4 ms·

FB went all in on Metaverse reminded me of Google between 2007-2012 when they mobilized the whole company and invested heavily around social with OpenSocial, Go

FB went all in on Metaverse reminded me of Google between 2007-2012 when they mobilized the whole company and invested heavily around social with OpenSocial, Google Circle etc. Google eventually realized that's not their core strength and moved on, let's see what will FB do.

silisili 5y ago
I think (and hope) you're right, but Google was just moving in a general direction. With the announcement and even -name change-, it feels way more invested than Google ever was. Would be really weird to undo all that.
- throwaway4good 5y ago
  Google is called alphabet now … so they clearly wanted to pursue other things.
  - sriram_sun 5y ago
    Remember the time not too long ago when Google was gobbling up Robotics companies?
  - thebean11 5y ago
    No it isn't, Google is still a company under the holding company Alphabet. Facebook is not a company.
rektide 5y ago
To glom Buzz/Salmon/OpenSocial (the great intertwingularizing era, circa 2008) & Google Circle together is to marry night & day. These are opposite ends, opposite realms. Buzz, Salmon Protocol, OpenSocial: these were hopeful, strong, API oriented, pro-value-creation protocol-based interoperable ways of connecting the world, making new system creation possible. Engineers doing internet engineering things, trying to build an ecosystem for interconnection. Google didn't realize building healthy, interoperable, internet technology wasn't their core strength & drop it. The story is much sadder. Their new head guy showed up & personally demanded things go his way & that everyone build his pet project, Google Plus. A vanity Facebook competitor with a real name policy, with no extropic/network benefits, no connection to the rest of the net (although you could send some data in to it: literally it's only api, one method): just another shitty little social app. Google eventually realized this product was trash & insisting every team creatively find ways to interoperate with it was a mess, and canned this shitty little social app. (One I used & enjoyed, but which was of scant real enduring value, was deeply disconnected.) There's two eras here. They look like opposite ends, to me. As for Meta. Well. There is a lot of the vanity project bent, judging the book by it's cover. But I also think it's good to increase the engineering challenges, to go big. To find new hard problems. Google Plus was just a cheap knock off, a facsimile, with some narrow twists (Circles). Facebook is at least trying something. I have sincere doubts about headsets, but the idea of virtual place, & of re-materializing the virtual makes a lot of sense to orient & re-ground (what a pun) computing - could do a lot. But Meta could walk either of the two Google paths I just described: they could walk the open, interoperable, ecosystem path & kickstart a new era in computing with a buoyant healthy technical ecosystem, or they could walk the Google Plus era path & create a closed, proprietary product or series of products that try to succeed so strongly on their own that they inflate a new market singlehandedly.
Irishsteve 5y ago
I believe FB is gone metaverse because they made such a dramatic shift from desktop to mobile, what 10 years ago ? That was obviously widely successful but catching lightening twice is no easy feat.
- bot41 5y ago
  They messed up their initial move to mobile. They tried to build it as a HTML5 application.
Melatonic 5y ago
FB is going all in on Metaverse for the same reasons Ool companies are going all in on renewables and other ventures
Miraste 5y ago
Google didn't voluntarily move on from Google Plus. They were forced out because they lost, badly, and the company they lost to was Facebook. I wouldn't count Zuckerberg and co. out yet. Unlike Google management, he is not afraid to commit to a new direction completely.

silisili 5y ago

I think (and hope) you're right, but Google was just moving in a general direction. With the announcement and even -name change-, it feels way more invested than Google ever was. Would be really weird to undo all that.

throwaway4good 5y ago
Google is called alphabet now … so they clearly wanted to pursue other things.
- sriram_sun 5y ago
  Remember the time not too long ago when Google was gobbling up Robotics companies?
- thebean11 5y ago
  No it isn't, Google is still a company under the holding company Alphabet. Facebook is not a company.

rektide 5y ago

To glom Buzz/Salmon/OpenSocial (the great intertwingularizing era, circa 2008) & Google Circle together is to marry night & day. These are opposite ends, opposite realms. Buzz, Salmon Protocol, OpenSocial: these were hopeful, strong, API oriented, pro-value-creation protocol-based interoperable ways of connecting the world, making new system creation possible. Engineers doing internet engineering things, trying to build an ecosystem for interconnection. Google didn't realize building healthy, interoperable, internet technology wasn't their core strength & drop it. The story is much sadder. Their new head guy showed up & personally demanded things go his way & that everyone build his pet project, Google Plus. A vanity Facebook competitor with a real name policy, with no extropic/network benefits, no connection to the rest of the net (although you could send some data in to it: literally it's only api, one method): just another shitty little social app. Google eventually realized this product was trash & insisting every team creatively find ways to interoperate with it was a mess, and canned this shitty little social app. (One I used & enjoyed, but which was of scant real enduring value, was deeply disconnected.) There's two eras here. They look like opposite ends, to me. As for Meta. Well. There is a lot of the vanity project bent, judging the book by it's cover. But I also think it's good to increase the engineering challenges, to go big. To find new hard problems. Google Plus was just a cheap knock off, a facsimile, with some narrow twists (Circles). Facebook is at least trying something. I have sincere doubts about headsets, but the idea of virtual place, & of re-materializing the virtual makes a lot of sense to orient & re-ground (what a pun) computing - could do a lot. But Meta could walk either of the two Google paths I just described: they could walk the open, interoperable, ecosystem path & kickstart a new era in computing with a buoyant healthy technical ecosystem, or they could walk the Google Plus era path & create a closed, proprietary product or series of products that try to succeed so strongly on their own that they inflate a new market singlehandedly.

Irishsteve 5y ago

I believe FB is gone metaverse because they made such a dramatic shift from desktop to mobile, what 10 years ago ? That was obviously widely successful but catching lightening twice is no easy feat.

bot41 5y ago
They messed up their initial move to mobile. They tried to build it as a HTML5 application.

Melatonic 5y ago

FB is going all in on Metaverse for the same reasons Ool companies are going all in on renewables and other ventures

Miraste 5y ago

Google didn't voluntarily move on from Google Plus. They were forced out because they lost, badly, and the company they lost to was Facebook. I wouldn't count Zuckerberg and co. out yet. Unlike Google management, he is not afraid to commit to a new direction completely.