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February 05, 2007

Did Facebook Blow It?

Rob Hof

That's the question GigaOM's Robert Young is asking. And from a couple of the answers in the post's comment section, the answer doesn't sound good for the social-networking service's chances of getting the $1 billion-plus buyout that had been widely rumored. Since joining Facebook a couple of months ago, I've found it a clean, well-designed service, unlike a lot of rival services. But maybe social networking simply isn't a great place to reach people with a pitch. They're too busy networking.

01:30 PM

Facebook, Yahoo, advertising, social networks

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I think you hit it right on the head. I don't think it's an issue across all social networking sites, but Facebook certainly operates in a very smooth "stream-of-consciousness" sort of manner. That means a lot more clicking, and a lot less time sitting on a page, because you're busy checking out what you want to check out.

Unless something intrusive happens, say for example a large ad on a log-in screen or an interstitial before jumping into the site, there's not a lot of long-term eye time which is of benefit to the marketers.

As for the $1 billion buy-out. I think it's still too early to decide, but I'd be more worried about the next big innovation coming out of left field than monetization of the current site.

Posted by: Ron at February 5, 2007 05:04 PM