Facebook Faltering?
November 20, 2007
The latest edition of Business Week seems to think so. In the article “Facebook is Losing Face on the Web”, BW quotes several bloggers critical of Facebook selling its users data for ad dollars, including Ashkan Karbasfrooshan at WatchMojo.com, Matt Asay at CNET’s The Open Road and Nick Carr at RoughType.com. The article concludes “who knows if the views represent Facebook’s 50 million members. But clearly its honeymoon has ended.”
I seem to recall a similar amount of noise when Facebook launched its “news feed” feature about 2 years ago. If I remember correctly, users were upset and people on the outside were very critical of the move. Well, apparently that didn’t impede its growth and I am inclined to believe this won’t either. MySpace has been selling ads to its users for years and the average MySpacer is happy as a lark. People have come to expect ads as part of their internet experience and regardless of how loud the purists and “experts” complain the average person won’t care. Provided, of course, they can browse their friends’ latest party photos and “poke” and “bite” away without interruption.
