Facebook Needs Further Evolution

Call it a generational divide. I’m in my 40s and I don’t find Facebook as enthralling as others who are younger and see it as their primary communications tool. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn (more than MySpace) have the potential to be a kind of “dashboard” for their users, helping them manage communications and content across the Internet. (LinkedIn has done deals with BusinessWeek and more recently with the NYTimes to integrate “recommended” news content.)

The communications and community angle makes it potentially more valuable and personal than search, which is a kind of generic utility. And just yesterday Facebook launched its long-anticipated redesign and is now somewhat more usable. But in my view it doesn’t go far enough.

Today the company is also having the second of its developer conferences. But it seems to me there’s a larger vision missing, though the company is plainly ambitious.

I’ve always critiqued Facebook as more about novelty and entertainment than utility. Those who love Facebook and use it daily obviously disagree and stress the communications value of the site. And some find it an effective marketing vehicle. How would I make the site more “useful?”

• First I’d add Web search, which I always thought would be provided by Microsoft, but I discovered that it wasn’t part of the deal when Microsoft invested.
• Then I’d take a page from MyYahoo or iGoogle and create an area where users could set up feed widgets of their favorite content.
• Partly my complaints about Facebook are about the UI, which the company has addressed somewhat with its redesign.

But, in my mind, Facebook should be the single place where I can:

• Manage and read important content (feeds, alerts)
• Search the Internet for information (since I’m already there)
• Search friendfeeds for recommendations
• Search apps content (metasearch) for recommendations or desired information.

In particular, local content and recommendations should be much stronger on Facebook than they are. This is a particularly strange weakness given Facebook’s location-specific legacy.

Then there are the ad challenges. Facebook is undermonetizing in part because people are mostly there to communicate and have fun. If some of these directional tools that I’m suggesting are added then there are more, and more effective, monetization opportunities that emerge. COO Sheryl Sandberg (an ex-Google VP) certainly understands that.