Facebook's dabblings in TV suggest Zuck isn't actually a genius after all Mark Zuckerberg is the world's fifth-richest man on the basis that stock markets think he's pretty smart. That's not the entire reason for Zuck taking his place alongside Gulf oil sheikhs – but it's certainly a big factor in Facebook's astronomical evaluation. But this week's Facebook strategy insights make you wonder how smart …
It's amazing how much serendipity and luck are actually involved in these successful businesses, or indeed a top performing sports team. Human life is intrinsically stochastic, but it doesn't seem to stop people trying to emulate their 'heroes' by blithely copying their habits/practices.
That's not it.
Zuckerberg is just the face of an organization bankrolled by venture capital front companies of the CIA, and in Google's case also the NSA and INSCOM.
The whole "starting a company from your garage or dormroom" is American dream propaganda. The reason his crappy PHP forum took off, and yours didn't, was the full backing of the US surveillance industrial complex.
It's the new way to experience Event Telly. Offspring 1 watched the most recent Sherlock series with phone, open on a FB chat with her mates who were watching the same show.
Effectively, they watched it together, in their separate living rooms/bedrooms/kitchens.
"Effectively, they watched it together, in their separate living rooms/bedrooms/kitchens."
While that might sound like a Grim Future, it's probably better than being forced to watch whatever my parents wanted (and/or putting up with their moaning when we got our own way).
On balance, a second telly in the house would have sufficed.
Where's the great content? <G> I should have missed it. I saw mostly marketing-driven content probably based on some big-data analysis of preferences of those people who live watching TV.
Facebook could easily move its business model to TV: Social "contents" - think the stupid reality/contests we see everywhere, tied to its "social network" to allow Facebook "users" interact somehow and believe they're "part of the show". And there's many ways to insert ads in such shows.
Given the actual world status, I can't see why it shouldn't be a success...
Quite agree, TV is now a camel rather than a horse. Designed for/by a committee of millions, now lowest common denominator sludge. Can't we have Play for today* back? Christ, even Crown Court* would knock 90% of today's drivel into a cocked hat.
*Sorry to Left Pondians/rest of the World for the obscure 70's UK TV references.
"Sorry to Left Pondians/rest of the World for the obscure 70's UK TV references."
Your obscure '70s UK TV references have been forgiven. Go and make obscure '70s UK TV references no more.
The picture accompanying this article is easily among the creepiest stock photos that El Reg uses. They make Marky Mark look like he sharpens his canines (which he may well do).
Goddamned vampires.
"Facebook could easily move its business model to TV: Social "contents" - think the stupid reality/contests we see everywhere, tied to its "social network" to allow Facebook "users" interact somehow and believe they're "part of the show"."
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) - Futuristic Interactive TV
"The future is now, but it's all going wrong." - The The, Perfect
Tying peoples Digital Rights to a platform and advertising revenue. Lets face it, once you have bought lots of music on iTunes, or been buying TV series to watch on your TalkTalk player, you soon realise that you cant move your music, films or TV series to another platform.
Suckmyberg is just following the crowd, having exploited peoples Ego's with Facebook.
What music I've bought via itunes sits on my LAN and I can copy it to where ever I want. However, I mostly buy CDs and those play on TVs, computers, stand alone HiFi equipment. and can be ripped to whatever device I like. Now I have no interest in Apple Music, spotify, Google whatever, or any other streaming/subscription malarkey because those things are truly rip offs.
This article stands with others along the lines of "Does gravity make you fall?" "Is water wet?" and "Is Trump insane?"
Farcebook is a pile of poo. The UI sucks big time. Want to read the most recent comments on a post when there are a lot of comments? Chronological order seems like a good way, until you realize it puts the newest posts at the bottom, not the top where you want them.
It's a pile of shit catering to narcissists. It took off because some people are so self-obsessed they'll put up with a really shitty interface as long as they can post their banal, trite, masturbatory crapfest.
Zuck isn't a genius, he was just lucky that the pile of shitty garbage he put together was slightly more popular than similar piles of shitty garbage that were around at the time and that positive feedback kicked in. Without Zuck we might have had something a lot better.
"Without Zuck we might have had something a lot better."
Without Zuck this would be an articale about Tom and Myspace. You may not like facebook but the billions of people who use it at least think it's the best for their needs. FriendsReunited, Myspace, Bebo, many tried before Facebook and many since but like it or not, facebook has survived and grown because it is very good at what it does.
There's a shortsightedness in the tech world these days. When someone hits the jackpot, the past is ignored and forgotten, the inconvenient bits shuffled out of sight. In the quest for a bite-size article, important details are omitted until nothing is left but "Person does something and got rich! It must be genius!" Cue bright lights and cultlike worship.
The truth is rarely like that. I suspect tech folks desperately want to believe in the Next Huge Thing, trying to forget about the myriad of tech startups that went utterly bust. They want to ignore the role that luck and being in the right place at the right time have played in many tech successes. They want to believe that these poster kids justify Silicon Valley et al's inflated sense of importance. Have you ever seen a bigger mutual-admiration society?
If Farcebook were first released now, it would not reach the heights it has. It arrived as people got tired of Myspace and was easier to use. These days, "everyone else is on FB so I have to be" keeps their numbers high, not that "people think it's the best".
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