Jose Maria Cuellar › Likes

I think what keeps a lot of folks there is that their less techy friends, family & relations are there. For some reason Facebook's mediocre UI is less threatening than other sites. Even if those other sites have a more intuitive UI. And vijay is right that at this point it has a lot to do with critical mass. However, that once used to be true of Friendster so there may come a day when it's not the case. - Spidra Webster

I actually avoided Facebook for a long time until I realized that a lot of my family members and former classmates used it. I'm glad I ended up creating a Facebook account a few months ago because it was through Facebook that I learned of my uncle's disappearance and am getting updates there from family members involved in the search. Oh, and I'm addicted to farm sim apps. - Sally: baby flier

I think its the closed nature of facebook that keep people hooked there. My former classmates and coworker use facebook exclusively. If I want to communicate with them thru a micro-blogging-like platform, facebook is my only choice. - Fajar Nurdiansyah

Thanks for the replies. I actually still don't "get" the mechanics of Facebook. It is so counterintuitive to me. When I found Friendfeed it was like an oasis of ease. They both have their usefulness to me, so I guess I will have to continue to use them separately. I don't like to duplicate/split conversations much (which I am doing with this very entry unfortunately) because not... more... - Josh Haley

I think it also depends on what you want to use each network for. I wouldn't be using Facebook if it wasn't for family there. My employer also has a fan page, so I had to sign up to check that out. I don't think there's much value in the fan pages for business, but I'm willing to give it time to test out. Twitter is my favorite service, but I get value from Friendfeed too. My Twitter... more... - Sally: baby flier

I avoided it until just a few days ago. I can understand the social draw of it, since there are so many people I know, but it's so much less satisfying that FriendFeed. My little sister's friends are friending me, people from my church, distant relatives I don't know well, etc. I'll keep trying it out, but I'm sticking with FriendFeed. - ha3rvey (free hugs!)

I prefer FF over FB, too, but most of my former high school classmates or people I grew up with and extended family use FB only, which is what keeps me active there. - Trish R

So the real question is how did Facebook manage to get such a big user base. My hypothesis is the fact that the have 2 way follow. - Bindu Reddy

Bindu, that and a very aggressive friend suggestion feature. It's all about the degrees of separation for FB. - Josh Haley

I'm assuming that the big base came from the built-in pioneer user base - college students (even of a certain university). Once they were hooked, the FofaF thing delivered the rest. And Facebook, while not intuitive in my opinion, isn't a total disaster. It does have some fun/useful features. - Spidra Webster

I only recently started using Facebook and find that it's good for keeping up with my less techy friends. Existing coworkers, friends, former coworkers, family, etc. Facebook is more like a digital scrapbook of my life where Friendfeed is what's happening NOW. Each has its advantage. - CAJ, somewhere else

Holden, does that mean we're figments of your imagination? - Sally: baby flier

For me, too, it's a way to reach my scattered college friends and family members. I don't do much with the games and quizzes, and I have no qualms about not friending people who don't fit in to that group. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

I have a lot of friends on FB who would never join Twitter or Friendfeed. - Victor Ganata

I first encountered FF as a FB app, but use FF much more now, so I'm a counterexample to "it depends which you encountered first". I think it's still the case that most of the people I subscribe to on FF are my FB friends--that's how I initially set up my FF subscriptions. One of these days I'll get around to subscribing on FF to my other FB friends who have since joined FF. - Ruchira S. Datta

Pssssss. Josh--over here. I haven't made the official announcement yet, but ... http://www.facebook.com/pages... <---- join this page :) - Micah Wittman from iPhone

I too, only use it because of family and friends that are not techy, and frankly know nothing about FF. If it weren't for that, I'd probably never use FB, since I rarely do any of the silly quizzes or extras that FB offers. - Bonnie Foster

One thing that Facebook has that FriendFeed doesn't is the apps. If the apps interest you at all, they give you reasons to come back to Facebook and interact with others on the service. Perhaps FriendFeed is too small to interest developers to create Facebook-like apps for the service...perhaps not. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

Came for the friends. Stayed for the games. - Mo Kargas

The games drive me away, the family and school contacts bring me back. - Michael W. May

John, an app is any website that implements the platform API, which Friendfeed does have, in fact you used one (fftogo) to make the post :) - Mike Chelen

Mike, good point. What's the term I'm looking for to describe something that brings added content to the original "host" application? Then again, I guess a FriendFeed post of a YouTube video fits within my definition... - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

John, I call all that FB stuff "junk." I agree with those who find the site counterintuitive. I love to play with techie things, but I just don't love FB, not even a little. Can you imagine signing into your FF account and finding a bazillion invitations to plant something, play something, join something, take a quiz, etc.? We'd be all up in arms over the spammy nature of it. This place... more... - Kathy Fitch

I think a lot of it has to do with pace as well. Facebook is slow and that can be less intimidating. - Louis Gray

I use both. IMO, FF is better for meeting people and reading about things. FB is better for staying in touch with the people you already know and for playing games (oh, yeah, and those tiresome quizzes, too ;-) ) - Scott of Two Countries

FB is a way for me to stay in touch with my friends and trade photos and links and play games and such with them. FF I mainly use with people I don't know, it's a way for me to read what's going on in the world. Kind of like a feedreader, but more focused on interesting people instead of interesting websites. - Otto

For me, FF (and Twitter) are for meeting new people, networking and getting information. Facebook is personal. My profile is private and I only "friend" people that I actually know in real life. There are tons of silly apps and other nonsense but it's still an easy way to see what my real-life friends and family are up to. - Cyndi ~ @muchmorethanmom

They EACH have their purposes and each serve for {if YOU so CHOOSE} the betterment of one's social networking whether professional or personal......How involved one BEcomes in either is completely of their CHOOSing.....it is the same difference between let's say using Twitter or FriendFeed or Twitter or Facebook - DEFINITELY EACH has their own unique attractions and repulsions and again, COMPLETLEY BASED upon one's CHOOSing of how to USE them :O) Blessedly BE - Roni Lipstein

My friends are all on Facebook. Almost none of them use friendfeed, despite my insistence that it rocks. And lastly, Facebook is superior for sharing photos. - Nick Prince

I mostly use facebook to connect with people who don't know me on friendfeed or twitter. >.> - David C. Cooper

pictures of ex girlfriends - Morgan Haley

Morgan, LOL. - Victor Ganata

People's friends are there. Period. I've never heard any other reason for why people use FB. - Trent Hamm

I created an account in 2007 and didn't care about it until about 3-4 months ago, when I got hooked on the games. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Honestly, the only reason I keep going back to Facebook is because I can't convince most of my friends and family to move along to something like Friendfeed or Twitter. - Ken Bauer

mostly because thats what people i know are using, Partly because it has almost good privacy control stuff although i sorta tried to have an official & a personal account but kinda screwed up organising that & think trying to tidy everything up would be more trouble that solution, sadly. And finally because it's nice for organising stuff & i need all the help i can get with that sometimes. ps: I also use other services for similar functionality because I prefer them (eg FF vs Wall, G.Calendar vs Events) - immaterial