Face it, Facebook

There has been a buzz on the Net last week about Facebook losing 400000 UK visitors from December 2007 to January 2008. This is last month we are talking about. So, is there a general loss of interest in that service or is there something new around the corner that only Brits know about and won't tell the rest?

As for me personally, this reminds me of how the stock exchange works. Remember that just few months ago Yahoo was about to pay 1 billion US dollars for Facebook? Remember Microsoft evaluating Facebook at 15 billion dollars? So, what does this mean? Will Facebook slide down?

Well, we have the official data from Nielsen Online that reflect that 5 percent of site visitors who did not bother coming back to the site this month. What went wrong there? Do I smell another case of MySpace social network decline? is it the overload of applications within the program or a simple fact that people get bored sooner or later? Will other countries' statistics reflect the UK ex-Facebookers behavior? Is Facebook doomed do fail now? Is there a life on Mars? So many questions... What do you think?

What rings my red lamp, and I may be wrong, is the following additional info from Nielsen:

Nielsen Online only measures website traffic based on a panel of UK users at home and work - it does not cover usage in schools, universities and internet cafes, meaning that younger internet users are under-reported.

The explanation for lower number for Facebook can indeed be hidden behind the omitting the statistics about the company's biggest share of users. We are still to see. As I said, how about that life on Mars?

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The Power of Past

I am expected to get familiar with various web 2.0 applications during this course. This includes Facebook.

Up to recently I was really resistant to all the fame surrounding that web service. I mean, on a daily basis, Facebook's on TV news, TV text, Internet, newspapers, radio.. where does it end? Does it end at all? The point is that people do want to get get together and socialize. Even when they are not online they do use various applications within Facebook and message one another... or one to many... or whatever...

It all seemed like another madness to me. The hype will pass - is what I thought about Facebook. Then I received the first invitation to the service from a friend. Sure I rejected it, it was a few months ago when world media widely covered Facebook privacy intrusions issue. They claimed they fixed the issue and apologized to customers. "Too late to apologize" sang that guy from One Republic along with Timba "e-e-e-e" so I thought myself along with them: No way. No pasaran.

Then came the second invitation to FB. Then the third one and so on. So I thought myself, let's take a look. And I peeked in.

Just like Internet within the Internet, one page lead to another. One person's list of friends led to another list. I did start finding my friends. My old friends. Ever since I left my homeland, and ever further ever before - since many of them had left our homeland, I finally had the meeting place where I could easily socialize with all of them. Kind of defeated old "media me" had to admit it felt good to embrace Facebook as new "media me". So I turned to the Dark Side.

I do find people from my past I really never thought I'd meet again. This application sort of takes away excuses to NOT communicate. Having many friend around the globe whom I haven't seen in ages, I must be impressed. That's exactly the kind of web social tool I need.

Nick Cave was tonight in my dining room. A French music channel MCM recorded his concert back in 1997 while he was promoting his The Boatman's Call album. What a live performance! Then I walked to my PC and checked my Facebook page for the day. Guess what? A friend whom I haven't seen for 14 years messaged me from Australia. Ghost in machine? Just asking... err, maybe.

They say these days you cannot delete your account @ Facebook. What is there to worry about? says my new "media me". I am not a person who just quits - I'm here to stay. Facebook, here I come!

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