Open Gardens

As a student I'm seeing the opposite. Many of my university friends are giving up on facebook. The influx of the 'normal' people combined with the 'tacky' apps are driving them away. They don't like having employers and the like on the same network they share photos of drunken excapades and party invites on. A lot despise the apps which are making the site more like myspace and are filling the newsfeed with crap that we don't care about.

Ajit, you are absolutely right. There is Facebook mania taking place right now, they really created shockwaves with their platform announcement. I must admit I thought the biggest story around the company was going to be turning down $1B from Yahoo!, looks like they may have made a very sound more the way they are gaining developer traction each and every day.

Are you kidding us? You've noticed that Facebook is getting popular? Alexa ranks it 17 in the world. Google Toolbar ranks it #8. Notably, it is not just the number of people who visit, but the number who visit every day. And, a significant number of people keep the page open for hours at a time.

It's not just you.

Hello Dan
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As a student I'm seeing the opposite. Many of my university friends are giving up on facebook. The influx of the 'normal' people combined with the 'tacky' apps are driving them away. They don't like having employers and the like on the same network they share photos of drunken excapades and party invites on. A lot despise the apps which are making the site more like myspace and are filling the newsfeed with crap that we don't care about.
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Interesting .. Yes, I am kind of saying the same thing i.e. the site seems to be attracting people like me(and my peers). Thus its 'growing up'. I cant offer a student perspective(although I am a PhD student - but I guess a lot more than that). Many thanks for your comments
kind rgds Ajit

Lou
Thanks for your comments. Good to see you here. I follow your blog as well. Many thanks again. kind rgds Ajit

Thanks Richard. Yes, I know facebook is popular (high alexa, page rank etc) and its growing. What I think is happening is
a) Its growing beyond its usual demographic(students)
b) Its growing fast in Europe(where I am based) and
c) I see many more of my corporate friends participating in it(not just a basic presence but a lot more).

Thats what I mean
Thanks for your comments
kind rgds
Ajit

It's getting ridiculously mainstream. It's bad enough that people like me are on Facebook but it must be utterly horrifying to the early adopters to see their parents there. That being said, various people I know who've jumped on recently have just as swiftly jumped off back to LinkedIn or the like. Still Not Safe For Work in many ways - or, better, Not Optimised For Work.

thanks Michael. early days! Time will tell. I like the social elememts of FB though .. Linkedin seems too businesslike to me .. I do like the human factor in business .. so I must admit I do enjoy FB ..

Hi Ajit,
I'm experiencing a swell in the UK too with a more fun mix of friends and business colleagues inviting each other to join in over the last month. Somethin's up! I thought the age base for Facebook was closer to those in Uni for the first degree but many of the people I'm meeting there are at least a bit beyond. I won't be surprised when the original base find something more 'cool' and we see another tool rise in prominence with that population, hopefully with better mobile support and integrated with the emerging 3D web communities. I heard of Deloitte's new internal 'facebook' system at a conference last week - another indicator that social networking sites are going mainstream while the actual Facebook gets blocked in other companies...so employees can't tap into their 'posse'.

Looks like Facebook is going to be the first SERIOUS global Social Network.

Facebook's strength is its ability to ensnare. One email to you as an invitation from a friend and you're pretty much registered with your own space as soon as you click the link. Impressively slick.

I'm 34 and I find my friends from middle school in Norway on FaceBook. Seems their audience has grown up - fast.

I think it's all hype. Just cuz the media tells us it's popular?