Facebook : Now with 100% more Creepy!

If you were to ask me what I think about Facebook I would probably say something like "Facebook? Well, Facebook is Facebook"

If you are able to read between the lines, that pretty much means that I really love Facebook for certain things, like finding events and looking at friends pictures and of course keeping track of friends updates...whether they want me to or not.

So last night I was doing a little of all of that when I noticed a new feature...it was a little something called "Subscribe to Sarah". The Subscribe to Sarah feature is pretty much exactly what is sounds like...once I click on the Subscribe to Sarah link I will be notified by sms every time Sarah updates her profile in anyway...and the best part is that she isn't notified of people subscribing to her so I, or others can creep all they want anonymously.



Now here are a few things that this makes me think of.

1-This makes me feel old because I remember the good old days when you had to do a little work to stalk a pretty girl :)

2-I wonder why no one else is talking about this?

3-This solidifies my feelings that Facebook is a great consumer application but as far as a business platform it is still missing some features.

4-I wonder why they added rss to profiles and not to groups because that would add real value since I cant remember the last time I checked on any of the groups I have joined.

All this aside, there is one very cool reason to start using the Subscribe to Sarah feature specifically for Canadian users and that is this could be an easy fix for lack of Twitter SMS in Canada. By Subscribing to Sarah with some of your closest friends, assuming they import their tweets to Facebook you will be able to bring that feature back to life.

So what do you think?

Good?

Bad?

Let me know...oh...I just checked and it looks like they also added Subscribe to Sameer, Subscribe to Laura, Subscribe to Amanda, Subscribe to Paige, Subscribe to Stephanie and Subscribe to Rayanne features as well...must have been a busy day over there at Facebook adding all this stuff :)

You talking to me?

A few hours ago I tweeted the following message on Twitter.

[ADVICE] If you are applying for a job with me you should erase that Facebook photo album titled "Halloween" It sends a strange impression

it has since gone away for some reason (not sure why) but in this time I have received 14 email or direct messages asking if I was talking to them.

In truth I was making a general statement not directed at anyone, but inspired by someone I know posting a series of lingerie shots of herself from a Halloween party.

I am glad this happened since it confirms to me that people read my tweets but also that Twitter is a powerful tool to create very one to one messages.

...and for those 14 people who reached out to me, If my tweet made you feel funny then maybe you should think again about your online profiles :)

Generation Web 3.0 - Are we becoming this?

I received a Seesmic invite toady and I got all excited. I told a friend and he asked what Seesmic was so I explained it as Twitter but with short video messages instead of the 140 characters. This excited him immediately swore off ever twittering again.

This got me thinking...are we becoming a disposable generation that has no brand loyalty or tech loyalty that will only stay with a product or service until something extra shiny comes along?

I can only speak for myself but I am super brand loyal to products and some retail stores but online (and gadgets) I do seek out the shiny objects.

Unless I am sent a message I don't spend much time on FaceBook anymore because I can keep up with people I want to keep up with on Twitter...and not have to deal with the invitations to become a vampire etc. Seesmic looks interesting and may hold my attention for longer but who really knows.

Am I the only one experiencing this?

I don't know if this is the fault of Music Videos or because of Baby Einstein videos but there seems to be no attention span for new technology and if I am right about this Generation Web 3.0 thingie (a phrase I thought up) them I doubt any social media application will be able to rest on what got people originally interesting in it. Getting shiny and staying shiny will have to be the mandate or you will always be fueling your machine with late comers while all the key early adopters will be off to the next thing....and if that is the case I hope the next thing has holograms.

Cause I love holograms.

saul

My Birthday just past and someone forgot to wish me Happy Birthday!

The past Friday was my birthday and a bunch of people in my life forgot to acknowledge the day......I got a bunch of nice phone calls/emails and a whole whack of friends wrote nice things on my Facebook wall but I didn't any thing from Facebook itself.

....or Amazon, Ebay, or even a credit card provider.

Every year around my birthday I wonder if any of the sites or services I willingly give my personal information too will make me feel special and win me over as a loyal fan/customer for life.

......and every year I sit scratching my head wondering why people miss this obvious opportunity.

It would be embarrassing for me to mention how much money I have spent (happily) at Amazon and I will continue to do so but a simple email from someone like them would go miles with me to make me feel like I am not just a nameless faceless customer. I am not a computer programmer but I imagine setting up a automated email to kick out a letter on your birthday would not be too hard but the value of it would be worth much more them the cost!

You may be reading this and thinking I am making a big deal about nothing.....and you may be right BUT small gestures make BIG impressions and can secure or loose future business.

...and in case anyone was curious. Out of the thousands of places I have given personal information to I only received 1 electronic Birthday greeting....it was from a comic book message board called Jinxworld........and that is where I am going right now!

saul