About Face(book)

While some people have clearly hit the panic button with Facebook I don’t recall anyone amongst my friends (on or off Facebook) making a big deal of all this. Obviously, some people have more free time to write articles than others…

Obviously, mistakes have been made in the past and will continue to be made in the future. But the bottom line is that the individual user is in control of the information they post on Facebook and other social networking sites. Any missteps on the part of Facebook have been quickly remedied, not in the least because of the very vocal user base.

I’m not sure if those critics of the advertisements and “Newsfeed” feature have actually come in contact with the site. Is it all second-hand information? I have been a Facebook user since it was first offered for my college, in 2004. I have witnessed its growth. The ads are mostly unobtrusive, pushed off to the side in boxes. Security is tight and easily controlled by the individual user. You have complete control over who can see your profile, and even who can find you in a search. You can control which of your actions on the site are public, and what information you want on the actions of your friends.

You can block your profile from certain people completely, or create a limited profile for those you don’t want having full access. Only those in your network (divided by schools, cities, and workplaces – you must join the networks, and in the case of school networks, must have a valid email address from that school.) have the option of seeing your profile EVEN when you grant complete open access.

The restrictions are even greater for teenagers joining under a high school network.

I’m careful of what information I make available, even to my peers. It’s about personal responsibility. I once heard the analogy that if you’re not willing to shout what you write online to a roomful of strangers, in shouldn’t be online. It’s a good ruler.

Really, Facebook has worked hard with its customers to create a safe and useful networking site. I can more easily keep in touch with friends that have scattered to the far-reaches of the country, or even the other side of the world. No, these types of sites should not usurp the genuine connection of face to face conversation. But if used properly, they can be a tremendous asset.

Purely impressionistic but from the news reports I read about Mark Zuckenberg it seems to me that the kid does not have a fully formed ethical compass. This is a bit dangerous for a business that traffics everyday in its youthful customers’ personal and intimate information.

Facebook is great it will never die

College Students, You can keep FaceBook!

Perhaps when you grow up and realize that you are exposing yourself to predators and criminals as well as all the world, maybe after you have had your ID ripped off or been attacked or threatened by someone who has been cyber-stalking you, you might change your tune!

For God’s Sake, go out and meet with your friends, don’t sit down at your puter and message your pal 4 doors down. Go for a walk, a trip or pick up the phone. Technology is isolating you from your friends and family and the world as a whole, not renewing your friendships.

And does no one remember the Dot-Com crash. It is going to happen again. You mean to tell me that even Microsoft would kick out cash for part of FaceBoook even though the only actual worth of the operation is the expected revenue and the idle meandering of the FB users?? If wishes were fishes, people….. Get out now!!

It’s a fad, clearly, but as with all fads, some underlying need exists, namely the opportunity for a degree of easy social networking. What value do members get from Facebook? I guess a good time. Is this (a good time on Facebook) a universal concept? Absolutely not, it’s only relevant and appreciated by the people who consider spending time there worthwhile. Will it sweep the nation? Absolutely not. It will reach a critical mass and then stagnate and eventual decline in membership either due to lack of incremental interest, personal-time constraints (as people move through life’s demands) and, frankly, boredom. The only reason sites such as MySpace and Facebook exist is beyond marketeters have found a bonanza going after a progressively younger demographic, which the lion’s share of these sites’ memberbase.

So the short answer is: it will survive, in one form or another, for as long as marketers see value in advertizing and spending after the member demographic.

It’s ridiculous to think that anything could ever fully bring down facebook, its a fad, and all fads go out of style after a while, true, but I have friends that i have found after 5+ years on facebook, 10 years ago it would have been nearly impossible and preposterously time consuming for me to try, plus the majority of FB users i would venture to say are in the 18-25 range, very few of this group would be aware of the that any major change had occured,however part of the fun is “spying” on people, so facebook would lose a lot of its appeal if the users were “told on”

Thats the great thing about facebook, if a feature is added and everyone hates it, soon enough the executives know about it through petitions and have the ability to remove or add fixes to the new feature. Nothing is final and flexibility is what gives a good company longevity

I just started using facebook 3-4 months ago; and besides the pictures/ email, the other features are annoying. I believe those feautures are for teenagers. I am a professional worker/grad student, and most of those features are silly for me. (I am 30 years old).
In my opinion, they should have different sites ( depending on age, hobbies, work ect).

Dilia

I am addicted to FB, but FB should take care of the privacy more, for example any one sent a wall message, all friends will know that, gifts as well, plus some applications useless, for me i love facevbook , because i can help others through it, i have a job group there, call Job Seekers(created by Ana Bas),750+ members, updated, join it please(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12182500062)

facebook is going down…

I first signed up for facebook when I started college. Now, I’m a junior, and I barely use it anymore. It was great as a freshman because at the time the only people on facebook were my college friends and it was a great social communication tool. I switched high schools after my sophomore year, so it was great to keep in touch with friends all over the country who I hadn’t seen in a long time. However, now I’m getting activist emails from a 40-something politician in NY (which isn’t even my state) because he’s got the same last name (creepy) and found me through a simple search. It’s annoying and facebook is going downhill with all the pointless applications. I know that after college I will probably only use facebook to keep in touch with friends, and will ramp up my privacy security. That’s all there is to it.

Facebook was never as good as Myspace. Their major mistake was allowing normal users to sign up for accounts, as opposed to originally just allowing college students. The “applications” are pointless, boring, and aggravating when you’re just trying to quickly check messages. The entire site is far too cumbersome to navigate on a daily basis. I check mine maybe… once every 3 or 4 months. Myspace, I check every day. Keep things simple. If the applications were gone, the site would be vastly improved. Oh and drop all the ads too – also aggravating and I don’t believe anyone even clicks on internet ads anymore anyways.

This is not the first time or even the second time FB sold out. First it was just for us college students – NOT. Thought it was private – NOT (news feeds). Now they sell our information. Trust me… they big corporations invested and they will get thier ROI.

Go to BookwormMe.com. Going back to a private network is the way to go. See you on that site.

I know all of my friends are getting rid of our accounts. What he did was un-ethical.

It’s nice to know what your network of “friends” are up to, but when it is one’s own information it’s absolutely unacceptable. Maybe with time our society will accept total transparency, but until we can show everything about ourselves, facebook should hold off.

David Kirkpatrick has it entirely wrong. Facebook did something it should not have done. As the comments on this article indicate, many users didn’t like it. Facebook realized this, made changes and apologized. And this is somehow a story of bad behaviour on the part of the media? Without the press picking up on this, the problem probably would not have been fixed. That’s part of our job, and if David Kirkpatrick doesn’t understand that, maybe he’d be more comfortable in a nice PR job.

No one held a gun to anyone’s head (at least I doubt they did) to put up a Facebook profile. If you don’t want someone to know something about you – hey here’s a revolutionary idea – DON’T PUT IT IN YOUR PROFILE!! And always assume that if you put it out there that ANYONE can see it. Wise up. This isn’t 1998 folks.

Facebook et al are here to stay, but I honestly doubt their ability to make money. Of course if .01% of the members click through, that’s still a 1/2 million users.

I understand that everyone is out to make money, but both facebook and myspace were much better before the advertising frenzy. I wish there was a place where I could stay in touch with my friends without being bombarded every second by ads and companies fishing for my information. The fun of it all has worn off.

I’m bored of facebook. Myspace much better suites my needs as a stand-up comedian in NYC – facebook has lost it’s original appeal for me….

Ive always been suspicious with my personal material on facebook so I was pretty upset when I found out about Beacon, and it really spurred my worries about other applications.
Despite this, I am still a frequent user and I doubt I would ever stop using facebook. I have already copied my life & community onto facebook and am connected to everyone I know…I dont see this social networking site taking a major fall anytime soon.

I was really interested in the article relating to Facebook since I am always on Facebook and I am completely fascinated by the way I’m connected with my friends through it. I honestly don’t think Facebook is a threat in any way since it helps me keep in touch with my friends and see how everyone is doing with their daily lives. I agree that Facebook is not going to end anytime soon since my friends and I are always on it. It is basically a daily routine to check Facebook to be informed with what is going on with other people and see new events. I have a fun time glancing at everyone’s profile and looking at the unlimited pictures uploaded by people. Facebook is well-managed in that people are given the option to put how much privacy they want. The settings are easy to manage and there are many different options. Facebook has allowed me to connect with friends from high school, elementary, and just everywhere. I don’t think it will shut down for at least a really long time until someone comes up something new. I’ve never really had a problem with Facebook and I enjoy browsing through all the fun things. It has many activities and various groups that are fun to join. Facebook is a social network that has intrigued people and they appreciate its existence and I don’t think anyone would be delighted to hear it shutting down. I definitely agree that Facebook is a great way to meet people and it is well-managed.

Wow, now reading this article, it’s kind of difficult to remember how Facebook was without the newsfeed and the other things that seem to keep me on the computer for so long. Facebook is getting VERY commercial, and is actually just shaping itself to the rest of the internet with ads, marketing (like craigslist or ebay). it’s like the iphone for the internet in that it combines many fundamental and practical aspects of using the internet. But to me there’s something eery about how things become so incredibly commercial, something that draws me very near to doing away with it all. But I haven’t yet.

I’m glad there has been an apology and a fix. However, it’s sad that the idea to exploit a members privacy to such a degree was thought of in the first place. Loyalty to the people who make your business possible and not padding your pocket book should be the primary concern of any business. Zeller was obviously thinking of himself and all of the money he’d make with this new ad money from microsoft and not about the individual user.

facebook is here to stay, and I think it’s a wonderful site!!

For the youth and young adults in America, especially students in college and high school, Facebook has been a major staple of our culture. Almost everyone I know has a “FB” on my campus. Besides cell phones, I have seen that it is our primary way of communication. It’s very useful in keeping in contact with old and new friends and family. I can imagine going to a high school reunion 10 years from now, having knowing what everyone has been up to in the past decade.

Owning a FB on campus is almost necessary nowadays to keep in tune (Myspace has long grown out of favor). For example, student groups, college events, etc. now prefer using FB than email.

Although the news concerning FB is unfortunate, and it is true that there are cons to posting information about yourself online, I expect membership to grow and for FB to increasingly become
a common, daily occurrence.

I didn’t even know that these problems existed until now. Admittedly the creators of Facebook should not have done some of the things they did, but Facebook still works fine. Nothing is perfect. Facebook is a wonderful network and I consider it to be a lot better and safer than other networks. I say that Facebook will ride the storm.

Facebook is just another reason not to become part of an ever increasingly invasive electronic media system. The same people that complain about identity theft and lack of privacy are the same ones that hang their laundry out on things such as Facebook. Never a joiner be. These systems cost big time…if not now,then later

Facebook has had problems like this before, like when they added the newsfeed that allowed every one of your friends to see what you had done on Facebook over the last two days. The backlash was so huge and immediate that Zuckerberg and a team of programmers spent three days straight programming the changes that would form the core of the current privacy settings. I think it’s also why there even is a company officer in charge of a privacy division.
Zuckerberg has said that he believes in the free flow of information and created Facebook to be an instrument to facilitate and increase that flow. Maybe he’s in love with an abstract concept, but it’s pretty obvious that he’s a little out of touch with his actualization. While I like the idea of the free flow of knowledge, I’m more enamored of spin control of information about my life

facebook really is a powerful propellant for our narcisistic vices!
it must seek to be something much more than this! something withh more intrinsic value

Facebook is not going anywhere any time soon until some form of blatant privacy violation is exposed and manipulated. It’s still growing, probably too fast, but that seems to be the only way to do things in our hyperspeed world.

while yes, this would be disturbing if it were an entirely adult site, what makes an idea like this form of advertising even more disturbing is that most facebook users are NOT adults. tons of them are high school students. most of the others are college students (myself included) and as much as we like to think we’re all grown up…we’re not.

we’ve known for years that advertising focuses in on teenagers…this is a new low. actually taking what someone is buying and projecting it to their friends….rediculous. Way to use peer pressure, ad execs. way to go.

The majority of users don’t know or care about the ‘blunders’ the old guard writers are predicting to be fatal. So long as Mr. Z continues to address serious issues honestly and in the open, the younger generation will continue to utilize the site in increasing numbers. I think we (the 20 somethings) are a bit less touchy about the privacy issues so long as they are addressed when raised.

For me, I just don’t get things like Facebook or MySpace. To those of you that use them, why? What is the attraction? Keeping up with friends? Umm, not trying to sound out of touch, but I talk to my friends face to face. Old friends from HS etc? I never talk to them or interact with them anymore, why would I, I have a new life, live in a different part of the country, do other things. I don’t see the attraction of spending time on these sites. I would like for someone who does to explaine why these are useful, and growing. I ended up posting here because I was reading the Facebook atricle from a business perspective. From that perspective I think that these sites will not last. Why? Because the only thing that makes them work is advertising, and if the users don’t click-through and buy the stuff that is advertised then eventually the advertisers will go away. To that point I have not heard any of the poserts who are “pro” mention any knowledge, use, or even awareness of the ads. So, I would think it is just a matter of time until the advertisers see that as well and leave.

With over 57 million users and counting, the outcry of facebook going under will be enormous. Much more than the few whiney protestors who think facebook is threatning ones privacy. The user will choose what and what not to include in their profile.

The beginning of the end.

Joseph from Chicago wrote: “Mentally healthy, well adjusted adults have no legitimate need for facebook or similar sites, period.” While I agree that much of what goes on on Facebook is not academic in nature, it still has its merits, and to dismiss it as a site that only appeals to those who are “self-absored, desperate for attention and insistent upon recognition” ignores the fact that it is a useful tool for keeping in touch with friends who are at a significant distance, or simply for those with very busy lives. Sure, I could use email, or I could pick up the phone (imagine that!); however, the convenience of Facebook appeals to me and to millions of users worldwide. It’s unfortunate that Joseph doesn’t see any merit in Facebook. That said, he’s free not to use it; it seems as though he’d prefer to keep his own self-absorption confined to Internet message boards.

I’ve been waiting for David to weigh in. I read Josh’s post that talked about the sharks (media)smelling blood. He’s dead on. Yes this hurts Facebook with the media and advertisers (goodbye Coke you made room for Pepsi). However, he was dead wrong when he said it’s dead. It doesn’t hurt Facebook with its users. Facebook has been a part of a lot of these users lives for years and become almost family like. I think half of these users (including myself) will rally around Facebook (like a family member in trouble). The other half, they’re too busy writing on people’s walls and updating their status to even realize what’s going on…

I don’t think facebook is on its way out. It’s revolutionized social networking on the internet and made it easier than ever to stay connected. It’s made mistakes but what major media sourse hasn’t?

FACEBOOK IS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS. End of story.

Most of the people here that keep saying “Facebook is dead” or “Facebook isn’t safe” sound very old. Are you old? Is the Internet too scary for you?

Please, stop this squabble. Facebook is not going anywhere, and as long as Mark is committed to his cause for an online society where friends can communicate and share their lives, it will not sell out to Microsoft or anyone else.

Yes, there are privacy issues. Yes, the Facebook Platform for 3rd-party software is getting pretty big and difficult to handle for some. Give the company time. They are still young and learning. They are devoted to making their service better based on user feedback, as we just saw with the update to Beacon.

Like any other site on the Internet, you decide what to put up there. And Facebook controls your privacy better than any other social network site. Learn how to control your own information, be smart, and stop blaming Facebook. They are doing a great job and will be around for a very long time.

This is typical of Facebook, they think of profit over their customers/clients, I have personally found a better social network that is much user friendly called myeeos, they dont put profit before customer satisfaction

The privacy issues are not Facebooks issues, they yours. If you do not want personal information shared, don’t put it on the World Wide Web, and don’t click “I Agree” out of habit when you get a pop up to install unwanted software on your computer. A little common sense will go along way. Now quit whinning and get back to work!

It’s always a difficult task to balance the monetary needs of the business, the perceived user benefits and potential privacy concerns. So, in many instances, I’m willing to give a company the benefit of the doubt. However, in this case Facebook had already received significant feedback that their users do not want the company to make privacy decisions for them. The users want control. It seems that Facebook either didn’t learn from its past mistake or it willfully chose to ignore its users comments in exchange for some press coverage (I believe their traffic was up substantially over the last week or two). Neither scenario fills me with confidence.

So long as our culture remains self-absorbed, desperate for attention and insistent upon recognition and rewards simply for existing, we have to expect this. Mentally healthy, well adjusted adults have no legitimate need for facebook or similar sites, period. If their self-absorption leads them to ruin due to the shenanigans of these technological “things” to which they have entrusted their self-esteem and emotional health, so be it.

Here are examples of groups or individuals who have made major errors but have given so much to our society. Everyone makes mistakes, even Nasa (too numerous to count), Einstein (made plenty of false calculations before he hit e+mc2, Dr. Jarvik made many failed artificial hearts before he made it right, George Bush (well, let’s not go there, did anyone find weapons of mass distruction? etc.

57 million users? Thats 7 times the population of NYC! Kirkpatrick is right on the money. Facebook will recover just as you and I get over a scratch. Put a band-aid on it, and it will heal. Name a business with 57 million customers that has never made a mistake… Can’t do it. McDonalds? Google? Microsoft? They have made mistakes, but they are all doing just fine. (The CEOs may only make a 7-figure bonus this year, but I think they’ll manage.)

And to anyone that is bitter that a 23 year old is making a fortune from Facebook… you’re just mad you didn’t think about it first.

For those who use these areas to talk like a 4 year old with pop-rocks foating around in their mouths, stop reading now and seek professional help. For everyone else; I am an industry veteran. And I can tell you that networks such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and others serve no real value whatsoever to anyone but those in charge of the revenue models. They are products without substance, without value and without good intent. That’s why they are free. No one would ever pay any real money for them. They are the same old washed up revenue model “let’s code something that everyone will use for no real purpose and then charge for the advertising”…same crap, different CEOs. What members do not realize is that they are paying with their identity, the security of their good-name and ultimately their individuality. They are joining up for free, but giving away that which is priceless to them.

I was going to post something here that was meaningful and well thought out. Then I read some of the other posts and realized that it would be 1) out of place and 2) a complete waste of my time and creative effort.Speed on, bloggers. The ‘Net ain’t half full.

People just need to settle down. If privacy is such an issue for them, they shouldn’t use the internet at all… they shouldn’t put their phone numbers or email addresses anywhere…they shouldn’t sign up for contests…they shouldn’t have a grocery store card…they shouldn’t check out books at the library…they shouldn’t have a cell phone…they shouldn’t live in a country where there are video cameras everywhere recording daily activity…
Nobody has “privacy” anymore.

I find this whole argument, and practically every post here, childish. People are even bringing stuff up like how they would delete a F__K Christianity group, but not a F__K Islam. Gimme a break! That has NOTHING to do with that argument at all. (Note about that: Why are buddists alloweed to talk about their religion and stuff on school grounds, but not christians?)
And with the argument at hand, I haven’t even seen one change since they “activated” it. So I see a sprite picture once in a while, or a message from the Motley Crue iLike page. That doesn’t bother me. And Facebook hasn’t told me what others have bought or told others what I bought. If you want privacy, get off the freakin internet. What did you expect? I feel as if a lot of people left Facebook just because they heard about ads, without even seeing it. Grow up.

Good job,Facebookers! Avoid personal conversations with friends while spreading your personal information to millions of strangers, some of whom have malicious intent. I’m sure nobody is following your buying habits and selling or using them (wink). Make sure to use EZPass, debit cards and Onstar, so government agencies (and others) can track your movements. Get excited when you Google yourself and see where you live and zoom in on the satelite image. Thank goodness, 1984 has arrived! Wake up- you are putting billions of dollars into a 23 year-old’s hands and getting nothing useful in return. Zuckeman and Gates must be having quite a laugh, at your expense. It’s one of the most ridiculous abuses of technology yet. Repeat after me: baa, baa, baa…

I think that Facebook is doing the right thing by apologizing and giving users the option to opt-out of the Beacon program. They have to monetize the site, but yet there’s the conflict of interest of privacy issues. We have (I’m the CEO of FranchiseCircle.com, a social networking site for franchising) had similar issues when 2 years ago, I proposed to develop a program exactly like the Beacon. Our solution was also to give the user the option to Opt-Out of any facet of our site that was deemed invasive. This also applied to our user generated content site segments, which are a flip side to the privacy coin.

I wonder: if Zuckerberg and company thought it was ok to inform your friends what you buy, what did they have in their mind ? How can I trust them in the future? I use Facebook the minimum as I had a sense from the beginning that there are privacy
issues ( boundary issues ! ) in their service. I will try now to stay away from it even more.

none of these social networking sites will go away

People are so obsessed with the ego and self, that they would typically pay to brag about their life on myspace…

I have seen this trend since the start of the internet. Take MUDs, MUSHs and MOOs for example…

The internet is a person’s fantasyland..

if there is no destination, man will create it, since there is a destination, they will continue to use it

Initially I found Facebook useful for keeping track of friends, but the rash of applications used by friends that would litter my pages with annoying updates of who scored what in trivia combined with concerns over privacy simply let me to deactivate my account. I can keep up with my real friends without a website, and I don’t care how well they did on a trivia game yesterday.

This issue at hand is in his own apology. He says, simply, that Facebook will still be collecting information on your online adventures away from Facebook. Regardless if you want to display it to others, the information will still be collected. There is no, ’stop collecting information’ option to turn off.

How is that not an invasion of privacy?

Honestly, I still like myspace better. Yes you get bots, hijackings, and false people, but at least the information you put on there is by your own discretion. I think its great that Zuckerberg has agreed to make it optional, but I am still weary of re-activating my account. Beacon ads were the worst idea facebook has had, and it makes me wonder what the future holds.

Facebook should get rid of groups which are offensive, such as F__K Islam. Many letters, emails, groups have been created to address this concern. If it was a F__K Judaism or F__K Christianity group, it would have been taken down immediately, but not when its Islam.

Facebook is juvenile means of wasting time and is primarily used by children (of all ages) and flamboyant homosexuals. As I am neither, useless garbage like Facebook serves no purpose in my life.

As a college student in the midwest, I’ve used facebook for three years and I’ll probably stop soon because I want to get a job. I’ve got nothing to hide but the fact that employers could possibly use information in my profile to discriminate against me is too much. Facebook is a great thing because it is a common denominator for those with access to it and I want to keep up with people and friends and such but this very nature of the beast implies the necessity to give up privacy so you can communicate with friends and others and others include the media, employers, and advertisers. When you cede your privacy to facebook, the leviathan of the internet, do you really think it’s yours anymore? Of course they’re going to find some way to sell information — these are people who are trying to make a profit right? Even if facebook falls, there will be five ready to pick up where they left off, not because they want to help people but because they want to make money! You want your privacy, stop complaining and remove “private” information from your profile or better yet, start a second profile with a psuedonym for the real “you.”

This hardly counts as an apology… It makes no sense that this is an “opt out” system… Simple, common sense dictates that it should be an “opt in” system…

They just dont get it…

I think this quick change shows us exactly how facebook is going to survive. Business that are quick to adapt are the ones that make it long term, imagine if Facebook had the rigid bureaucracy of WalMart and tried to completely reformulate their ad campaign, how many years would that take? Obviously a bit different, but still, admitting mistakes is an honest way to win support.

I personally use Facebook more than I use MySpace. I find the ads on MySpace more obnoxious than on Facebook. As for the newsfeed, I rely on it not to have to check every single friend’s page in order to see what’s new. It saves time by telling me any changes or information that they have recently done. I will continue to use and recommend Facebook to everyone.

This news is about as relevant as what Clinton’s clothing habits are. Josh was too emotional with his rant/rave via his “opinion” and too few facts. The writer of this was a lot more clear headed.

I only joined Facebook when a dear friend from high school invited me and frankly, I’ve barely used it. I don’t really like the way its set up and I don’t like having to agree to let 3rd party apps access to my computer. I also don’t like that its nearly impossible to remove oneself from the site if one desires. I like My Space better since I feel like its true purpose is to allow me to create a page that reflects my personality. I want to keep in touch with friends and share my thoughts and photos with them. I do not have time in my life to screw around chucking barnyard animals or zombie chomping or taking online quizzes (all require 3rd party apps, too, to play) with my friends. That’s pointless. I’d never have joined Facebook if my friend hadn’t invited me. I also get the feeling many people join Facebook as an elitist reaction to the broader My Space site, which didn’t start out as a college group and now that its owned by Murdoch (sp), there are many people who have an aversion to My Space on that principle alone.

I’ve been a member of MySpace for over a year and have linked up with many old and distant friends. But now as I approach my 30th birthday I feel I’ve outgrown MySpace… I can’t relate to my 16 year old step-sisters page (and don’t really want to.) But a friend recently told me I should get on Facebook and I signed up yesterday. I feel that the age group is much more appropriate for me… as well as the intellectual level…. little misspelling, no substituting z’s for s’s. I feel much more at home and look forward to getting more familiar with Facebook in the future.

The fact that someone would find out what I had bought doesn’t affect me because I don’t buy online but… I have a HUGE problem with the way that Facebook floods my inbox with alerts. My boyfriend doesn’t even have Facebook yet he still has to put up with hundreds of alerts just as I do. These alerts come from people we know and don’t know, requesting everything from friend invites to alerting us to scratch thier pseudo pet’s ear (or something similiar). With more and more add-on requests flooding my in-box, Facebook is making the flood of New Orleans seem like a wading pool in comparison. Please, please, find a way to make it easy to stop these requests and make it EASY to find. Thank you, Flooded out in Canada.

I’m not a big fan of the applications on Facebook; perhaps I’m a little untrusting of third party software. As long as the security and control options remain in control of the user, I don’t think Facebook will have any problems.

The beginning of the end was when Facebook started releasing applications. It is now way too similar to MySpace.

For those of us who move frequently and have friends who are now scattered all over the world, Facebook is one of the best things that ever happened. Not only can I find people I had lost touch with, but the news feed feature acts a little bit like physical proximity would, in making me aware of little everyday things in my friends’ lives. The constant awareness of a person’s presence, including photos and newsfeed, makes it easier to re-establish contact without the awkwardness usually associated with long silence. I don’t know what other people want from a social networking site. I just want to maintain the friendships I already built, and Facebook is really good for that. As for the privacy settings, one, I never post (or allow to be posted) anything that would embarrass me if it never disappeared from cyberspace, and two, Facebook does a much better job than MySpace or Friendster in allowing the user to control page and privacy settings. I have simply told it that I don’t want any “stories” (ads) sent to my page.

I don’t think that facebook is dead, but I do think its demographic composition will change dramatically. People with a keen interest in protecting their privacy or those who do not want to suffer unpredictable consequences when the greedy developers try another exploitive money-making scheme will likely leave the site. After reading about the most recent advertising/ privacy invading features I left the site and haven’t missed it. I wrote Facebook to see if there was a way to completely remove my profile from their database, but no response. The greedy, immature tactics might not be the sites downfall, but they wont do much for the credibility of the otherwise commendable young entrepreneurs.

Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is often responsive to the criticism of its users and offers plenty of flexibility in terms of privacy for its users.
In the past, I was an opponent for the expansion of Facebook. Today, Facebook allows to me to make myself invisible to searches from anyone outside of my college network, making everyone else’s actions irrelevant.
I was afraid Applications were going to damage the esthetic of Facebook, but fortunately they are not forced on any user. I have made it a point to keep it to a bare minimum, only adding things that prove useful.
I was also an active opponent of the News-Feed, but Facebook allows control over what is disseminated. Today, it keeps me attached to the website learning what’s going on with friends, on and off campus. Beacon is just an off-shoot of the news-feed and I’m glad to hear Facebook has applied the correct privacy controls.
The point is, Facebook is evolving with its users and doing a damn good job of keeping the core appeal in tact. As I get older, Facebook will serve a different purpose, but for now it’s an excellent networking tool.

Facebook is here to stay and they do a fairly good job at attempting to give people their privacy. It is an option to sign up, most know what their getting into when they join and there are features which allow you to limit who can see what.

I think its a great networking tool thats value is astronomical. Facebook will only grow as the generations who grew up with computers become older.

What you guys did to Mr. Quittner is truly bad journalism. He brought a breath of fresh air to the whole Facebook hype and actually spoke what everyone has been thinking about for a while: the emperor has no clothes! Or, to put it directly, Facebook has no real revenue and has no real leadership.

So what you guys did by bringing in a “hack” Kirkpatrick to offer his clouded view is truly disgusting. Fortune too lacks some bold leadership.

Facebook is irrelevant in its current form. So is MySpace. What we *really* need is a living, breathing, collaborative, vital community in cyberspace. Something that represents who we are, who we connect with, what our interests are, and how we can interact with one another in a higher capacity.

“It” will combine the white pages, GPS, networking with friend/business groups, communities and businesses that service common interests, and a way to communicate via text/voice/video easily. All augmented with pagerank/reviews/social relevancy built in.

One thing is certain… it will NOT resemble anything like Facebook in its current form.

Sincerely,
~Optimistic and waiting

MYSPACE FOREV!!

“It would be virtually impossible for a new, as-yet-unheard-of service to come along and quickly steal Facebook users.”

AOL was replaced by web – service was replaced by a technology. Similarly, I do not expect to see Facebook to be replaced by another “service”; instead I think the current crop of social networking services will be replaced by a technology that I call “user-centric social network”. (http://blog.enthinnai.com/2007/11/17/user-centric-social-networks/)

The arrogance of Facebook and of the writer of this column is what turns people off. Facebook will undoubtedly kill itself eventually in response to advertising pressure and privacy issues. The writer of this column will be covering turkey farms and pumpkin harvests next year if there’s any justice.

57 million active users–quoted over & over in this column. Says who? What constistitutes an active Facebook user, someone who set up a page and abandoned it six months ago? Someone who spends time on it every day? David Kirkpatrick, why not look into what this number actually is? That would be more interesting than this apology for Zuckerberg.

Social networks will continue to bump into privacy issues because their success is largely based on the sharing of personal information. The fact that the default position for sharing personal information in social networks is too often public not private is not accidental or simply “boneheaded” as Mr. Kirkpatrick contends. It is what drives user growth and revenue for social networks. David, you should spend less time on Facebook and more time researching the online business models of social networks that pose a real threat to privacy.

David Kirkpatrick wrote in his article, “And while Zuckerberg may not have listened to them until now, Facebook has several “old hands” in the management suite to help guide the young company.” I find it hard to believe that these old hands weren’t dialed in on the Beacon fiasco. If they were, they should be fired. If they weren’t – if Zuckerberg did this despite their objections, or without telling them – then HE should be fired. In this era of super-sensitivity to privacy issues, it’s incompetence of a high order to do what Facebook has done.

Died when they lied.

Tanya of Arcadia wrote about her unease with Superwall and similar Facebook applications, which allow you to write on someone else’s space. I agree.

Quite independent of the advertising controversy (which I agree is serious), I think there are two things that peeve me about Facebook:

i) the social compulsion to participate in things – I hate to disappoint someone who needs my ‘bite’ or whatever. So I comply, but not really because I like the game. It’s really inane. There’s no imagination in biting someone.

ii) the difficulty in knowing what you’re *really* doing. I wanted to put an image on someone’s wall as a gift. Then I realised that maybe they don’t want that publicised (even amongst friends – there are friends and friends). I can’t easily find out what the impact of my actions are. Documentation is really hard to find.

One final comment: do we know what we’re doing when we click a list of boxes in order to give an application assent to our data? It reminds me of the unreadable legal software licence guff that we’ve grown used to agreeing to automatically.

I very much enjoy using facebook as a means of keeping in touch with friends and meeting people with similar interests. However, facebook does have a problem with freedom of speech. One of my groups was recently deleted because it was said to have been “offensive.” It was a group that satirized the Christian right and when I repeatedly wrote them asking for specifics in why it was deleted I received generic replies over and over and over again. Their reasoning became circular. They would say I violated their Terms of Use because it was “offensive,” and say it was “offensive” because I violated their Terms of Use. There are hundreds, if not thousands of groups on facebook that are xenophobic, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-non religious as well as multitudes of other hateful groups but they are allowed to flourish. Facebook should allow its users the freedom to say whatever they want, without restrictions or not have the option of having applications like that at all.

I’ve been trying to place ads in the Facebook network on behalf of a client for several weeks now, ever since they unveiled their new ad system. Their technology is broken, and we can’t get any help from their so-called customer service reps. Not impressed with this company at all. They have made us look incompetent and unorganized with our client…and right now we are left twisting in the wind with no explanation as to why they can’t fix this problem.

“Facebook is for the socially retarded.” What’s the matter? Nobody wants to be your friend?

Well, operations like Facebook appear to be unconstitutional. So are actions of the US government of a similar kind.
Zuckerberg and his generation have boundary issues. They’ll learn.

As soon as anything promising comes along, I’m ditching facebook faster than you can say “burn out”. Facebook was great at first – now it’s just a marketing tool and we’re the puppets. I’m also sick of them changing the terms of privacy without alerting its users, and I DEFINITELY don’t like that it owns all of our content without any way for us to erase it from the servers.

All those bashing Facebook have no idea what Facebook really is! Sure they’ve made some mistakes…but who hasn’t??? Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends and family. With today’s society, we all end up moving 2-3 times within a few years…So its nice not to lose those freinds..

Now, if you’ll excuse me, i need to go on my Facebook account

Facebook’s chief virtue, faded now to the point of vanishing, was its restraint. Once upon a time, if you wanted obnoxious graphics, irritating music, cluttered screens, and visitations from creepy strangers, you went to MySpace. If you wanted a more minimalistic aesthetic, with clean lines, a simple interface, and control over who got to access your profile, you went with Facebook. To draw an analogy, MySpace was PC and Facebook Mac. Then Facebook decided it didn’t want to settle for being moderately and stably popular and profitable. In my mind, it was a bad decision: although I continue to use Facebook, and appreciate a few of the new features – namely the Scrabble game – my interest is fading with every “Movie Comparison request” and “Lovability request.” If something like the old Facebook came along, I’d jump on it.

To answer the question you posed at the end of your article I would have to say “NO, this is not the end of Facebook.” I read that article and was dumbfounded at the comments made even in light of Facebook’s stupid moves, but to come so such sordid conclusions in such a short period of time is no better than the gafs by Facebook…neither were well thought out! Emotions are clearly running high and a clear headed perspective, like your article is refreshing. Oh and in regards to Benson’s comments about facebook being for socially retarded people, I think he fits in the category of not very well thought out blurt. And this comment is, like the “Facebook is dead” comment really says more about the shortcomings of the Benson than about Facebook and its users.

Facebook is far from dead. As a facebook user, I wasn’t even aware of something like the beacon nor does it seem like any of my friends were either.
In anycase, it seems like Facebook has handled it well by making it optional.

Facebook is far from dead. A lot of friends I have in other countries are now using Facebook. Plus, the layout is a lot easier on the eyes than Myspace.

Some years ago (maybe 14 years or so) while I was working for Lotus Development, I was in a meeting of engineers who were building a new version of Lotus 123 and the guy across the table from me remarked that “The Internet Is Dead”. I asked him how he could say that when it was obvious to me that any system that would run a wire to every PC on the planet and connect them up had obvious longevity of service. He said that no one was making money on the web except the porn industry.
We could say the same about Facebook. Facebook represents a huge opportunity for connecting people up and there is obvious inherent longevity on that concept. They may be experiencing some teething pains now and certainly the media (both professional and not so professional!) seems to be a little aggressive in publicizing their mistakes but I think they will survive it all and become a very valuable company in the end.

Facebook is responsible for so many failed relationships and educations. aside from that though, it’s not bad. I personally hate the new applications, and I wish I could have the old facebook back.

It’s hard for me to comprehend that a 23 year old can be a CEO of a $15 billion business even in today’s world of ‘Internet Entrepreneur’s’. Someone must have a very short memory.
My personal experience with a number of entrepreneurs is that they need very experienced business people to properly execute the entrepreneur’s vision. How many more of these CEO mis-steps will users and investors put up with before the idea man is replaced by someone who really knows how to run a multi-billion dollar business that can have such a negative impact on so many people’s lives.

just waiting for something to replace facebook to be honest… not a fan of facebook or myspace but cant wait until a decent social networking tool is developed and launched

Facebook rocks! The applications are a hoot. And you can ignore whichever you want. The quote that “Facebook is dead” is clearly a media exaggeration.

I’m a semi-regular Facebook user, rarely listen to the Blogosphere, and I didn’t even know any of this happened. Facebook is dead? I didn’t notice.

Facebook is for the socially retarded.

well i think facebook is doing a good job, even though, yes, it has been making dumb decisions. Also facebook is far from dead. I just think facebook has too much going on, and really needs to get rid of the applications, they are truly ridiculous!

I find the age-ist comments of “Sarah from Los Angeles” offensive in the extreme. Facebook is a great way to connect families and friends who are scattered all over the country and the world. Facebook users do not have to accept all friend requests, and they do not have to show their entire profile to world at large. “Sarah” needs to know that she doesn’t have to be “stalked” by strangers unless that’s what she wants.

Facebook still has massive potential to grow worldwide. It’s rapidly catching on in other countries, I think it will continue to grow despite bad press. There is no such thing as bad press, just press and the name FACEBOOK being everywhere is helping the site. They should be carefull with all the applications they add, some are really unecesarry and after a while you end up deleting posts without reading them driving the site to become a way of spam.

I have attended Universities in Hong Kong and Wisconsin, and on both sides of the world, on public university computers, there are as many people browsing facebook as their are people checking there email or googleing. Have a stroll through your local Uni and see for yourself. Saying facebook will fail is like saying google will fail.

Facebook has its peak. As Pride and an Elitist point of view take over, Facebook will lose the fire that energized it to innovate for the benefit of the user, and win a strong following. As its decline has begun, there is already a new innovator in his dormroom building and improving upon what Facebook and MySpace have pioneered. Microsoft made a bad investment. The End of Facebook is now on the horizon.

facebook.. as only time will tell, will be a good social networking site or turn itself into a social castout dumping ground that will no longer be a functioning place.

You will find that the vast majority of Facebook users neither know nor care about these supposed critical issues, and that Facebook is still growing at a rapid pace. For example, most students at my rural college only had a Myspace profile, until recently, when Facebook has proliferated rapidly.

MR. Kirkpatrick you show a very shallow veiw of Facebook. You express not at all, how much people value their identities and personal information. Your article lacks balance or depth. you do not present pros and cons fairly. You are a Senior editor? And you trashed one of your writers for the personal interest of a young, careless business man. You’re reporting has less to do with facts or reaserch than it has to do with hype and emotions. I think every other magazine editor out their has to be cringing about how cheaply you sold Fourtune magizine down the river.

Your article ask us “what did Mr. Zuckerburg give you in return for all the free press and for discrediting one of Fourtune’s writers”. Did you purposely over do it so your article would not be considered critically. With no facts to the impact/scope his network has on the users. Whoses interest are you leading. (Maybe just trying to avoid legal litagation with Facebook. You gave them the article as sort of an infomercial I guess).

Didn’t Anderson accounting back Enron? Where are they today?

I would like to reiterate what Joe from Cleveland said: what’s so wrong with the critics? They usually site the fact that Facebook released a program that mines what users do on other websites for advertising purposes.

This is why I’m not too thrilled by his apology, and certainly wouldn’t call it contrite by any means. He keeps referring to Beacon as if it was a well received feature intended to benefit the user community, when its direct intent was to be a way of using the Facebook community to advertise. It’s insulting.

While figuring out how to make money with social networking is a problem for all networks, I will not believe FB has a problem until high school & college students stop using it in large numbers. I don’t think privacy issues will do it. The core users may not understand the issues and care even less. Like any other product, FB only has a problem if the hassle of using it exceeds the service provided. FB is nowhere near this point.

I’m struck by how many negative comments stem from not liking social networking in any form, views that are irrelevant to the future of FB.

The next great thing can always fail, often from incompetent management, but in the time it takes to compose an email, a FB user can click on lots of friends. This is enabling them to maintain closer connections to more people, on a scale never seen before, and they won’t walk away from those connections. Alternatives, not that there appear to be any, will have to be dramatically better to overcome the resistance that core users of any established software have to change.

Facebook will do well if they listen to their users, which they don’t seem to do. They have very little in the way of feedback options. I don’t mind them sending advertisements to me based on my interests – like ads for bilingual jobs since my profile indicates I am bilingual. I do mind the sexually explicit ads that I, as a feminist and a Christian, find offensive, especially in a service accessible by high school students, but I cannot seem to get rid of them because Facebook does not want to hear my opinion on the matter. This issue has been largely ignored.

The criticism is deserved. Facebook is “TheGlobe.com” of 2007. It’s a financial dog that has attracted a large audience. Strip away the investment and large employee overhead. – the resulting 8 to 10 person company is very likely a profitable multimillion dollar business.

Bschool 101.

Since when is an executive management team of individuals in their late 30’s considered seasoned???

Danger Will Robinson….Facebook is a stolen idea . You’re an evil little punk…..that spies on us. Gone from my computer.

I had been on Facebook for about three years (since Duquesne University got it). I have watched it go downhill since then. First high school students were added, then everyone, then newsfeed, now all these invasive applications that make it possible to stalk a person without ever speaking to them. I used to spend hours a day on Facebook. I deleted it on 16 November. I haven’t looked back. After being part of the Facebook mania, I encourage everyone to get off of it. It’s incredibly freeing!

One author argued that Facebook will remain because of the time invested into creating a user’s vast networks. I disagree. First I must admit that I don’t care for facebook though I do use it. I think it’s a bit dangerous to have so much personal information online in one space. That said, I think that because all the networks are online, someone could come up with a way to transfer networks. If a firm came along with better privacy and more security, I see no reason why social networks couldn’t be liquid and therefore, people could come and go as they pleased. At issue is if a person puts their life on Facebook, does Facebook own all of that or can a person take it with them? Finally, at least have of my “friends” on facebook I don’t care about nor do I want to keep in touch with, they’re just on there because I didn’t want to be mean and not friend them when I had a class with them back in college. So I think this author may be over-valuing social networks.

I’m not sure why Mr. Zuckerburg hasn’t sold Facebook already. The site has clearly reached it’s zeitgeist’s nadir, why not sail off into the sunset a millionaire many times over? Or, if he wants new challenges, then go into other ventures like another famous web entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

I remember when Facebook hit Kalamazoo College during the spring of my senior year, like a out of control wildfire it swept through campus. Pretty soon it was easy to find those girls (and vice versa) that you made out with, or played beer pong with, or had an inter mural softball game against. Facebook didn’t do anything to revolutionize campus life, but it made meeting new people easier.

But Facebook opened itself to bigger profits and of course much bigger criticism and scope when it left the relative safety of the college campus.

Most of us then seniors only use Facebook occasionally now, what with jobs and the real world going out and meeting new people to add to our Facebook friends list just doesn’t seem that important.

How much more utiilty can Facebooks users get out of it? How many clicks will its ads generate? I wouldn’t bet that Facebook will ever be valued higher than it is now, such is life for Web 2.0 companies.

My advice: sell Mr. Zuckerberg, sell.

No, facebook will be fine. I just hope it doesn’t go too far down the myspace road (annoying backgrounds, animated clip art, music, etc)

Facebook isn’t going away. Social networking sites success is based on economies of scale. They are only as valuable as the amount of members they have. You expect me to be lieve Josh Quitnner’s prediction when he can’t even give me the name of one social networking site that is biting at facebook’s heels? The other guy is much more of a realist.

The fate of facebook is pretty obvious. The recent happenings do not spell the end, but nor will its value continue to rise. If you don’t know what facebook is, wake up. Did you also know we are at war in Iraq? Nonetheless, people need to stop overinflating pet rocks and see that the emperor has no clothing. See facebook for what it is. It’s mainly for college students. For the rest of us, we log in every now and then to catch up with friends and shoot them a message or stalk people with whom we went out months ago in a late night fit of existential crisis. Needless to say, facebook has lost much of its cache for letting any and all old people onto its site. Nonetheless, it is still the best formatted social networking site out there and will continue to hold its consistent membership until something better comes along. The something better will inevitably be something more exclusive and youth oriented. No one likes old people spying on your drunken college pics. To respond to the allure of facebook, it is the cultural phenomena of American exhibitionism. We all think we’re important and you should know what our favorite music, movies, books, colors, food, beer, underwear are. That, and the fact that younger people are social whores. It’s just the nature of youth…until you get a job and see your social circle become smaller due to lack of time, marriage, kids, work, getting a life, etc. So if you’re older than 23 and still on facebook more than once or twice a week for a few minutes, you really need to get a life. Try doing some volunteer work and helping the real problems of America and the world. Being a lay technoslut went out in 2001.

I am not into the Facebook or Myspace era! I am a 26 year old teacher with a husband, mortage, and working on children. I just do not see what all the hype is.

I’m freaked out by the automated actions of certain applications such as superwall (that posts messages to friends to write on your wall without your permission). I have great mistrust for the system, especially since outsiders are creating the applications. There seems to be a huge amount of potential for abuse of personal information with this system.

Pardon me for interjecting here, but I
stumbled on this story checking a quote
on Microsoft (it ’s uo 5% today!) and
I come away with not a clue as to what
Facebook is and what is the attraction.
Why would anyone want to broadcast to his friends (even if we could be reassured it was just that) that he just rented another porographic video or bought some Trojans? The least of my worries would be that my wife might find out what I got her for her birthday. Am I missing something, or am I just getting old!

I was an early adopter of Facebook and still use it to this day. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to deactivate it, only to find that for someone my age (a college student), it is almost absolutely necessary to stay socially up-to-date. I now use it as little as possible to keep current.

After seeing how Facebook has invaded my privacy numerous times and disregarded the opinions and welfare of its users, I hope that it does indeed fail soon. I don’t know if it will, but I’d love everyone to move elsewhere so I can do so as well.

I’d love to stick it to Mark Zuckerberg.

I feel as thoug hall social networks keep falling prey to ads. Its even worse now that as a subway commuter on Washington D.C’s metro system, we see real live ads unter the tunnel..like commercials….

I havent been on facebook as much as i used to because of this and i have friends that have complained about the tracking of purchases they have made and they dont findit appealing..

Its sad to say that commercial world is taking over our lives…

There is one thing that I do not like about Facebook and the other big social networking site My Space is that Both had you the people that use them build them to where they are now. they made a lot of money off your work.by having you invite your friends to join them. it is just like this Press Release reported. With the explosion of social networks like MySpace and Facebook, these sites are worth a fortune today. The members are the ones that view them. the advertisements and make both companies money. But how much are the members making? Currently the members are not compensated. You do the work and they make the money. But there a new social networking site Called Friendswin, the Founders of Friendswin asked a simple question: The users created the community, where’s their share of the profit? It was from this question that Friendswin set out to create the Internet’s first Economic Network, harnessing the power of Internet-based social networks to directly benefit the Members who help to create the community. if you would like to read more about Friendswin you can go to My website http://www.freewebs.com/pastorhalfriendswin. and see just what they offer the people that use them. God Bless all of You Pastor Hal.

I have a facebook account, but I just dont see the point to spend time on it daily. There’s MSN or etc if I need to contact my friends. I feel FB is probably a very good tool for students, either high school or collage. For a boring working people like myself, time is too expensive to spend on a social site. Things like Facebook, online gaming should be banned just like drugs.

I really feel Facebook is bere to stay. I have been a member since 2004 and it’s popularity has more than quadrupled since I joined. All businesses make mistakes and Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are entitled to make mistakes. I feel the website violates people’s privacy only if Facebook members report their every move on the website. Cut them some slack!

As soon as I heard about this privacy scam I closed my facebook account, I didn’t find it that interesting to begin with as I was introduced to it via my sister, kept sending annoying fish and Potter spells. I, for one, am terribly annoyed by web advertising, and plan to cease to use pdfs if yahoo gets it’s way and places advertising. This whole thing has gone too far, I wouldn’t mind seeing many of the so called advertisement based web services depart. There is more of this privacy violation going on than many people realize. To stop it is a simple matter of not giving these places your time. But alas, it doesn’t look like that will happen any time soon.

The media ounce again has blown something out of proportion. I have not heard one person I know on Facebook complaining about the advertising issue so I have a hard time believing Facebook is dead. I challenge everyone else to see how many of their Facebook friends were effected or frustrated over this issue.

It doesn’t help that when Facebook announced they had made changes to Beacon, the changes weren’t as far reaching as they claimed. Data is still sent to Facebook, even if the user opts out. Worse, it now appears that Beacon tracks non-Facebook users. So while I can’t say Facebook is dead, it’s dead to me.

Explain to me why I need this service again?

The easiest way to “opt out” of Beacon is to opt out of Facebook and other social networking sites. There is no compelling “must have” feature on these sites. Users will pick them up and then drop them.

57 million “active” users? Get real, that is 1/6th of the country. How many are people who logged on to check it out and then left?

Heck, if you can’t send a plain old fashioned e-mail to your friends….

Um, I just called e-mail old fashioned.

Oh, Brave new world…

I love Facebook! I think is the best networking site out there! Very user friendly!!! I do hope they use the information we provide in a smart way that doesn’t affect the users and that allows them to continue developing! Also, they should invest more in securing their data!

If Facebook can not guarantee privacy then Facebook will not survive in this viral market. If Facebook can stay on top of every privacy concern and give users no reason to worry, then Facebook will conquer MySpace and be what AOL wanted to be in the mid to late 90s. I believe that is Facebook’s future and it’s minutes away, not days.

I think Zuckerberg has lost it. He should either sell the company or fire his advisors and hire new ones. He might be a smart guy intellectually but is not a good businessman who knows how to grow his business or expand in the proper direction. Sorry buddy, I think you’ve reached your intellectual limits.

Once a website takes the liberty to invade users privacy, there is a sense of mistrust beginning to form root.

Beacon and other similar applications do spy on users whether you are aware of it or not. Turning the feature off through user control does not solve users privacy concerns. How about discontinuing the use of Beacon, completely from Facebook. Now, that’s a true apology.

For those who are unaware, when you signed off, Beacon still keeps track and announces where you’ve been and what you’ve done. It just doesn’t tell your friends, overtly. No brain child here, it’s how websites keep making money, ADVERTISING.

Why are the critics “absurd”?

I, very recently, became a member of Facebook and I have become totally addicted!! Every business makes mistakes. A great business practice is to realize it, admit it, rectify it and move on – which Facebook has done it seems. Lets move on!!

As a self-proclaimed Facebook “pioneer user,” I believe the site will not only survive this latest setback, but that it will also thrive. The site inherently has it’s glitches and it’s faults, but users will find that with any site of this nature. At any rate, Facebook is much better than Myspace, which I “un-joined” after I continually received spam from various sources; more often than not, these sources masqueraded as my “friends.” The voyeuristic tendency of human nature, that urge to see what our peers are doing and using them as a benchmark against which to measure our own success, will ultimately win out over the bothersome and slightly annoying advertisements that we have already become so adept at ignoring.

Time will tell, however, the privacy issues are critical.