Facebook's bad year: The beginning of the end?
by Zack Whittaker | November 18, 2011 5:56am PST | Image 1 of 11
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The beginning of the end for the social networking giant?
Facebook has had a terrible Fall, let alone full year. A number of high-profile controversies has caused the company to retreat and renege on a number of its decisions over the past few months, and ZDNet, CNET and CBS News has documented these failings in great detail.
But what has caused these major privacy fluff-ups, data retention issues or cookie-tracking problems? Is it all part of Facebook's ethos of taking on Google's "don't be evil" motto and somehow getting it oh-so-very wrong? Or is the social networking giant, close to 1 billion users, finally crippling itself under the weight of its own userbase? Is the company heading for secret global domination, and seeks to become the foremost hub for intelligence and information?
The cultural shift of Facebook's 2004 inception to its 2011 downfall days is clear. This gallery explores some of the worst controversies of this year, which threaten to bring the social networking giant to its proverbial knees.
Related:
- Facebook Porn and Gore Exploit Spiraling Out Of Control
- Congresswoman to probe Facebook over coordinated spam attack
- Between the Lines: SOPA: Why the 'broken web' should stay broken
- Facebook to make all sharing privacy settings 'opt-in'
- CIA monitors Facebook, Twitter: Five million tweets a day
- German state to sue Facebook over facial recognition feature
- European ‘right-to-delete’ law: How enforceable is Facebook?
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No, I can't see any mass exodus or anything. People in general don't care.
I absolutely agree. On average, people just don't care.
"the vast majority of the over 800 million people who use it don't care about anything in the news about Facebook."
And the vast majority of the 7 billion people in the world don't care about Facebook.
I would argue that most people have not suffered anything personally from any issue with Facebook, and since it is doing what they need it to do, they do not care.
Considering Facebook and Microsoft still exist after all their anti-competitive behaivour and privacy abuse, you might have a fair point.
Facebook is too entrenched. People like to use the downfall of MySpace as an example of how fickle users can be. The primary difference is that MySpace wasn't a platform. There was no way their developers, even if competent, could keep up with the hordes of applications that come out for Facebook everyday. Just this week both Skype and Paypal have released applications for Facebook. Google+ got "Pages". Neat.
Microsoft is a company with many products and longevity. It also was a company built on a product desperately needed.
On the other hand, Facebook is a company that provide a simple service that is easily replaceable. All it takes is for somebody else to open a more user friendly service .... and people will drop out faster than flies during an insecticide fogout.
Facebook is like MySpace and Geocity. A temporary "fad" that already reached is peak and is already on a spiral decline.
There is absolutely NOTHING that Facebook can transform into. Facebook is a real one trick pony company who's primary earnings are based on (legally) stealing private information and selling it to the highest bidder. That kind of business only last for a few years.
No one is saying it's the end of Facebook. But the question is, is it the beginning of the end?
Not sure what the point of this article is except to highlight a few "issues" Facebook has met this year and no one really cares about. 99% of users on Facebook are completely unaware or simply don't care about the issues mentioned.
Also.. I have to laugh at the pretended motto of Google as "don't be evil"... Those guys really hate it when I bring up Germany and other privacy concerns that has been announced in the news the last two years. lol... ZDNet has a long history of Google fanboyism. Remember articles posted here calming that Google was going to take down MS with their new OS? lol.. (this was before Vista shipped).
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