Justin

RS did you know that Facebook notes appear on google search index? - Fred Grott

“Can the open public Web fight back? Yes. It’s called FriendFeed. Notice that FriendFeed replaces almost all of Facebook’s killer features with open ones that are open to Google’s search.” No, it has virtually none of the features that made Facebook explode. Remember when Facebook took off? When it allowed people to build new applications. FriendFeed doesn’t do that. Neither does FriendFeed have groups, which are also a major part of Facebook. Life streaming, which is what FF does, is only a relatively minor part of Facebook. That’s not to say “FriendFeed is bad and FaceBook is great”, but the two things really are apples and oranges. - Ian Betteridge

In fact if I put in my search-able facebook profile notes a link to Le web I be tit shows up in Google search results..what should we bet Scoble? I say the looser should be forced to lip synch a picked song..How about it Scoble want to bet? - Fred Grott

Ian: i agree. friendfeed is not a facebook replacement. - Travis Cooper

Way too much of a gamble considering Facebook's demographic and their poor CPM rates. MS will have to heavily promote it to their core userbase and I just don't see it working. I can't see MS making a serious play for ownership of FB. - Cains

bet made I just made FB note with Scoble link and tagged it with a Google bomb if it shows in Google search in one week Scoble is lip synching on video to a song I pick..that is if Scoble accepts this bet..so how about Scoble a little friendly wager on some of your assumptions..:) - Fred Grott

Robert, just responded in a post (too many words for FF ;-) ). MSFT and Facebook could technically close down part of the web I guess, but it'll be the most expensive walled garden experiment that is dead on arrival. People won't let themselves get locked in. Human nature always finds a way out. Instead they should embrace the User Centric Web. I can't think of a better business model than on that leverages user value. Locking customers in never works out in the end. - Alexander van Elsas

ian: I don't agree with that. FB and FF are essentially the same thing. The only difference is that fb's lifestream is closed to public, and there is a bunch of useless apps, which generate totally irrelevant information. - Mladen Srdić via Alert Thingy

Posted about it too... it's gonna be interesting this week! http://snurl.com/29kw0 - Soulhuntre via twhirl

Mladen: The "useless" apps are incredibly popular, and Facebook's traffic only started its upwards rise after it introduced them. You might find them useless (as do I) but the core demographic loves them. Ditto groups. - Ian Betteridge

Depending on how you use FB, FF can be an adequate replacement. FF doesn't have a lot of the stuff FB has but it gets some of it through its connections with other sites. The biggest difference I find is the speed at which FF updates, it's easy to miss something while FB has the story there all day. - Arthur Guy

Ian: The reason that the 'core demographic' loves them is that they are so damn stupid that they don't know how to jump into a conversation online. They rather stay protected in their little FB bubble all day and superpoke their "friends". - Jacob Burke

Jacob Burke: agree. Personally, i find all af the information here more usable than "X's egg hatched a tigerchicken" spam on fb. But there are usefull signals on fb, but nothing that can't be produced on ff too. That's why it's important to fight back. - Mladen Srdić via Alert Thingy

Wow. I guess elitism never get's old huh? - Soulhuntre via twhirl

Jeez, Jacob, what a snotty attitude. Given that you dispise FB users so much, perhaps you'd care to explain why you care wtf happens to the service? - Ian Betteridge

Mladen: I agree that FB can be very useful. I just wish that they never opened it up to all of the useless applications. If you want to play games, go to PopCap and waste time :) - Jacob Burke

Ian: I don't despise FB users, I despise FB at this point. They make up the rules as they go along, they let developers flood their network with useless apps, and they don't like to play well with others. I think FB used to be a great networking site, but now things have changed over there, I see them becoming more and more like MySpace. All we need next is profiles full of sparkle text. - Jacob Burke

Jacob: Calling Facebook users "stupid" because they don't like what you like is, erm, stupid. Just because it's not what YOU like doesn't mean it's not good for a lot of people. That's why it's now overtaken MySpace in traffic, if you count in international. - Ian Betteridge

Contrary to what you think Jacob, it is not that easy to convince your entire friend network to jump ship to a new service. I'm a FB user and I'm not exactly a fan of all the applications, but it's something I've learned to deal with. - Shawn Farner via twhirl

It is not about jumping ships, it's about docking them together. - Mladen Srdić

So then we'll use everything but Facebook... just like usual. - Morton Fox

facebook and walled gardens of the past are very, very different... unless, of course, you pay a monthly fee for facebook? - Chris Hollander

Robert, the sheer momentum that underlies the shift in the web will negate much of anything Facebook and Microsoft can do. Think of it this way - the pressure from outside is building to the point that Facebook is going to crushed liked a stricken submarine. - Simon Cast

First, Facebook sucks and no one is going to use it. It's doomed doomed doomed. Now, Microsoft is going to buy Facebook and keep it closed and EVERYONE is going to use it. We're doomed doomed doomed. I'm confused Robert. - Bwana