I opposed facebook being open to the public, because myspace and friendster took care of that already. I was much more comfortable with the community aspect of it, rather than the networks that exist now e.g. The New York network.

Granted, you can’t see the profile of the person until they approve you as a friend, but it’s just one step into taking away what facebook was made for: school/community/interest networks.

And if facebook becomes searchable via Google….well that makes me really uncomfortable.

One of the things i liked about facebook vis-a-vis myspace was that the interface is/was standardized. Using both past and present tense here because now there are a zillion new doodads and applications that people add, but the color schematic is still the same. I hope they don’t go overboard with the applications, but who knows what will happen.

In contrast, myspace is all over the place. People who have no idea how to design a webpage or who have no idea what color/font would go with a background go nuts with it. The result is barely readable profiles, music on loop, 4,234892049832 photos, and a scrolling nightmare.

I completely got off topic there, but back to the original discussion, facebook definitely made things fun in my college years. I’m sure it will continue to be so and of course be an invaluable resource for keeping in touch with people you’ve had a mutual experience with in the past.

Frankly, I’m surprised that Google hasn’t stepped up to the plate on this one. If there’s a single realm in which the world’s information has yet to be “organized and made universally accessible and useful”, it’s a directory of human beings.