Thursday, October 25, 2007

Facebook & MS

Without a doubt, the big news today atleast in tech circles will be about Microsoft's acquisition of 1.6% of Facebook.

Of course there are those who think that many companies missed the bus.However, I beg to disagree. I think this is one smart thing that they might have done.

Before you call me a technophobe and other unmentionable names, let me just say:

Social Networking sites are fickle. Extremely fickle. They are mostly populated by us, the N-Gen, who love to think that we are unique and thus cool.

Orkut was the must have some years back - Actually, two; but it seems like a long time ago! We went on a adding friend frenzy with Orkut, I still remember the good old days when there was no word verification and you had to get an invite from someone - for me it was from a tech savvy 50-something who happened to be my professor in my B-school. Then you had to create an Orkut account to sign in there, and things were much simpler and cleaner with a slightly cheesy UI and random requesting to "be fraands"

Sometime last year, I came across the name Facebook in a local newspaper, which described it the next best thing to sliced bread... or at least, Orkut. I had to see what it was all about, and I promptly signed up, impressed with the color scheme and the different third-party ad-ons.

So what has my switching of favorites to do with all this?

Simply this, that I am waiting for the next best thing. And it is not just me. For a generation which want to be defined as unique and ahead of the curve - change is the only constant, and we will keep on changing desperately to define ourselves.

I would much rather see different companies being open to third party apps which will allow me to access my flavor of the moment - while using their services.

And before you thrash my POV, please remember that even he believed in case study!


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