Comments on: Facebook is not the new AOL

By: Steven Jones

Steven Jones — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:14:56 +0000

If I recall correctly my first home internet access was via AOL, although rather like yourself I ignored all the inbuilt front end and just launched IE, (or maybe even Netscape back then!) and got on with it. Ditched AOL for NetcomUK after a while, then them for Free9 during the ‘free’ internet craze, until cable turned up and utopia like access began
I guess the largest difference is people have to choose to use facebook, rather than it being somewhat forced upon people, in the way Compuserve/AOl did, or at least attempted to do, and it’s hardly a lightly contested area either.

By: Alex Watson

Alex Watson — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:03:39 +0000

Yes, I too find myself using FB apps that pull in info from outside – I think that’s another area where FB is quite different to AOL/Compuserve 1.0 – it’s really easy to pull in RSS feeds, and data from other places. I can see why you’re changing the focus of your blog, too – the nice thing about FB is you can keep a certain amount of info private, and use the public blog for more general things.

By: Steven Jones

Steven Jones — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:31:19 +0000

Interesting thoughts, I must admit my recent delving into all this face book have been quite rewarding, perhaps for the very reason that I’m linking up with friends who otherwise wouldn;t be ‘creating’ web content.
To be fair, wherever possible I’m using fb-apps that make use of external sites (Flickr, Flixster, Shelfari) where ever possible so I’m somewhat more free of the wall, but then again as you say, in this spam filled world that our internet has become, some of those walls make a refreshing change.
And if you ever want to see what happens when some of those walls are removed you only have to look at some of the mess on MySpace to see why not everyone has the skills to be ‘free’ !