I think I get what you are saying, but I disagree on the idea of google fulfilling all the needs of facebook. Sure, it can, if all your contacts maintain a website and you fancy searching for their info, one at a time, every time you are interested.
I'm not saying that facebook is "game changing," but it does allow for passive keeping in touch, which is exactly what most people want out of their non-central relationships. When it comes to second order friends, we all generally want to keep abreast of their lives and be able to jump in when something interests us, otherwise stay clear without any negatives. Facebook allows the kind of active/passive dichotomy that is perfect for people who don't have the energy to keep in constant active contact with their networks. You don't have to take part, you don't have to be engaged, but you can see what's going on, and if you like it or it interests you, you can reach out. As far as I know, facebook is almost the ideal scenario for this kind of user goal, and I don't know if there are other technologies that meet that need as effectively or efficiently. There are other sites that do similar things, and they are all contenders, but currently facebook seems the best suited this particular kind of interaction. And I would argue that this need for passive contact is actually something that many of us, maybe a majority of us, intrinsically have. There are certainly other technologies that dance well around this idea (twitter, general IM, your basic web log) but facebook's advantage is bifurcated: it requires little effort to broadcast, and even less effort to receive. My mother would probably never twitter, but facebook she understands. My nephew, who's all lightning-fast thumbs and text skill, still uses it too, because it's easier than sending a message to each of his 187 friends. I would therefore argue that calling something "obsolete" because other choices are available isn't sufficient. I mean, the skateboard is another choice for getting around a city, but does that make car's obsolete? For true obsolescence to occur, there must be a better way to accomplish the goal that the newly-obsolete technology addresses, and this better way must make the original choice more costly (in a games theory sense of utility) than the new technology in so far as satisfying that user goal. It's certainly possible to keep up with your network via google searches, twitters, emails, IMs etc. Or, you could just log onto Facebook and see what's going on with most of your contacts in one fell swoop by scanning a single page. The energy required to satisfy the goal of keeping up with my extended network is far lower when I use facebook than when I use a constellation of other technologies. If and when that changes, facebook may well become obsolete, but so far it seems to be the better solution. However, if we're just talking about "trends" and such, well, then sure, Facebook may be moving towards obsolescence (if you believe it has crested or jumped the shark). But still, that implies something better coming along. Just my thoughts. -Damon Jarod Tang wrote: > On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Damon Dimmick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Genuine question: People are saying that facebook is obsolete.... Why? >> What supplanted it? >> > It's not a issue on replacement, but more on if it make people's > everyday better, for e.g., by google, you could easily searching for > the information you want, by amazon, you want to get the object you > interested. By facebook, you want to have friends, yes, keep > relationships ( for what?), And it's good to have keep friendship and > share experience, and that's all. The sites does good job on this, and > it's not enough to say it's a game changing stuff. > > What'll be next phenomenon? > It definitely should be some one that make people's life better, like > google dose. Like a better traveling experience, a better city life, a > life long better education , etc. And safe food service ( for e.g. , > taking into account current food safety issue from China and Japan) , > a better energy friendly living system, etc. The chances are open. > > Cheers, > -- Jarod > >> jeff lippiatt wrote: >> >>> Weighing in. >>> Facebook became obsolete a while ago. Soon to become the relic of >>> Yahoo, aka Geocities. >>> All of these sites will eventually fail unless they address something >>> of value. Currently they are all riding the plummet of social >>> entertainment. They have mainly ignored their core audiences: Myspace >>> was music, Facebook was college students and grad students. Both have >>> annoying advertisements that have no context...just battering people >>> over the head to make advertising money on which is steadily >>> declining...How long do you really need to stay on either site to >>> catch up? Not long, because all of the new changes you can get a >>> snapshot of everything now in under 5 minutes. That leaves no >>> incentive to stay on the site. All the widgets and mini-apps that bog >>> down both sites are 99% pointless because people just add and delete >>> them sometimes within hours or minutes. >>> In summation, you can't please everyone any of the time. They >>> abandoned their niches and have been sliding downhill since. Social >>> entertainment is not robust enough to keep users online and engaged. >>> I use both Myspace and Facebook, but am not pleased with either. I >>> use them mostly for keeping up with friends and birthdays and posting >>> pictures of my some what ridiculous but fun cooking antics. >>> >>> >>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . >>> Posted from the new ixda.org >>> http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33019 >>> >>> >>> ________________________________________________________________ >>> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >>> To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >>> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >>> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help >>> >>> >> ________________________________________________________________ >> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >> To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help >> >> > > > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
