Could Facebook Suffer The Same Fate As Myspace?

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With the news that Google + has already gained over 1 million subscribers in just days even without a mass invite being offered, could Facebook become the Myspace of 2011?

Facebook’s seven year itch?

Could Facebook’s demise be imminent?

With a reported decline of usage globally it appears the signs are visible that the general public is getting bored of Facebook and leaving.

For me the time could not come sooner.

Here are Facebook’s plus points:

Sorry here “were” it’s plus points:

A) Share information between friends.

B) Contact people on mass.

C) Play fairly average games.

D) Yep that’s about it.

Facebook now = “Tower of Babylon”

The reality is with people adding any old Tom, Dick or Has been. It is now very difficult to keep up with what has been going on between a circle of friends and this makes Facebook a bit random, a little faceless and more disjointed than it should be.

Is Facebook bigger than its parts?

The other point to be made is Facebook does nothing at all that well. It is like a mash-up of styles and applications that just manages to become bigger than it’s parts….but only just.

Great for time-wasting not for production:

It is a time wasting application. I am yet to find anything of particular use on the site despite some great articles being pushed my way and some occasionally funny photos of nights out….it bores me totally.

And what’s more your bloody mum is more than likely on there now!…man that’s just soooooo uncool!

I will admit it I have always hated Facebook. I was an early adopter, I have very good friends on there but seriously I detest it and here is why:

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  • It allows mindless bol***ks to become the norm – please just shut up about your life. I never cared that much and never will. In fact, why are you my friend? I will probably never know, maybe I am lonely and in need of someone familiar to moan about.
  • There is no way to communicate beyond a crappy IM option – I hear this is about to change though.
  • Mobile version is rubbish.
  • Trying to develop any kind of “page” is like pulling teeth.
  • Now this maybe me but Facebook just does not do what I expect, its like my deep seated aversion to Microsoft operating systems, I just seem to be designed for more logic or maybe it’s less logic, either way I detest Facebook for its TERRIBLE user interface.

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Facebook got lazy?

Now this last point is actually the crux of it for me, and it is undoubtedly where MySpace fell down.

Now the question I pose is this; will Google make things that little bit slicker, quicker, and more intuitive to do things that are in all honesty, pretty damn basic?

Facebook is nothing more than an emailing client that works for groups. It is both dull and unintuitive, by and large, but fills a gap between people who work at computers all day and want to idle some time sharing tit-bits; fair play I suppose.

Can this kind of “social network” be done better? A massive whopping yes. And with the rise of smart phones allowing better access all round with video, images, audio, and location based sharing, I just hope Google can emulate and then better Facebook because for me it is both tired and seriously dull.

We also posed the question is Google + a LinkedIn rival the other day?

Would you leave Facebook to go to Google +…?

Some of the reasons people left MySpace was that it was both ugly and had a focus on music.

What Myspace did do was to educate an audience that another way of keeping in touch other than email existed, and when an alternative came along the migration was swift.

Could this happen to Facebook with Google plus?

Though alternatives have sprung up in the last five years, no company with the clout of Google has entered the frame, and with many people getting a little tired of Facebook in general (the seven year itch is pretty long in tech land).

My hunch is Facebook needs to do something seriously amazing soon or feel the wrath of a contender like Google + which could leave Facebook with nothing more than pubescent kids and “cool” oldies to share what they had for tea with the world, albeit a smaller world…….just like Myspace ended.

What are you thoughts?

Is Facebook simply too big to fail? Is the adoption of Facebook by business a sign that there is more to the social network than meets the eye and Google + have a big fight on their hands to topple the current giant?

Anthony Munns