Facebook – social networking fiasco or phenomenon?

It seems as though everybody blogs or is on some kind of social networking site these days. You have a ton of social networking sites to choose from to meet people, stay in touch with those you know, instant message, share photos, play games, fill out useless surveys and waste time at work. A name that has risen in popularity since its inception is the ever growing website Facebook.

Who Are They?

According to Facebook, they have over 175 million active users, and among those users the fastest growing demographic is among users over 30 years old. Okay, so we can gather it doesn’t target the same crowd as MySpace then.

It seems that those users are apparently busy on the site. In a month, they upload more than 850 million photos and over 5 million videos. While this sounds like a lot, can it really compete with all the other social networking sites out there?

Oops

Are they really as wonderful as they want to project themselves to be? They’ve certainly had some “uh-oh’s” as of late. One such “uh-oh” was a rather biggie. That little thing called “Terms of Service”? Well, apparently Facebook up and decided to change them, then after a bit of an uproar from users; they decide to go back to the original ToS until such time that they can get the new ones all mapped out. Users don’t tend to like things like that being changed in a big way after the fact. Uh-Oh.

So What Makes Them Different?

So what makes Facebook stand out from any other social networking site you can sign up for? Why should I log in there every day and waste my precious work hours on their site rather than some other networking site? Granted, they have a ton of applications on their site, supposedly over 52,000 on their platform with 140 new ones being added every day. If you want to throw ketchup packets and pillows at someone, Facebook is the place to go to.

But, to be honest, for the most part, their apps seem kind of goofy to me. There are a ton of things to hand out from smiles to flowers to candy. Ummmm…ok. The one app I’d like to see working well isn’t even really fully developed yet. Their music application, that allows you to put music you like on your page (aptly named iLike), has a vast majority of the songs that only play 30 second clips. I don’t know about you, but iLike to hear the entire song.

What is giving them a huge push in overtaking some other sites like MySpace, is the fact that it does (as they claim) seem to have an “older” user base. You don’t have people bombarding you with friend requests who seem to be looking to hook up for the evening. Or bands. Or people trying to sell products. It is much more of a networking site and a site for friends that may have lost touch through the years to find each other again and simply do a touch base stay reacquainted thing. In other words, it seems to be MySpace minus the teen drama, which for many is a huge draw.

Going Mobile

Now, Facebook wants to continue to make it even easier for its users to use their service. Facebook already has deals with RIM for their Blackberry smartphones and, of course, Apple’s iPhone. Next on their to-do list is to snag Nokia, Motorola, as well as Palm, who they are reportedly already in talks with regarding the Palm Pre.

All the mobile Facebook is cool and all, but while they are busy all of doing that, can’t they do something about the login process? I don’t know if it is just me, but I can’t believe after all this time, Facebook hasn’t adopted some sort of Identity 2.0 or begun using Open ID. Call me lazy, but having to enter an entire email address and password each time I go to log in just seems barbaric to me. I mean…not even simply a username. The entire email. It seems that an Open ID would be a logical step forward.

My Stuff…Your Stuff

It’s clear they are focused more on keeping things out of reach and private than even MySpace is, where users can pretty easily get at page code and mess with the html. It is not near as easy to do anything like that on Facebook. They took that lesson and learned something from it. Another big thing that sets them apart from MySpace, is the fact that FaceBook developers actually seem to get the concept that users are there to catch up on what is going on with their friends, and don’t really want to have to click on 50+ pages to get that information by going to each friend’s site. So, get this….they don’t make you!

You can actually get friend updates right on your own home page. Imagine that. Now granted, each user has privacy settings. So your stuff only appears to who you want to see it. But if Jake uploads some photos on his page from last week’s party showing us all acting goofy? I can see it right on my homepage. (Ummm…if he lets me that is). So, while it may cost Facebook a few clicks in page views now, it is definitely something their users appreciate, and will only help them over time.

Where is Facebook Headed?

So where is Facebook going? Is it going to be “the” social networking site, leaving others in the dust? I think it is definitely here to stay, especially if they continue to make some forward movements and continue to work on developing their platform. They have to not get lazy, or just sit back and become the cash cows that MySpace morphed into. If they play their cards right, they could very well hold strong and steady. Or, if not, they could be the site that our kids grow up saying “Face what???”