19 ms·

Social networking is but an AOL paradigm. Yahoo and Google and Microsoft all have the elements of a social networking but chose not to pursue it, or half-assed

Social networking is but an AOL paradigm. Yahoo and Google and Microsoft all have the elements of a social networking but chose not to pursue it, or half-assed it over the year, but I have more faith in Google being able to pull it off and succeeding than the other companies or even Facebook. But then again, the point of Facebook was never to care about social networking, they aspire to be an advertising powerhouse.

aston 19y ago
The point of Facebook was always to care about social networking, and they still haven't public announced an aspiration to be an advertising powerhouse.
- alaskamiller 19y ago
  That's ridiculous, they care about "social graphs". If I'm not somebody's friend I can't view their profile. I don't meet people on Facebook like I do with any other service or in real life, I simply establish an alternative identity and throw all my pictures and mundane details into it. As for their aspirations of being in advertising not being announced? And?
  - aston 19y ago
    You're arguing semantics mostly. The bottom line is, Facebook is doing a piss poor job of being an advertising marketplace, and a pretty good job of being a social network.
    - nkohari 19y ago
      I think this is going to change very soon. They're close to unveiling a targeted ad system. As smart as AdSense is (targeting ads to content of a page), targeting them to the specific preferences of a user is even more compelling.
      - aston 19y ago
        I hope you're right, and I hope it's awesome. My best guess, however, is even if they've got such a system, it's sure to be immature and hence not very compelling. Facebook doesn't have near the advertising talent Google does, so I wouldn't be so quick to compare their so-far-nonexistent ad system to the behemoth that is AdSense.
        nkohari 19y ago
        I wasn't necessarily saying that it would be an AdSense killer, just that it could be an equally interesting take on targeted ads. I definitely agree that it'll take time.
    - sbraford 19y ago
      It took Google what, 4-5 years to finally come out with AdWords and begin their powerhouse ascent? Give FB time, they'll get there.
cellis 19y ago
Frankly, google doesn't have much of a chance. They are desperate in this space. This is evidenced by them blindly pumping ~billion into myspace. Orkut is a flop, except in brazil. Meanwhile facebook continues to lay waste to the industry.
- alaskamiller 19y ago
  People keep passing around that little story about Orkut is only popular in Brazil but never go beyond that. Orkut has a 68 million users, it's not Myspace or Facebook numbers, but a flop? Jesus Tapdancing Christ, when was your last project scaling at 68 million? And who's to say that Orkut is even Google's response to Facebook. It was an acquisition, if anything I see it as a technology buy. They wanted to know how a social network would operate and function and they bought something that works in the International market to test it. But I still think my point still stands, social networking is just a paradigm. It is not separate service or platform, it is just how features are organized. And almost every feature Facebook has, GYM has. The only innovation Facebook ever done was come out with poke. But then again, I've been pinging or yt?-ing my friends since AOL 2.1.
  - Elfan 19y ago
    Orkut was an internal Google project and launched a month before Facebook.
    - sbraford 19y ago
      When you say "internal Google project", do you mean hired a guy who used code from his previous company and slapped the name "Orkut" on it? Via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut "In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Buyukkokten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.[ambiguous] Originally the Orkut community was felt to be elitist, because its membership was by invitation only. At the end of July 2004 Orkut surpassed the 1,000,000 member mark and by the following September it had surpassed 2,000,000. As of August 2007, the number of members equated to over 67,000,000 users."

aston 19y ago

The point of Facebook was always to care about social networking, and they still haven't public announced an aspiration to be an advertising powerhouse.

alaskamiller 19y ago
That's ridiculous, they care about "social graphs". If I'm not somebody's friend I can't view their profile. I don't meet people on Facebook like I do with any other service or in real life, I simply establish an alternative identity and throw all my pictures and mundane details into it. As for their aspirations of being in advertising not being announced? And?
- aston 19y ago
  You're arguing semantics mostly. The bottom line is, Facebook is doing a piss poor job of being an advertising marketplace, and a pretty good job of being a social network.
  - nkohari 19y ago
    I think this is going to change very soon. They're close to unveiling a targeted ad system. As smart as AdSense is (targeting ads to content of a page), targeting them to the specific preferences of a user is even more compelling.
    - aston 19y ago
      I hope you're right, and I hope it's awesome. My best guess, however, is even if they've got such a system, it's sure to be immature and hence not very compelling. Facebook doesn't have near the advertising talent Google does, so I wouldn't be so quick to compare their so-far-nonexistent ad system to the behemoth that is AdSense.
      - nkohari 19y ago
        I wasn't necessarily saying that it would be an AdSense killer, just that it could be an equally interesting take on targeted ads. I definitely agree that it'll take time.
  - sbraford 19y ago
    It took Google what, 4-5 years to finally come out with AdWords and begin their powerhouse ascent? Give FB time, they'll get there.

cellis 19y ago

Frankly, google doesn't have much of a chance. They are desperate in this space. This is evidenced by them blindly pumping ~billion into myspace. Orkut is a flop, except in brazil. Meanwhile facebook continues to lay waste to the industry.

alaskamiller 19y ago
People keep passing around that little story about Orkut is only popular in Brazil but never go beyond that. Orkut has a 68 million users, it's not Myspace or Facebook numbers, but a flop? Jesus Tapdancing Christ, when was your last project scaling at 68 million? And who's to say that Orkut is even Google's response to Facebook. It was an acquisition, if anything I see it as a technology buy. They wanted to know how a social network would operate and function and they bought something that works in the International market to test it. But I still think my point still stands, social networking is just a paradigm. It is not separate service or platform, it is just how features are organized. And almost every feature Facebook has, GYM has. The only innovation Facebook ever done was come out with poke. But then again, I've been pinging or yt?-ing my friends since AOL 2.1.
- Elfan 19y ago
  Orkut was an internal Google project and launched a month before Facebook.
  - sbraford 19y ago
    When you say "internal Google project", do you mean hired a guy who used code from his previous company and slapped the name "Orkut" on it? Via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut "In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Buyukkokten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.[ambiguous] Originally the Orkut community was felt to be elitist, because its membership was by invitation only. At the end of July 2004 Orkut surpassed the 1,000,000 member mark and by the following September it had surpassed 2,000,000. As of August 2007, the number of members equated to over 67,000,000 users."