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Facebook Listens to the Blogosphere

Posted by Nick O'Neill on December 5th, 2007 3:20 PM

There has been a ton of buzz surrounding Beacon over the past couple weeks. Last night I briefly ranted about Facebook not responding to the noise. Initially, they may have perceived it as only being chatter among bloggers. As soon as I heard that brands were beginning to become hesitant about advertising on Facebook due to the negative PR, I realized that the issue had spilled over into the mainstream.

I agree with Dave McClure who said that Facebook didn’t need to add a button that completely blocks Beacon. I disagree with Dave when he suggests that everyone is just going to completely opt-out of Beacon completely resulting in a lack of newsfeed stories. Regardless, Facebook has caved to the loud mouthed minority.

Is this a bad thing? Not really. They have completely squashed the issue. The blogosphere will stop talking about the Beacon disaster within a week and most users on Facebook will not have heard about it. Smart move by Facebook. I’m glad that they made the changes.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 3 Comments

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    First off, it was good that Zuckerberg finally posted.

    I agree: I don't think FB members will Opt-Out of Beacon because most of them don't understand how it works. For Opt-Out to work, FB has to inform the community of what that actually means and how member data is being used. Until then, Facebook hasn't really listened, they are still pulling a fast one on their members.
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    Obviously out of so much relunctancy.. drawing the past success of the "News Feed" experience. And they redefined what "News Feed" (traditionally of usenet) means to people, they (and MZ) certainly think they can continually change the world in any way he/they want. Not necessarily a bad thing, life is too short to just argue day and night for what's good and what's bad anyway, just give it a bold try.
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    It also strikes me that this is a good example of how different generations view the sharing of data. According to the Facebook ad system, 80% of Facebook is aged 25 or below. I'm guessing that the vast majority of the bloggers complaining are over that age.

    With any good or service, there is a cost and a benefit. The problem is that the bloggers assume that there is no benefit to Beacon, so they see any cost (in this case privacy) as too high. Google has similar privacy issues, but bloggers love the value that Google provides so they consider the privacy cost reasonable in that case.

    It also bugs me that so many mention Zuckerberg's age and experience. They say things like 'Facebook needs real management'. Of course, their next post will be about how record labels or movie studios 'don't get it' when it comes to digital distribution. I have a certain amount of hostility (ok, probably jealousy) towards a guy so young and so rich, but I think he's done as good a job as anyone at new media. If you want experienced management, Rupert Murdoch's MySpace is there for you.

    I think you're correct Nick. We won't even remember this past month a year from now. And who knows, maybe Beacon will prove incredibly popular (like Newsfeeds).

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