Archive for category Web
Facebook’s Email Project
Posted by Matt in Social Networks on February 8th, 2010
The social media rumor mills have been abuzz with speculation on a soon-to-be released replacement for the built-in Facebook messenger functionality–namely a full blown email service. This isn’t terribly surprising news, is a pretty logical next step for the 6-year old company, and if it launches as expected, it’ll automatically give email accounts to 400+ million people worldwide. A move like that and suddenly Facebook is the #1 email provider in the world. I don’t know about you, but that seems just a little bit scary.
For one thing, Facebook doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to privacy protection. Does the word “Beacon” ring a bell with anyone? And how long has it been since Facebook changed it’s Terms of Service amidst customer outrage over the fact that it indicated you couldn’t remove your personal data from Facebook’s servers? Sure, they backpedaled pretty fast on that one and had end-users critique, choose, and proof a new version of the TOS, but the damage was done. Just this year Facebook has already completely revised it’s privacy controls with defaults that leave users open to just about anything. Ultimately, while the new control are simpler, they seem to provide less control overall. We’ll call this Strike One.
Another area that makes me uneasy is that of reliability and performance. I can’t even count the number of times when I’ve gotten one of those mysterious “An unknown error has occurred” messages while doing something completely innocuous on the site. Just the other day, I was uploading a few photos using the brand new photo uploader plugin. After selecting the photos I wanted and starting the process, I got a message that my photos would upload in the background and that in a few seconds I’d be taken back to the homepage. Sounded okay to me–but after ten minutes of no photos showing up in the album, I decided something went wrong and I needed to try again. The second attempt appeared successful and nothing seemed amiss, but the very next day, I found that all of my uploaded photos had been duplicated within the album. Yet another headache. All of that said and I haven’t even mentioned the numerous times that links or buttons don’t seem to do anything, do something strange, or have a delayed response of 30 seconds or more. Doesn’t seem like the type of application I typically use on a daily basis–especially when my connection runs at 3mbps. Google gets far more traffic than Facebook does each day, yet I never experience any of these types of errors when searching for, say, chicken pot pie recipes. Let’s just admit the fact that this is another huge problem and call it Strike Two.
The last point I’ll make involves the numerous interface changes that have occurred over the past year. First, we got a new site design that was heavily criticized by users. Next, Facebook deployed a new profile design which would supposedly make things simpler. Users cried foul. Then the homepage and feed interfaces changed to the point where most people sat scratching their heads wondering how in the world it worked. They also undoubtedly spend countless hours trying to determine how the information was updated, how Facebook deemed certain information relevant, and so on. And to top it off, just this past Friday, Facebook changed the global site navigation, notification system, and news feeds all over again. This update hasn’t yet been rolled out to all users, so I haven’t had the chance to test it. The screenshots look nice, but…again I’ve been hearing negative comments from users just the same. Now, to be fair, many people just don’t appreciate change and become immediately outraged when something becomes unfamiliar to them. But it seems to me like Facebook should do a better job of reassuring the multitudes of their continued dedication to providing an intuitive user experience. I haven’t seen any good PR addressing the concerns of users, which, in my ever so humble opinion is a huge mistake. However, because it’s hard to say whether or not what we have now is better than what we all used a year ago, I’ll call this Strike Two-and-a-half.
So…what about Facebook Email (Or could it perhaps be called “femail“)? This really could end up being a Strike Three scenario. I really don’t know what’s going to become of it and whether users will embrace it or not, but I’d say in order for it to be a truly viable, useful, and helpful service, Facebook will need to address all of the above considerations. It must be secure and free from breaches of privacy (within norms of traditional email). It must be stable and robust, allowing users to check their email without issue 24/7. It must have a good, usable, uncluttered interface. It must be able to be used as a standalone email platform with no proprietary ties to Facebook itself, if that’s what the user wants. And finally, it must be open. It needs to support traditional protocols like POP, IMAP, and SMTP. It needs to use SSL. It must support industry standard mail clients. I think that it’s fate will ultimately be decided based on consumer satisfaction. That being said, if I were a corporation, I think I would automatically block all email coming from that system without thinking twice. Mixing business and pleasure can be dangerous enough as it is, I can only imagine what might happen if you start mixing business and Facebook. Can anyone spell “disaster?” I think I’ll sit this one out and see what happens, but even then I’m in no hurry to leave Gmail’s spectacular service for both personal and business accounts.
Well, what do you think? Will Facebook actually roll out an email service? Will it catch on? Will you use it? The comments are open. Post your thoughts!
email, facebook email, facebook problems, femail, privacy, rumors
An open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Posted by Matt in Social Networks on December 3rd, 2009
It’s been a little over four years since I joined Facebook in the fall of 2005, shortly after beginning college. Facebook had just opened it’s doors to the general public after being exclusivly available only to those having .edu email addresses from major universities. I recognized it as then as just a fad, but potentially a major tool for connecting with friends, family, and colleagues. I quickly established my profile and encouraged my peers to register and do the same. It didn’t take long to begin building my social network on the ReadWrite web and it’s been nothing but upward from there–at least, as far as number of friends goes.
Unfortunately, the rest of the experience hasn’t been so rosy. Facebook says they’re improving the privacy experience in the coming weeks by removing regional networks and simplifying how the privacy controls work. I’m all for this action, because I believe that the current privacy model is, at best, confusing, and at worst just plain broken. But in reality, these new privacy controls are the least of my concerns. Facebook has it’s problems, sure, but one major issue are the advertisements that bombard users on every page of the site. They range from just plain annoying to visually assaulting, often times less than wholesome. The advertisement engine reads various profile details like gender, marital status, age, hobbies and interests, groups, pages, and more. It then targets various ads at users matching certain demographics and social data.
It’s not just disturbing, it’s downright scary.
What happens to the information collected by these ads? Does any of my personal data ever make it back to the hands of these 3rd parties? Is Facebook always recording my clicks and attempting to make predictions based on those? Since Facebook is based on a “friends” model, wouldn’t it make sense that I should have to approve or “friend” the types of advertisements that I see on the site? I realize that Facebook needs to make money, and I’m certainly not against allowing advertisements to augment a service provided to me free of charge. But I, instead, want to be able to choose which kinds of ads are shown while I’m logged into the site in addition to controlling what types of information these advertisements have access to. Not only that, I believe offensive ads should not be forced down my throat and I should be the one to decide which ones are offensive.
So, Mark and the staff at Facebook, please listen to me and users like me. Give us a choice as to what types of ads we see once you roll out the new privacy settings. Give us options to control how targeted the ads can be. Extend to us the hand of good will and truly improve the privacy and user experience that 350+ million users see each and every day.
We will all thank you for it.
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On a related note, users fed up with seeing all those ads should switch to Mozilla’s Firefox browser and install the AdBlock Plus extension, which effectively eliminates the ads on the site. This won’t help protect your privacy, but it will remove visual clutter from your life. It’s quite worth the 5 minutes it’ll take you to switch!
advertisements, facebook, mark zuckerberg, personal data, privacy
Facebook’s new “Live Feed” highly ineffective
Posted by Matt in Social Networks on November 22nd, 2009
In the past month, yet another change effected by popular social networking site Facebook has proven to be largely ineffective. The idea of being able to catch up on updates and happenings from friends by postponing the main feed updates until you’ve had time to sort through them is a good idea–in theory. Facebook presents users with a screen of updates that they wouldn’t have seen yet and holds new updates in a sort-of “queue” denoted by the link “Live Feed.”
If you only have a few friends (maybe fewer than 100 or so), this new mechanism probably works as intended…unless you simply never log in to Facebook on at least a semi-regular basis. But if you have multitudes of friends–the average being around 350 or so–being away for even a few hours can allow hundreds of updates to queue, all ready to inundate you upon returning. Are you going to read all of those updates? Doubtful. In fact, you’ll probably not even make it through 100 or even 50 of them! Most people simply just do not have the time, patience, or attention span required to deal with all of that information.
My question is this: if nobody takes the time to read the updates, why queue them at all? It’s just another “click” in getting through the routine. A needless click.
The Collapse of Facebook
Posted by Matt in Social Networks on October 25th, 2009
When a builder sets out to construct a skyscraper, he does not simply bulldoze the land, dig some holes, and start building. He relies on architects, structural engineers, designers, and artists to provide him a complete set of blueprints. Ones that will ensure that the building doesn’t collapse 10, 20, or even 30 years after completion. The building is designed with beauty, stability, and purpose. If it lacks beauty, no one will want to look at it; if no stability, nobody will use it for fear of collapse; if no purpose, it may sit vacant and empty indefinitely.
So is a company. No corporate entity exists without a purpose, collapses in on itself without a good foundation and stable management, and is shunned if it provides no aesthetic potential in the eyes of its users. Yes, the title of this entry may be a bit sensational and rather unbelievable on the whole, but may I suggest that it is indeed a great possibility in the not-so-distant future. Maybe not next year or even five years, but without serious changes from within, I believe that Facebook will eventually experience a serious meltdown–a casualty of its own existence.
There’s no doubt that Facebook had one of the highest growth rates of any web company in the relatively recent past. Since its inception in 2004 as a sort of “online yearbook,” it grew from only a handful of users to more than 300 million. That’s a huge amount of growth for a company not even 6 years old. Growth that explosive must be carefully managed lest the company’s infrastructure grow so rapidly that you end up with a structure that looks more like spaghetti than an organizational hierarchy. I can’t comment directly on Facebook’s organizational charts, but I hypothesize that the company may be in need of some restructuring based on the following points.
Poor Design and Structure
Facebook’s design and website structure have degraded over the past two years. If you used Facebook around 2 years ago, you’ll recall a site structure that was easy to navigate, it was simple to find contact information, adjust privacy settings, keep track of happenings in your friends’ lives, etc. The type of information displayed in the news feed was easy to sort through and interact with. Since then we’ve been through at least two relatively major redesigns of the site. I still sometimes have to hunt through menus and buttons in order to find exactly what I’m looking for. Even the news feed update on Friday, October 23rd has caused more confusion than it has clarity. I honestly can’t figure out how it’s supposed to work (and I’ve read the general announcement).
I know that some people just hate change, and I promise that I’m not just another one of those naysayers. I generally welcome change when it improves the user experience and provides additional value; however, I think you’ll find that many of the site’s users will agree that the past two updates have accomplished neither. The site really does need a makeover, but until the company can bring in some experts in usability and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and get things back on track, I fear that future updates may continue to add complexity and subject users to further confusion.
Substandard Customer Service
Honestly, I’m not sure where Facebook finds its philosophy on customer service, but I would submit them as an example of bad customer service. I can cite at least two poor experiences in interacting with Facebook staff. The first concerns the aforementioned design changes. I participated heavily in the beta program and also spoke loudly regarding the design choices along with many others. I saw a couple changes take place as a result before public release, but still most of the suggestions from many testers were largely ignored (or at least it seemed that way). Facebook just knows better than its customer base? I can’t understand why any company would take this tactic.
The second instance of a poor experience was the result of a recent job fair at my graduate institution. Facebook brought representatives to the fair and I stopped by to inquire about possible internships and/or future employment. After chatting briefly with a representative, I left the booth with the distinct feeling that I was of no interest to them. We hadn’t even gotten into talking about job qualifications and employment openings. I was simply handed a 4×5 card with some information on it and cold shouldered to the side. Bad move, guys.
Perhaps Facebook should consider the company Comcast, who uses its Twitter account to interact with customers, smooth over any potential problems, and answer questions. It seems that Facebook is more interested in simply talking about itself than it is interacting with customers. They need to be proactive about getting involved and calming dissatisfied users. Sure, maybe we aren’t paying anything to use their service, but that is absolutely no excuse to provide substandard customer support. If you operate a business, you assume the responsibility of keeping your customers happy whether they pay you or not.
Final Thoughts
Facebook isn’t dead…yet. Nor, really, are there too many up and coming contenders to its social network dominance; however, take a close look at MySpace. Even though their website interface and userbase were completely awful (and you’d be hard pressed to find many who disagreed), they were the #1 social network for quite sometime…before Facebook, which even in its current state is far more usable than MySpace ever was, overtook them. Social Networking is here to stay, but if companies like Facebook aren’t careful, they’ll end up like the now defunct car brand, Saturn: old and obsolete.
The strongest buildings have the best foundations provided by the best architects and engineers. Facebook revolutionized the social networking industry, but I sense a structural weakness within the corporation. Only time will tell whether it’s a fixable problem, or whether the structure will simply collapse under its own weight.
The Best Antivirus Protection: Common Sense
Posted by Matt in Browsers, General, Information, Social Networks, Web on October 4th, 2009
It’s been said that a little common sense goes a long way. I’d tend to agree, especially where your computer is concerned.
For years, most Windows-based computers have shipped with some sort of antivirus software preloaded–usually a 60 day trial of Norton or some other name-brand application. Some users will take the software as-is and either let their protection expire or pony up the $30-$40 for a full license after the trial period. Other users, perhaps those more experienced, will remove the preloaded antivirus and install their own favorite app. Various products include: McAffee, Kaspersky, Vipre, NOD32, AVG, and so on. Microsoft even has it’s own free security suite called Security Essentials. But the fact of the matter is: you may not even need antivirus!
Before you fall over in shock and disbelief, let me clarify that statement. A good antivirus suite is almost always better than none at all, but there are so many poor performers out there that you should make sure you use a product that won’t noticeably degrade your computer’s performance or take up valuable resources. Two I recommend checking out are Sunbelt’s Vipre and ESET’s NOD32. If you have a limited budget for malware protection, try AVG’s latest offering.
Back on topic, your best defense against the bad guys is a little common sense–whenever you’re using your computer. Follow these guidelines, and most likely, you can kiss that security suite goodbye for good!
- Surf with a purpose: If you’re on the Internet just to mess around or pass the time, you’re probably not helping matters in the least. While watching videos on YouTube is innocuous enough, searching for “funny videos” on Google and clicking a random result could be disastrous. Many humor-related sites are loaded with spyware and adware just waiting to install themselves on an unsuspecting victim’s computer. Usually some sort of user-interaction is required for the install to complete, but not in all cases. While this is just one example of such a possibility, there are many other categories of sites known for their less-than-benevolent actions. Only visit sites you know and trust.
- Secure your browser: If you’re still using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Firefox 3.0, Safari 3, or Chrome 1, your first task should be to upgrade your browser. Using a browser with known security flaws or outdated code can be one of the biggest security risks to your system. Whichever browser you choose, visit its vendor website for more information. For any browser, it’s smart to disable Java support since malware often uses Java to begin its installation. If you’re using Mozilla’s Firefox, install Adblock Plus to hide and disable nearly 100% of the advertisements you’d normally see.
- Use caution with email, Facebook, and Twitter: Attacks based on a concept dubbed “social engineering” are becoming far more common. Emails, Facebook messages, Twitter updates, Instant Messages, and just about any other form of online communication may promise lucrative returns if you’ll just click a link, provide some personal information, or allow an application to access your profile. Be extremely wary of these types of messages. They’re almost always 100% fake and generally come prepared to hack your account, give someone remote control of your computer, or even steal your identity! Just delete or close the message and move on.
- Avoid the suspicious: Ultimately, avoiding, or at least thoroughly researching anything suspicious looking will save you time, money, and big headaches down the road. Your motto should be: “If in doubt, don’t.” You’ll thank yourself later. Also, be a good web citizen by reporting spam to your ISP and letting social networks know when you spot suspicious activity on their site. You just might prevent someone else from triggering a disaster!
Finally, if you’re a Mac user, don’t assume you’re immune from attack. Any predator capable of hacking a Windows-based PC can do the same to an Apple OS X-based machine. The idea that you are invulnerable is a myth. Also, take the same level of care while social networking. Web Applications like Facebook don’t depend on your operating system and an attack is easy to stumble into on any platform.
Note: I am an expert in the computing industry and have been working sans antivirus protection for over 4 years without incident. Your computing safety is always your responsibility. Whether or not you run antivirus or antimalware software is your decision, but before attempting to do without, ensure you fully understand the risks and ramifications of doing so. I am not responsible for any damage you incur after reading this article. Proceed at your own risk!