
Facebook is about to feature-creep itself into a usage U-turn - evo_9
http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/21/facebook-is-about-to-feature-creep-itself-into-a-usage-u-turn/
======
MartinCron
Facebook's complete and total collapse is about three months into the future.

This is where it has always been, and where it always will be.

~~~
tbird24
I couldn't agree more. Granted, I think it will be a much slower process than
say, the Digg exodus. I think in the next few months if Facebook doesn't make
some drastic improvements (read: simpler), it will be past the point of
saving. No turning back.

~~~
jaysonelliot
I think MartinCron's point was that everyone always predicts Facebook's demise
"three months into the future," and that this will also turn out to be
nothing.

If that's the point, I disagree with him. We've seen far too many unstoppable
behemoths collapse under their own weight to believe that anything is too big
to fail. The difference between Facebook and, say, AOL, Yahoo, IBM, or any
other company with a massive user base is that Facebook is run by a CEO with
very little experience (compared to AOL, Yahoo, IBM, etc) and no fall-back
plan that could let them remain profitable and relevant when their moment on
top is over.

~~~
MartinCron
Thanks for getting the joke.

I'm really just pointing out that every single dire prediction about
Facebook's demise hasn't happened, and I don't see how this one is any
different from the last N times.

------
brown9-2
I think there is another big problems with the "mini-Facebook" live feed in
the top right corner which I haven't seen mentioned much:

What is the usefulness of this information? Why am I supposed to care that
College Acquaintance A commented on Person I Don't Know's photo? How is this
useful to me? 80% of the items in the live feed are noise like this, and 15%
of the remaining are items that I can see in the main feed itself.

This, along with the Read/Watched/etc buttons just seem to lower the signal-
to-noise ratio.

~~~
farlington
> What is the usefulness of this information?

My guess is that it's there for the sizable population of facebook users who
check it compulsively. For a lot of people, the appearance of constant
activity is going to be a lot more interesting than the appearance that
nothing is happening, even if for only fifteen or twenty minutes. I can see
this increasing 'engagement' a lot, and it's easy enough to ignore for people
who find it annoying.

And your optimal signal-to-noise ratio is still there in your news feed.

~~~
cgranade
But it's bad for compulsive checkers, too, in that it doesn't let you peruse
every item in order like the old News Feed design did. It's a ticker, and so
far as I can tell, that means that when you miss an item it's gone.

~~~
farlington
You can still do that if your news feed is set to show "Recent Stories" and
not "Top Stories". The mini sidebar is mostly stuff that hasn't been in the
news feed for years, like when your friends comment on or like other friends'
posts.

------
jonathanjaeger
Personally I love the lists function -- adds a lot of utility for me.
Subscriptions are a plus too, though I prefer to see content from pages I've
'liked' than people I've subscribed too. I'd much rather have all this info
than news feed info from people I'm no longer even acquaintances with. But
yes, a bit too much feature creep as a whole. I could do without the Top
Stories.

------
RockerCoder
honestly, it's kinda funny watch this big screw up of facebook the same day
google is ready to offer everyone G+ at its home page...seriously, there's so
much stuff going on on the facebook home page now that my brain immediately
chose to ignore all the new "features" to preserve my sanity, and I have no
plans to try to adapt to it... might as well move to G+

to me it seems like facebook got tired of itself and decided to commit
suicide, of course, not before telling everyone go go f%*#& themselves

