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{ 2012 06 04 }

Facebook Must Die

Back in the olden days of 2005, companies posted updates to their websites, and interested parties subscribed via RSS were guaranteed to see 100% of the updates. Today, people like the Facebook page of companies and only 18% of those people will see updates. If the company wants more they have to pay up.

This is progress? Why would any organization let Facebook get between themselves and their customers, donors, etc. I would love for this to be the start of a resurgence of interest in web sites. But I’m not getting my hopes up.

I think Facebook works brilliantly as a social network. Sharing pictures with friends, news, etc. is what Facebook was originally designed for, and it does that quite well. As a commercial platform, Facebook is (I hope) doomed to fail. The only way Facebook can live up to its earning expectations is to succeed wildly as a commercial platform. Something has to give.

Posted by Chris ODonnell on Monday, June 4, 2012, at 9:39 am. Filed under Geek. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

{ 5 } Comments

  1. Daryl Cobranchi | June 4, 2012 at 10:05 am | Permalink

    I deleted my FB account almost a year ago. The only times I’ve regretted the decision is when some stupid blog uses FB’s system to register comments. No FB account means you can’t comment. Other than that, FB is dead to me. :-)

  2. Paul | June 4, 2012 at 10:29 am | Permalink

    Facebook will die, eventually.

    That said I’ve been kicking around a blog post about this in my head for a long time, and you’ve uncovered a big point from the as-yet-unwritten post: Facebook is a ton easier (either by perception or by practice) than making a website. It’s basically a hosted “free” CMS + regular updates to a customer base. And it costs zero dollars, versus hiring a proper web team, which is not zero dollars.

    It’s something more than just having an AOL keyword. I think.

  3. chrisod | June 4, 2012 at 11:50 am | Permalink

    It used to cost zero dollars. I think it’s only a matter of time before any commercial entity will have to pay up if they want anybody to see their stuff in Facebook.

    So what we need is a new hosted RSS reader with some social and sharing aspects built in, and brand it so that it seems just as easy as Facebook. Google was 80% of the way there with Reader, before they gutted it to force it into the Google Plus model. Then we convince corporate America to focus on their websites, and we party like its 1999 all over again!

  4. Jen L. | June 4, 2012 at 5:31 pm | Permalink

    Good post. You might like to take a look at theantifacebookleague.com

  5. Jen L. | June 4, 2012 at 5:32 pm | Permalink

    oops, I meant to title it — the website that I’m referring to is The Anti-Facebook League of Intelligentsia –
    The First Organized American Protest Against Facebook