
Facebook and StudiVZ battle over Germany - ksvs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/07/technology/social.php
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arthurk
It's true that studivz copied the Facebook UI nearly 1:1 and made it red
instead of blue but they still lack some more advanced features like an API.
Facebook is also not a huge success in Europe since every country has kind of
their own facebook-clone.

 _"copied functions like a Facebook innovation that lets users digitally
"poke" each other to get attention"_

Sorry, that's not an innovation.

~~~
unalone
It is if it's done in the purist way Facebook uses it. Sounds dumb but bear
with me for a moment.

Facebook is all about levels of communication. You can tag somebody to draw
their attention to what you've done, you can write on their wall to chat
publicly, you can write privately if it's either a walled-in discussion (set
number of speakers) or if it's something too sensitive to say out loud.

Poking, which I think I'm right in saying Facebook made first, is a method of
bridging the small gap where you want to talk to somebody but you don't know
what to say. It's the equivalent of small talk when you do it with friends:
it's just a matter of alerting them to your presence. With people you don't
know so well, it's even more a matter of flirtation: you don't have to explain
your poke, or pretend there's a reason. All they know is that you've poked
them, for whatever reason, and by doing so you've been brought to their
attention.

So, if it's being copied in the exact same manner, used in the exact same way
(where "poke" is an option on the level of "send message" and "add friend" on
every menu), then yeah, they might have a point about copying a feature.
Poking is simple like Twitter is: yes, it's basic, but what matters is
implementation.

Also, regarding that site's layout: yech. It's like they took the brilliantly
minimal Facebook design without realizing what made it such a brilliant
design, and added tweaks to something they didn't quite understand. Sickening.

