Sunday, October 07, 2007

Facebook: The Centre of the Online Universe?

The LA Times has an intriguing piece on the heady goals of Facebook and its 23 year old founder, Mark Zukerberg.

In The Facebook Revolution, Wired contributing editor Fred Vogelstein tells us:

It turns out that Facebook's reputation as a teen site, at least, is fading fast. The fastest-growing age group on Facebook is over 35, representing 11% of its users. And it is clear from talking to Zuckerberg that he thinks everyone on the planet can -- and should -- have a Facebook page. His vision is Googilian? Microsoftian? Intergalactic? Choose your word. He wants Facebook to become the biggest, most valuable database in the world -- the database of human likes and dislikes or, as author John Battelle likes to say, "the database of intentions."

... Zuckerberg and the 200 Facebookers he has working for him have only just begun thinking of ways to make money from all this information. But it's pretty clear from talking to him and his executives what they have in mind. What corporation or politician wouldn't die for a look inside Facebook's developing database of consumer likes and dislikes?

... They've bet their future on being the center of their customers' universe, either through a search box and various other online offerings that Google has, or through Windows, Office and the growing online offerings that Microsoft has. If we, the users, through our Facebook page, become the hub, and they, the corporations, our spokes, the idea that we once worried about Microsoft's monopoly or, as we do now, Google's growing power in online advertising, will seem very silly indeed.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

EMPLOYMENT LAWCIVIL LITIGATIONWILLS AND ESTATESFAMILY LAW & DIVORCE

No comments: