25 Things – Tending the Walled Garden

All kidding aside, the 25 Things Meme is a big story and it’s clearly got a lot of coverage. Compete.com revealed that the meme was single-handedly responsible for the biggest single month of traffic increase in the history of Facebook (both in quantity of pages views and in percentage of growth). It also happened to coincide with Facebook finally getting more pageviews in a single month than MySpace in North America. That’s the buzz. But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

From a product perspective, Facebook is quickly lowering its appeal to me. Espespecially because of this meme. It used to be that Facebook was essentially spam-free. That it was a safe haven from emails from uninteresting or un-solicited junk mail. While I (and only I) might be fascinated with my Uncle’s golf swing I am not really interested in him asking me to share it with others. That’s the finer point of social networking netiquette, I realize, but still. It’s a spam thing. It’s a chain letter from a friend.

Facebook has taken measures to prevent spam in its applications in the past (a year ago, nearly). The precedence for them limiting the unintended downside of social networking. But this kind of spam will be harder to prevent. What’s more, the barrier to entry on this is so small for notes. While there may be 600,000 application developers capable of creating a viral effect in their application, there are 150,000,000 Facebook users who can author the next Note meme. 

That sound you just heard was the sound of 149,999,999 UGH’s. 

The Next Great Meme?

So, the question remains: What is Facebook to do? 

As a product developer, I would discourage my clients from Facebook’s current (seemingly deliberate) silence on the subject. For the amount of traffic they generate, their blog is clearly not used as a promotional mechanism, but as a strict Public Relations broadcast tool. They really don’t encourage dialog. But then again, nor does google, yahoo, AOL or MSN. When these companies are ready to reveal something (such as a change in privacy policy, or a new partnership), they first mention it on their blogs. They get feedback and, barring any mass upheaval, go ahead with the plan as stated. Facebook has a precedence for both changing their minds after getting feedback on their blog. Sans announcement, there is only one recourse for the facebook community: taking it to the Web.

The irony here, of course, is that Facebook as a product is a walled garden. It’s the new AOL. By having a walled garden, Facebook is taking on the task of policing the territory as well. In seeking to become a “platform” for the Web it must face these challenges head on (and responsibly). As it gains marketshare, how it deals with the unintended consequences of its product experience will become more important. It comes with the territory, not just the product. Ask Microsoft and Ma Bell. But if they’re going to address it, they need to do so at the product level. Whether or not you want to announce the change is another story. 

My Recommendations?

• Limit the number of people that can be added to a note in a single take.
• Limit the number of people that can be added to a photo.
• Give users who, like me, prefer not to be added to notes, the choice to be automatically opted out. 

What do you say?

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