Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Friends – I Can’t Stands it No More!

I find that I’m yearning for more simplicity in my life, not more complexity – yet these services with zazzle zoozle names and the cutesy tagsy friendsy addsies only make my life worsey. I can’t seem to find a way to organize my organization tools, I can’t even understand half of them initially – and then when I do understand them they go out and change the versions on me. Some of these things are so feature-packed I feel bad not using them, and realize I have things sitting around my desktop and my computer and my bookmarks that are just wasting space and/or distracting me from real productivity.

1. Del.icio.us – Come on! Social bookmarking? I’m done with it? Find your own links! I don’t waste time trying to find other people’s tags, who cares… And since the tagging system I can’t find any of MY OWN bookmarks. I have no idea what I tagged it, and I have tons of tags with just one link. I think I convinced myself this thing was cool because it “seemed cool”, but really it seems and is lame. Remember categories? Remember when Yahoo used to focus on that? Remember when bookmarks where just that? Bookmarks in a folder with subcategories if you need them? Logic? I’m going back to the good old days, and I’m not even syncing up my bookmarks to FireFox’s online bookmark thing because I usually only access them on MY OWN PC. What am I doing on all these different machines anyway?

2. Facebook – Just email me personally. Facebook exists because people feel like they can email you on there when they have absolutely nothing to say, and nothing to do with their lives. If what you have to say is of any real significance you would write out a basic email to me and let me know. What is this whole “What’s up?” thing?

3. Wii – This part has nothing to do with social networking, but I wanted to note that I live in midtown manhattan and outside my place there are these guys like in their early 20s waiting for Nintendo’s at 2:00 AM – I asked what are they doing? (it’s raining and freezing outside) They were arrogant and obnoxiously explained this is the only way to buy a wii, because you can’t buy them unless you wait in line in the morning like this. Well SORRY, I’m not first in line for a device intended for 10 year olds. I got over the gaming thing when I realized I wasn’t 10.

4. Digg - Evidence that what’s popular is also what’s terrible. These are the links that get sent to the top? I’d like to see this one get sent to the top so I can tell everyone how terrible their choices are, and that they need to get lives. I don’t sit around “digging” links all day – it’s a good link, I read it – move on.

5. Friends - I miss the internet when it was really for nerds, and socially awkward folk. Now it’s turned into this Apple iPod cool thing and it’s no longer an escape from the real world but an annoying reminder of how annoying we all are. Zwinky’s? Zazzle? Bebo? Even Google? If a company takes over the world why can’t it have a name like World Subsidiary Holdings or something kind of intimidating and old corporate sounding?

I just stopped using Facebook!

Okay, so I just stopped using Facebook – I actually deactivated my account (something unheard of in today’s social landscape), especially for someone with a blog on Facebook and social networking. Why? Because I think in some ways despite a conflict of interest (I’m glad you guys use this site) I don’t think social networking is for me. I think in some ways, I yearn to simplify my life and let go of annoyances as frequently as possible, even if its at the expense of losing touch with a few people here and there. Do you dig(g) what I’m saying?

Facebook a dud?

It looks to me like people are scrambling to justify Facebook’s massive estimated value. It may turn out being a great dud, an overestimated and overvalued entity – not unlike the dot com companies that came years before. Quite frankly, I’m guessing that Google is overvalued now too – really America’s 5th largest company? This is not proportionate to its profits. Yes the value this company has in terms of data mining and overall influence is substantial. There’s something almost hypnotic and completely illogical about how they swooped out of nowhere and dominated the search engine market, but nevertheless – I think all it takes is one search engine with a better design to come along and outdo them. I’m surprised no one sees that probably a large portion of Google’s real success was in its design.

Those results just physically look good. The page still is perfectly clean despite its enormous size. I think a lot of is simplicity branding, which is also what Apple has done and Facebook. My point with Facebook is that social networking, while an intriguing future to how people will use the internet, is more about a change in technology rather than a real company with assets that will survive the long haul.

Whether its Google’s OpenSocial or not, I do think social networking apps will be more and more standardized and open sourced.

I think the core flaw with Facebook is the reason people use it – is to network with friends. Its popularity grew due to a lack of ad congestion, and I think users will flock to newer services when the site becomes congested with ads – which it will have to do in order to become profitable, especially with this much invested in it now.

I almost wonder if Microsoft purposely put in this much money to sort of force it to stay independent and collapse upon itself. You know? Why in the world would Microsoft want a company like this to gain that much value overnight and become more competition essentially? 1% isn’t a substantial enough amount of ownership to really make off well on the loss of opportunities it would be snagging otherwise.

Whatever happens, I bet the YouTube guys are kind of wishing they decided to wing it and stay independent, or tried to orchestrate a merger with Facebook or something like that instead of just getting gobbled up by Google.

Will Facebook Take on Google?

http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/11/facebook-search-expands-will-it-take-on-google/

With expanding search functionality is Facebook looking to take on google? VentureBeat.com covers this interesting topic.

Are you Concerned About Facebook Privacy?

PC World did an article yesterday on Facebook privacy, we’ve been hearing this issue come up again and again – how users are being “used” now by sponsors and their very very personal information that has been exposed is now prime opportunities for advertisers. Facebook argues that this information is not manipulation of their data, rather, it is a value-added service that both sponsors and users of Facebook will be glad to have added to the mix. What’s your opinion, do you feel that the new ad structure is to invasive?

Facebook Interesting Links of The Day

CNN Money – Facebook: More than just ads
Money Magazine does a neat feature on Facebook.

Sex on Facebook?
Covered by Nick O’Neill

Abandoned by Facebook? Company Sells Users Out?

I’ve been talking with different people who believe Facebook has sold out. The site initially gained popularity due to its complete lack of commercialism, while MySpace since day one was a place for artists and bands and companies to promote in a chaotic environment, Facebook retained a real social network quality. Some users feel like Facebook has almost suddenly pulled the rug under them, revealing their true commercial interest and lack of compassion for the privacy of their users. That all the information was being gathered to sell out in the long run to companies. Leaving people with a bad taste in their mouth, the sudden involvement of Microsoft and Zuckberg himself worth billions of dollars literally overnight.

It’s an interesting concept, however I would say to people that the enterprise was always a commercial enterprise since day one. I think the problem, if there is one, is that it changed too abruptly. That’s what’s turning users off, but in the end whether it turns them off or not the value is there, and Facebook will change to a more commercial enterprise. I think, in many ways companies like Craigslist and Google were more classy in gradually introducing new products and services over time, but as technology grows exponentially survival requires companies to evolve faster. Imagine in the early 1900′s a multibillion dollar company of this power and influence growing virtually overnight. Technology is exponentially changing and allows for incredibly fast business opportunities.

I bet the YouTube guys are regretting having sold to YouTube for less than two billion when they could have held out or partnered with some of the social networking companies and seen much more success. Zuckerberg is a guy who played the game of who wants to be a billionaire and turned down a massive offer to go for the gold. It is that kind of insanity and boldness that makes things happen. I remember this article from Business 2.0 titled “10 people who don’t matter”

Here’s what they said about Zuckerberg:

“In entrepreneurship, timing is everything. So we’ll give Zuckerberg credit for launching his online social directory for college students just as the social-networking craze was getting underway. He also built it right, quickly making Facebook one of the most popular social-networking sites on the Net. But there’s also something to be said for knowing when to take the money and run. Last spring, Facebook reportedly turned down a $750 million buyout offer, holding out instead for as much as $2 billion. Bad move. After selling itself to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox for $580 million last year, MySpace is now the Web’s second most popular website. Facebook is growing too – but given that MySpace has quickly grown into the industry’s 80-million-user gorilla, it’s hard to imagine who would pay billions for an also-ran.”

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/21/technology/10dontmatter.biz2/index.htm

Well now that Zuckerberg’s individual networth is estimated to be a good 6 or more times the value of MySpace’s sale price, I think we can agree that Business 2.0 didn’t see the wave of social networking soon to come. This article was written late June, 2007. The moral is that technology is evolving and business is changing at a rate so fast, none of us – not even the old school business pros can really guess what will happen next. Our lives which have always been chaotic and somewhat like a casino have become more complex, the stakes are higher and crazier. Tech companies can explode and implode overnight with VC, and ideas can revolutionize the world in less than a year, and that will possibly speed up even more. We may see massive spring up in less than a month if they play their cards right, to compete with and challenge the new gorilla in town.

Facebook Ads Illegal?

Advertising regulations in New York might make the method of Facebook ads illegal – This is an interesting development, however we bet that this won’t be an issue when taken into account privacy regulations and commercial opportunities.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/08/facebooks-new-ad-platform-illegal/

Facebook Pages : Review

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6143068169

So we’re testing out our own Facebook ad for Faceweek. Be sure to check it out, and be our fan – I think it’s going to go well – I’m impressed by the ease of setup. Indeed, easier than even doing a adwords campaign, this appears to be a unique untapped advertising market. The scary part will of course be watching how insanely congested this becomes, but nevertheless at least thus far setup and the process seems pretty simple. The fan concept is also unique because it requires the advertiser to have a good quality product to do well, it removes the dynamic of advertising cheaply created pages, like the ones you see on Google for an assortment of affiliate programs and such.

Facebook World Domination – What do you think?

Indeed people are talking about how every now and then massive massive inventions and innovations happen that change the way we view the world. The world of advertising could be completely turning over its head as we know it. Web advertising is not a one way conversation, rather a two way exchange as Zuckerberg discusses. We’ve found a lot unique articles on the topic. Check it out. Also, tell us what you think.

 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/09/2086221.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/facebooks-calling-world-domination/2007/11/09/1194329474387.html

This article shown above discusses Facebok world domination? What do you think? Is this sustainable? Is this young 23 year old the world’s new Bill Gates?