This is a well-thought out response to my snarky one-line comment. That being said, for the casual users of social networks (who are the vast majority), would

This is a well-thought out response to my snarky one-line comment. That being said, for the casual users of social networks (who are the vast majority), would any of these things convince them to raise stakes and move over to your walled garden? Facebook, at its inception, offered simplicity. The redesign is a sign that they still consider that to still be one of their primary strengths, not just something that allowed them to achieve their current user base. I'm not a social network power user by any stretch, so maybe I'm just not thinking big enough, but I can't imagine any feature (or set of features) that would make another social networking site irresistible to me. The problem here, other than the obvious chicken-and-egg one with respect to users, is that there aren't any trendsetters in social networking. Announcing some new features will inevitably bring in tech-obsessed users looking for something new and shiny, but creating a feature set that specifically appeals to power users doesn't guarantee that the casual users will eventually follow.