Facebook could learn a thing or two

Wednesday, I discussed all the features Twitter's competitors offer that it doesn't. Now I'm back with a discussion about Facebook and all the features its competitors offer that it doesn't. Will it take the advice and start rolling them out?

Bebo: Sharing an artist's dream
Maybe Facebook's groups feature is enough for some writers and musicians to come together and share their work, but I don't think the social network does enough.

Bebo, on the other hand, doesn't just allow users to band together around similar interests; it provides an author's nook where budding novelists and prospective journalists can show off their talents by uploading their work and sharing it with the community.

Granted, the ability to upload a Great American Novel or a poem written in a moment of despair isn't necessarily the most attractive feature to most social-network fanatics, but having the option to upload that material highlights Bebo's willingness to provide its users with more than just a community to share interests. In fact, Bebo's author's nook provides an outlet for individual members of the community to express themselves, which is a key feature in any social network. That's not to say Facebook doesn't embrace individuality, but something as simple as an area for artists only enhances an already attractive service by providing those users with another way to have exposure in the community. I don't see what's holding Facebook back from doing the same thing.

Friendster: It's all about design
What's so bad about designing your own profile page? Facebook's policy of forcing every user into a single profile design befuddles me. Sure, some MySpace pages are gaudy and downright ugly, but that doesn't mean users shouldn't be allowed to express themselves in their profiles.

That's why I enjoy Friendster's profile layout tool, which allows users to create their own, personalized profile page without conforming to the boring design Facebook forces them into. They can modify colors, choose design schemes, and generally create a more aesthetically pleasing profile than what's possible on Facebook. In fact, I think it's safe to say that Friendster's profile production functionality is the best on the market and provides users with enough tools to design unique profiles without giving them too many options to turn the entire service into a MySpace freak show.

Social networks are all about being "you" and connecting with other individuals who want to do the same. I think profile design enters into that mix.

MySpace: Singing all the way to the bank
MySpace and Facebook are often compared when we discuss social networks, but that doesn't mean they should be deemed equals. In fact, MySpace's Music integration not only makes it an attractive social network, but it also makes Facebook's service look comparatively boring.

MySpace Music is one of the best streaming music services on the Web. Allowing access to millions of songs without worry of copyright violation and offering the ability to share playlists with other MySpace users means the company's music service adds far more value to the social network. After all, networking with friends is fine for a while, but soon enough, you're going to want something more to keep you interested in the service, right? MySpace decided music was the way to keep you there and make you want to continue using its service. Facebook has yet to do it. Mark that as one (major) point for MySpace.

Don Reisinger is a social-network addict. Check out his profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed.

[Hockey8607]

It seems that the author of this article does not really know anything about facebook. I would venture to say that a minimum of 95% of the people on facebook are HAPPY that facebook does not allow you to change the design, Facebook is the number one social networking site for a reason. People like the way the layout is and that it is uniform. As for music hub for artist, that isn't the vision or goal of facebook. When you go to someone's myspace your often plagued but some crazy music that start blaring at you the second the page loads, often you have to take 10 second just to find where to turn it off since every myspace page is laid out differently. I say GREAT JOB FACEBOOK, even if this author doesn't really understand you.

[inick500]

I understand what you are saying about the music blaring when the page loads and how some people's profiles look so messy because they are not set up right but for one thing if you do it right you can make your myspace way better then a facebook and the endless personalization makes it the best way on earth for teens and young adults to express themselves and portray the image of themselves that they want and recently after using myspace music it is now my #1 way of finding new music and I have found a lot of great music there that I would not have found. Yeah facebook may have a very clean look and there are a lot of people that much prefer it that way and so they can keep using it but I think facebook is very boring I mean I can't imagine spending more than 15-20 minutes on there but I can easily spend a couple of hours on myspace between changing my profile sending/receiving msgs finding new friends finding new music etc

[loose_screw]

inick: I don't go to facebook to find new music, and I don't think most people I know on there do either.

I go to facebook to CONNECT with people I know, and it's very efficient for that. That's ALL I want it to be Don't make it try to be everything. It's kind of like OSX vs Windows. Less bloatware please!

[zcollvee]

wow soo true

[supermjr]

I completely agree. People are on Facebook to get AWAY from all the garage band musicians trying to start a fan base, to get AWAY from the poor profile layouts people implement, and to get AWAY from the profile music that starts up on people's profiles (I'm looking right at you, MySpace). Facebook is much more useable -- and by proxy, useful -- than many of the other social networking sites out there. Facebook gives you enough flexibility to express yourself in, as you correctly point out, a uniform format (which makes digesting people's profiles easy).

Everyone has their complaints about what would make Facebook even more ideal for them. For me, I wish the Friend Details were more prominent and easier to access. However, Facebook still provides me with the information and the positive experience to keep using it. What the author is suggesting, however, is that Facebook essentially "MySpace" itself. If a user wanted that, they'd be on MySpace or a different social networking site already.

Facebook needs to keep with its vision because that's why people are keeping with it.

[tjharman]

Myspace: The new Geocities!

[zcollvee]

hahah agreed!

[altbr]

Stupid blog, all the things facebook should add are the reasons behind their winning. I really wish CNET would exhibit some editorial discretion before letting their writers make profoundly idiotic statements like this.

[screwhead100]

i agree with the article, and facebook is highly overrated........once people get over 'the rush' to get on facebook , i think myspace will see a second boom......since it has the best features of any social networkin site.......

[zeddified]

fyi, "the rush" to get on facebook has been going on for almost 5 years.

[Swing8]

I agree with Hockey. The fact that people can't create ridiculously gaudy pages that lock up my browser are half the reason I left myspace for Facebook. It's uniformity is it's strength. I joined FB specifically to create an alumni group for my old high school and it is PERFECT for that. Myspace groups are a useless afterthought.

Facebook, please ignore this article! Thank you!

[jrm125]

Don's usual swing and a miss.

The beauty of Facebook is that people don't have to deal with buggy, tawdry crap like MySpace. You arent inundated with crap music, or flashing colors. There's not much in the way of fake user spam either.

The other sites are far too specialized. People like Facebook because it provides services the majority of people want without causing issues.

Don, seriously, get a new job. Almost every article you write is crap.

[shrivelednoodle]

Stick to the Flowbee, man.

[aerosky1229]

I still like Facebook.
I had Xanga, Friendster, and MySpace accounts, but I am not sure why I even created them in first place.
Facebook is neither a social networking site nor a blog site -- it is a communication tool between close friends. And as a communication tool, it does extremely well. Simple design yet effective, that is the key.

[NDJ1981]

This is really a very poorly thought out piece that should not be on the front page of this site (or arguably on this site at all). Facebook is truly the next generation of social networking that eliminated the issues of all the other sites. If you want your own space to design, buy a domain name and make a website, but don't try and ruin Facebook!

[sarnell2]

I have never been so shocked by the stupidity of an article. I cannot believe CNET allowed this article to be posted. Don Reisinger obviously knows nothing about usability. He should stick to writing articles about HDTVs. Facebook has far surpassed all other Social Networking websites because of the very User Interface that Don is trashing. Facebook has been able to achieve unprecedented pages/visit from users because of the ease of navigation from page to page - something MySpace and Friendster can't compare to.

[loose_screw]

AMEN!

[loose_screw]

Facebook could learn a thing or two? For what? So they can be #2 in the game instead of #1?

Keep Facebook simple and uncluttered like it is. If it starts looking like Friendster or Myspace and start adding crazy colors and blaring music, lord help me I will shoot somebody!

[djavaman]

I am sure it has been said before, but I want to say again before some idiot at facebook takes this asinine advise seriously. The reason why I, and many of my friends, use facebook to stay in touch is exactly because it lacks all of the distracting crap mentioned in this article. More to point, as pointed out by the author, places that do things he asking for already exist. Many many years ago(the early 90's) the web was uncluttered, simple, and supremely straightforward--facebook hearkens back to that to some extent. It is mainly for this reason that I find facebook so enjoyable. Elegance in simplicity. More is not always better.

[testclipper]

all that distracting crap is how they pay the bills, brother...

[zeddified]

only some distracting crap pays the bills, clipper. Most distracting crap is there for all the wrong reasons.

[kpepps17]

I used to use MySpace. It always looked as though my browser had had a loose bowel.. I had all kinds of friends but only knew one or two. Friend requests bombarded my e-mail. I had to drop myspace. Just because my experience on Myspace was not what I like; I know several people who enjoy MySpace for the same reasons that I do not. I like the simplicity of Facebook and I like knowing all my contacts. MySpace is more fun with an alias.

[sanjayb]

I am sure glad Don doesn't run Facebook!

[VOMIChairman]

I believe we're at a point where we need to go beyond looking for more and more fancy widgets and gadgets. The focus should be more and more on How to Virtual Organize Your Social Network in order to obtain real value from the network.

We spend an inordinate amount of time fiddling around with these social networks and it's now time to put them to good use, especially when people are either losing their jobs by the millions, or are wondering whether their job is as secure as they want to believe it might be, or if they are next in line to to the chopping block.

I wrote an article titled "Social Networks: Virtual Organize It, Stupid!" which sheds more light on that subject at:

http://virtualorganizationinstitute.com/social-networks-virtual-organize-it-stupid.pdf

Pierre Coupet
Founder, CEO & Doctor of Virtual Organization Management
Virtual Organization Management Institute




The trendthe We need to go beyond all

[Thought Nozzle]

It's all been said already... I also think you're way off. Not every service needs to be all things to all people. And I'm one of those people who got sick of being assaulted by ugly, garish MySpace pages that blast 5 auto-started chunks of audio or video all at once. Facebook succeeding precisely because -- among other things -- they've chosen to keep the interface clean. With the demise of Uber, sites like Bebo and the venerated DeviantArt are still around to showcase creativity. they serve a different function.

Instead of lobbying to get Facebook to add redundant features, why not lobby to get sites like those to work with Facebook Connect and other initiatives to smooth users' experiences, and avoid redundancies and extra effort?

[Aanon]

"Now I'm back with a discussion about Facebook and all the features its competitors offer that it doesn't. Will it take the advice and start rolling them out?"

No, you're not. You've chosen one random feature here and another there, this article is tabloid and unstructured.

Stop writing sh*t and get a real job, Mr. Reisinger.

[Austin_Mike]

Well, I was going to leave a long comment but everyone pretty much covered what I wanted to say. I too once had a MySpace page and blew it up after only six months. The reason I love facebook and won't use MySpace or anywhere else really except Yelp is because of it's simplicity. It's facebook's simplicity and uniformity that makes it so enjoyable to use, as others have said. If facebook ever started adding crap to become more like MySpace, I'd probably never use my facebook account. And that's saying a lot from someone who is on facebook a lot every day (I work in IT, so I'm online all day anyway).

As my mother has so often said to me, "Less is more."

[lordmorgul]

This article fails to offer even one suggestion for Facebook as an improved communication tool between friends... people who actually know each other. It offers the possibility of increased commercialism and intrusive self-marketing by bands who should have their own websites and fan community portals rather than invading Facebook. It offers ways to make Facebook less useful to people who communicate and more useful to people who just want free music.

No thank you.

[Inconnux]

The 'new' layout for facebook is total crap. They had a perfectly decent design and then they screwed it up. The group protesting this new design was the fastest growing group EVER on facebook but they still forced users to use the new crappy layout. Needless to say I deleted my account and have gone to Myspace. I don't use it nearly as much as I was using Facebook but be damned if I will use that abortion layout they've shoveled out at facebook.

[lordmorgul]

Lots of people support the new layout as well... like me. Did I go and join a special group about it? No, but then I didn't need to because I was sure that Facebook's investment in the highly AJAXified UI was going to be used. I love its layout, because it puts the most frequently accessed information where its most visible, and I don't have to scroll down everyone's pages to see their wall which they left at the very bottom of a billion app blocks.

The new UI is functional, not 'artistic'. Its perfectly fine if thats why you left, you can do as you please, but calling the functional design an 'abortion layout' is pretty ignorant.

[knowles2]

Well I for one do like the new lay out, and whiles their a few things I probably change about it is still better than old design. I think the biggest problem is that people do not like change and have a hissy fit about.

Something needed to change with the introduction of the application system for Facebook and so far I have not seen a single design idea that was better than the one Facebook roiled out, in fact to be honest most people who moaned about it actually never say what they would of done to improve the old layout and to me they were just crying about the change and not the design it self.

Whole and the article is complete ********, one of the reason I never use any of the other sites is people awful profile designs, blaring music and well people have not shown the capability to created descent profile on other sites and so facebook should not allow their users the power.
And hopefully such site as deviant art will get Facebook connect in the future.