OK, OK… I admit, I gave into the Facebook stuff a couple of years ago and I initially felt very silly for doing so. Having said that, I now look at what the Facebook team has done with great awe… Honestly, they’ve put some amazingly cool technology onto a single website that will now let me share everything I want (while keeping everything I want private safely hidden) with my friends.I have to come forward and express my absolute hatred for myspace.com. I did have a myspace profile for a while, though I never posted anything besides my name and the school I attend… Before myspace was purchased for a bajillion dollars, I fully intended on becoming rich just so I could buy the site and shut down the servers. The reason I hate myspace so much is because it seems incredibly amateur. I also became increasingly concerned with the safety of the thing… The last thing the world needs is another avenue for people to be creepy with, right? There have been plenty of reports of sexual predators stalking young/teenage kids who are spending massive amounts of time on myspace, and that’s really sad and a problem that the myspace people should be taking a little more seriously; I don’t want my little sister in the middle of sexual predator’s battlefield. There seems to be little to no content moderation, and I don’t agree with that. I learned from a successful social networking professional that it’s a million times better to moderate content and ban those who abuse their membership, thus keeping the other billion people who responsibly use your product happy. Every time you allow one person to post inappropriate or disturbing content you lose five people who were more responsible.Anyway, I hate myspace.

Facebook has done things a little differently. First of all, the website looks classy! There is a lot to be said about the quality of the Facebook product; each page looks professional, there is a very consistent feel to each page, there is content moderation to make sure I don’t stumble upon inappropriate content, and I have very powerful control over my privacy options. I know myspace provides some of these things, but it doesn’t make the process of manipulating options very easy, nor does it look professional.

Groups are a fabulous way to link people together. Picture albums are a much better way of presenting your images in an easy to view manner (whether to your friends, everyone, or only a select few). Each user can select the political campaign issues they consider important, thus indirectly encouraging more and more people to vote. Companies can advertise in new and non-invasive ways through Facebook marketing (whether using the small banner ads - which I find very unobtrusive - or through groups). The new “share” technology is really interesting, bringing the non-Facebook world INTO the Facebook realm (I’ve shared one of my favorite websites - www.pandora.com - with my friends).

What I really enjoy is how the Facebook team is stepping outside of the box and changing many of the stereotypes of how the internet, and social networking sites, should work. They have done some really cool things with the new technologies and programming languages available to present a really fun and useful place for you to begin your daily web surfing experience.

Am I alone? What do you think about what the Facebook team has done?