
Trying to be the one true social graph is like trying to hold water in your fist - Pr0
http://www.hunterwalk.com/2012/12/trying-to-be-one-true-social-graph-is.html
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kunle
Broadly agree - not every "Instagram" will say yes to being acquired, and
there will definitely be more "Instagrams" (mobile social/communication
networks that rapidly grow and get sticky).

That being said, a meaningful portion of the premise is doubtful:

"In order to realize its hundred-billion-dollar dreams, Facebook needs to
forever dominate all of the world’s social interactions"

Not really. In order to realize it's hundred-billion-dollar dreams, Facebook
needs to figure out a. how to make more commerce happen (Eg gifts) b. how to
make more ads happen (As they're working on) or c. how to make a kind of ad
that converts at a massively higher rate, (such that ceteris paribus, their ad
inventory climbs in value)

Dominating all the worlds social interactions, while a nice goal, is hardly
necessary, and if that was the standard Facebook was judging itself against,
they're likely being set up to fail fail. For example - email in the work
context is a social interaction (and a large and high value one at that). What
are the chances those sorts of interactions (Where
privacy/security/proprietary data are concerned) ever happen on Facebook?

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hunterwalk
great points. I can't put myself inside the heads of FB execs, but I always
got the sense there was a notion of "we will be the largest graph and anyone
who wants their product to be social, will see the value to build on top of
our graph."

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antidoh
"Maybe each generation needs a space to call their own: We've never had a
social graph last >10 years at scale."

Physical postal addresses (and address books, if you insist).

Telephone numbers (and address books, if you insist).

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hunterwalk
I wrote the post. Curious on feedback. What do you guys think?

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greenyoda
It's pretty uncontroversial that Facebook has never been the "one true social
graph". The obvious example is LinkedIn, which your article curiously doesn't
mention; most people already have separate social graphs for their
professional and privates lives.

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hunterwalk
yeah, although I bet if you asked Facebook they would have thought a Facebook
Connect driven app would have seriously challenged LinkedIn by now, but anyone
who tries it fails. I think it's because people don't associate the Facebook
brand with their professional identity and thus want to keep separate.

