Tim Berners-Lee: Facebook could fragment web

[the_poet]

Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites represent "one of several threats" to the future of the world wide web, its founder, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned.

Some of the web's "most successful inhabitants", such as Facebook and large telecoms companies, have begun to "chip away" at its founding principles, Berners-Lee wrote in a Scientific American journal essay published today.

Read more...

 

[labrocca]

Interesting read. I agree that the walled-garden approach FB takes is not attractive and why I don't spend much time there.

Also why I prefer Android over iPad/iPhone apps.

That article really has gotten me close to closing my FB account. I'm almost certainly going to use it less. I refuse to add any of it's apps to my sites or my system.

I just went in and turned off all apps and turned up my already paranoid privacy settings. They can F off.

 

[tech4]

I don't see how FB can be a threat to the public. Technology always move on. FB doesn't have unlimited money like Google or Yahoo or Microsoft where they make billions per year.

I do see Google, Yahoo, Microsoft as a threat to the web (in terms of competition for the small guys).

But FB? was the hottest thing a few years ago. I think they are the next Enron to go. The stock will never go public, its value will shrink to 0 as financial information are disclosed.

WAS the hottest thing in 2008.
Just like Myspace the hottest thing in 2006.
Google the hottest thing in 2003-4 when it first went public
Yahoo 1993

....
I see no threat from FB because they do not have unlimited cash like Google.

 

[futuretaster]

Berners-Lee is really echoing what a lot of the current great thinkers are concerned about right now, in that sites like FB & Twitter are restricting the new-age of internet users from using their brains and exploring other channels of information avaliable from other sources.
basically, he's warning us all about lazyness & herd-mentality, as well as not relying on one source to get all of our news & information.
i personally find facebook and twitter & the other NW'ing sites incredibly boring, but then im not part of the new-age of internet users.

thanks for posting the link the_poet.

 

[labrocca]

Threat isn't to the public as much as to the foundation of the internet.

WAS the hottest thing in 2008.
Just like Myspace the hottest thing in 2006.
Google the hottest thing in 2003-4 when it first went public

Google is still highly profitable.

Also so it YouTube (now owned by Google) and was also a hot thing.

Myspace and Digg are a couple examples of sites past their prime but bother sites have only lost to better more competitive sites like Facebook and Twitter.

 

[tech4]

Foundation to the Internet?

I highly doubt it, in order to shut out a lot of competitors like Microsoft and Google, FB will need to bring in $billions of USD per year at least to have some power like the giants. I do not see FB ever going public, as I said, it will be the next Enron.

Without cash/growth its not possible to do anything.
FB lack cash. I do agree that Youtube "was hot" but is probably not a thing to be desired in today. From last I read, the CEO of Google was "hopeful" that Youtube will turn a profit.

Without a steady flow of cash, its like a dream. Facebook is living off the dream of its billionaire investors. It will never go public, therefore, can't expand like other companies. How can you go Public with Losses or breakeven and can't manage to turn a profit year after years? You can, but the stock isn't worth much. All those valuations will slide down to a big 0. Confident will be gone, the investors will flee like vultures fleeing.

 

[labrocca]

I don't agree. FB can make billions from it's traffic and is in the process of doing just that. Unlike Google though whose main income is ads FB can actually earn more from it's services and internal apps.

 

[tech4]

The "can happen" is very much like "hopeful" in the case of Youtube.

I highly doubt that in 2 years FB will even be in its glory day like today. Most of the banks and ventures have already turned down FB credits since 2009. Just need a jolt, like some kind of attention grabbing social network thing, to grab users away, and there goes FB.

Google can do it, not sure if they will though.

FB will raise cash again I believe to fund its operations. Most of the smaller VCs or Mid Size VCs are probably out at this point (if they are already involved).

 

[Archangel]

Myspace was big and had faltered. FB only seems to grow and they'll more than likely be mainstays like eBay is to online auctions. I see no logical reason FB would ever just collapse.

 

[tech4]

Facebook is bigger than Ebay in terms of visits and membership and type of "transactions" online, but it doesn't command the cash profit that Ebay does.


Its perfectly logical that FB is the next Enron:

Case you might never heard of: Bebo a network with over 110 million users bought by AOL 2008 for $850 Million, in 2010 sold back to owner for $10 million. Source -wikepedia

FB on life support since the founding days, asking for funding every year, that's every single year since it was founded because it never managed to have enough cash. If somethings on life support for 6+ years, its very possible that it could collapse. There have been collapse in value and perspective by social media investors, like Bebo, Facebook (when it reevaluate itself in 2009 vs. 2008), Asian Avenue (B.O was once a member), Friendster, Ning, many more that you probably never heard of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Its not illogical, perfectly logical. Unless FB can prove it doesn't need life support anymore, which is why as I said, you need cash to create a big clout and command influence over larger companies, FB will never go public base on its non-financial success.

 

[~ The 34 Year Buzz!!]

"Our biggest competitor is someone we haven't heard of." ~Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
:wave:

 

[tech4]

"Our biggest competitor is someone we haven't heard of." ~Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
:wave:

Temporarily true. Could be due to the fact that we are in a recession.

Facebook users/profiles ----not very serious, would never be used for professional affiliation in most cases.

Its like Myspace. Hey everyone, I have a Myspace/Facebook account, isn't that cool? Not really.