facebook is a fundamental shift in how people (and most importantly, advertisers) communicate. Both have massive commercial value. The other social networks are so niche and so focussed on preventing free communication that they have set their own a Achilles heel. Linked In, in particular, is deeply flawed as a communication tool. Facebook makes target mass communication easy in the same way that google made Internet search easy.... That's ultimately why they'll win in the end.