I’ve had a Facebook account for quite some time now. I was surprised that I didn’t find it before it became huge, but I didn’t really use it a ton when I first signed up. I thought it had some cool features here and there, but I never really became addicted to it. But over the past few months, the Facebook team has been doing some cool ass stuff which is hard not to pay attention to. (more…)

So everyone is on MySpace these days, and it’s kind of funny and fast things spread and how people sign up for it. When I first signed up for it a few years ago, I didn’t really look for people on there. I didn’t know anyone using it, in fact I think I just got a friends list this year! You don’t really realize how big it is until you start getting friend requests from people you knew waaay back in the day. (more…)

Now when I first heard a few rants about the recent changes made to Facebook, I wasn’t going to say anything. Then I heard a few more, so I thought that it at least deserved a thought or two in the asides section. Then there was this roar of people who downright dispised the features and went on a rampage and started voicing their opinions, and holy shit, did people have some strong feelings towards it. Facebook still is just a website for fun right?

This is odd that all of this came up right after my last Sound Session of mentioning Facebook. So today my techy site mentioned about the Facebook users getting all upset about the new features, and there was just a huge debate (103 comments) about the whole issue and it’s quite interesting to see the different view points on the matter. Then I began to formulate my own thoughts, and just need to get the thoughts out asap. My first honest reaction to the new features, was that it was pretty cool, from a technical stand point. And I’ll get to that in a minute. Always trying to keep up with new features on as many sites as possible, this was just one that I liked, just because I know of the actual benefits can be with the technology used, which RSS if you want to look it up. So I did find a number of people that liked the feature, mainly because they are developers/designers/techies, which leaves at least 95% of the rest of the people non-designers, who it really matters for, and the majority of the people don’t give two shits about the feature, technically.

My second reaction after picking around at it, was that it was a little too (and more) stalkerish. I mean, I really didn’t need to know all of that info that came up at first glance, I don’t really care who wrote on who’s wall or who recently decline a group. But that’s just me, maybe people want all of that info. But I can say that for all the Facebook stalkers out there, you better thank Facebook for making your efforts that much easier. And peope act like Facebook all of a sudden became a stalker platform……it’s been like that since it came out!

So yes I think it’s cool technically, but I think it was used in the wrong fashion. Now I think that people will get used to it, if a few things happen. For one, make the feeds an option for users instead of force feeding it to them. One of the biggest ways to turn away users from a website is to change a site too much, and I think Mr. Zuckerberg tried a little too much at once. It also wasn’t a smart idea to release such a feature without testing it out on a number of users. I also think that in order for the users to learn it and get used it, they need to be able to choose what feeds they want and from who, in other words, let stalkers choose who they want to stalk. They don’t need to stalk everyone at once!

I honestly do think that if they tone that feature up a little bit, people will grow to like it, but that’s just my opinion. Now there was another group of people ranting about privacy issues…….REALLY?! So now that your, already public, information is more public, you’re going to bitch and moan. Seriously, why not poke around before you complain. You have the option of not showing all of your actions and such. It’s a simple process. Not only that, it’s barely easier with the feeds to get to the information that other people already had access to. These feeds are not giving away any information that is not already accessible.

What’s also insane, is that the “Students Against News Feeds” group currently has 359,394 members, 1645 discussions topics, and over 18,000 wall posts. Wow. I understand that people want to make a statement, but damn. And that’s just not enough, people also felt the need to start websites about the damn thing. I don’t even think this many young people got amped up when the war started. Am I the only one who thinks this is just bizarre?

I think Mr. Zuckerberg is a smart man, but I do think he made a mistake in releasing this feature in the wrong fashion. But, I think the Facebook team will get wise and touch this thing up. I also think that people will get used to it, but here’s also what I think; If they were to do nothing, and keep this feature the way it was, people would miss it in a few months. I bet around the same amount of people would probably complain to get the feature back on.

So what are my final thoughts? Either way, whether they take the feature off, or keep it on, I don’t really care too much. I’m not worried about my business being out there cause there isn’t much to show on that site. And if there was, I’d utilize the privacy features more, it’s that simple. What’s more interesting to me is to see how people react to this, whether they learn to use it more, and whether or not Facebook chooses to do something about the “apparent” problem. Zuckerberg already responded to the roars so I can only assume that his ass is scrambling around to figure out a solution. So yes, I like it technically, but am on the fence about it for Facebook, I’d have to see some changes in it to see if I’d like it for Facebook use.

I, like everyone else I’m sure, got all the invitations to the hate groups and such, and I just declined mine because I just like whatever. I just want to voice my opinion on my thoughts, and what I see going on with this. What’s weird, is that people like myself and other designers could use this as a case study for some web project or something. I hope none of your readers are that damn upset over this. If so, get over it, cause it’s not the end of the world, and if you hate it that much don’t utilize the privacy features, then just stop using Facebook!

So anyways, I think I got everything out, but if you’re bored and want to check out a debate going on head over to Tech Crunch, it’s pretty interesting to see the different perspectives, from users, to non-users, from young to old.

peace

So today was probably the nicest day we’ve had since last fall, and it felt real nice to not have to worry about bundling up to go outside. But as nice as this weather was, I have to admit that I was pretty damn salty today. I was walking to the IC to get some lunch and I saw all these people just coolin out in the sun, chillin in the grass and having nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, the only thing that I could think of was how much I missed the days when our friends did the same damn thing. It was more like an event when the first few warm days came around because everyone started calling everyone to see what who was doing and where. And everyone had the same thing on their minds………..and that was chillin outside, with a few cocktails, and more than likely not going to most of their classes. So it dawned on me today that I will never have that experience again. It’s more depressing than anything, and I think I was more salty about today, than knowing people were going on spring break somewhere warm. Although most of my friends have full time jobs and probably feel the same way I do, that doesn’t make me feel any better knowing that people are enjoying the weather all day when I am inside working. At least I like my job or else I would be waaay more pissed off about the subject. Oh well.

So I can’t help but to make mention of a this article that I came across yesterday about non other than damn Facebook. It was in my away message the other day, so if you didn’t catch it, here it is. And if you don’t know what Facebook is, what the hell world are you living in. But anyways, the article had said that the owners of Facebook turned down a $750 million offer to buy them out. Yes, you read that right, seven hundred and fifty fucking million dollars……….and they turned it down. Why did they turn it down?! Because they could probably get up to $2 BILLION for it. I seriously almost puked when I saw those figures. Lets dig deeper…..

First off, how do you not want to slap yourself, just a little bit, for turning down $750 mil. Are you kidding?! I would have started signing fucking toilet paper the minute someone said “We’ll offer.” Hell, I would have given them the computer is was built on, my apartment, and anything they felt necessary for that much money. I’m sorry Facebook is not that hot where I’d need to turn down offers like that. You’re basically set for life with that kind of check, even after you pay off all of the people that work for Facebook. Can’t believe they turned that down. At the same time, I can see wanting to keep it in the family and not hand it over to a CEO who could potentially kill the community vibe that it has. But still, I can’t believe they turned that down.

Secondly, $2 billion? Will a company seriously have the balls to just drop that much coin on Facebook. Granted, I’m sure they would make the money back through advertisements and such, but still. That’s no minor investment. If that investment flopped, I’d think that it would put quite the hurting on a company. But, it won’t flop. Why? Because there is waaay too much potential for Facebook. Once handed over to a big name company, they will be charging big bucks for people to advertise on there. Just look at the young audience of Facebook, and how many young people are on that site every day. That should be a dream platform for some companies to advertise on. I usually hate advertising on websites, but Facebook has done a good job at keeping it clean and out of the way, yet still noticeable. What else would you expect from Harvard guys?

The only reason it isn’t bigger than Myspace is because it’s limited to universities and unfortunately, high schools. I think that somehow, it will find a way to get bigger than Myspace, at least I hope. Myspace is a hunk of utter trash. And you may think the same thing, but from a designer stand point, trust me, its a worst nightmare at best. Facebook is also alot safer than Myspace too because not just any old molestor gets to register for it. Aside from that, it just spread to Canada, so now that’s an extra 500 people on the site! More than likely, even if not bought out by a big name, it will spread worldwide…….no joke. And that’s when Myspace gets a silver medal under Facebook. So now put a price tag on a market like Facebook if it spreads globally…..$2 billion is hella money, but sounds a little more logical now. Even if it doesn’t sell, Facebook has already made over $13 million. That’s not too shabby either.

But I will be trying to follow up with this whole Facebook buzz, and you keep you posted, because it is interesting the kind of money that companies are throwing around for so many different web products…….and I don’t need to get into detail at all, but the web industry is booming right now So if you have any ideas that have to do with the web, please let me know, because now is a great time to start pushing out ideas. But I’m all ears for ideas because success stories like this give me hope, and especially because it’s on the web! I don’t know about you, but dammit I want to be rich. Not even so much rich, but……………..you know what, nevermind, I want to be rich. I’ll just leave it at that.

And by the way, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is only 21 years old.

peace