Facebook, in the sad tradition social networking sites, is going commercial. Starting in early October of 2007, Internet search engines will be exposing the name and picture of 40 million of its users. By allowing outside web surfers to see the limited profiles, Facebook execs think they can attract more users to sign up and join the network, and raise the price floor for their ad space.
The end result: more revenue. It's a depressing incentive for the big brass to 'open the community' to more users.
Facebook used to be the private, homey-er alternative to MySpace. It began as a place for college students to keep old friendships and make new ones, and has since been perverted into another ad-plastered website for people to build up their friend count.
It's a sad stage in the development of social networking sites. If they ever really started as true 'communities', they'll only de-evolve into audience mongers for corporate advertisements.
Click here to see the article by Jon Swartz from USA Today.
Post by Andy Franks
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