Wired’s cover story for September is quite a big one – Charles Anderson argues that the Web is dead – and this might sound ridiculous. But he does make quite a few very good points. Slowly but surely, we are moving away from a Web only use of the internet, and starting to choose to use the internet in “App form”. Instead of  accessing sites using our PC browser we are preferring to use dedicated applications devoted to a task – which in most cases improves our user experience of these services. Instead of going through the schlep of logging on to Facebook, we instead choose to use a dumbed down, well designed app on iPhone or Android. We prefer to access Twitter through dedicated apps on our phones than going to the Twitter site. Same can be said of music services, and the recent boom in location based services also drives the point further. The interface is better, its easier to use, and the functionality is focussed.

He goes on further mentioning that the traditional “open is good” mindset is not necessarily the most successful anymore. I am not referring to iPhone vs Android, but instead that people like using closed systems in general, nevermind the ethics or “lock in” problems. Good examples include the iTunes store, but Facebook is a prime example. Its closed nature is perhaps what made people want to use it – the fact that your activities are generally kept away from Google’s crawlers makes the platform seem more welcoming. Of course I realize there is a lot wrong in that sentence – you be the judge:

Enter Facebook. The site began as a free but closed system. It required not just registration but an acceptable email address (from a university, or later, from any school). Google was forbidden to search through its servers. By the time it opened to the general public in 2006, its clublike, ritualistic, highly regulated foundation was already in place. Its very attraction was that it was a closed system. Indeed, Facebook’s organization of information and relationships became, in a remarkably short period of time, a redoubt from the Web — a simpler, more habit-forming place. The company invited developers to create games and applications specifically for use on Facebook, turning the site into a full-fledged platform. And then, at some critical-mass point, not just in terms of registration numbers but of sheer time spent, of habituation and loyalty, Facebook became a parallel world to the Web, an experience that was vastly different and arguably more fulfilling and compelling and that consumed the time previously spent idly drifting from site to site. Even more to the point, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg possessed a clear vision of empire: one in which the developers who built applications on top of the platform that his company owned and controlled would always be subservient to the platform itself. It was, all of a sudden, not just a radical displacement but also an extraordinary concentration of power. The Web of countless entrepreneurs was being overshadowed by the single entrepreneur-mogul-visionary model, a ruthless paragon of everything the Web was not: rigid standards, high design, centralized control.

I highly recommend you go read it here. It makes you think twice about the way we will use the internet in the future.

Once again we bring you a new infographic – this time detailing the phenomenal growth of Facebook.

Thanks to folks over at website monitoring. Be also sure to check out the Our Connected World infographic.

Amidst plenty of discussion and unhappiness around Facebook’s attitude towards user privacy and control, a group of four college students in New York are raising money to build an alternative social network called Diaspora, which they say will be “an open-source personal web service that will put individuals in control of their data”.

Their original goal was to raise $10,000 by 1 June, using the fundraising platform Kickstarter. They reached that goal in just 12 days.

And now, with more than two weeks to go till the deadline, current pledges on their Kickstarter page total $128 496.

Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer and Ilya Zhitomirskiy are going to be spending their summer break coding away furiously, as the next goal is to complete the core application in time for a September 2010 release.

In short, Diaspora will allow individuals to set up their own node within the network, and to maintain complete control and ownership of anything they choose to share on that node. Here’s a video of Daniel, Maxwell, Raphael and Ilya explaining the concept:

Facebook has begun expanding the reach of its “Like” feature a little more, by sending out customised printed “Like” stickers to a certain number of businesses who have existing fan pages on the social network.

These window decals give the company’s Facebook fan page URL, as well as instructions for “liking” the business instantly via SMS. Included with the customised sticker is a letter offering a few tips for having a successful Facebook fan page, as well as a coupon code good for $25 worth of Facebook advertising.

This is a pretty smart and inexpensive way for Facebook to – amongst other things – grow their user base even further by getting other businesses to do their advertising for them, ensure that businesses use Facebook consistently to communicate with their customers, and introduce small businesses to the Facebook advertising platform.

The “F8″ conference is an annual conference where Facebook announces platform changes to their product, but its mostly aimed at developers. In the last year Twitter has started to become an ever greater concern for the folks at Facebook, and with good reason. While twitter does not replace the strictly “we are friends” model of Facebook, it does provide users (and content aggregators) with access to an incredible amount of real time information. This information is so valuable that search engines would pay top dollar for the right to publish on the minute updates from twitter as results.

So how will Facebook combat this? – through a more connected, open platform. First off, they are killing Facebook connect. Facebook connect is that irritating little confirmations you have to go through everytime another web app wants to communicate with Facebook. Instead, Facebook is implementing “Open Graph” which looks remarkably similiar when described, but uses a single sign on process which will integrate more tightly into third party apps. For example, saying you “like” a certain song in Pandora (a music streaming service on the web and on your phone) will automatically add that song to your favourite music section in yout profile. Of course, not everyone can go and make these alterations to your profile, so Facebook has elected about 30 partners with which they will work at first. Big news is that Microsoft will offer Office 2010 editable documents in Facebook. So we guess that Microsoft purchase of a portion of Facebook is giving them a few advatantages… Lets see how they will implement this.

As Kerry-Anne mentioned, Facebook will also be making available the “like” button to any third party user, and its as simple as a few lines of HTML code. This will work similiar to the “Digg This” or “tweet this” buttons we see on sites these days. This is perhaps the best way in which Facebook will try to defend themselves against Twitter’s information rich features.

Perhaps more interesting is that Facebook will start using its own official currency called Facebook Credits, which can be used in all Facebook related sites. If you are a Farmville addict, expect that you will be pestered with offers to buy upgrades soon enough, in the Facebook Credits currency. Now if they can only make an offer so that I cannot get any mention of Farmville, anywhere, ever. Now that is a upgrade I will get.

Facebook is also releasing a “social bar” which is a floating bar that can be integrated into any site – lets say on the bottom of the screen. This bar can then be used as a way to build a community around your site, and naturally, spread its news quickly to your friends on Facebook.

Dissappointingly, Facebook did not mention anything regarding location based services (you can call it “LBS” if you want to be trendy). This is one area where services like Loopt, Twitter and Foursquare still have an advantage. Mark Zuckerberg did however confirm that it is being worked on… So in future you should become more careful of who you friend on Facebook…

A number of new features were announced yesterday at Facebook’s F8 developer conference in San Francisco. The most notable of these include the following social plugins:

1. The new “Like” button, which will be implemented on external sites across the web, including, for now, NYTimes.com, IMDb, CNN.com, TIME.com, LIFE.com, Fandango, NHL.com, USA Networks, Levis.com, Univision and ABC.com. When the user “likes” a product or article on one of these sites, that action will be shared with their friends on Facebook, and their friends will be able to comment on it there. In some cases, such as with IMDb, an item that is “liked” will be added to the user’s profile page under their interests. The item – in this case a movie – will then be able to send the user updates through their News Feed on Facebook.

2. Working alongside the new Like button, the Activity Feed surfaces the actions a user’s friends are taking on a website. If a user is logged into Facebook and then visits a site with this feature implemented, they will be able to see the articles and topics on the site that their friends are sharing, recommending and commenting on.

3. The Recommendations feature will highlight the content on the external site that is most popular with Facebook users, based on the number of “likes” each item receives.

Here’s an amazing Facebook stats sheet from website-monitoring.com.

Some notable highlights:

• 400 million active users
• 50% check in EVERY DAY
• Average user spends 55 MINUTES PER DAY
• 35 million update status every day
• 3 billion photos uploaded each month
• 5 billion pieces of content shared every day
• 70% of users are outside the United Sates

The full stats sheet after the jump Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook, the fast-growing free-access social networking website, has obtained a $6.5-billion valuation for its common shares.

There’s a catch though! This development, which stresses the website’s high ranking among the giants in the technology and media sector, follows Digital Sky Technologies, of Russia, agreeing to pay $14.77 a share for Facebook common stock. Now, the Russian company’s stake in Facebook will be 3.5%.

The deal shows that Facebook has a higher market value than many other established media and technology companies that make considerably more money. While CBS Corporation, which earned $13.95 billion in revenues in 2008, has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, Salesforce.com has a market cap of $4.72 billion.

According to Mark Andreessen, board member, Facebook is expected to exceed $500 million in sales in 2009.

As of today Facebook has reached 250 million active users on its social network – up from 100 million nearly a year ago – thus ranking higher than the rival social networking website MySpace.

So how about, would you like to own stock in Facebook?

Image courtesy of LaughingSquid