The Future of Facebook
For a long time, Facebook was the darling of the internet. It was experiencing something just 50,000 new signups a day and people couldn’t get enough of it. It was popular and people loved it. It was spreading by word of mouth as the good word was going round.
Like the Tower of Babel, sometimes things can become too big for their own good. You can say that Facebook has reached that level. It is now one of the biggest five sites on the internet. In terms of social marketing, it is pretty difficult to find anything which is bigger or more powerful. But with power comes responsibility.
The most valuable aspect of Facebook is the information of its users. This information is literally worth billions of dollars. The problem with Facebook is that they are sitting on a goldmine but don’t really have access to it. It is a massive Catch-22. They have this data but can only do so much with it.
People have already become very concerned with their personal information being leaked. If they like to play the various online casino games that you can on Facebook that is not the right for Facebook to tell anyone this. Just because they like to play roulette or blackjack online with their friends on Facebook doesn’t mean this date should be given to anyone. The same applies to other games such as Poker, Scrabble or Bejeweled.
So Facebook has come under attack for giving companies access to this information. They have copped some flak for allowing the rights of their users to be compromised. This has led some people to canceling their accounts which in turn has caused others to do so. All the good will and great publicity that was there in the early days is now but a distant memory.
People are also worried about others gaining access to their profiles. In recent times, there has been a huge push for people to change their privacy settings to the most stringent possible. This means, you don’t allow any people who aren’t your friends to access or view your account. This stops people gawking at your photos or finding out about you.
It hasn’t been the best of times for Facebook. A movie focusing on the origins of the company is about to come out and there are also reports that Google is about to come out with its own social networking site So now what for the site? In a scene where things change so quickly what will things look like two years from now?
The bottom line is that no one really knows the answer to this. Facebook is so big and so strong that it can just about withstand anything. Even if it loses 10% of its users, it is still going to be way bigger than anything out there. And millions and millions of users couldn’t care less about the scandals and controversies. All they want to see if photos of their friends and to find out what is happening.
Michelle Stevens is a journalist that writes for many newspapers and online news sites. She has spent the last few months working on a series of articles on social media and how it effects us on a personal level. Michelle found that activities that were once enjoyed in person are now found online, the rise in popularity of casino sites is a great example. Her articles will be posted within the next few months.
