FACEBOOK.COM

[batdog]

Hello everyone,

does anyone here know anything about facebook.com ?

Any members ? And if yes why is facebook so great that it is considered to be the next youtube ( I mean business wise about to be sold for a huge amount of dollars ).

Much obliged for any infos....

Ciao

[Huguenot]

Facebook isn't the same kind of beast as youtube. At core it's a networking site with blogging and photo facilities. It has more in common with myspace. However, it's huge, and since it opened up to the general public only a few months ago, it's anticipated it will grow very quickly.

Previously it was a college campus network only, but as such it had a strangle hold over a very attractive audience for advertisers. Despite this fact, rumour had it they were only generating $50m a year in ad revenues (twenty times less than a Yahoo! or a Google). Thus you have a huge commercial opportunity that's currently underperforming - that's takeover gold.

Both Yahoo! and Google are painfully aware that they don't have a social relationship with their users, and tend to be perceived as tools. As such they remain very vulnerable to competitors who may generate a technological advantage. Having a networking property locks in their audience by acting as a facilitator for their social life.

Such was Yahoo!'s desperation to make the buy that it was rumoured they offered $900m a couple of months ago.

[mockney piers]

Not to mention flickr which Yahoo! seem to be trying to tie in to their yahoo accounts. But I really can't see what they're gaining out of that deal, unless they're planning to swamp the place with advertising, at which point I'll be finding a new photo sharing tool.

I can't say I've heard of facebook until now and I'm a pretty tech savvy person (ie I spend too much time at work browsing), that's a billion dollars well spent then.

[????]

What is this Facebook ye talk of?

[Michael Palaeologus]

'tis witchcraft Quids, sucks your very soul and delivers it to Beelzebub his-self.

[El Pibe]

blimey quids!!

7 years from general to lounge. a record shurely.

[Lowlander]

History lesson! I actually joined it in 2007 for all of three weeks, scared the hell out of me and never been back since.

[Vik]

It'll never catch on.

[????]

Fad not a trend