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It’s interesting to see this accusation about Zuck trying to cover up his “failing” to recognize the transition to smartphones. I was working at perhaps the bi

It’s interesting to see this accusation about Zuck trying to cover up his “failing” to recognize the transition to smartphones. I was working at perhaps the biggest iOS shop in the country at this time in Seattle. And I was regularly invited and attended the developer poker / presentation night events at FB’s Seattle office. At the time facebook had an open position for a mobile czar that continued to go unfilled for a long time. I know because I applied and watched it. This was when Facebook was refusing to build a native app—insisting the mobile web was a good enough experience. I was boots on the ground as so many big companies were embracing iOS, so there was no doubt Facebook was willfully ignoring mobile. Whether that failure required a coverup is a big leap though, so it would be very interesting if these documents included discussions suggesting this was the case.

reaperducer 8y ago
IIRC, the whole transition of Facebook from web app to iOS app was a complete fiasco, from a user perspective. It was at least a year, perhaps more before the app was usable. It would take minutes for a single page to load in the app. People hated it with the intensity of a thousand suns. I think you dodged a bullet not getting on board that train wreck. My guess is that Facebook only decided to go mobile-first when it realized that a phone is a much better personal data slurping device than a stationary desktop computer.
- bredren 8y ago
  I also remember how bad the mobile app was, it was very poorly rated in the app store. It would lose auth even i think. The people at the firm I worked on couldn't believe how poorly it was built when big companies including Apple were making major progress on apps with very small teams. >I think you dodged a bullet not getting on board that train wreck. Maybe you're right. I did end up heading to the valley and applying to YC and eventually getting a couple companies funded, but hard to know. I am not fond of Facebook the product or its business these days but back then I thought it was cool and built apps on it very early. > My guess is that Facebook only decided to go mobile-first when it realized that a phone is a much better personal data slurping device than a stationary desktop computer. You may be right, but I think they also realized that mobile ads converted. I can't remember but someone could probably write a book about Facebook's move to Mobile on its own. Speaking of mobile privacy, I also remember that we were all aware of how messed up permissions on iOS were--in that you could read full contact list data silently. Not long after we had Path-Gate: http://technologyfront.com/journalism/2012/02/17.html http://technologyfront.com/journalism/2012/02/17.html

reaperducer 8y ago

IIRC, the whole transition of Facebook from web app to iOS app was a complete fiasco, from a user perspective. It was at least a year, perhaps more before the app was usable. It would take minutes for a single page to load in the app. People hated it with the intensity of a thousand suns. I think you dodged a bullet not getting on board that train wreck. My guess is that Facebook only decided to go mobile-first when it realized that a phone is a much better personal data slurping device than a stationary desktop computer.

bredren 8y ago
I also remember how bad the mobile app was, it was very poorly rated in the app store. It would lose auth even i think. The people at the firm I worked on couldn't believe how poorly it was built when big companies including Apple were making major progress on apps with very small teams. >I think you dodged a bullet not getting on board that train wreck. Maybe you're right. I did end up heading to the valley and applying to YC and eventually getting a couple companies funded, but hard to know. I am not fond of Facebook the product or its business these days but back then I thought it was cool and built apps on it very early. > My guess is that Facebook only decided to go mobile-first when it realized that a phone is a much better personal data slurping device than a stationary desktop computer. You may be right, but I think they also realized that mobile ads converted. I can't remember but someone could probably write a book about Facebook's move to Mobile on its own. Speaking of mobile privacy, I also remember that we were all aware of how messed up permissions on iOS were--in that you could read full contact list data silently. Not long after we had Path-Gate: http://technologyfront.com/journalism/2012/02/17.html http://technologyfront.com/journalism/2012/02/17.html