The Social Network: Two Conflicting Reviews

Last night I saw a screening of The Social Network and it lived up to the hype / great reviews (100% on RottenTomatoes.com). The movie was well done, well acted, fun, and actually very inspiring (I think - and hope - that young, potential entrepreneurs will find the journey and teams' drive motivating).

But Newsweek's critique of the movie was different... and more of a critique of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. Using Facebook, Zynga, and Twitter as examples, the article "The sad truth about Facebook" comments on the valley's culture, the chase of wealth ("giant paydays"), and and avoidance of "serious technology challenges":

"The risk is that by focusing an entire generation of bright young entrepreneurs on such silly things, we’ll fall behind in creating the fundamental building blocks of our economy. The transistor and the integrated circuit gave rise to the last half century of prosperity. But what comes next?"

and

“The old Silicon Valley was about solving really hard problems, making technical bets. But there’s no real technical bet being made with Facebook or Zynga,” says Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft who now runs an invention lab in Seattle. “Today almost everyone in the Valley will tell you there is too much ‘me-tooism,’ too much looking for a gold rush and not enough people who are looking to solve really hard problems.”

As an investor, I am obviously looking for big thinkers and big ideas. I am looking for businesses rather than features... and ask questions specifically about 'scale' and 'size'. But it is outrageous to discount Facebook, Twitter and others because they are social products and not obviously unique / challenging technologies.

Because the article uses Facebook and Twitter as examples, I will do the same.

Would you label Google or The New York Times as "silly"? Of course not. But in addition to being a hub for online presence / networking, Facebook is make search and advertising social (and potentially more effective)... and Twitter has become a modern news channel for millions of users. These are big ideas with big impacts. And to do either at unrivaled scale is a technical challenge. And both Facebook and Twitter are platforms that enable innovation and business growth (some of which will be small and others big and impactful).

Those familiar with Facebook - or those who watched the movie - know that Facebook was not driven revenues: "Now the Valley has become a casino, a place where smart kids arrive hoping to make an easy fortune building companies that seem, if not pointless, at least not as serious as, say, old-guard companies like HP, Intel, Cisco, and Apple."

Using Facebook and Zuckerberg as representives of a wealth-driven culture is inaccurate and unfair. Similarly it is unfair to say that it - or other software companies - are not as meaningful as big hardware companies is also inaccurate and unfair by any measure. For example, Facebook's traded valuation is roughly 1/3rd of HP's market cap and 1/4th of Intel's and Cisco's. And Facebook is prominently featured in HP and Apple advertisements... and Facebook accounts for over 50% of iPhone app usage.

Again, let's encourage entrepreneurs to think big. But let's not label the software - particularly consumer and social web - "silly". And let's not classify all entrepreneurs as motivated by wealth... nor fault those who are (because that extends beyond the valley and beyond 2010).

Quora's Elegant Notification 'Panel'

I have written about the design of promotion and notification units several times - pointing at examples from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Here is an example from Quora... and while it is similar in its boldness, its very different in its style.

Quora notifies users of updates to questions that they are following. The notifications start on your homescreen and sit above the feed (somewhat similar to Facebook in that sense... but they are expanded by default). When you visit a particular question page, the notifications all sit above the question / answer content.

As you scroll down the page, the notifications sit persistently atop the page. It is a design style that is being used more and more... though in different shapes, sizes and formats.

We are seeing more and more persistent units at a page's header and footer. And as pages become busier and busier, persistent 'bars' (for lack of a better term) are good ways of capturing attention. Quora is interesting though because their pages are so clean and simple. But Quora's notification unit is clean and simple itself - and itself an elegant navigational panel and personal newsfeed:

Here are the notifications on the question page:

And here are the notifications sitting atop teh page as you scroll down:

Designing Your Facebook Page's Profile Image

Facebook's news feed is crowded (and more crowded with each passing day). Consequently, visuals play a big role is drawing attention and driving clicks / conversions. This includes feed pictures, profile pictures, thumbnails, etc. With Facebook's new Page Browser, you can quickly get a sense for the imagery that brands and page-owners use.

Some are simple and represent the brand directly (see FootJoy). Some take advantage of the alloted vertical space and are colorful (see HBO's Eastbound and Down)

Obviously the best advice is to test and measure which imagery works best for your brand and your audience.

While their thumbnail is quite different, Facebook's Data page is gorgeous. By cleverly blending the logo into the Facebook page, it looks very natural and clean. While page-owners do not have a ton of room for creativity, this is well done:

Facebook's Page Discovery: Directory & Shared Likes

Yesterday I wrote about the evolving importance of Facebook's "Like Graph". And today related news appeared from Facebook in a blog post named Discover Facebook Pages

In essence, Facebook has rolled out a more substantial way to find Facebook Pages and view shared likes with your Facebook graph... as compared to the more indirect method I wrote about yesterday.

The main directory is fun because it is highly visual... and effective for page owners because users can like pages through a mouse-over (potentially a big lever):

"Discover Facebook Pages: See something interesting? Roll over the Page and click Like to receive updates in your News Feed."

The far more interesting part is the sidebar: "Friends Similar to You". It features a simple way to view shared likes with your Facebook friends. As I wrote about yesterday, I believe this is the skeleton of something much larger: social search.

Good start. Interesting to see how Facebook chooses to drive traffic to this.

Facebook's 'Like Graph' is the Skeleton of Something Much Bigger

You might have noticed that Facebook profiles now include a "Likes" box below the "Friends" box. It includes a count and list of which pages each user likes: Very straightforward. More interesting is that you can also view "mutual likes": the overlapping likes of that person and you.

That too is straightforward - but it represents something much bigger. Likes will (and I use that word intentionally / carefully) become criteria for how we browse and search the web. As Likes extend beyond Facebook (you can now like pages, articles, sites, etc), the habits of your social graph will determine your content experience (finding, reading, etc) ... all using your 'like graph'.

It is already happening on websites: for instance, if you visit the New York Times, it will suggest articles read by your Facebook peers. That assumes though that you visited NYT.com or saw the feed update on Facebook. Now imagine a search experience or engine predicated on cross-site likes.

The Power of Statistics & Dashboards (About.me as an example)

In May of 2008 I wrote that statistics - specifically around referrals and influencers - could be a sizeable business model for Twitter. Last week, About.me launched publicly. It's a gorgeous site creator that allows very simple page creation and automatically pulls in content from your social presences: ie Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Wordpress, etc. You can view mine at About.me/rspoon

Much can be written about this - SEO, self-branding, social aggregators, etc. But I want to return to the premise that my 2008 article about Twitter and statistics... because one of the great features of About.me is their "dashboard":

First, the dashboard gets users to return to the site... making it "sticky" in an environment that might not otherwise encourage daily usage (after all, the service automatically updates all of your presences!).

Second, it is addictive... in the same way that game mechanics make other sites sticky and why Twitter's follow count can be credited with some of their early growth.

Third, it encourages promotion. Want more views and visitors? Promote your About.me page via Twitter, Facebook and email (of course About.me makes that easy).

Fourth, it is really useful and interesting... and unique. There are statistics on visits, views, etc - but more interesting, there are stats on the number of status updates pulled in, your total reach, the @replies, etc. Powerful ways to unite the data around "influencers" and your About.me page will emerge over time.

So how can you apply similar mechanics and a "Dashboard" mentality to your experience?

Quora and instant Facebook Phone Q&A

Earlier today rumors / news broke of Facebook building a phone (more thoughts to come). See TechCrunch, AlleyInsider, Gizmodo, etc. Without input or verification from Facebook, these remain rumors. And because Facebook represents over 50% of iPhone app usage, it is potentially a very big deal... and the tech world is consequently very curious.

Turn to Quora... where many leading tech thinkers spend time and they too are curious. Questions and answers are in motion - and whether or not facts emerge, the input and debate from relevant people is both insightful and fun. This screenshot was taken minutes after TechCrunch's article went live:

(un)Attractive Foursquare Mayor Offers

Traveling this week, I checked into Boston's Logan Airport on Foursquare. I noticed that a special 'local offer' existed. Hoping it was discounted Dunkin Donuts coffee, I took a look and uncovered one of that strangest Foursquare Mayor Offers I have seen: The mayor of Logan Airport gets Massport 'Swag'... which no doubt means that someone working inside of Logan is wearing an "I Love Boston" sweatshirt.

More seriously: this is a lesson in crafting compelling offers... which in turn drive activity, engagement, sharing, etc. Discounts (see Gap, McDonalds) and giveaways are more attractive, appeal to larger audiences, and likely drive new users / fans / check-ins.

Facebook Integrates Skype Into Friend Finder

Facebook has put a lot of effort into driving more 'friendships' through their Friend Finder tool. And Twitter has had great success with their new, excellent "Who to Follow" tool. Facebook already integrates with GMail, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ Chat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger... and now Skype. And for Skype, Facebook has specifically promoted the integration very heavily.

These examples are from the last couple weeks (sorry for the delayed post), but notice how prominent the units are. They are placed on the homepage and beneath the header / search bar.

As Facebook attempts to drive deeper usage and more friend connections - they must be running out of partners with any reasonably close scale. Skype makes sense of course because: they are one of the few brands / services to big larger (by number of users) and to be a mix of US and international (big focus for Facebook).