In a move that should surprise nobody, Facebook is once again arbitrarily making entire categories of user info public. This is not surprising, any more than a dog humping your leg should be surprising. But it’s time to cut this dog’s nuts off.
Much like Google, Facebook’s whole business model revolves around finding ways to monetize your information and sell you ads based on it. However, don’t think this is just limited to shady Flash games – Facebook’s big plan apparently revolves around becoming the official login service of the Internet. In essence, Facebook would very much like to be the keeper of your online identity.
And you know what? They’ll go far with that. Facebook has turned into the sort of thing that non-techies will flock to and spend hours with, if the user base I support is any indication. It’s the 21st-century AOL, the face of the Internet for people who just want to see their elementary school friends and play Farmville. Hell, even for me, it’s become the simplest way to see what’s going on with people I know. Sure, I’d much rather they all had blogs and I could just RSS everything, but it’s probably not going to happen.
Once again, horses for courses – it’d be lovely to have a Twitter-type stream for short stuff, a Tumblr-like service for quick pix and clips and brief comments, and the usual array of blog options for long form. But for most people, that turns out to be Facebook. And it’s picked up steam in ways that none of its predecessors ever did, and it’s insinuating itself even more into ordinary life. Hell, I see more Facebook references in advertising now than I did URLs in ads in 1996.
It should be a piece of cake to make something happen. TypePad has a micro version that does what Tumblr does, and it couldn’t be that tough to whip up a quick interface that would let you aggregate everyone’s various info streams in a single space. I think FriendFeed was supposed to be this, but hell, Facebook owns FriendFeed now. Besides, everything I see now seems to be focused on getting your Twitter into their stream as well, whether it’s Facebook or Google Buzz or what have you.
I’ve been on the Internets for over fifteen years now. I don’t need the training wheels, and I suspect a lot of other people don’t, either. The next big thing will come from whoever can find a way to give you social networking without a kung fu grip on your sack – and don’t expect it to be Twitter, Facebook, or Google providing it.