Daily Bits

social networking

Expert Gives Facebook Only 5 More Years

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Facebook is on a roll, isn’t it? In the past month or so, we have been hearing about all sorts of new features from THE social network platform. Some of the more recent ones include the Friendship Pages and Groups. And, just the other day, we heard about their “Gmail Killer.” So one would think that Facebook is here to stay – at least for a very very long time, right?

Not according to Dr. Jeffrey Cole, a digital consumer expert. If you’re doubting his prediction, bear in mind that this is the guy who said that MySpace would suffer the same fate (decline) four years ago. While MySpace is still around – I just logged in earlier to listen to some indie music – no one can deny that it is but a shadow of what it used to be. Oh, and check out Dr. Cole’s other credentials: Director of the Centre for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California and a director of the World Internet Project.

So Dr. Cole said that in five years, Facebook is going to be what MySpace is today. However, he states one major difference: there will not be a single social networking platform anymore. Instead, we are going to have many smaller communities.

His predictions are not limited to social networking platforms. He also mentioned that the iPad will be the last man standing in the realm of tablets – mainly thanks to the Apple brand – and that it will change the face of traditional print.

If his track record is anything to go by, we might just see his words becoming reality sooner than we think. Let me ask you though, do you think Facebook will be “gone” in 5 years?

RockMelt: Do We Really Need Another Browser?

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What web browser do you use now? The chances are that you have at least three installed on your computer, and you probably don’t use all of them on a regular basis – unless you’re a developer, maybe. I have Firefox, Safari, and Chrome and really just use the first two.

That’s why, when I heard about RockMelt – “Your Browser. Re-Imagined.” – I couldn’t quite fathom the need for it. The main thing that they are focusing on is the fact that the browser is very tightly integrated with Facebook, as well as other social networking platforms.

At this point, you are probably thinking of Flock, which basically tried to do the same thing. Unfortunately, it didn’t really take off. Anyone among you using Flock these days? My point exactly.

Even experts seem to look upon this venture as something that might not take off. With the heavy emphasis on social browsing integration, there is not much to sustain whatever initial attention RockMelt might gain. The three big players – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome – can easily add those features.

Still, we can’t deny that they might have something here. After all, social networking is really the “in” thing right now. Who knows, RockMelt just might change the face of browsing.

Call me a dinosaur or whatever you wish to, but I just don’t feel the urge to apply for a RockMelt account right now. If you do, visit their web site and apply for that RockMelt invite yourself. In the meantime, I shall visit Facebook using good old Firefox. 😉

So tell me, do we really need a re-imagined browser?

Facebook Friendship Pages: The Magic of Friendship or a New Stalking Tool?

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Yesterday, I got a Facebook notification that my cousin had “liked” what I posted on her wall the other day. Naturally, I clicked on the notification to check her wall out. One thing stood out immediately – a new link labeled See Friendship. I think what used to be there was See Wall-to-Wall.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I went ahead and clicked on the link. I swear, despite the initial misgivings about the use of the term friendship, I kept an open mind. This is what greeted me, and I just didn’t like it.

I guess the guys at Facebook have been really busy in the past weeks, haven’t they?  For some reason – specific reasons, actually – this Friendship Page thing just rubs me the wrong way.  Before I go into those reasons, let’s hear it straight from Wayne Kao, the guy behind this feature.  In a blog post, he narrates how he came up with the idea:

One of my favorite Facebook moments is browsing photos from friends in the News Feed after they’ve begun a new relationship, gotten engaged or gotten married. It gives me a fun and meaningful glimpse of the friendship between two people I know.

I realized that a similarly magical experience was possible if all of the photos and posts between two friends were brought together. You’d remember that first Wall post with your best friend or the funny photo from a night out. You may even see that moment when your favorite couple met at a party you all attended.

I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s kind of cheesy! Still, some people wouldn’t mind having this kind of information accessible to them.

The use of the term friendship also doesn’t sit well with me. It’s a personal thing, so I really shouldn’t gripe about it, but couldn’t they have found another word?

What really bothers me is this: “You’ll be able to see a friendship page if you are friends with one of the people and have permission to view both people’s profiles.”

If you take a look at the right side of that screenshot, you can see Browse Friendships.  In short, you can view other Friendship Pages of people in your circle.

What this tells me is that they seem to have taken the compilation of information to a whole new level!  It freaks me out, even though I make it a point NOT to post anything on Facebook that I don’t mind anyone else seeing/knowing about.  Still, you never know.  Indeed, I am not the only one reacting this way – there is already a Facebook Page dubbed Opt Out of the FB Friendship Feature.  I am pretty sure there is a group that love the feature already, but I wish that we had the option to disable it as well.

Yeah, Facebook Friendship Pages can either showcase the magic that you call your friendship, or it can be one of the most convenient stalking tools online.  As for me, I don’t need Facebook to make me appreciate the magic in my friendships.  Please give us the opt out feature?

Skype and Facebook to Merge?

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Got the new Skype for Windows yet?  If so, you probably have noticed that there is a new tab – a Facebook tab.  This is the result of a collaboration between the two companies.  The presence of a Facebook tab in Skype 5 for Windows implies a lot of things.

One, Skype users will be able to interact with their Facebook friends directly from Skype.  This can be done in a variety of ways – updating of status messages, commenting on other people’s status messages, and “liking” other people’s status messages and posts.  They can also see the news feed directly from Skype.

Two, there is a Facebook phonebook feature in the new Skype that will allow users to directly call – and send text messages – to their contacts from Skype.  If anything, that should be a more convenient way of getting in touch with one’s friends.

Three, group video calling is also available in beta version.  As of now, this is available on a free trial basis.

Experts have noted that this collaboration has been in the stars for a while and that it is but a logical turn of things.  Skype and Facebook have been at the forefront of their respective fields and putting their resources together is the only way to go forward.

For now, only Windows users can enjoy this integration.  For Mac and Linux users, we have to wait indefinitely.  I say indefinitely as there is still no announcement as to when they will release this version of Skype for other platforms.  I just hope that they actually do!

Afterthought: I wonder if they will be able to integrate Facebook chat?  Now THAT would be a definite improvement, don’t you think?

Twitter To Make Money With Earlybird?

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There is no doubt about the phenomenal rise of Twitter. The recent infographic we posted is but one testament to that. For many Twitter users, it has been somewhat of a blessing that the service has been free for four years now. While it doesn’t seem likely that they will start charging everyone to use Twitter, it is but time for the service to start generating considerable revenue for itself.

And, it looks like that’s exactly where they are headed. If you noticed about two weeks, a new account called Earlybird was launched. Yesterday, it was opened up to followers. No one knows much about it, but speculation is rife that this is the beginnings of Twitter’s campaign to make money. To matters more mysterious, Earlybird’s tweets are private, leading people to think that it is going to be a channel for good deals and exclusive stuff from outside retailers.

Twitter has not made a formal announcement as to what Earlybird is really all about, but the guys at ReadWriteWeb were able to get tidbits of information from Twitter:

Carolyn Penner, friendly communication contact at Twitter Inc., said to us by email after publication: “There are interesting things in store for @earlybird. Keep waking up early and you might be the first to find out what they are.”

So what do we know? It’s gonna be interesting. We need to wake up early. We’re being led by a carrot on the proverbial stick. We’ll keep watch and wait anyway.

2007: The Year of Social Networking

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An article at PC World does a great job of summarizing the major developments in social networking space in 2007 and ponders over the prospects and uncertainties for 2008.

One insightful point mentioned in the article is how innovation at start-ups startles tech giants. Google, the great Web firm that one-upped Yahoo in claiming the search crown and hailed as the poster child of innovation was beaten at the social networking front. All the major internet firms such as Yahoo, Google and MS were done in by FaceBook which sort of perfected the concept of applications around social networks.

Social Networking is moving from the domain of an ‘nice add-on’ feature to a must-have even at the enterprise level. Various organizations are now waking up to the possibility that to attract the next generation of talent, it is essential to incorporate the flavor of social networking and connectivity within the enterprise.

While there were major salvos fired at FaceBook’s walled garden approach to social networking apps (which it did counter by licensing the F8 platform), it will be LinkedIn’s progress in the API space that will be really interesting. Being a site for business networking, it is one network that will really see a boost with professional networking going beyond just the website to the Web as such.

But another shift that can also be expected is the increased availability of affordable feature-rich mobile phones and compelling mobile applications. Apart from the enterprise user, the benefits of mobile applications have not really trickled down to the casual user. 2008 will hopefully be the year when mobile applications especially for social networking will really take off. Since Google has made several bold moves in the mobile space, expect a lot of innovation in this front.

Overall, its been a great year for Social Networking and for 2008 there’s a lot to anticipate.