f8 - Facebook's Play to Take Over the Entire Internet
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman recently announced significant changes to Facebook expanding 100’s of websites with "open graph" and “like” which may revolutionize the Internet. At the annual f8 Facebook outside developers’ conference on April 21, 2010 Zuckerman demonstrated "open graph" and how the use of “like” on hundreds of websites (including Yelp, CNN, Pandora, ESPN, and IMDb) will allow the 400+ million friends to share their likes which in turn will be posted to their Facebook pages. According to Mashable.com Facebook “has created a platform that allows sites and apps to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services to each one’s interests and tastes — even if that individual has never visited the site before.” Zuckerman explained how most information on the Internet is lost in time once posted, referring to a tweets, text messages, and the like, but the new Facebook "open graph" and "like" will permit information to live forever on the Internet.
Microsoft Docs on Facebook
In conjunction with the f8 conference Microsoft announced a new beta for Docs on Facebook to facilitate access to Microsoft apps through Facebook that “allows users to create, edit and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents via the new Docs.com Website. Users can then share those documents with their Facebook friends, as well as give them editing privileges.” Microsoft’s collaboration with Microsoft is clearly competition for Google, Google apps, and the new Google Buzz.
Senator Doesn’t “Like” Facebook’s Instant Personalization Features
Under the new "open graph" and "like" Facebook automatically changed the privacy features, so within days of Facebook’s announcement Senator Charles Schumer of New York wrote a letter to the FTC “urging them to create privacy guidelines for Facebook and other social networking sites.” We need to watch closely to see what, if anything, the FTC may do. My blog on January 14, 2010 included a link to an interview with Zuckerman where he commented that the age of privacy is over. So perhaps he was referring to the new "open graph" and "like" features may be part of his plan to actually make that happen
You could smell the new changes to user privacy on Facebook coming, couldn't you? They tried it last year and threw up all over themselves (to put it politely), then made some other modifications that had the net result of letting your data escape into the net a bit more, and have recently been bombarding the world with new, cool apps that actually access all your data and let the app makers sell it to the highest bidders. (You didn't think those personalized offers were a coincidence, did you?)
Facebook SOOOOOOOO badly wants to figure out new ways to monetize your private data that you can almost feel them lurking, drooling in the corner, waiting for your attention to lapse so that you overlook the latest in a series of what Facebook repeatedly attempts to explain away as just another "minor" tweak to your privacy settings. It kills me that they are so obvious about what they are doing, and yet by dint of mere repetition they are almost certain to prevail. Who has the energy to keep battling, battling, battling them? Not the 50 million people on Facebook, not forever, and not in concert. The overall sense I'm getting is that, ultimately, most people could care less if every stranger in America knows that their favorite TV show is House. Or that they like to garden. Facebook has taken a leaf from Calvin Coolidge's book, and realized that nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. If Facebook just keeps chipping away at your privacy (our privacy) soon everyone will know everything about everybody all the time, and Facebook will then rival Amazon and Apple as a force for social change (perhaps they already do). Then Facebook's coffers will be large enough to wage battle against
Google for control of the future. Or maybe they'll just buy Google. Now there's a thought.
Of the two, Zuckerman and Pincus, who appears to
be the more honest, trustworthy?
I'm trying to figure out who is the more honest. Myself and several friends have significant concerns and lives.Facebook and the apps can be diversions. However there are lots of others.
Anybody read a book lately, or go to the theatre? Or just talk and hang out with friends? Or do volunteer work. Or just give wy noney to Farmville on Facebook? for example.