FutureOfFacebook
ThoughtStorms Wiki
Context : FaceBook
Somewhat agree with what I wrote previously. (See Quora answer below). But FB obviously evolving in other ways. See FacebookGoesMeta. I'm not entirely convinced by Zuckerberg's intuition on that. I think he might have panicked / mis-stepped on this one.
Quora Answer : Do you think Mark Zuckerberg's decision to split Facebook into a public forum and a living room over the next five years is the end of Facebook? Why or why not?
No.
One of Facebook's great strengths is its ability to change.
Facebook has changed the kind of thing it is, and the main kinds of interactions people have on it, subtly several times over its lifetime.
It started more like MySpace ... or a simple "Home Page" maker.
Then became more like a blog. Then more like Twitter. Then more like Instagram (being a flow of pictures).
It used to be more open to the rest of the web. Then it became more of a walled garden.
Then it adapted to mobile.
Zuckerberg has always correctly understood the nature of Facebook : it's a "social graph" manager.
Now he's getting political heat for the Twitter-like nature of Facebook (ie. the fast meme distribution network) he is going to make some changes.
They won't be very good changes from the perspective of people who want to fix the political problems Facebook causes. Nor from the perspectives of those who worry about privacy.
But it will be something that covers Facebook's Ass from the accusation that it's a "publisher" enabling extremist content. Because it will bury the extremist content deeper in specific communities where outsiders don't get to see it.
But sure ... what you want from a "social graph manager" is the ability to partition and set fine grained permissions on your social graph. And Facebook will want to make that as easy and intuitive as it needs to stay in charge.
(This is also why Zuck wants to merge FB with Instagram and Whatsapp now. He wants them all part of one graph, and the particular functionality of the graph is less important.)
I think Zuckerberg will go on being clever about evolving what Facebook is, even quite fundamentally, in this new set of changes.
FB will probably continue to thrive.
Disclosure : I closed my Facebook account in 2013. I boycott all Zuckerberg's commercial products and have none of a Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp account. I recommend you do the same.
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