Now, I realize at this point that all my net-themed posts have been about facebook, and believe, it’s not intentional. I guess more ideas hit me since I spend more time there than most other sites. In the future, however, I’ll be bringing to light some cool websites to be checked out.
Anyway, recently (say, in the last few months) facebook introduced some new features. Namely, usernames (for quick access to profiles and for easy login) and status tagging (I’ll call it that). In case you weren’t aware, the run down is this:
1. Now you can have your own personalized username (say, talking.pyjamas) for use for logging in (rather than use your email address), or for pointing people to your profile (ex: www.facebook.com/talking.pyjamas).
2. You can now also tag people in your statuses, by typing @, followed by their name.
Those of you familiar with these tubes we call the internets might recognize the last one, in particular. Yeah. Twitter. Twitter, the self-coined “micro-blogging” site, where people can post short, little messages about what they’re doing during the day, uses the exact same method for tagging (in this case it’s not called tagging nor is it exactly the same, but it’s got a very similar purpose). In your message, you type @NameHere. But I’ll get back to this later.
The other feature they announced (before the status tagging) was usernames. And guess what? Myspace has had this for years! Now, I’m no Myspace guy. Don’t have one, don’t know much about it, and probably visit a Myspace page once a year. But I know that they have usernames, and are used for the exact same purpose. Now when I heard this, I thought huh.
When I heard the status announcement, I spit out my drink.
The thing that’s amazing here is not only the copying of other sites, but the absolute flagrancy with which facebook is doing it. They didn’t even make an attempt at changing the way the tagging works! The just simple-as-that copy and pasted it into their set of features.
So now this raises many interesting questions. Why is facebook doing this? Can they get away with this? Will they lose users?
I think Mark Zuckerberg has let all his money get to his head, and let himself become a flat-out idiot. Facebook has become the fat guy in McDonald’s, eating everything in sight. And… well, the analogy’s a little lacking. But facebook has become this giant, bloated “thing” (for lack of a better word), with so much junk attached to it it’s almost impossible to use. It really should be replaced by a better site. But it’s not. Because of the facebook effect.
The facebook effect states, that once a certain something has enough fans, it can increase crappiness levels and decrease quality levels without seeing any decrease in fandom.
This is caused by a slightly less teen-horrific version of peer pressure. I wouldn’t quit facebook. Why? Because I’d be missing out on all my friends talking. They’re not going to switch. It’s the same scenario for a lot of other people. The party may suck, but everyone’s there!
The other thing, of course, is the small issue of having TOO MUCH MONEY FOR ONE’S OWN GOOD. Mark Zuckerberg, and facebook, has gotten to the point where he/it can do whatever, without seeing any (or virtually any) loss in profit. They’re trying to add every single damn thing to their site, thinking that it’s a good thing. And they don’t know any better!
It’s slightly annoying.
So this answers the other questions. Can they get away with it? Probably. It’s not like there are patents (paternets?) or lawyers for these situations. Will they lose users? Why don’t we consult with out good friend, the facebook effect:
HA. Fat chance.
So. Is this OK. What’s your opinion? Is this just the way the world is? The story of life? C’est la vie? Or… is it not. I’m running out of energy.
Personally, I’m still undecided. I know one thing for sure, though: I’m patenting the facebook effect. Happy plagiarism!
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