A pretty walled garden
Facebook is quickly becoming the biggest platform in the world. I have a serious problem with that. I don’t mind Facebook becoming a successful and profitable platform. I do mind that their current scale lets them dictate what the web will look like for all of us.
Facebook is getting its tentacles into areas far beyond their original focus, connecting people. Instead of a walled garden site they are quickly becoming a walled garden platform. They are now big enough to compete with anything on the outside. Either by copying (Friendfeed) or just plainly buying any possible successful innovative company (did I mention Friendfeed already?). It’s like a big black hole sucking everything in, and never letting it out again.
And now there is the possibility of a Facebook browser (mentioned here, and here). It’s a smart move backed by some very powerful and smart people. Building a new browser is hard, but the real hard part is getting it distributed. And that is where Facebook can now play a big role. It’s got some 300M users, becoming a possible powerful distribution source for new services. A browser, tailored to the needs of Facebook users would make sense. It would likely distribute fast across the Facebook platform.
I’m troubled by the idea that 300M+ users in the near future might not realize there is a web beyond that of Facebook. I do not like the idea of one huge Facebook dictating to us what the web will look like. It’s the biggest walled garden out there, and there seems no stopping its growth.
I think that is the main reason why people tend to find Google more sympathetic than Facebook. While Facebook tries to redefine the web to its own platform, forcing both users and developers in, never letting them out. Google adds value to each part of the web, and in most cases tries to open it up as far as it can for its users and developers. Google’s walled garden is the planet and beyond, Facebook is the walled garden, Big difference.
Facebook has become a much more powerful and penetrated platform than AOL ever was. But I hope this growth will stop. I don’t want a single company to decide for me what the web looks like. I want an ecology of companies competing and cooperating, making our experience better and better. Without asking us to give up the one thing that is precious to us. Our freedom.
Facebook is the biggest walled garden there is. I think it’s big enough already, what do you think?
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13 responses so far ↓
Jonathan Rivera // August 14, 2009 at 11:53 am |
Facebook is taking over the world. At the current rate of growth (around 8% per month) I think it’s going to be a real competitor for Google.
Do you remember when AOL was all the buzz? People thought the whole web was inside of AOL. That’s the same thing we’re seeing here on facebook.
Here’s the deal, facebook is an even bigger threat than most people think becuase of all the information they have on us. They have all our likes, dislikes, and interactions logged. Talk about a threat. They know more about us than we know about ourselves at this point.
Google better watch out, because all the data that facebook has on us will make ads inside of facebook more effective than ads on Google.
They are also opening up more of their platform to take over in search rankings too. Will the future of the web be inside of facebook? I’m afraid it might be.
Jonathan van de Veen // August 14, 2009 at 12:52 pm |
Obviously this is a conceirn. The only thing anyone can do against it is to express this conceirn to facebook users over and over again and stop using facebook altogether.
I don’t use facebook and don’t feel I would need to. I don’t feel it would add to my private live and I know it wouldn’t add to my professional live as my entire professional network is on LinkedIn any way.
Todd // August 14, 2009 at 4:47 pm |
I think that without focus, without a social object to rally around, Facebook will meet the same fate as FireFly, Friendster, Myspace.
See the 3:42 minute mark of Jyri Engeström’s presentation:
http://vimeo.com/4071624
Alexander van Elsas // August 17, 2009 at 7:45 pm |
Thanks for the video link Todd, I will check it out.
What comes up will come down at some point. But Facebook is a lot smarter now than AOL was at its height.
StevieB’s Shared Items – August 15, 2009 at Lost in Cyberspace // August 15, 2009 at 10:55 am |
[...] The lock-in of Facebook takes away our freedomAugust 14, 2009 [...]
Ru Viljoen // August 15, 2009 at 12:25 pm |
Great post, I agree one hundred percent and I always tell people to upload photos, videos other personal info to niche sites or a personal weblog, it makes it too difficult to leave otherwise.
Max // August 17, 2009 at 12:01 am |
I agree and recommend:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703
Linkwertig: WebFinger, Filesharing, Freekonomie, Facebook » netzwertig.com // August 17, 2009 at 8:02 am |
[...] » The lock-in of Facebook takes away our freedom [...]
Zoltan Toth // August 17, 2009 at 7:40 pm |
I have been making worries about Facebook in the last year, too. Thanks Alexander for sharing this. I fully agree with Jonathan, but once it can get to the point that you are not able to delete your Facebook account. At one point, you are going to be trapped. The same happened to me, it is the only platform to keep in touch with a big amount of “friends” living in other countries.
I believe the best you can do is:
1. Change your name
2. Detag/Delete your photos
3. Do not share/comment anything
Cheers,
z
Alexander van Elsas // August 17, 2009 at 7:46 pm |
Yes, it is easy to get trapped. There are alternatives but it is hard if all of your friends are on Facebook, and you are not.
But, I’d be very careful about getting locked in.
links for 2009-08-19 | synapsenschnappsen // August 19, 2009 at 8:02 am |
[...] The lock-in of Facebook takes away our freedom « @vanelsas (tags: Facebook) [...]
Internet: sarà la futura infrastruttura sociale del Real-Time Web basata sui blogs? // August 22, 2009 at 1:50 pm |
[...] "Quello che sta cambiando su Internet è la natura del publishing, del content sharing e del consumo di contenuti", dice Om Malik, poi aggiunge che i blogs hanno di fatto la necessità di diventare sociali (social networks). Qui si tratta di risolvere il problema dell’atomizzazione dei contenuti sulla Rete (troppa dispersione e disgiunzione degli stessi), continua ancora Om Malik, per cui questi atomi di informazione vanno riaggregati/ricongiunti se vogliamo far acquisire loro un maggiore significato nonché un preciso background contestuale, e il migliore posto su Internet in grado di fornire questo contento è proprio il blog. Questo posto non è quindi Facebook, sottolinea infine Om Malik argomentando che "Millions of Facebook users will have no reason to use any other service for the foreseeable future. And even when they decide to leave, they’ll realize they can’t, for they’ll have stored their photos and videos into the service, which has no visible way of exporting such data. It’s the ultimate lock-in: control consumers’ data and you control everything" (un’opinione condivisa anche da Alexander van Elsas che sul suo blog pubblica un articolo intitolato "The lock-in of Facebook takes away our freedom"). [...]
Pay with Facebook: The “One-Click” Solution to Save Newspapers Online? | AniBlurbs (Column) // August 30, 2009 at 8:45 pm |
[...] however, does not imply that I don’t see the possible dangers of Facebook not only owning your social graph and personal data, but also knowing when you bought what (and whom approved said purchase!) and where you’re likely [...]