DISQUS

Clarence Jones · 2 years ago

So far I've avoided Facebook for the simple reason that I do not have time for it & everything else. Unil there's a (hopefully desktop) aggregator of these sites that allows two-way communication it's going to be Battle of The Social Media Websites.
Although I don't have the sources at hand, MySpace is over 50% adults & has been since before Spring 2006. That's when a fellow internet broadcaster began posting on Live365's message boards about the sharp spike upwards in his listenership due to his promoting his stations thru his MySpace page. MySpace ain't just Kids anymore! While I agree with Chris that MySpace is spamilicious (?!?), unless Facebook manages to work miricles it'll suffer the same fate. I also agree that Rupert needs to throw an additional few hundred million USD at Somebody to fix the Hideous Layouts! If Blogger/Google could fix their layout problems & still be backwards-compatible, MySpace can too.
Love & Peace, Clarence

Bernie Goldbach · 2 years ago

I think people tend to go where their friends are spending time and sharing stories. I dusted off my years-old Facebook after a half dozen extended friends started sharing stories through Facebook. Now some of the nicest pop-ups I get from my system tray come from the Facebook community. In fact, every Facebook notification that bubbles into my browser makes me smile. I like that and hope the feeling lasts.

Robin Crumby · 2 years ago

It's human nature to follow the crowd. But often the hype doesn't quite match up with the final experience.

What I mean is that once the initial wave of enthusiasm to join such sites subsides, there's a definite sense of 'now what?'.

I suspect there's a growing gulf between sign-ups and active users. After all, how do you delete your profile on most sites?

So unless there's a big draw for business people to return day after day (And I mean greater than 'just how popular am I today?') to actually help them do their job, then they are likely to fall into disuse and the crowd move onto the next big thing that does serve a geniune business purpose.

Robin.

Lee Hopkins · 2 years ago

G'day gentlemen,

I kind of side with Robin and Clarence on this. I can see a use for networking, but LinkedIn can provide that, so too can Twitter and MyRagan and CommNetwork. I agree with Robin that often it is just too hard or too much trouble to go back into a profile and delete it.

Like blogging and podcasting, I wonder how long before the 'Facebook Phenomenon' witnesses 'Facebook Fade.'

David Finch · 2 years ago

To begin with, I like the simplicity of the Facebook interface. If your comparing MySpace on this feature only Facebook wins hands down.

Second, I'm using Facebook as my "Social Media Hub." A place to collect feeds from my blog, Google Reader, del.icio.us, Twitter, etc. and then make then available to my friends. It's a collection of "ME" to keep my friends in the loop. It's a bulletin board to those that want to stay connected.

Finally, thanks Lee for the detailed post on the latest phenomenon.