Exactly. Facebook is like a "lazy man's social network". I don't have to spend hours going around to everyone's individual profiles to catch up with them; I just hit my "Home" link and everyone's stuff is aggregated in one place. Plus the apps and the ability to extend Facebook in ways MySpace could never even dream of is pretty awesome too. :)
David
· 2 years ago
Scoble, I love ya, but you're ADD is showing a bit. It was about three months ago that you said Twitter was going to rule the world (or something like that...)
Facebook is a great tool to me more for the data validation model brilliance than any other reason.
But Facebook is not a replacement for blogs (heck they even realize it - they allow you to link to your blog in your profile), it provides some interesting ideas for plug ins/enhancements that increase interaction (which is good for all websites not just blogs) - but like Twitter, some of that content is more noise than the substance. It's different - it's not better.
Bob
· 2 years ago
I don't get Facebook, in the terms you are thrilled about it.
What I would like is for each person online to have an individual RSS feed of what he does. When he posts to Facebook, it feeds his RSS. When he writes a tweet, it feeds his RSS. When he posts to his blog, it feeds the RSS.
That way, everything you do wherever it is done is in one spot. That is why a lifeline feed is desirable. That seems to do what youare looking for in Facebook.
Share a link to your linkblog, it feeds your lifeline. Someone prefers Jaiku to Twitter, it feeds the RSS.
Now, if I could only figure out how to get comments I leave on other people's blogs to feed the RSS, I would be all set. :)
SoWhatChuThink
· 2 years ago
Facebook News feed = Google Page Rank
vinnie mirchandani
· 2 years ago
sorry, Robert, realize WE were Time's "person of the Year" but WE are only part of the story. I am afraid all these social networking tools are focusing conversation on us (and meaningless stuff on us going smaller from 140 words in Twitter down to 5 words of Facebook like Jane just took a pee) when citizen journalism should also focus on issues, processes, products...
I have a Facebook account but my photo there is deliberately a big Question Mark...
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
David: I'm still very into Twitter. Just because I write about one doesn't mean I don't see value in other approaches. I haven't stopped my blog, for instance, just because I have a Facebook now. http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/803589164/
Bob, RSS is cool, yes, and I'm a huge believer, but stuff like Twitter and Facebook give interactions that are far quicker and better integrated together than most RSS feeds I've seen.
Chris
· 2 years ago
I think we all understand the FOAF concept and the Tila Tequila effect. BUT,
why facebook?
It's got the same carbon copied features that all the other social networking sites have. It's even crappier than most of them. I should know because of what I'm currently working on.
Who's pushing Robert to pimp Facebook this way? Are they trying to inch out last minute value before a sale via bloggers?
Facebook is nothing special and Zuckerberg is less than special. So what gives, why Facebook Robert? What dollar amount are they holding out for and do they really think that this is going to help?
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Facebook is WAY better than any other social network I've used.
No one "pushes" me to write anything on my blog. I don't take money, I have no skin in this game. I write about what I see happening and most of the people I trust are on Facebook.
I've written at length about why Facebook is the one that I'm using the most. It all comes down to quality of service and the application platform that is unparalleled.
Stephen Davies
· 2 years ago
I beg to differ. Facebook is supposed to be a platform where **real** friends connect. Not where one person **pushes** all their messages/content to 'connections' (because no one can have thousands of genuine friends).
I work in PR but don't believe Facebook should be used for PR or media purposes. It's more intimate than that.
Besides, if I kept uploading my blogging/work content to Facebook my friends would disown me. They don't care about what I do in the day job. They care about our holiday (vacation) and what we plan to do at the weekend.
Stephen is on Facebook. Me as a 'media' is elsewhere.
With all due respect, you're effectively pushing your content on people who don't necessarily want to receive it.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
I totally disagree.
If people don't want what I'm doing on Facebook they can easily unfriend me.
It's pretty clear you have a religious view of Facebook. One that is no longer relevant.
Chris
· 2 years ago
"No one “pushes” me to write anything on my blog. I don’t take money, I have no skin in this game. I write about what I see happening and most of the people I trust are on Facebook."
I agree that you may be telling the truth. But with such a high value, they could be paying you such a high amount that you would be willing to totally lie about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg "The school alleged that Zuckerberg had hacked into Harvard house websites to harvest images of students without their permission, for profit."
Zuckerberg isn't exactly a candidate for any near future committees on ethics, so one has to question the frequency of your posts on the topic of his website.
I can't tell you exactly what I'm doing concerning SN sites, but I can say I have seen it all, and the features are not unique by a long shot, and neither is the member count or the traffic they get. The most unique feature of the site is that they are the highest ranked site not yet purchased outright by a larger media company.
I can't imagine Zuckerberg bought all those servers and built the company from the ground up. A. He doesn't seem the hard working type, and B. You made a post about a VC Facebook investor previously. I can imagine those people will do anything to squeeze an extra B out of the fanny of MS, Google, Yahoo, et al. It just raises questions, that's all.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Chris: if I was being paid that much money then I'd just go to work for Facebook. They are going to make a crap load of money no matter what I write here. I didn't hype up Skype or MySpace and look what those sold for.
There is no amount of money that's worth selling your integrity down the stream.
I think you don't have any clue, though, about what's going on at Facebook. EVERYONE in Silicon Valley is talking about them and they've made several very awesome moves. Including not listening to their investors (I met one of the guys and he said Zuckerberg didn't listen to his advice and that he's very happy he didn't).
Bob
· 2 years ago
It would be good to be able to comment better via RSS. Facebook feels like starting all over. How many networks do I have to join?
I am out here. I can keep chasing the next new thing or I can interact where I am. Facebook just isn't doing it for me.
Stephen Davies
· 2 years ago
I don't have a religious view on anything (literally) and I'm not trying to argue for argument's sake. Honest. I think it's a pretty valid point that some people do want to separate their social life from their work life.
Maybe someone who works in a very corporate environment chooses to let their hair down on FB. Something that they couldn't do if his/her colleagues were 'friends' on FB.
It's a fair point I think Robert and I don't doubt that even you have genuine friends who don't give a monkeys about what you do in the day job.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Stephen: actually most of my friends are also in the business in some way and if they don't want to follow my Facebook they can invite me over for BBQ. The thing is what you see with me is pretty much what you get. Most of what I do revolves around the tech industry. Even when I go skiing I'd rather go with someone in the tech industry than someone who doesn't know a thing about computers.
Chris
· 2 years ago
"I think you don’t have any clue, though, about what’s going on at Facebook. EVERYONE in Silicon Valley is talking about them"
You're right about the Silicon Valley part, that's why I'm trying to hire somebody down there.
Though you didn't personally promote myspace, they did have other channels that did. Such as comcast, G4, and other web channels. Without ever mentioning that it was a promotion.
It's more than a coincidence that most websites sold for over a couple million bucks are based without exception in the San Francisco Bay area of California.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
If you want to "let your hair down" I would HIGHLY recommend NEVER doing that online. For a whole lot of reasons. At least if "letting your hair down" would reveal you to be a person that doesn't have integrity. For instance, if you are a priest in your day job and then smoke dope at night, I wouldn't put that online anywhere.
But I don't live my life like that. My friends online are pretty much the same people I'd end up talking to at a party, or hanging out with here at the house. Heck, this morning I had breakfast with the founder of TangoDiva.com.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Chris: Silicon Valley is the world's most powerful economic engine. Not surprising to me. But where did Bebo come from? Not here. Where did MySpace come from? Not here. Where did Skype come from? Not here. Where did Weblogsinc come from? Not here. Where did DoubleClick come from? Not here.
mario romero
· 2 years ago
The main thing to consider is that FB isn't a social network anymore (in the sense that MySpace or Bebo are) it has become a platform. Pure and Simple. Now that my sound like marketing hype if you haven't actually looked at the platform but I assure you, it's not. The effects that this will have on the whole web industry (not only FB apps) I think will be hugely important (allready are?).. take openID for example... what's the point anymore?? If you were planning to use openID on your site.. why not just integrate with FB login instead??? your users won't have to type their info for a gazillion time and you get all the viral sexyness of the Social Graph.. as someone said in the FB Developers newsgroup, now anytime someone thinks up of web idea that involves a social component, he'll have to consider if it wouldn't be better/easier/faster using the FB platform.
Stephen Davies
· 2 years ago
Fair play, they're valid points. Still feel funny with the FB thing though and think your situation is very much a unique one. For the majority of the world, however, it's a little different.
Cheers,
Chris
· 2 years ago
MySpace is from LA, which is about 5 hours away. The others you mention are not the types of sites that have shot up from zero to billions within a few months, such as those in Silicon Valley. Skype actually offers a networked IP telephony system that took considerable development to make happen. Doubleclick has been on the web for 11 years now, and slowly built up it's value over a long span of time. Bebo and weblogs I'm not very familiar with businesswise.
YouTube started promoting itself regularly in late 2005, and sold to Google for 1.65B in October of the following year. Facebook opened in mid 2004 and 3 years later is apparently worth 6B or more and rising with every blog post.
That just doesn't happen. Excuse me for thinking that this is coordinated and contrived.
Preston
· 2 years ago
Okay, I love this site and read it all the time, but I have a thought. For a little bit, there was a big kick on Twitter. Seemed like every post was on that. Cool. Now, every post seems to be on Facebook. Cool, fine. I appreciate that.
But what I don't get is this, Facebook has been around for like 4-5 years, probably longer, I don't know. Sure, they've made some new moves recently, but this isn't new stuff. You talk about new stuff. Which leads me to two other thoughts: is this spokesblogging, kind of like the people_ready campaign? Or is it because it's just now opened to non .edu addresses that the tech world is starting to play with it? I mean, I'm not a tech genius, but I would have expected this kind of talk 2-3 years ago. Also, there are the rumors of MSFT's purchase of Facebook. With your prior relationship to MSFT, is this somehow related? Conversely, there have been rumors of your work for Facebook, which are probably false, but is this somehow connected? I just can't get all this interest in Facebook. It's just another social network!
SG
· 2 years ago
Scoble, who is paying you how much to indulge in this positive post frenzy about facebook ?
Jerome Paradis
· 2 years ago
I'm also a recent adopter of Facebook, after Robert spoke so much about it. I realized that it is getting mainstream.
For example, I met Sebastien Provencher at Yulbiz, a Montreal Web and bloggers monthly meet-up. Since then, he's on my Facebook friends. Today, on Facebook, I see that he's also now friend with Robert Scoble as he's been on other networks. I went looking at Sebastien's blog and see his post and I see he's known Robert in person for a while. And I see he has nailed down what Robert's doing with these networks.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm getting at, but these little things make me like Facebook even more.
In any case, Scoble's usage of different social networking tools, including Twitter and Pownce has made me have a second look at some things I would have missed or did not follow through from his blog. There's seems to be a method to the madness, because it looks like it's working!
Chris
· 2 years ago
"But what I don’t get is this, Facebook has been around for like 4-5 years, probably longer"
Kevin: actually I +did+ see that. Even if I didn't read your blog (I subscribe) it also popped up on a Google Blog search for Podtech.
André Hedetoft
· 2 years ago
Bob: That's an awesome idea! I'd love that in one way or another!
jerry
· 2 years ago
facebook is a great way to view others opinions while articulating your own.
reality checker
· 2 years ago
"Silicon Valley is the world’s most powerful economic engine."
Excuse me while I clean the coffee I've just splurted over my keyboard.
Your statement might be true in your microcosmic view of the world, but in the real one? Got facts to prove this? Last time I looked there weren't many oil fields in San Jose.
Robert Scoble
· 2 years ago
Reality: OK, I guess I should have added "intellectual capital" to that list.
Sierra Leone
· 2 years ago
It's a great idea and I like it. FB has definitely become a platform and is no longer a pure social network in the original sense.
Ashish
· 2 years ago
I was reading Asimov's Foundation Edge - in which there is a planet called Gaia - a superorganism which comprises humans, trees, plants et al. So anytime someone asks a Gaian organism, 'Who is Gaia?' - they go 'I am Gaia'. The also use pronouns in the following manner - 'I/We/Gaia would like to go to the toilet'. The 'Robert Scoble is media' bit sounds too much like those Gaia fellas. I can already imagine reading Scoble next post which goes 'I/me/media approve of the iPhone...'. Or Sebastien's, or mine for that matter.
Preston
· 2 years ago
@Chris #26 - I said "probably longer, I don't know." The point is, THIS STUFF ISN'T NEW!! This stuff has been around long enough for me to get two graduate degrees. Why are we talking about facebook? Sure, the google reader integration with facebook, that's new, but only because google reader. That's a cool post. But there's like 10 posts on facebook in the past couple weeks (I haven't fact-checked that, just saying what it feels like). I guess there's not much else to talk about right now.
hellobeautifullove
· 2 years ago
Everyone keeps talking about facebook! I need to check it out.
Ramon Ray
· 2 years ago
Plaxo is IT - ladies and guys. It automatically lets you see what those in your plaxo rolodex are posting!!!! Way cool
mutiny
· 2 years ago
I find importing your blog to notes on facebook very useful. Your friends and network are always updated whenever there is a new post.
local search directory
· 5 months ago
I realize that more local businesses are increasing their ad budgets towards the Facebook direction.
All Comments
Facebook is a great tool to me more for the data validation model brilliance than any other reason.
But Facebook is not a replacement for blogs (heck they even realize it - they allow you to link to your blog in your profile), it provides some interesting ideas for plug ins/enhancements that increase interaction (which is good for all websites not just blogs) - but like Twitter, some of that content is more noise than the substance. It's different - it's not better.
What I would like is for each person online to have an individual RSS feed of what he does. When he posts to Facebook, it feeds his RSS. When he writes a tweet, it feeds his RSS. When he posts to his blog, it feeds the RSS.
That way, everything you do wherever it is done is in one spot. That is why a lifeline feed is desirable. That seems to do what youare looking for in Facebook.
Share a link to your linkblog, it feeds your lifeline. Someone prefers Jaiku to Twitter, it feeds the RSS.
That is why I assembled my feed to run through Tumblr.
Now, if I could only figure out how to get comments I leave on other people's blogs to feed the RSS, I would be all set. :)
I have a Facebook account but my photo there is deliberately a big Question Mark...
Bob, RSS is cool, yes, and I'm a huge believer, but stuff like Twitter and Facebook give interactions that are far quicker and better integrated together than most RSS feeds I've seen.
why facebook?
It's got the same carbon copied features that all the other social networking sites have. It's even crappier than most of them. I should know because of what I'm currently working on.
Who's pushing Robert to pimp Facebook this way?
Are they trying to inch out last minute value before a sale via bloggers?
Facebook is nothing special and Zuckerberg is less than special. So what gives, why Facebook Robert?
What dollar amount are they holding out for and do they really think that this is going to help?
No one "pushes" me to write anything on my blog. I don't take money, I have no skin in this game. I write about what I see happening and most of the people I trust are on Facebook.
I've written at length about why Facebook is the one that I'm using the most. It all comes down to quality of service and the application platform that is unparalleled.
I work in PR but don't believe Facebook should be used for PR or media purposes. It's more intimate than that.
Besides, if I kept uploading my blogging/work content to Facebook my friends would disown me. They don't care about what I do in the day job. They care about our holiday (vacation) and what we plan to do at the weekend.
Stephen is on Facebook. Me as a 'media' is elsewhere.
With all due respect, you're effectively pushing your content on people who don't necessarily want to receive it.
If people don't want what I'm doing on Facebook they can easily unfriend me.
It's pretty clear you have a religious view of Facebook. One that is no longer relevant.
I agree that you may be telling the truth. But with such a high value, they could be paying you such a high amount that you would be willing to totally lie about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
"The school alleged that Zuckerberg had hacked into Harvard house websites to harvest images of students without their permission, for profit."
Zuckerberg isn't exactly a candidate for any near future committees on ethics, so one has to question the frequency of your posts on the topic of his website.
I can't tell you exactly what I'm doing concerning SN sites, but I can say I have seen it all, and the features are not unique by a long shot, and neither is the member count or the traffic they get. The most unique feature of the site is that they are the highest ranked site not yet purchased outright by a larger media company.
I can't imagine Zuckerberg bought all those servers and built the company from the ground up. A. He doesn't seem the hard working type, and B. You made a post about a VC Facebook investor previously. I can imagine those people will do anything to squeeze an extra B out of the fanny of MS, Google, Yahoo, et al. It just raises questions, that's all.
There is no amount of money that's worth selling your integrity down the stream.
I think you don't have any clue, though, about what's going on at Facebook. EVERYONE in Silicon Valley is talking about them and they've made several very awesome moves. Including not listening to their investors (I met one of the guys and he said Zuckerberg didn't listen to his advice and that he's very happy he didn't).
I am out here. I can keep chasing the next new thing or I can interact where I am. Facebook just isn't doing it for me.
Maybe someone who works in a very corporate environment chooses to let their hair down on FB. Something that they couldn't do if his/her colleagues were 'friends' on FB.
It's a fair point I think Robert and I don't doubt that even you have genuine friends who don't give a monkeys about what you do in the day job.
You're right about the Silicon Valley part, that's why I'm trying to hire somebody down there.
Though you didn't personally promote myspace, they did have other channels that did. Such as comcast, G4, and other web channels. Without ever mentioning that it was a promotion.
It's more than a coincidence that most websites sold for over a couple million bucks are based without exception in the San Francisco Bay area of California.
But I don't live my life like that. My friends online are pretty much the same people I'd end up talking to at a party, or hanging out with here at the house. Heck, this morning I had breakfast with the founder of TangoDiva.com.
Cheers,
The others you mention are not the types of sites that have shot up from zero to billions within a few months, such as those in Silicon Valley. Skype actually offers a networked IP telephony system that took considerable development to make happen. Doubleclick has been on the web for 11 years now, and slowly built up it's value over a long span of time. Bebo and weblogs I'm not very familiar with businesswise.
YouTube started promoting itself regularly in late 2005, and sold to Google for 1.65B in October of the following year.
Facebook opened in mid 2004 and 3 years later is apparently worth 6B or more and rising with every blog post.
That just doesn't happen. Excuse me for thinking that this is coordinated and contrived.
But what I don't get is this, Facebook has been around for like 4-5 years, probably longer, I don't know. Sure, they've made some new moves recently, but this isn't new stuff. You talk about new stuff. Which leads me to two other thoughts: is this spokesblogging, kind of like the people_ready campaign? Or is it because it's just now opened to non .edu addresses that the tech world is starting to play with it? I mean, I'm not a tech genius, but I would have expected this kind of talk 2-3 years ago. Also, there are the rumors of MSFT's purchase of Facebook. With your prior relationship to MSFT, is this somehow related? Conversely, there have been rumors of your work for Facebook, which are probably false, but is this somehow connected? I just can't get all this interest in Facebook. It's just another social network!
For example, I met Sebastien Provencher at Yulbiz, a Montreal Web and bloggers monthly meet-up. Since then, he's on my Facebook friends. Today, on Facebook, I see that he's also now friend with Robert Scoble as he's been on other networks. I went looking at Sebastien's blog and see his post and I see he's known Robert in person for a while. And I see he has nailed down what Robert's doing with these networks.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm getting at, but these little things make me like Facebook even more.
In any case, Scoble's usage of different social networking tools, including Twitter and Pownce has made me have a second look at some things I would have missed or did not follow through from his blog. There's seems to be a method to the madness, because it looks like it's working!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
3 years. Facts suck right.
I'm done trying to pick apart VC voodoo though.
The best thing is to ignore them and continue evolving in the real world.
Between twitter and facebook, I can see why.
http://epeus.blogspot.com/2007/07/editing-shows...
Excuse me while I clean the coffee I've just splurted over my keyboard.
Your statement might be true in your microcosmic view of the world, but in the real one? Got facts to prove this? Last time I looked there weren't many oil fields in San Jose.