So when something viral reaches me, it's really viral! While I follow the industry, unlike some of my friends I do not Twitter, rarely look at LinkedIn, IM limited to my very close business colleagues (ok, and sometimes my 14 year old daughter Michal), etc etc.
I know my widgets from my gadgets, my blogs from my blooks, and my avatars from my gizmoz. But a real user? Not really. When I am on downtime, I sit back with a good book (after reading the printed versions of the daily newspapers we receive on our front doorstep every morning).
Recently I started to see several "Facebook" invitations in my Inbox every day...a phenomenon my friend Jeff Pulver commented on as well. The main reason I have heard for Facebook's sudden surge is a new API, that has made easier than ever for people to connect various social networking platforms to Facebook. Or maybe simply Facebook passed the tipping point, and the viral vortex finally started to suck me in.
Whatever the reason, compelled me to take a look at Facebook...and I walked away [virtually] scratching my head...I cannot understand why this particular platform has caught on in such a big way. The interface is not intuitive or graphically pleasing.
But I will knock my head against the wall, but rather will embrace. See you soon on Facebook. We don't always need to understand everything, and we never will...
Jacob,
I agree, Facebook as a "revolutionary platform" is a bit overrated. I joined Facebook three years ago, back when it was still limited to college students. Then, it was a way for you to connect with your friends, see pictures, and in general, "stalk" them without anyone knowing. It was purely a social application. The major competitor was (and is, somewhat) MySpace, which is much more open to random encounters, and allows third party applications. Facebook developing an API was not revolutionary, what it accomplished was allowing third-party access to Facebook. But in the end, Facebook is still a social network, just now I can (and do) waste hours a week playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with my friends!
Posted by: Zvi Band | June 21, 2007 at 07:34 PM
As a fairly recent Facebook addict, all I can say is welcome to the machine!
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