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Apple should just buy Facebook.

Would put them in awesome position to compete with Google.

Apple has more then enough cash on hand.....

I'm sure they understand that facebook is a fad and will be worthless within five years. Plus, it's dumb.
 
And now for something completely different . . .

I don't find Ping very innovative. It's quite imitative (even using the same lexicon as Facebook, e.g., "Like" and "Post"). And it's housed in local software that doesn't feel as fluid or intuitive as most Web apps.

What would I do differently?

Start with something completely different. Draw people in with content instead of building a skeletal social network when people have absolutely no motivation to join. Apple's iTunes is built around media, but when you go to Ping, do you hear music? No! I would make it so that there is a 24 hour stream of new and interesting music being streamed when you are in the iTunes Store (with a mute option, of course). There could be buttons on the top of the store to either Like, Buy, Bookmark, or Look at that song. There's some social activity right there, and you don't even have to leave the iTunes Store for another screen. Another idea would be having people vote for the next song to be played. This would garner massive interest because, although people can of course listen to whatever song they want at any time, people like to promote their own favorites, and there really has been no digital replacement of requesting songs on the radio. Having only one or two streams coming from the world's largest digital jukebox software across Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads makes those streams special because of the limitation of having only a couple streams and because of the large audience, and sites like Facebook and fan forums would be a twitter with people entreating fans to vote for particular songs. This takes iTunes' massive library and makes it more singularly exciting. And from this, I could see a social network like Ping taking form, where iTunes users post on bands' Ping pages and engage in discussions about music, finding new songs, which songs they want to agree to vote on, etc. iTunes could have special days of certain types of music they stream all day too. Make the iTunes Store a social experience and destination. The iTunes Store should make music--most music stores from days gone by you walked into had music playing. And people can talk and engage with each other about that music, vote, debate, argue, and buy on a global scale.

Otherwise the iTunes Store is just a vast, large, quiet library collecting dust. If you want people to interact, have them interact about what is already there: the actual music (being played out loud)! Not organizing them into some system where the only thing to do is write inane comments.

Just an idea. Apple should pay me millions.
 
I'm sure they understand that facebook is a fad and will be worthless within five years. Plus, it's dumb.

People like you have been saying that for over two years now. First it was "It'll be gone in 6 months," then it was "it'll be gone in a year," etc. It's not going to die anytime soon, deal with it.

People use Facebook, and I would argue that for my generation, it has become a integral part of our culture. There isn't a single person that I know who doesn't have a Facebook.

Also, it is not dumb and useless. I'm currently involved in a write-in campaign for my school board election. The candidate who I am volunteering for was hardly known in my town until a week ago when I convinced her to start a Facebook page. Guess what, now there is hardly a person in my town who doesn't know her name, and her Facebook page has had over 7,000 hits in the last 5 days; and it all started with me recommending the page to 160 people. Facebook is a useful tool. Deal with it and accept it.

-Don
 
People like you have been saying that for over two years now. First it was "It'll be gone in 6 months," then it was "it'll be gone in a year," etc. It's not going to die anytime soon, deal with it.

People use Facebook, and I would argue that for my generation, it has become a integral part of our culture. There isn't a single person that I know who doesn't have a Facebook.

Also, it is not dumb and useless.

-Don

Facebook is not dumb and useless. I would argue, however, that an awful lot of people use it for dumb and useless purposes.

Your candidate is an example of how it COULD be useful. The 100 or so "friends" linked to my page generally post info and comments that I really couldn't care less about knowing. I visit my page every 2 months or so to see what ridiculous crap they have displayed for all the world to see, probably while on company time.

Ping may measure into this, but I think that it will get lost in the white noise that represents 99.7% of Facebook postings. In that sense, I think Steve Jobs is correct in: 1. Keeping a separate, focused interface in iTunes; and 2. not paying much for the interaction.
 
I dunno...Zuckerberg has a face like he went bobbing for French Fries. And anyone worth billions can certainly afford to dress in anything else but the finest Rayon that Wal-Mart has to offer.

Dude, I am with you... But remember Steve back in 1997, returning to Apple. Wearing shorts and sneakers, confronting a whole board and casually asking "what is wrong with us?"... and before anyone says a thing, says... "the products SUCK!"

The clothing has nothing to do with anything here... Two genuises, and two generations are meeting, that's pretty big! I ain't a big fan of FB, but I gotta admit, what Zucker (!) has done is quite amazing.
 
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are two names that should never be in the same sentence and discussed in the same vicinity of a planet regarding innovation and impact on an industry.
 
The irony is rich. Jobs seems to be getting a taste of his own medicine. Facebook doesn't need Apple, but Apple's ridiculous ping thing needs some help.
And Apple doesn't need Facebook.
Ha ha! Apple only wants facebook for its install base.
 
Zuckerberg makes me puke. He is one of the few giants out there without a vision and will to get better. It's sad that a personality like Jobs has to come up to this douche and discuss anything at all.
 
I couldn't have put it better myself. Who cares? FaecesBook is a fad.

About 1 in 12 people across the entire planet have a facebook account, and it's the second most popular website in the world next to google.com. It's not going away anytime soon.
 
I still think Jobs could think of a better name than 'Ping', I remember when MS first introduced Bing, and everybody said they can't name anything :p
 
I personally don't use FaceBook but I understand why people do and thus I understand it would be a huge part of Ping. Apple need to find a way to get this done and I'm sure they will.
 
Steve really wants Ping to get better. Which is a good thing.

Better? You mean more successful at selling its customers' data to interested parties who want to run marketing campaigns on iAd? That sort of "better"? Because, in case you haven't noticed it yet, that is ALL that Ping and Facebook are about. YOU - the user of those "services" - ARE THE PRODUCT.
 
Nobody wants to first start some slow bloatware like iTunes to interact in a social network. Even Facebook on the IE is faster than starting Ping over iTunes.
 
The clothing has nothing to do with anything here... Two genuises, and two generations are meeting, that's pretty big! I ain't a big fan of FB, but I gotta admit, what Zucker (!) has done is quite amazing.

You mean flush the whole concept of "privacy" down the toilet?

I for one am not impressed.

About 1 in 12 people across the entire planet have a facebook account, and it's the second most popular website in the world next to google.com. It's not going away anytime soon.

Popularity != quality. Failbook is a platform for people to stroke their egos and for this cuddly, friendly "Zuck" guy to make a boat load of money by selling their personal details. And one of those uses applies to google.com too.

I await the one event - probably a massive security failure - which sends Facebook the way of the Dodo.
 
People like you have been saying that for over two years now. First it was "It'll be gone in 6 months," then it was "it'll be gone in a year," etc. It's not going to die anytime soon, deal with it.

People use Facebook, and I would argue that for my generation, it has become a integral part of our culture. There isn't a single person that I know who doesn't have a Facebook.

Also, it is not dumb and useless. I'm currently involved in a write-in campaign for my school board election. The candidate who I am volunteering for was hardly known in my town until a week ago when I convinced her to start a Facebook page. Guess what, now there is hardly a person in my town who doesn't know her name, and her Facebook page has had over 7,000 hits in the last 5 days; and it all started with me recommending the page to 160 people. Facebook is a useful tool. Deal with it and accept it.

-Don

Facebook's utility is smoke and mirrors. It'll be replaced by the next cool thing. And yes, everyone you know has one because you are a student. When I was a student, "everyone" had a Myspace. Now, "nobody" uses Myspace. And now "nobody" uses Facebook, now that I'm an adult and we have other things to do. Yes, it's popular, but only to a certain segment, a segment who will move on when Facebook becomes uncool.

I dunno...Zuckerberg has a face like he went bobbing for French Fries. And anyone worth billions can certainly afford to dress in anything else but the finest Rayon that Wal-Mart has to offer.

Which guy are we talking about here? Jobs looks like he's goes to drop the jeans and go run a fall marathon at any moment.
 
FaceBook is for losers.:D

And yes, everyone you know has one because you are a student.

Failbook is a platform for people to stroke their egos

I guess my friends who put on a benefit car show for Cystic Fibrosis every year, and had a record turn-out this year because they started a Facebook page, are losers? Any my wife, whose mother died of cancer when she was 14. She's now able to re-connect with her mom's siblings and their children from England, Scotland, Australia, and Greece. Yep, they're all losers too. And my mom and I, who stay in touch with my sister who lives across the US. And my old friends from grade school, whom I experienced some of the best times of my life with, and lost touch with because I moved when I was 14?

I could go on, but you get the idea. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "for losers" or "for students" or "a fad" or "for people to stroke their egos". I'm not saying I haven't disagreed with some of their privacy policies, and yes, some people do use it for annoying things like updating their status every 5 minutes to brag or whine. But that's the genius of it, it can be alot of different things to alot of people. And people should be smart about what personal information you put in there and how you set your privacy settings. If not, who's really to blame?
 
About 1 in 12 people across the entire planet have a facebook account, and it's the second most popular website in the world next to google.com. It's not going away anytime soon.

based on?

im not a user and to me its (the way its used by people around me) not life changing or important.
 
I guess my friends who put on a benefit car show for Cystic Fibrosis every year, and had a record turn-out this year because they started a Facebook page, are losers? Any my wife, whose mother died of cancer when she was 14. She's now able to re-connect with her mom's siblings and their children from England, Scotland, Australia, and Greece. Yep, they're all losers too. And my mom and I, who stay in touch with my sister who lives across the US. And my old friends from grade school, whom I experienced some of the best times of my life with, and lost touch with because I moved when I was 14?

I could go on, but you get the idea. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "for losers" or "for students" or "a fad" or "for people to stroke their egos". I'm not saying I haven't disagreed with some of their privacy policies, and yes, some people do use it for annoying things like updating their status every 5 minutes to brag or whine. But that's the genius of it, it can be alot of different things to alot of people. And people should be smart about what personal information you put in there and how you set your privacy settings. If not, who's really to blame?

Yes, it is a way to stay in touch - a way that will soon die and be replaced by another way. Dr. Sensitive. It's just a social networking site. The next one will have noble purposes as well.
 
based on?

im not a user and to me its (the way its used by people around me) not life changing or important.

Also, let's remember how inflated those numbers are. I made a Facebook account ten years ago when it was only colleges. No pictures, no friends, no nothing, and haven't been on since. Facebook still sends me emails. I'm sure they still count me as well as most of their "users" who are far from active.
 
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