Facebook is …. Scary

I intended to use the word ambitious as many people used in their review after f8, but I really feel scary is the better word – that is more than ambitious – that is super ambitious.

The announcement of Facebook on F8 is very exciting. I just spent a little time to try out these features. Below are some buttons you can try to play with. Be cautious: I need to tell you this, clicking on the like button will tell your friends that you Like Wangjianshuo’s blog, which may be true.

Like button:

Activity Feed:

Recommendation:

I should have implemented on wangjianshuo.com, but I cannot, because Facebook.com is blocked in China and adding that iframe will trouble my domestic readers.

Facebook is a good company

When Google was about to IPO, I said this to Wendy: “No matter how expensive Google’s stock is, we should buy some.”

It turned out that it was about 100 USD on the first day. “What?” I was shocked, and did nothing, because I realized “No matter how expensive” really means “not higher than 30 USD per share”.

For Facebook, I repeat again, I will buy its stock at whatever initial price it is. This time, “whatever” does mean “whatever”.

9 thoughts on “Facebook is …. Scary

  1. I don’t know if you can answer this question, Jianshuo. But here it goes.

    Facebook.com is allegedly blocked in China. But you seem to be accessing it from Shanghai.

    I know some people access blocked sites via proxy servers and the such.

    My question is — can you see other blocked sites from where you are?

    Can you see my blog, which is allegedly blocked?

    I’m curious, because Joyceyland is supposedly not available, but I see visitors’ IP addresses or ISPs from China sometimes. (Rarely, but sometimes).

  2. By the way, I find Facebook a little scary, too.

    Because it seems private (unlike a blog), I think it lulls people into a sense of security. They feel they can post all sorts of personal photos and information, without thinking about what they are doing. Some friends were surprised when I told them that total strangers can look at their profiles, etc.

    Not everyone is savvy about altering their privacy settings.

    I read that there is a problem in the U.S. of kids using Facebook, Myspace, etc, and uploading, say, naked photos of themselves as a joke. They don’t realize that this stuff can be accessed by strangers all over the world.

    ***

    I also put some personal info on my blog, but I am fully aware of how public it is.

    ***

    I have friends who insist that I am “missing out” if I am not also Twittering, as well as on LinkedIn, Facebook, GoogleReader, GoogleAlert, and a million other things.

    I don’t agree. I think, actually, that having too many online projects just dilutes your attention.

  3. @Joyce

    The facebook thing with kids in the US is true. I think part of the problem, was, when I joined FB, way back when, it was only open to University students; FB had to check your email to make sure you were a University student. So students did what they would, posting pictures of parties and the like, with the knowledge that, back then, no one outside could see the info. As FB has expanded, I think a lot of the original user base treats it like it used to be.

  4. I fail to contact Facebook all the time as I haven’t learnt how to ‘climb over the wall’ so far. It is probably a bigger stage to many people writing blogs in the internal sites since we may get more information quickly from it and make friends with more persons in the world, What is more, it is freer and more convenient for us to acquire some news that we want to know and but don’t know. I wonder when the blocking can been lifted and can log in it.

    Ps: I can’t see the pictures you posted.

  5. I just heard a chinese “idiom” from my friends, “君要臣死,臣facebook”, so interesting?

  6. Hey everyone —

    I agree that Facebook isn’t THAT interesting. It’s cool at first. But after a while, you get a little bored reading about whether your ex-boyfriend is on vacation, or your cousin has a new photo of her dog.

    I don’t really consider FB blogging, since you can’t write anything long. It’s not exactly filled with quality material, and there’s very little real news. I find Twitter even worse. (Just my personal opinion).

    But I still think it sucks that these things are blocked in China.

    People should, at least, be able to have a look to see if they like FB, Twitter or other popular media.

    @ qingtingwei — Thanks for your response. So you can read my blog, but not see photos?

  7. I am traveling in China for the last several days.

    My internet experience: Any thing to do with google apart from search and straightforward email you cannot access. I could access some google apps in Shanghai but not in Xing tai. Even blogger no way. Facebook – No. My company email service that I pay google for and uses as a service: Not accessible. It is really frustrating.

  8. Joyce Lau—-I just saw your had left me the message. Sorry. Actually I don’t even know where your blog is.

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