A month ago, I wrote that for Facebook, I could already read the epilogue. Despite so much crowing in the blogosphere about the site's growth and opening up to non school-goers, I didn't think the unfocused social networking site would be the final answer. I said people would eventually grow tired of it and move on, leaving it for the next shiny thing that came along.

At the time, I didn't have a login and said I didn't want one. But curiosity, and a desire to back up my comments with experience had me signing up shortly afterward, to look around. A few weeks later, I still don't think Facebook will ever have as much value for me as other sites, like LinkedIn, and I still don't think it will become a site I will ever obsess over, and I still believe a fickle audience won't stick for long. But there are some small, non life-changing benefits.

Unlike true blogging, Facebook profile forces you into a rigid style to present yourself, offering a headshot, a place for photos, a short status update box, your personal background (age/gender/location, etc.) and a mini-feed of what your friends are doing. If you find useful applications, you add them to the main section or sidebar, much like a My Yahoo! portal. (See My Profile if you're a Facebook user)

After jumping in to Facebook, I started with the basics - headshot photo, personal information, Web site. Then I did an import of my Apple Address book to see if my "friends" were on the site. Not many were. But those who made sense to add, I added. Then I went in search for Robert Scoble's page, as he's made so much noise on Facebook, you'd think all other sites were going to close down tomorrow. I added him as a friend, and he accepted (he's quite casual in that regard).

In the ensuing weeks, I have not been all that impressed with the options for applications on the site. Most tend to lean toward "Ask a Question of Your Friends" and "Post a Link" or "Track Who's Viewing Your Page". I did add plugins for Last.FM to show recent music played, and Google Reader Shared Items, but I can do all those things here on my blog.

Just about the only benefit I've found of Facebook is the use of "Groups". Facebook offers an impressive array of groups you can join, from those who support Lisa Simpson for President to a Beagle Lovers club, to groups around political parties, school attendance and church. Through Facebook, I've seen a few dozen old acquaintances join one of these groups, and "added as friend" quite a few I hadn't thought of in a while. But this doesn't mean I'll reach out to them any more than I had, only that I can now see their status updates, who they've added as friends, and if the group has any live conversation. Usually the answer is no, but the Groups feature does offer a central point to make announcements to similarly interested people.

After all the noise, I had secretly hope to be proven wrong. I wanted to log in to this walled-off garden of techdom and discover that I would have to eat my words, that this would be a one-stop panacea of Web geekery and communication. But it's not. Facebook, for me, has very little value, and won't ever sniff the relevancy of this blog. While I won't yet be closing out my account, and will continue to give it a go with regular status updates and Friends adds, I don't ever see myself becoming a diehard Facebook fanatic.

Though the argument could be made that for all of the breathlessness that follows the debut of Web companies and services, there should be an equal amount of noise on the down side when some of them fail to meet expectations, I don't quite understand the seeming excitement around seeing others struggle or even close their doors. Today, TechMeme and the blogosphere are abuzz over two prominent Web 2.0 companies, Technorati and PodTech, who saw changes at the executive level, and much of it is seemingly celebratory. And that makes no sense at all.

The news you likely already know. At Technorati, David Sifry, after previously stating there was a search for a candidate to replace him at CEO, announced he would move to a board-only role. Meanwhile, PodTech, home of well-renowned "on sabbatical" blogger Robert Scoble, promoted from within, giving the COO the CEO position.

Change happens. It's a well-known industry norm that startup companies see change as they grow. Founders often first move from CEO positions to "strategic" positions, and then later, out of the picture. But to see some talk about it, you'd think that as this change occurs, that it's an opportunity to pile on and throw dirt on those who were often the biggest risk takers of them all.

Take, for example, TechCrunch's coverage of Sifry's very transparent note on his blog, which chronicled the change, and noted the layoff of eight employees:

"Sifry’s last blog post as CEO of the company was representative of his entire tenure - vague and cold. Layoffs also occurred today but Sifry didn’t mention them until the end."

Though I don't have any specific insight here, it's most likely the small (and eight people is small) layoff was not given top billing out of respect of those who just lost their jobs. No company likes to highlight bad news, and it's not the CEO or former CEO's role to highlight the very personal loss on his or her blog. For Sifry, his blog is to be about him and his company. Let those others who have left talk about the story from their words if their story is to be told. And for TechCrunch to dump on Sifry by saying his entire tenure was "vague and cold"? Where is the backup on that? It's complete balderdash. Sifry, through his blog, and through frequent comments in the blogosphere, including here, was hardly vague, and hardly cold. TechCrunch is wrong, period.

TechCrunch's negativity feeds the beast of those who like to pile on. Comments on the site said, "for Sifry, his arrogance and constant self-crooning have half the Valley clapping hands," and "Sifry misspelled “loser” with “leader”."

It's one thing for "stuff stirrer" Web sites like Valleywag to delight in presumed failure, and quite another for Web 2.0 king maker TechCrunch to do the same. Yet the site delights in tracking what it calls the "TechCrunch Deadpool", where Web services like 37 Signals, TailRank, Backfence and others are recent entries.

It's a lot easier to criticize those who have tried and failed than it is to try and fail yourself, let alone to try and succeed. For TechCrunch, a growing media site covering companies where 4 of 5 are likely to fail eventually, to delight in others' struggles is ridiculous, and I hope that the arrogance will someday stop.

Back in the Web 1.0 days, seemingly every Web site was morphing into a Web portal - a virtual one stop destination for news, stocks, sports, e-mail, weather, or just about anything. Excite did it. Lycos did it. Yahoo! did it. Netscape eventually did it. But while Yahoo! has done a good job at offering new services and trying to give me enough "sticky" applications to keep my attention, I find myself spending more and more time in Google Reader, catching up on the hundreds of RSS feeds I subscribe too. So today, I made the switch, and made Google Reader my start page in Safari, on all my Macs.

Now, instead of seeing a static page which may have some new AP wires, updated stock prices, and occasionally current sports scores, I get the very best the blogosphere has to offer. It's rare now that I will fire up the Web browser and not be presented with a few dozen news items from around the Web.

Now that we are in the Web 2.0 days, the concept of a portal has passed on. Rather than go to a single destination to have them provide me what they believe I want to read, I would rather go to a single destination which delivers me what I want to read, based on my subscriptions. I don't see myself gravitating back to My Yahoo! or iGoogle any time soon, though both are a simple command key combination away in Safari. But today's move is a significant marker in my continually evolving Web consumption.

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Their names were scarcely known to casual A's fans before the season, and now players like Travis Buck, Donnie Murphy and Kurt Suzuki represent the A's future, giving us some exciting developing stories through the second half of the year. Does it fill you with hope for 2008 and beyond?


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