5 Things Facebook *Really* Needs To Do In 2008 To Not Become Completely Rubbish
- “Add as acquaintance.” Or “limited friend,” which might be more acceptable. How many times have you grudgingly accepted someone you barely know, out of politeness, only to be subjected to their never-ending succession of zombie-throwings and hotness-testing in your news feed? You can set certain people so they don’t show up in your feed, but only 20 people and it’s a hassle. As well as setting friends so they can only see your limited profile, you should be able to set them so you only see limited stuff - pokes, messages and wall posts - from them.
- Instant messaging. With Windows Live, Yahoo! and AOL still no closer to proper, easy interoperability, and IM moving more and more to the web, Facebook has a massive opportunity to enhance the user experience. A few applications have tried, but they all require both users to add the application before they can chat - a massive limitation. Built-in messaging, added by Facebook themselves, could quickly reach the critical mass needed to be useful: chat, and share files, with any friend online, live. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
- Full mobile integration, now. Facebook’s mobile site is a joy to behold, but the real mobile killer app is text-message mailing, wall-posting, photo uploading and status-updating - the latter, in particular, to ensure Facebook can fend off the challenge from Twitter. Widely available in the US for years, text-control has finally come to the UK, but only for o2 users. Agreements with the other networks need to come fast.
- Better real-name enforcement. Facebook’s attempts to police real identities have been controversial, but the real scandal is how little success they’ve had. Real identities are essential if Facebook is going to avoid becoming a messy hell of spammers and paedophiles like Myspace. With the advent of geographical networks millions-strong, the sense of community that made Facebook so vital in the early days has already severely eroded, but the fact that your friends’ friends all have real names and real pictures still makes it seem like a safe, sane place. But with more and more members like the several called “Sexy Man”, this is starting to break down.
- Police applications - hard. The allowance of third-party applications, while allowing Facebook to gain new functions at a dizzying rate, has also made it a potential boon to spammers, fraudsters, and general net-nuisances. FunWall and SuperWall are particularly problematic on the spam front. I haven’t a clue how exactly they should fix it, but it’s a vital challenge.
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See other entries about: facebook, internet, social networking, spam, web 2.0
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1 response so far ↓
1 Josh // Jan 22, 2008 at 9:26 pm
the word vital twice in one post. crikey
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