Facebook goes from strength to strength, both in usefulness (in comparison to myspace especially) and in raw user numbers. But with the advent of f8 a few months back, Facebook is now showing it can be a home for a raft of new applications....

[Full post: http://blog.martinjwells.com/?p=26]

It sure is, just last week an x girlfriend (whom I dated in Africa) emails me from Ireland to tell me to check out facebook.  The global reach and sense of community seems almost unparalleled. We are truly living in exciting times.

She was very excited to tell me about making contact with all these people she has lost contact with over the the years, through Facebook.

Hmm. This is pretty cool!

Thanks Chris. Lots of get right though... it's good to be finally testing the concept out.

I've got another topic on embedding over here: http://www.tangler.com/group/5750/topic/17963

I'm finding Facebook is a really great way to get back in touch with old friends. Just last week Kate Beckinsale wrote on my wall saying she was eager for us to carry on where we left off.

I've found that I have been very very resistant about joining Facebook (I still haven't)

I am a member of Friendster, since it first launched I think, and I don't use it much, altho it suits my purposes, cos its members seem to be mainly from Asia and Australia.

I just don't want to go thru the whole process of setting up a profile, adding ppl on, blah blah blah.... I mean, seriously, how many times am I expected to do that? 

So it comes down to 2 factors for me -

1. it needs to be easier to import EVERYTHING from one network to another - like moving from outlook to gmail; everything needs to come with me, contacts, profile, pics, etc, and easily too.

2. it needs to prove itself as a form of effective communication, not just a popularity contest.

At least Alex has found a use other than Scrabble!

Oh c'mon, Scrabble is Facebook's premier app!

Oh, and I thought of a number 3 (following on from prev post): Tell me why, just why exactly I need to add another social app to the one million I'm already a part of?

I actually do like the Scrabble.

The only other thing I really use it for is emailing people who are more on FB then anywhere else.

Tangler has a FaceBook User Group here

I'm on Facebook - signed up recently due to many friends being on it. Haven't yet found any long lost friends as yet. Have to say that only cause of Tangler have I joined Facebook - but I still prefer Tangler than Facebook -  at the moment Facebook seems like too much work for me as compared to Tangler and less fun.

I am also too used to Tangler userbility that i dislike Facebook on that level. The first thing that strikes me is the lack of SHift - Enter fxn.........Which is now missing in Tangler unfortunately. Secondly i find it hard to follow random comments posted on pictures etc - way too many steps.

dekrazee1 - it's nothing like friendster, myspace or bebo. People go through a predictable pattern with facebook - you will get addicted initially because you are busy acquiring friends...but eventually you get over it. Having said that though, 95% of my communications is now done through facebook. It's replacing e-mail as a way of keeping in touch with friends. It's a different kind of communication with friends.

What's the difference Elias?

Ignoring the apps which have turned it into an entertainment playground - it's a really effective social networking platform, whose content is centred around people you know and the activity they generate through their lives. An RSS reader of your friends lives.

that's true Dek, you can really keep up to date with what your frens are doing - that is if they update the profiles. I don't - so no one has any idea of what i'm doing!!! So i get bombarded by them to update my profile!!!

Was reading this about the first point I made earlier, about being able to import my data more easily etc:

Do You Want One Social Networking Profile to Rule Them All?

There’s talk lately of the social graph problem: “people are getting sick of registering and re-declaring their friends on every site.” One proposed solution is to create an open, interoperable representation of our social relationships on the web. Web apps would use this unified contacts store instead of building their own. But is the “social graph problem” a real one for most people? Might the average Internet user be better off with a distributed and fragmented online social graph? 

A unified social graph may benefit early adopters who want to try every new service, people who have thousands of “friends” online, and marketers trying to insert themselves into online social lives. But the benefits are less obvious for the average Internet user, who might join into just two or three social networks online and maintain only tens of contacts across those networks instead of hundreds or thousands. 

It's a good point - and one which hadn't really occured to me

Hmm... I'm not so sure. Is the multiple social networks really that big a problem? To me it's like going to a bar. Do I want the same friends following me to every bar I go?

Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and it's easy to dream up cool solutions, but it would take a massive standards migration and/or intersite cooperation to work well. And I don't think it's enough of a solution to justify a stand alone business.

"To me it's like going to a bar. Do I want the same friends following me to every bar I go?" - that is actually a great way of putting it.
 

We should go to a bar soon and talk about it...

Anything happening December/January in Cali? Thinking of doing a detour for my south america trip to suss things out