So who still hates the new Facebook layout?
It’s amazing how the attitude of social network users shifts from hour to hour, let alone day to day. On Wednesday, my feed was a swarm of complaints, awash with keyboard warriors vowing “Enough is enough, I’ll never use this disgraceful clustermess ever again. Consider yourself disowned, Zuckerberg. It’s OVER!”
A few hours later and the same unsettled crowd could be spotted on Facebook Chat, presumably sniffing around for replies and likes to their outbursts.
Facebook seem to be back in everybody’s good books after news of the innovative Timeline, which seems to be a scrapbook of sorts allowing every facet of your life to be captured and spotlighted. It has definitely been interesting to watch the reaction, and you can activate your Timeline today by following these steps.
While the social web is busy working out how to set Spotify to avoid posting their One Direction fetishes to Facebook, the rest of us have been evaluating what this means for businesses going forward.
How will marketing on Facebook change?
I think the most significant development, addressed here by Christopher Penn, will be the isolation of how we actually reach customers. ‘Liking‘ has proven to be a profitable viral beast over the last year, but it’s tough to see how the new interface will allow that to continue with all the signs pointing towards apps as the new prerequisite for trends to go viral.
It seems to me that Facebook is serving up two options for small businesses. Build an app, or buy some ads. For those of you have dabbled in Facebook Ads over the last six months, I think I can safely say that there’s never been a worse time to use the self-serve Ads platform. Escalating click prices, rising competition… almost enough to make me build the damn app myself, whatever it takes to avoid auctioning my left kidney for $2/click.
Will Google+ seize the day and roll out a suitable alternative for businesses to advertise on their network? I have to ask, seriously, what would be the fucking point? The only people who would bother to advertise are those who have something to sell to Robert Scoble or Chris Brogan. Last time I checked, they were the only people showing up in my feed.
Social sniping aside, the last few days have been eventful. Facebook certainly isn’t the only big news of the week.
Some scientists managed to break the speed of light. Pretty impressive. The most I ever broke in science was a Bunsen burner and a few pencils on my head out of boredom. How times change when you’re no longer a 15 year old prat with bridges to burn.
I hate to blow stories out of proportion, especially on the subject of science (which I massacred at school), but this really could be huge if the results are verified. The sort of revelation that leaves Einstein blushing in his grave.
If time travelling atoms aren’t enough of a seismic mindfuck for you, how about the ability to record your dreams and play back the footage on a screen? That’s what this UC Berkeley experiment seems to be paving the way for.
Clearly it’s been a pretty incredible week for technology and science enthusiasts alike.
So go ahead and make the most of your weekend, I’m sure we’ll be back to stock market scaremongering by Monday.
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