Will Facebook have eaten the Internet?
It's a hyperbolic question, but you get the point: the goal to which many companies were working was a portal / hub for everyday use (e.g., Google's customizable "iGoogle" homepage)--the first page you opened in the morning, which contained all your news (that is, customizable to give you whatever you considered news).
Now, Facebook doesn't exactly do everything that you would want a portal to do, which is why I still check weather.com and Google reader every morning; but at least in terms of keeping you connected, Facebook could conceivably swallow the majority of blogging through a slightly more option-rich version of the current "Notes" system.
Similarly, while I first couldn't imagine a use for Twitter, I now see certain value in it (which is far from attributing to Twitter some inherent possibility for revolution), but I only see that value after observing my and other people's use of the status update in Facebook. Now, I can imagine the argument that you don't necessarily want to communicate to the same people on Twitter as on Facebook, but that's something which can be addressed within Facebook at the moment (through the creation of lists of people with restricted access), and which will probably become easier and more robust in the future--imagine fully manipulable overlays that allowed you to switch between (or combine) work, friends, students, family, et al. lists.
There will always be some people who don't go for Facebook, so there will always be services besides Facebook, and if some of those services offer new / better options, Facebook could conceivably evaporate like Friendster before it; but could Facebook conceivably win the hub-creation race? Seems that way to me.
Addendum: has anyone tried to reactive (for free) their old AOL accounts that had been canceled? I just did, and my contact list is still intact, hanging out like a collection of ghosts--but I don't seem to have any old email, which is disappointing. Has anyone gotten back their old AOL email accounts--and if so, have you found your old mail?
Now, Facebook doesn't exactly do everything that you would want a portal to do, which is why I still check weather.com and Google reader every morning; but at least in terms of keeping you connected, Facebook could conceivably swallow the majority of blogging through a slightly more option-rich version of the current "Notes" system.
Similarly, while I first couldn't imagine a use for Twitter, I now see certain value in it (which is far from attributing to Twitter some inherent possibility for revolution), but I only see that value after observing my and other people's use of the status update in Facebook. Now, I can imagine the argument that you don't necessarily want to communicate to the same people on Twitter as on Facebook, but that's something which can be addressed within Facebook at the moment (through the creation of lists of people with restricted access), and which will probably become easier and more robust in the future--imagine fully manipulable overlays that allowed you to switch between (or combine) work, friends, students, family, et al. lists.
There will always be some people who don't go for Facebook, so there will always be services besides Facebook, and if some of those services offer new / better options, Facebook could conceivably evaporate like Friendster before it; but could Facebook conceivably win the hub-creation race? Seems that way to me.
Addendum: has anyone tried to reactive (for free) their old AOL accounts that had been canceled? I just did, and my contact list is still intact, hanging out like a collection of ghosts--but I don't seem to have any old email, which is disappointing. Has anyone gotten back their old AOL email accounts--and if so, have you found your old mail?