Please note the exceptional use of sarcasm in the title of this blog post!
I’m not going to lie – I love it when facebook releases a huge change and the world freaks out. It always makes me realize I’m one step ahead of most people.
Like many, my initial reaction to the Facebook changes was unfavorable… a collective “WTF?” moment if you will. Have faith little ones! The reality and absolute truth that we must accept is that Facebook knows what they are doing. They hire smart people. Very smart people.
Craig, go on, explain!
Smart people don’t make arbitrary decisions – they make calculated, tested, and proven decisions. They produce positive results that meet the end goal and accept that some changes will not immediately be popular. I would almost personally guarantee that they have been A/B split-testing these changes over the last month! And they found a positive response, so they made the changes to the masses. In the short term, the masses will riot with a vengence. Then they will accept, finally becoming even more addicted.
What does facebook want? It wants users to live/breathe/eat/die its websites content. It wants to be the social engine of the Internet. They want you to log on, daily, multiple times a day. They want you using it on your computer, mobile phone, while your watching tv, and every time you sit on the pot. Every one of these horrid changes have been thoroughly tested to – in the long run – increase the quantity and quality of the experience. We we all embrace these changes, eventually.
Ok, I’m fine with that, but seriously, why won’t they add a dislike button? That’s what the users want! The dislike button has been buried because they have not found a way to implement it without alienating users and losing pageviews. It’s as simple as that. The enhanced experience does not net positive results to the goal of Facebook.
Everyone needs to chill out and accept the following: Facebook will be an always-evolving creature – fighting to stay relevant – just like all other websites past, present, and future.
Look at Digg, Slashdot, and MySpace. Slashdot never betrayed its users – but it simply failed to evolve. Better content sources became available. I am a nerdy person, but I cant tell you the last time I read slashdot. Digg refused to listen to users and implemented untested major flawed changes that drastically cut the traffic of the site. They “long term” alienated the reader while viable alternatives (read: reddit) took over a majority of the userbase in a few short months. Myspace couldn’t control the spam, they had a horrible interface, and failed to keep the core audiences attention. I can only imagine what those meetings must have been like – the arbitrary decisions being made on a whim – millions of users affected without one ounce of solid, documented results to show for it.
Finally, not a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask “What do you think about Google+?” — My absolute honest opinion is that its a flawed, hopeless, copy-cat idea that will fail. Its the Google Buzz of 2011. Google offered a few ‘great’ new features that Facebook didn’t have – and expected everyone to jump on this new, shiny, `clean interfaced` bandwagon. Bad idea, Google.
Three months after being accept into the beta, I log into Google+ just to see if people were still using it – I obviously have not been… hell, the only reason I clicked it was because of the nifty marketing arrow on the front page of the Google search page. Nope, nothing really going on there… a bunch of nerds circle jerking a site that fails to provide a better experience.
I can’t validate much of this – honestly – which is pretty sad considering i’ve written a short novel on the importance of empirical data. The reality is that I am not Facebook — nor will I ever be — and am too darn busy to go around and site a sources with statistics. I don’t care if my page views skyrocket! What a liberating feeling!
In conclusion though – I will say this – Deep down, deep in your tiny little heart, I think you know that I am right — And i’m fine with that, that’s all I really need! I <3 you.
Update: Remember when it used to be like this? Lol – so much better now…
