Is Google the next Facebook?
According to this story, published very early this morning at FT.com, Google may be working hard behind the scenes to gain footing in the social networking world. As a strong and faithful supporter of everything Google, I certainly applaud the spirit of the attempt – but feel that it will fall flat.
Although I would have preferred that Facebook leave their layout alone, or at the very least allow users to opt out of the new format, I think that Facebook has a good run ahead as the leader in social networking sites. The Boomers and Gen-X’ers are not likely to spend the energy reestablishing themselves on another networking site. Wasn’t it exhausting enough finding friends and learning the ropes on Facebook? Are they likely to start a new farm, war or city on another site?
The younger set will look for a place to hide before long. We have infiltrated, and Google won’t be a great place to avoid Mom, Dad and Auntie Carol. I’m keeping an eye out for their next clubhouse.
Note: As of 4:36 on Wednesday, February 10, I can’t decide which I detest more – the new Facebook layout or Google’s new “Buzz” app.
For all of the effort that Facebook obviously puts in to its layout – they haven't taken the most logical step which is to allow the USER to customize their OWN layout (al la MyYahoo – which does this very well).
This tells me that the underlying data and objects are very poorly executed – because otherwise it is an absolute no brainer that they would have done this by now.
ALL customers would be happy if they could do this. You would set it up however you want it!
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I completely agree. Yahoo and iGoogle allow this. Either allowing us an "old" or "new" version option or a full customization would be great.