I’ve been watching the coverage over the past couple days of the Gideon Yu departure and today’s follow-up memo from Mark Zuckerberg which was leaked to Kara Swisher. Yesterday I had begun writing an article about how all of the negative press around Facebook presented a great opportunity. It was one of those posts where I wrote with emotion before thinking everything through.
Occasionally I find it useful just to get everything written down and then many times I don’t even publish the story. The more traction this blog has received, the more reserved I have become in pressing the “publish” button to avoid posting inaccurate information (which has happened on a number of occasions). This post isn’t about my thought process in blogging though.
It’s about the feeling I get every time substantially negative press comes out about Facebook because let’s be honest, my primary blog (this site) is dependent on the success of Facebook. Personally, I don’t hear as much buzz from the inside as I do from developers but when I begin to hear chatter and I see articles being published related to that chatter, I use rational logic to determine the likelihood that those articles are accurate.
There has been a wave of negative press over the past month. Facebook has been able to keep the majority of the infighting under wraps due to an extremely efficient communications department which according to the latest chatter is around 40 people (some of which are at Outcast, others of which are internal). That’s a substantial force for a company with less than 900 people (according to Kara Swisher, they have around 800 employees).
The Rushed Rollout of the New Design
For a company that is extremely meticulous in its attention to detail, the recent redesign of Facebook had a sense of urgency with it. There are countless design flaws, a few of which were addressed within days of the “user uprising”. For a company which took 6 months to roll-out the previous version of their design while going through continuous iterations based on user feedback and user testing, this new design came out in a matter of weeks.
The reason is clear: Twitter has become a serious threat in Facebook’s drive to monitor the majority of sharing online. I’ve written about it countless times. So many that a large portion of my readers are tired of hearing about it based on the comments I received today on our public profile page. Regardless of the “threat” that Twitter brings, the past couple months have had this sense of urgency which could be related to a number of things.
First, there is speculation that the company is looking to raise more money (despite being cash flow positive at some point next year). Second, the company has internal tension between those that believe the focus should be on growth and those that believe the company should be focused on monetization.
There Is A Huge Opportunity
Regardless of all the negative press over the past month and all the people asking about how the company is going to make money (they already are nearing half a billion dollars a year), Facebook has a gigantic opportunity in front of them. When I read that Mark Zuckerberg is trying to hunt leakers, even if it is in Valleywag, it becomes frustrating. Seeing significant internal fighting in a company that has so much potential is excruciatingly painful.
Part of me doesn’t want to believe the rumors but with so much buzz it becomes hard to ignore. Facebook can come roaring out of the fog, with an updated API (as they are expected to release) and the continued support of millions of new users a week. Whatever excessive executive infighting is taking place must be handled swiftly though so the company can move forward.
Facebook is positioned to break through to the next level but a strong team in necessary to conquer what’s ahead.
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What is wrong with hunting leakers? People shouldn't leak. Otherwise you can't have the open company-wide communication that mark admirably offers.
The section about Gideon feels very professional to me – and it has turned into a media witch hunt.
Comment by ??? Karel Baloun — April 2, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
There has been quite a lot of talk about Facebook targeting Twitter (and that may well be) but Facebook's functionality also challenges FriendFeed. Both services have similarly functioning streams. I don't know if that is intentional but it is interesting.
I agree with you about the infighting although I wonder if that isn't a product of Facebook's growth and growing internal complexity. The company's growth brings a broader variety of people and greater internal politics. That being said, it probably does need strong leadership to bring everyone closer to a shared vision and pursue that.
Comment by Paul Jacobson — April 2, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
"even if it is in Valleywag"
Meaning what?
Comment by Facebook User — April 2, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
@"Facebook User"/Shauna, Valleywag is gossip, even though they often get things right, the article was speculation.
Comment by Nick ONeill — April 2, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
There is no such thing as bad press
Comment by Michael McGimpsey — April 2, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
I think people are making twitter out to be a bigger deal than it really is. Something that basic will not catch facebook with active users
Comment by George Pickett — April 2, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
I agree with George. I simply can't get behind Twitter… it's too simplistic, and unlike on Facebook, where I'm "Friends" with over 600 people, on Twitter I feel like I'm wandering in the online wilderness talking to myself.
I think the services are more complimentary than competitive. Most of this contrasting press is built on hype more than anything else.
Comment by Ian P. Hines — April 3, 2009 @ 3:16 am
Ian/George- Disagree, twitter is a threat down the road, something that should be addressed early. Facebook is (and should be) ambitious in their long term plans, not just the use case they service at the moment. Twitter has shown incredible traction and has gained a very prominent media presence in the past year. As a new form of communication, it's simplicity is it's virtue.
As far as the article goes, I have to completely disagree that Facebook "is extremely meticulous in its attention to detail". They launch early, it's a strategy that has many merits, but it can't be compared to (often non-web) companies that do keep the product in the oven until most details are sorted out. Innovate early and often, watch consequences unfold, try to fix them on the fly – doesn't that sound more like the original news feed, platform launch, connect launch, and now the latest homepage launch?
That said, I do agree the new homepage was rushed (just like the aforementioned launches), and that this haste was due in large part to twitter's impact on the social web. I think Facebook is going to have to change the degree to which this approach is employed in the future, given that they're now ubiquitous and mainstream. Maybe they wanted to slow things down a bit, but felt this change was important to push before that.
Comment by Facebook User — April 3, 2009 @ 4:40 am
I'm glad someone asked this question. Actually, Gawker also wrote a piece asking a similar question, but it was more aimed at the removal of Zuckerburg as CEO. (http://gawker.com/5195640/resign-mark-zuckerberg-resign)
I agree with you on the hasty nature of the site redesign. Regardless of whether you ended up liking it or not, the way they went about the change was a complete reversal and return to previous policy reminiscent of when the news feed was first launched: "it's our site, so deal with it." The design previous to the current version, while not perfect for all users, did go through a lot of user feedback before it was launched.
What kills me is that making Facebook more like Twitter in function and design doesn't achieve Twitter's strength, namely its simplicity. It's a modular service; it can really be as simple or complex as the user desires. It's the Ikea of social networking!
Personally, I think Facebook should be trying to strike the perfect balance between micro-blogging and life-streaming. Instead, each of their last two designs has favored one or the other heavily.
Comment by Andrew Ledwith — April 3, 2009 @ 5:31 am
When Facebook tipped their hand on the long term aim to absolutely control users' content without compensation, that began their descent into obscurity. The leaders at Facebook have already failed.
Comment by Michael O'Neill — April 3, 2009 @ 7:46 am
I like the new design, and I think that it still gives the same functionality and cleanliness that the previous versions have provided. It wasn't such a huge jump that I couldn't handle it, but then again I believe I'm above average when it comes to technical issues.
Twitter on the other hand has sat dead in my links for a while. I don't the whole use in having a blog, updating your status, and then going over to twitter just to communicate through little mini-blogs and status' when facebook offers that all in one place. It's just one more service to update.
I personally don't use my myspace anymore because it became so convoluted with ads, huge screen, ugly design, bands adding you as friends every 5 seconds haha, spam, etc.
I think Facebook definitely doesn't have any major competitors now. Most people that use twitter use facebook, not vice-versa.
Comment by John Howard — April 3, 2009 @ 7:50 am
John — If the functionality was the same, I really wouldn't much care how it looked. But the functionality is NOT the same. Tons of features were removed.
Comment by Facebook User — April 3, 2009 @ 9:32 am
I joined about 2 weeks before and was having a blast using it even with the redesign. But it is still buggy. My brower is crashing and I'm it will affect my laptop's performance with all the slow loading of the apps and such. ITs tolerable, but to a degree. My main concern is the stupid warning message that pops up saying I am "abusing" facebook when I'm merely using it to post a wall of a person that I know. I started getting this message when playing around with "People You May Know" feature on the profile page. Instead of making my profile public and getting millions of friend requests from random strangers it would be easier to filter through the profiles of the people you want as friends? No, Facebook sees this as "abuse" of some kind?
I've toned down use of the feature of the next few days but it is extremely annoying that they are turning into Nazi's over there. Facebook is much more relevant than Myspace with its random profiles and disgusting design asthetics. And even Twitter, which is just random instant message that makes no sense unless it is tied to something like a TV Show or marketing/promotion of some kind.
Comment by Bal — April 19, 2009 @ 8:31 am
Just love how that the stupid thing called Facebook keeps asking for my email and password over and over and over again. Then it has the nerve to say that I have a high volume of invalid login attempts. More like a high volume of invalid login attempts from their brains. I swear their names over there are Major and Cock-up. It just tried to toss me off this message and also just got through shutting down all open windows.
Comment by Debra Fauvor — March 17, 2011 @ 2:29 am