Now I know Mark Z said it would be a few years yet before Facebook came up with a business model, but still...I haven't seen a more gratuitous waste of valuable online real-estate for a while than the "invite friends" ad on Facebook. Invite which friends? Everyone's already there! If that's the best use they can make of the space they really are scratching around for a way to make money off the site.
(Also, try to picture for a moment the sort of conversation you would have with someone you tried to invite to Facebook right now, halfway through January 2009. "Hey Bob, I've found this website, you should try it out." "Oh cool, I like trying out new websites. What's it called?" "Facebook. It's a 'social network' where you can see what your friends are doing and post photos and...Bob? Bob are you still there?")
I guess that shows the virtually connected world that you live in (no offence intended) but the vast majority of my family and friends are still not on Facebook. I wish they were, honestly.
Yet despite that, I never use that function, just seems "tacky", although it seems fine for me to recommend and encourage Facebook use in offline conversations.
Anyway, Facebook's had its time, isn't it time yet for the next word in social networking (whatever that may be)
Posted by: Rana | 17 January 2009 at 16:18
Laughed my head off few days ago when a facebook ad popped up at #3 amongst google ads on a very obscure website. The ad was telling me about a huge targeted advertising opportunity on FB for businesses.
Yeah, right!
Posted by: max | 17 January 2009 at 21:23