It's quite obvious that you didn't take a close look at David's dive into the Facebook story and misson; rather then him specifically looking at this announcement. It's also quite obvious that you're a few years removed from the Facebook generation to realize how loyal their customer base is.

Kirkpatrick’s story on the announcement and the overall mission of Facebook nailed it on several levels.

Personally, as a Generation Yer, the story hit pretty close to home.

The whole story of Facebook really defines our generation and I’m telling you first hand; the college crowd isn’t going to leave…Like many college alums I have started to dabble in other social networks for “professionals” like LinkedIN, but Facebook keeps pulling me back. Why?

Because it’s about cultivating relationships with people I already know and have shared 3:00 a.m. bleary-eyed discussions with. Like Kirkpatrick duly noted.

Slowly after some time the college crowd will start to go back less frequently but they will still check-in from time-to-time and the next generation of college and high school students will carry the torch.

I was graduating as an undergraduate when Facebook first came to my university and it instantly took off. The funniest thing is that the class that graduated ahead of me has no idea what the Facebook phenomenon really is.

Just one year difference and they don’t understand how closely entwined Facbook became in everyday College life. From organizing parties & fund raisers, sharing pictures, stories, declaring relationships and viewpoints, defining myself, letting me know my friend from abroad was having their birthday, letting people know where I was; it became a daily part of my life.
In truth these days, it’s like waking up in the morning and reading an online newspaper about what is going on across your “Friend’s World.”

That’s what the feeds have enabled. Yeah, it started out as a great hook-up tool for frat brothers but it has evolved into so much more. That’s why this announcement from Zuckerberg didn’t catch me off-guard at all.

Involving your friends in everything you do online; is what Facebook has already turned into. It’s even more actually. It’s the tool to include your friends in everything you do in your life. At least in my social circles…

Facebook is going to end up being Microsoft’s best move of the decade because I truly believe Facebook will far surpass Myspace in the next couple years and become a company that is mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Yahoo! and Google.

As long as Zuckerberg doesn’t let the site become overly commercial and sticks to the mission of “growing your relationships online with old and new friends” Facebook will be the company that we are talking about in the next decade.

“I Googled it” and “I Facebooked him” will be synonymous phrases in all social circles..

I'm subscribed to PaidContent's RSS and read all of your coverage, but I felt like this particular post of yours was taking a contrarian point of view just for the sake of showing you're not drinking the kool-aid, rather than out of any factually-based arguments.

You ask if WSJ was "spun with a deliberate leak", then admit they probably weren't, then continue to discuss it as if they were. The fact is the WSJ article got several points wrong, so if it was a leak, it was a very bad one. More likely, to my mind, is that they saw Eliot Van Buskirk's tip, then started hounding whatever contacts they have at Facebook, who may not have been willing to give much information, leaving the WSJ to extrapolate, guess, or misinterpret what little information they did get.

As for the rest of the post, I think you're missing several key points. Even if this were just widget access, providing universal, deeply integrated access is a big deal. In point of fact, we're talking about more than widgets. Facebook is becoming a centralized, personalized platform for user application development. That's a big deal, not hyperbole.

You can find my key coverage round-up and analysis at http://socialstrategist.com/2007/05/24/social-strategists-guide-to-the-facebook-open-platform . I hope you'll leave a comment, I'm always interested in differing viewpoints when they're well supported.

Thanks for your time,
~Jay Neely, Social Strategist
http://socialstrategist.com

If you think these are just widgets you are very misinformed. The idea that technologically Facebook is "catching up" to MySpace is hilarious–and fundamentally wrong.

bubble 2.0 anyone?

Fortunately, Facebook does, in a big way.