Thoughts & Ideas

the latest gadget or guessing the next bandwagon

21 November, 2008 (10:24) | Thoughts & Ideas

Tim, Jordan, and I were down at Rock Bottom wednesday night and we were talking about facebook applications and their new found popularity and demand.  Facebook itself has transmogrified itself from the first incarnation as a Harvard thing, then a college thing, then branched out to include high school students, and now it’s just for everybody.  It beat sites like Linked In to their own idea probably just from the sheer size of their userbase.

I personally enjoy facebook.  I hate the phone, I’m always on a computer, and I have friends all over the place.  It lets me stay "close" to friends, and lets others do the same with me.  The problem that myspace ran into was ads, poor UI, and corporate saturation.  I’m not sure facebook will meet the same demise, but it’s coming close.  businesses are realizing the market(ing) opportunities that facebook possesses, and they want to tap it like a keg.  They want new applications written and added to the functionality of facebook, just like how every company wanted a web URL back in the 90s.  "You’re not cool unless you have a .com"  Now you’re missing out until you have facebook.  Take a look at Papa John’s new marketing strategy of offering a free pizza if you become their friend on facebook.  College kids will eat that up, literally.

So instead of getting the sunday coupons in the mail, we’ll get group invitations on facebook.  At least it’s paperless, right?

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