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I think you're downplaying the technical sophistication of Facebook, as well as the pioneering moves it made during its growth phase. Compared to MySpace, which

I think you're downplaying the technical sophistication of Facebook, as well as the pioneering moves it made during its growth phase. Compared to MySpace, which was incumbent during its rise, Facebook did everything faster, with less friction for the everyday user. MySpace would often try and stuff full interstitial page loads between core parts of its user interface. Facebook invented photos tagged with social profiles. Facebook invented the one-column social news feed. Since going public, Facebook's ad platform has remained at the forefront of useful and powerful online services. You can target users by interest, worldwide location, age, and more. It is an elegant platform that has been mishandled by aloof executies.

FlyingSnake 9y ago
The technical sophistications of Facebook were indeed instrumental in it's meteoric rise. After all they were the face of 'Move fast and break things" movement. I'm not sure if blockchain is the solution to the next social platform, but the excessive hype around the term has made me sceptical about that.
humanrebar 9y ago
> Facebook invented the one-column social news feed. Did it? Seems a lot like a twitter feed one could build for oneself. And I disagree that facebook won for being faster or more innovative. Most people I know switched because it was less obnoxious with glittery animations and autoplay audio. Also, the crowd, at least initially, was more attractive to young adults since it was exclusive to people with a university email address. Arguably it took the lead, at least initially, by doing less.
- ghostcluster 9y ago
  To read your messages in MySpace required you load a full page of Ads so you could then press "Next" and then see your Messages. Facebook in its first years did everything in its power to lower the number of page loads necessary to navigate the entire interface. So you're right, it was less obnoxious by being faster. And I don't know if you realize how big a deal tagged photos and a nice UI for uploading and managing them was. MySpace had nothing like that. "Twitter Feeds" and news feed launched at the same time in summer 2006. Facebook filed for a patent in August. https://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-news-feed-patent/#ciw3g8qQsEq7 https://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-news-feed-patent/#c... Nobody used Twitter until the following year when it made a huge splash at SXSW and caused its first growth spike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Twitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Twitter

FlyingSnake 9y ago

The technical sophistications of Facebook were indeed instrumental in it's meteoric rise. After all they were the face of 'Move fast and break things" movement. I'm not sure if blockchain is the solution to the next social platform, but the excessive hype around the term has made me sceptical about that.

humanrebar 9y ago

> Facebook invented the one-column social news feed. Did it? Seems a lot like a twitter feed one could build for oneself. And I disagree that facebook won for being faster or more innovative. Most people I know switched because it was less obnoxious with glittery animations and autoplay audio. Also, the crowd, at least initially, was more attractive to young adults since it was exclusive to people with a university email address. Arguably it took the lead, at least initially, by doing less.

ghostcluster 9y ago
To read your messages in MySpace required you load a full page of Ads so you could then press "Next" and then see your Messages. Facebook in its first years did everything in its power to lower the number of page loads necessary to navigate the entire interface. So you're right, it was less obnoxious by being faster. And I don't know if you realize how big a deal tagged photos and a nice UI for uploading and managing them was. MySpace had nothing like that. "Twitter Feeds" and news feed launched at the same time in summer 2006. Facebook filed for a patent in August. https://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-news-feed-patent/#ciw3g8qQsEq7 https://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-news-feed-patent/#c... Nobody used Twitter until the following year when it made a huge splash at SXSW and caused its first growth spike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Twitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Twitter