$35 billion valuation; 600 million users; 25% of all US internet traffic estimated 10% of world Internet traffic. And now they plan Email and other tools to follow to add to their grip on their version of the Walled Garden Internet. FB has fewer employees than Google has job openings. They have goes completely against the ethos of Internet and the inventor of the World Wide Web recently warned that the web may be endangered by Facebook’s colossal walled garden. Google had to pay one of their lead engineers $3.5 million to not jump ship to work there. Facebook seems an unstoppable juggernaut. I always back the underdog and therefore, kind of want them not to succeed (or die).

I use facebook now, however I am thinking of closing the account for personal use and only keep the business one open. Having been a user, I must say that I have come to dislike Facebook for other reasons. As a small development company and someone that has some understanding of how software is made or used, I find FB so so ordinary. Yet, they managed to kill MySpace becuase, however, that was probably because MySpace was so complacent or Rupert Murdoch still thinks in terms of old print technology. They have had complete open green field for over 2 years, as well as a platform and opportunity unlike anyone else. Problem is that they dont seem to know what they are doing? Like myspace, they are experimenting and just growing with slowly decisions coming from their investors. My Space with so many years of advantage over FB, failed. I must say that I think MySpace killed themselves with no help from FB just trying to be so much like Facebook. Facebook had way more success for keeping their privacy in the last 2 years, while Myspace has ruined everything for privacy since last year, to the point where you can see what comments people post.

Facebook copying Twitter was a very smart move, but hardly a new Groundbreaking move; ditto Foursquare. They called Facebook Groups an innovation; it’s a basic feature they should have implemented years ago. Now they’re laughably trying to claim that integrate email into their messaging system is a world-shaking revolution.

Facebook has become to the social web what Microsoft was to the desktop. Like Microsoft twenty years ago, they will probably succeed because a bad standard is better than none: and like Microsoft ten years ago, they “innovate” by clumsily copying—and then trying to squash—the real innovators. However, Microsoft has stopped doing that as globally their hands are tied. But so far, no one is holding Facebook back.

In the past they’ve been reasonably sensitive to their users’ wants and willing to admit when they were wrong (remember Facebook Beacon?) There have been worrying signs of late, for example, their two-faced attitude towards data portability and their trademarking of the word “Face”.

In late 2005, Facebook filed for a trademark of the word "face" when the term is used in connection with Internet chat rooms or bulletin boards. On Tuesday, Inside Facebook reports, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office returned a notice of allowance for the request.

A trademark allowance is just a stepping stone for Facebook. "In the next three months, Facebook must pay a fee and file a statement of use, at which time it must prove that it is actively using the mark to provide goods or services, and then get the approval of an attorney,"

Inside Facebook writes that Facebook "has at least 15 trademark applications around the 'like' buttons it launched in April, some of which cover the word 'like' itself." In addition, Facebook has laid claim to the word "book" and has filed suit against TeachBook, an online community for teachers. The social networking giant also threatened to bring legal action against parody blog Lamebook, that is, until the offending site countered with a suit of its own.

The problem is that they have so much money that small organizations would not dare fight these court cases and either give up or sell up. So the bottom line is that facebook now has basically made it impossible for anyone to start anything with similar names. For example this means that it would be very unwise for you to name your hot new social networking site something along the lines of FaceMe, SlapToTheFace, or FaceStore. You don't have too much to fear when it comes to naming products or services outside of what the trademark covers though.

Recently Open source Facebook replacement Diaspora drops first alpha. Diaspora project is an attempt to make an open source, peer-to-peer replacement for Facebook with a big focus on privacy. They have now reached their first major milestone. The first developer alpha is now available for download and review, and the group is now accepting code contributions from the open source community at large.

Diaspora was born of the frustration with Facebook's central control over user-supplied data and an increasing propensity to play loose with users' privacy. "Diaspora aims to be a distributed network, where totally separate computers connect to each other directly, and will let us connect without surrendering our privacy,

Users can set up and run a "seed" server on their home computer or a server. The seeds aggregate a user's data from services like Facebook, Twitter, and other sites via plug-ins. The seeds can then communicate with each other and share data according to a user's specific privacy settings, all over a direct encrypted connection. In other words, privacy settings and data sharing are completely at the control of the user.

The first code release is just a first step in a long journey that many believed would never get off the ground. However, the project organizers are opening up the code and bug tracker to anyone interested in contributing to the project. There is a working roadmap, and the current high-priority features being worked on are data portability, internationalization, server-to-server authentication, and refining what project organizers call "aspects."

This Project is a little bit like the much loved DotNetNuke project that I have had the pleasure of been a part of its community for the last few years.

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About Scifiwood News Reviews and Blogs

These are various short and long News Articles, Reviews and Blogs by Salar Golestanian and employees of SalarO.com as well as contributors of Scifiwood.com. The subject matter are mixed topics with Pure Science to Science Fiction as well as general topics on Web Trends, Technology, Software Engineering genre, or whatever subject that can affect the convergence of today's technology with Science Fiction in any shape or form. These Blogs and Reviews don't have commercial or corporate aspiration, so they are indeed completely independent views. Some of these entries may be short and just link you to the actual news or site that can expand further on the subject of interest. In Phase II we plan to incorporate some Social Networking applications within the portal.