Acebucks, a Facebook vitural currency application, just relaunched today. The new version is mainly an improved UI and better sponsor integration. It also touts the tagline “You Gotta Earn ‘Em to Burn ‘Em”
If you haven’t already, you can read my (mostly negative) thoughts on Acebucks and you can install the application here if you must. But really…why?
In an interview recently with TimesOnline, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, gave a warning to social network sites such as Facebook and, in essence, to would be developers on the Facebook platform…
“I think these things are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a … faddish nature about anything that appeals to younger people.”
While this could all be a negotiating tactic, since they follow reports that Microsoft is weighing up paying as much as $500 million for a 5 per cent stake in Facebook, I think it has its merits. Fanboys seem to put Facebook in the same league as Microsoft and Google, building businesses solely around the Facebook platform. If you’re looking for a two year exit, then that’s fine, but if you have longevity in mind, you may want to reconsider you’re options.
Facebook is popular now, much like MySpace, Friendster, and Xanga were popular in preceding years, but where do you think they will stand three years from now? I already posted on my feelings on Facebook’s future before. Really, what makes Facebook any different from the fizzed out SNs of the past? Is the news feed so revolutionary that Facebook is not simply YASN?
Zuckerberg just shat in his pants. Currently rumors are circling around that big boy Google is planning to open up wide like a two dollar whore like facebook did four months ago. Coming as soon as early November, the big number will offer a set of APIs allowing developers access to iGoogle and Orkut user data. API’s for Gmail, Groups, and other Google offerings may soon follow.
Unlike Facebook, Google is allowing this API to be accessed from outside of Google web applications. This is a huge medieval glove slap in the face to Mark Zuckerberg, and Google might have enough financial backing to win this duel. While no one I know uses Google as a social networking application, everyone I know has a Google account. This allows the thousands of smart developers out there to create social networks using Google users data. These social networks can be built into iGoogle through widgets, even integrated with Gmail and Google Calender.
Despite what others think, Facebook’s reign as a leading social network won’t be sustained by its current application. It is not the end all for social networks and it will be replaced by something better in less than 5 years. Sadly, I simply do not see enough innovation coming from Facebook. The facebook apps cluttering the network have alienated many of the original users of the product. If they don’t come up with something good soon, a Google based offering might come and steal their thunder. This Web 2.0 fad of openness and APIs may be the end of King Zuckerberg.
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