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For me, Facebook was the first big social web application. It was a great way to connect with college friends and most importantly it featured a nice clean interface that was consistent throughout all users’ profiles. So what is it then that has happened to Facebook to make it look a little less glamorous.

I will start out by saying that Facebook is a growing company that is most likely just following the current trends to stay on top. Web2.0 apps are boundless in terms of the capability and often the applications’ purpose can get somewhat skewed.

Open Access

For starters, Facebook in my opinion has lost some of it’s marketing focus. It was such a cool web app to use and it was restricted to college students. The first big decision that was made was to open up Facebook to the world. This I think, although not the best decision, was the right one because a competitor would have just stolen Facebook’s users so they could interact with non-college friends. This decision however put Facebook in the MySpace realm; open to anyone!

I mean think about it, what is so cool about something anyone can get? You don’t desire to have a Porsche with a Hollywood mansion just because anyone can get it. College is another great example. Would I even care to mention that I have a degree from Georgia Tech if anyone could just fill out a form and get one? Probably not. We all want to have exclusive elements in our lives that helps make our stories great.

Customized Pages

The ability to customize pages is yet another reason I feel that Facebook is losing it coolness. Don’t get me wrong. I think the ability to do slight modifications is a great feature, but they should be subtle and limited. Facebook has kept somewhat of a general layout and is by no mean as bad as MySpace, but the addition of 3rd party apps has allowed users to clutter their pages and add ugly colors and graphics. The #1 thing I hear about why people don’t like MySpace is that the pages are hideous and some people need to take a graphics design course.

It really annoys me! It’s like visiting a website and every single page has a different style to it. Sure the top navigation is all the same, but the content area of the site is all different. Everyone has rearranged their content and layout so it is no longer consistent page-to-page. Although not that difficult, it takes extra time to find the type of information you are looking for because a user has moved it to the sidebar or placed it at the bottom of the page. And I don’t want to see someone’s big chicken scratch wall postings written with a paint brush! Besides, shouldn’t we leave site design and layout up to the people who make big $$$ researching the best way to display our information.

3rd Party Apps

Although a great way to scale Facebook into “whatever the world wants it to be”, 3rd party apps have caused Facebook to become the Walmart of the web. It is not that Facebook is necessarily doing anything directly to cause this, it is just the way that users are using their accounts. “Do it all” mentality seems to be a fault that most web companies fall into because it is so easy to simply expand your site features and offerings. But honestly, who wants a single website that can do it all? Why would I want to get stock updates, news feeds, and map directions while simultaneously managing my work calendar and uploading photos from a recent event all from within a single website? We’ll in my opinion, I don’t.

Even our friends at M$FT have found out that multipurpose apps have limits and in Vista decided to split the calendar and mail apps. It is really not good to have a site that has lost its market focus. I guess since I joined Facebook back in 2004, I still think of it as a social site for college students to connect with classmates and old friends. If I had joined now, I would probably be more confused about the purpose of the site. Imagine if McDonald’s started servicing oil and doing tire rotations; it just does not make since. I think companies do things best and are successful when they have decided on a marketing segment and have a good vision to serve their customers. I see Facebook starting to loose this.

Photos

This probably is one of the key reasons why Facebook was so popular and ironically, Facebook photos are complete garbage. While it is very cool to be able to tag people in the photos and link them to their Facebook profile, the images themselves are worthless. They are highly down sampled and reduced in resolution. I just hope people are not using Facebook as a backup tool for their photo libraries.

There are only a few things more aggravating to me than hearing the words “I’ll upload the photos to Facebook so you can all get them from there”. It’s like lighting a match under a barrel of gasoline! As the steam bursts from my ears, I calmly explain to them how I would actually like to use the photo for something other than a wallet photo. Most people have no concept about QUALITY and RESOLUTION. People kill me that use their digital camera and place it in compact mode to only take photos at 1/2 it’s capable resolution so they can fit more on the card. Sure I will agree that your monitor resolution is this low anyway and if you don’t want to print anything larger than a 8×11 it makes since, but what if 10 years from now you would like to show those photos on your 100″ monitor? Enough said.

I think Facebook photos really only became popular because it was the first time the majority of people on the Internet were able to share their photos with friends. Even though Flickr is clearly superior, most people still don’t know what Flickr is and are definitely not going to pay for an account. I will say that I use a 3rd party app to bring my Flickr photos into Facebook so I can share them with my friends. No Facebook tagging, but at least they are viewable.

Conclusion

In conclusion I think Facebook still is a cool social website and continues to dominate the social site trend. I just feel that its “do it all” mentality has begun to close the door on the Facebook hype. Maybe this is something that is just natural to happen with new ideas and Facebook is simply unwillingly going with the flow to stay alive. Who knows, but by opening access to the world, users no longer feel like they are apart of something exclusive. Customization of a users content, although applauded by some, is highly distracting and a huge annoyance. Facebook is clearly an very innovative company and should proceed with caution so they do not become the next MySpace that everyone hates.

Update

Paul also seems to be having issues with Facebook.