I have been wondering what to write for my first entry on this new shiney blog. I considered importing some of my favourite old blog posts but thought that a little cheap; it is something I will do with time. Then my brain resumed its normal operation and I had a flurry of ideas, but thought I would start with some concerns I have over Facebook Connect, the new service from Facebook.
To give you a quick background, I did some research into Facebook with the scope of Innovative Business for an academic paper I was writing for my degree, titled ‘Facebook is just like big brother Microsoft’. I won’t bore you with the lengthy paper I wrote, nor the evidence I found, but a few things still bug me about the service they are running.
- Firstly, we are heralding this as ‘new thinking’ and ‘innovative’, yet I can’t help but think this is a power grab. Widespread adoption of the Connect service makes Facebook the de-facto login standard for multiple gateways, giving it a little too much power. Not only could this add to Facebooks growing monopoly of web traffic but could potentially stop some users from joining non-connect affiliated websites.
- I also wonder about the strategic alliances between Facebook and Microsoft. Not only does Microsoft hold stock in Facebook but has the exclusive ad-publishing deal on the network. Is this Windows Passport 2.0?
- Microsoft (along with Yahoo and Google) recently partnered with OpenID, then removed most references when it fizzed out and nobody gained control. If a strategic alliance remains in place, Yahoo and Google could find themselves in some serious trouble!
- We all know Facebook has had trouble monetizing (compared to similar, social networks). Connect may provide Facebook with the ability to track external user movement and thus better target ads – this really raises some privacy concerns to me.
- I also wonder if Facebook will try to pressure smaller companies to place Microsoft Ads once Connect becomes prominent. Facebook needs to monetize, and if I was in charge I’d certainly try it!
- I also worry purely because Facebook has a history of bullying smaller companies (see the case against Brazilian ‘Power’). Effectively, Power let people view snippets of Facebook feeds on the Power website. Facebook claimed this caused irreparable damage and can steal user bases (yet ironically, Facebook gains many users via automatically inviting Gmail / MSN friends) etc. Jumping to litigation was their first response with Power – can smaller companies adopting connect afford that?
- Facebook has also recently become prominent in OpenID by joining the board. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, they really are competing services. We can talk about cooperation all we want, if Facebook users adopt OpenID (with its current structure) Facebook loses money!
With all of these criticisms being aired, I am not totally against Connect. It is a great service and hell, I have even implemented it on this blog. However, after Facebooks failing and privacy intrusions with ‘Beacon’ I do worry about the long term direction..just a little!