“Facebook isn’t Google; it’s Yahoo or AOL.” – Michael Wolff, at MIT’s Technology Review.
I find this observation to be almost obvious. The similarities with AOL’s “walled garden” of the 1990’s is especially notable, although in that case, at least AOL had a revenue stream in subscribers that facebook doesn’t have. And that being the case, facebook isn’t the next step forward in the internet’s technological revolution, but, in fact, a small step backward, which is probably temporary. The real revolution will come when the “social network” that facebook has universalized is successfully propelled out of that “walled garden” and into the wider internet. Google as tried with google+ (and failed, so far, in my opinion). Apple or Microsoft may give it a try, or facebook itself may pull it off somehow. But whoever does that will destroy facebook’s already shaky business model, and new revenue streams will have to be found fast, or the empire will collapse like a house of cards.
What I’m listening to right now.
Black Boned Angel, “The Witch Must Be Killed.” This is a “drone metal” group from New Zealand. My tastes are so weird.
