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Facebook, the product, is no longer this super sexy app that college kids are checking out. Looking for Facebook to be that, you will probably predict its futur

Facebook, the product, is no longer this super sexy app that college kids are checking out. Looking for Facebook to be that, you will probably predict its future demise. But that's not what Facebook is anymore. Facebook is the social graph expressed in Internet form, and is so interwoven with the fabric of the Internet that it's difficult to avoid, even if you're intentionally doing so. Some products phase in and out, that's for sure. I think Zuck's realized the potential for that to happen, and once he got on the top of the totem pole began preparing for it. He turned FB from an app into a social graph and API that is everywhere, and now he's paying from $1B (Instagram) to $19B (WhatsApp) to get some of his biggest would-be enemies to join him. He does not screw around with the Innovator's Dilemma. I'll be the first to admit I despise my current Facebook feed. It's full of clickbait articles mingled with the occasional update from someone whom I may or may not care about. That being said, I have tried to delete Facebook multiple times, and to no avail. I still have my hopes that they'll change the algorithm a bit and kill the effectiveness of the clickbait to the same extent they killed the spamminess of those social games and widgets. (Although they still exist and are annoying, they're an order of magnitude less annoying than they used to be.) But, despite my best efforts to avoid it, I still check my Facebook feed at least daily. What pulled me back? At first, it was that Facebook was integrated with Spotify. I had to create a new account and build up all of my playlists, songs, etc. from scratch. That was kind of a pain. Then I deleted Facebook again. I ended up missing a party that was only planned on Facebook. Then I missed the news that a friend was engaged, and another friend was pregnant. Then I couldn't log into my Kiva account to redistribute the repayments I had received because I had used Facebook to sign up. Facebook is just an incredibly, incredibly sticky product. Network effects are a bitch. Sure, hackers will say, "Well your friends should have called you instead of putting it on Facebook." But they didn't. Even though I'm not in college, if I'm not on Facebook I'm missing the party. (Even though "the party" is now simply knowing that my friend finished med school and is moving to Michigan.) Facebook isn't as sexy as it used to be, but it has become increasingly difficult to avoid. Think about that - we have to figure out ways and work hard to avoid a product. That's why a significant proportion of the Internet's users log in to Facebook every day. Unless some major shift takes place, Facebook isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

jamesaguilar 12y ago
>Facebook, the product, is no longer this super sexy app that college kids are checking out. Looking for Facebook to be that, you will probably predict its future demise. Been hearing this line from the hn crowd for at least three years. Stopped holding my breath a while ago.
- Joeboy 12y ago
  I think you misunderstand the post you are replying to.
  - jamesaguilar 12y ago
    That's true. Well, in that case, let's just interpret what I said as aimed at the doomsayers in this thread. :)
Joeboy 12y ago
> I ended up missing a party that was only planned on Facebook ... Sure, hackers will say, "Well your friends should have called you instead of putting it on Facebook." But they didn't. I am a Facebook hater, and I am also guilty of this. If I'm organizing or promoting an event or social occasion I'll go through my list of Facebook friends and invite the ones that seem appropriate. People who are not on that list don't get an invite unless I happen to think of them specifically. I guess some people would say that if they're not at the forefront of my mind then I'm a lousy friend anyway, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't like them to come to my party, or that they wouldn't like to be invited.
mercer 12y ago
This is pretty much why I'm so confused that Facebook didn't go through with the whole 'facebook as a platform' plan. I remember being excited about all the ways I could use Facebook as the 'social' backend to a whole bunch of apps I considered building. I also remember eventually giving up on that idea because clearly Facebook had decided that being the 'social API' was not their goal anymore. Meanwhile, the vast, vast majority of my network (ages generally around 25-35, Dutch, tech-savvy) only use Facebook for chat, internal groups, and the occasional silly post, which is much less than our use a few years ago (we'd upload vacation photos and actually 'write'), and a significant number of us would leave if it wouldn't be so inconvenient. And the vast majority of teens seem to not really be into Facebook. Basically, had FB continued with their 'social layer of the web' approach, it'd have been perfect for us, and it seems, to me, for FB too. And yet for some reason they decided to stay the old course and tend their increasingly less-cool walled garden. I am usually capable of understanding the behavior of a company even if it acts in ways that I don't like, but I don't see how this benefits them. The only plausible theory I can come up with is that FB suffers from groupthink. It would explain this issue, but also many of their tone-deaf actions concerning privacy and the timeline. Perhaps they are really mostly building for themselves, and not realizing that their audience is slowly eroding. But then analysis of user behavior should make this clear... it confuses me!

jamesaguilar 12y ago

>Facebook, the product, is no longer this super sexy app that college kids are checking out. Looking for Facebook to be that, you will probably predict its future demise. Been hearing this line from the hn crowd for at least three years. Stopped holding my breath a while ago.

Joeboy 12y ago
I think you misunderstand the post you are replying to.
- jamesaguilar 12y ago
  That's true. Well, in that case, let's just interpret what I said as aimed at the doomsayers in this thread. :)

Joeboy 12y ago

> I ended up missing a party that was only planned on Facebook ... Sure, hackers will say, "Well your friends should have called you instead of putting it on Facebook." But they didn't. I am a Facebook hater, and I am also guilty of this. If I'm organizing or promoting an event or social occasion I'll go through my list of Facebook friends and invite the ones that seem appropriate. People who are not on that list don't get an invite unless I happen to think of them specifically. I guess some people would say that if they're not at the forefront of my mind then I'm a lousy friend anyway, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't like them to come to my party, or that they wouldn't like to be invited.

mercer 12y ago

This is pretty much why I'm so confused that Facebook didn't go through with the whole 'facebook as a platform' plan. I remember being excited about all the ways I could use Facebook as the 'social' backend to a whole bunch of apps I considered building. I also remember eventually giving up on that idea because clearly Facebook had decided that being the 'social API' was not their goal anymore. Meanwhile, the vast, vast majority of my network (ages generally around 25-35, Dutch, tech-savvy) only use Facebook for chat, internal groups, and the occasional silly post, which is much less than our use a few years ago (we'd upload vacation photos and actually 'write'), and a significant number of us would leave if it wouldn't be so inconvenient. And the vast majority of teens seem to not really be into Facebook. Basically, had FB continued with their 'social layer of the web' approach, it'd have been perfect for us, and it seems, to me, for FB too. And yet for some reason they decided to stay the old course and tend their increasingly less-cool walled garden. I am usually capable of understanding the behavior of a company even if it acts in ways that I don't like, but I don't see how this benefits them. The only plausible theory I can come up with is that FB suffers from groupthink. It would explain this issue, but also many of their tone-deaf actions concerning privacy and the timeline. Perhaps they are really mostly building for themselves, and not realizing that their audience is slowly eroding. But then analysis of user behavior should make this clear... it confuses me!