Did Facebook Just Pull A MySpace?
(UPDATED) What Facebook did last week was brilliant. Instead of taking the time and effort to try to build their own "best" music and media services, they opened up the back door and let almost everyone in. And who "everyone" is can change as new services that grab fan attention come online.
But with so many choices and a plethora of new features, is Facebook in danger of getting too complex and its pages overcrowded? Did Facebook just pull a MySpace?
One of Facebook's draws has been it's simplicity and ease of use and that's particularly true for the masses that Facebook has attracted in the last year or so. They open up the possibility of massive music discovery. But will a user get frustrated and just give up (for example) when they're signed up to Spotify and their friends want to share music on Rdio or MOG?
The goals is for great software and services to be easy to use, as well as, robust enough for more advance users. You can use Microsoft Outlook within seconds of opening it up, but months later you'll find a feature that makes your online life easier.
Is Facebook that well designed? Not really, and when there are constant reminders of all the cool things you're friends are doing that you don't know how to do…
Then there's the privacy issue, which amazingly seldom dogged MySpace. An things may have gotten worse with the weekend revelation that Facebook can track you even when your not signed in.
What do you think? Did Facebook just go too far too fast? Did Facebook just pull a MySpace?
No, Facebook did not just pull a MySpace. I spend a lot more time on Facebook now than I did a few weeks ago simply because of the lists and subscription features. It added some utility amidst the nosie. However, I feel like the ticker is a bit much because there’s too much information. I don’t feel like it detracts from my experience though and might serve a nominal value. A lot of the new features will create monetization possibilities for Facebook (for better or worse from a user standpoint).
I think it did, and I think it’s only going to get infinitely worse after the new layout rolls out.
I mean, look: When a friend of mine posts a song in their ticker from Spotify, I *should* be able to click on that link to hear the same song at the same time. But I can’t; it doesn’t work. In fact, it crashes Spotify completely and hangs up Facebook. (And no, I’m not some kind of computer illiterate middle-aged person. I have 4 gig RAM and 3 different web browsers, thank you, and this VERY BASIC FUNCTIONALITY does not work in any of them.)
Farcebook has jumped the shark, bigtime.
“computer illiterate middle-aged person”
Couldn’t you just say computer illiterate without getting ageist about it?
I, too, think Facebook has jumped the shark but the Spotify app is simply broken.
I was actually thinking about that. Complexity can be a problem but noise can be a bigger problem. Facebook can easily become too noisy like myspace did. Friction to sharing can be a good thing because it’s acts a filter, with friction, you only shared what you thought was really worth sharing, and worth the time to make a little effort to share. Since Facebook is encouraging users to share and making it easy to share just about anything and everything, there will be more noise and less signal.
The integration with Spotify has made FB look like music-spam central. Of course it just pulled a MySpace!
What a poorly written article. Learn to spell and use proper grammar before you try to become a journalist!
To me, it has. It’s getting to the point I’m wondering by every word I post what sort of marvelous opportunity to receive marketing attention I am creating. I am tired of my every move online being analyzed to the Nth degree. And for what? Meeting invites and inane status updates? All of the distractions on Facebook result in nothing but time I could have used creating something or working on a real relationship, out here, in reality, sucked down a black hole, never to be seen again. I have no use for it. There are a multitude of ways I can keep track of people. None of them require Facebook.
I think Facebook did. It’s starting to become extremely cluttered like myspace. They are taking on to much to fast and messaging my friends seem to be more difficult since the new updates. As far as this music thing is concerned I think it’s greed of all the investors.
Oh, it’s definitely a move driven by money. If they really cared about the artists and the users they would have just left things alone. I do wonder if they are somewhat worried about the new myspace revamp. Could they also be thinking of gobbling up whatever they can content wise to stave off competition?
The average person is going to get very annoyed very quickly with the change. The time-line feature is completely different than the pages now. I do wish they would make hiding your music/movie listening/watching a bit easier.
Virginia is for lovers — Facebook is for losers!
It def. does. Facebook tries to applie for more and more users (is it infact about to gain the world…?) it annoys long-timeusers. to much complexity results in user-frustration. as one can see, facebook took a loss of worth this week, this – to my mind – is a sign of decline.
It definitely became too cluttered. I can’t stand the ticker to the right and I hate that every time someone from my different friends groups makes a post, it has the notifications to the left to tell you about it. Quit trying to overload me, Facebook.
The privacy thing is concerning; however, I have never allowed apps and will never allow apps on FB, so I don’t think that part really affects me.
I have deleted all of my photo albums and plan on going through posts to delete them soon as well, before they roll out the new profile Timeline. I have no idea what I may have said in my infancy of FB protocol when I first started and I don’t need it popping up now, 2 years later for everyone to see.
I never used MySpace so I have no way of knowing if they’ve gone that way or not. I just know I don’t like the ‘new’ Facebook very much, and apparently this is just the beginning.
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