I was just starting to think I should shut up about Facebook for a while after my last two posts, but then I enabled the new Timeline profile and saw this:
Wow.
This adds a “Health and Wellness” Life Event to your Timeline.
(Timeline is new Zuckspeak for Wall, and Wellness is American for, erm.. Health)
Why would you tell a company that sells data that you were ill? … seriously, why?
Immediately following my latest rantings about Facebook, this seems like an appropriate time to answer a question I get asked a lot:
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you quit?”
This morning I read Chris Applegate’s post about quitting Facebook. As much as I sympathise, I’m not quitting. Here’s why.
Another F8, another set of powerful new features, and yet I’m not surprised by any of them. I’m not saying I predicted them (I didn’t) but the announcements are typical of what I see as a clear pattern in Facebook’s evolution.
Without discussing specific features, the pattern of Facebook’s ‘progress’ typically adheres to these traits:
That’s Facebook marketing language. I interpret these traits follows:
Yes, I’m a cynic. Did you not know?
Why I don’t think Circles is Google+’s killer social feature
I firmly believe that if any company can dethrone Facebook, that company is Google. But from what I’ve seen of Google+ so far, I can’t quite imagine a MySpace-style emigration happening just yet.
I’ve recently been asking Google+ fans to give me a good reason to use it. By far the most popular answer to my question is that it provides better privacy and filtering options.
Circles is great. It’s about as simple to use as it can be, but I don’t believe it’s anything like a game-changer.
Picture the scene: I’m on the Tube and I see an attractive girl, so naturally I take a photograph of her without her permission or knowledge. Then when I get home I upload my photo to the public Internet for other men to look at. I also make a note of the location and time, and post that too. Can you imagine if a website facilitated and even encouraged that? There would be outrage, right? Read more…