While the news feed is certainly not trivial, I think you have a point in that it wasn't news feed's technical prowess that made it a game changing feature for

While the news feed is certainly not trivial, I think you have a point in that it wasn't news feed's technical prowess that made it a game changing feature for facebook. In fact, there was a pretty vocal displeasure among its user base about the news feed feature. In the end, however, (in a slightly biased reading) it fuels the fire of narcissism most efficiently, and therein lies its true power.