Just heard part of an interview with Business Insider's Henry Blodgett about the impending Facebook IPO. It was largely focused on Mark Zuckerberg, and whatever cult of personality he's managed to summon beyond his starring role in a really good David Fincher movie (or so I'm told; I have kids, so I don't see movies anymore).
It was a pretty amazing bit of audio because the whole time, they proceeded from this basic supposition that Zuckerberg is clearly the heir apparent to the "Palo Alto visionary" mantle of the late Steve Jobs. Oh, it wasn't explicit, but it was there under every anecdote, especially the one about how Zuckerberg takes key new hires on this hike or something in the hills and then the hike and Zuckerberg's pitch both end when the group reaches this amazing summit with a breathtaking view.
"That was Mark's innovation," Blodgett actually said, with a straight face, or so I imagine in my theater of the mind. "Steve Jobs was famous for taking long walks through Palo Alto with colleagues, but Mark's hike ends on this magnificent view."
Wow, if that's what passes for "innovation" in a post-Jobs world, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
I like Facebook a lot. I enjoy using it.
But let's get real: Facebook itself is a tool, and a shitty one at that, which enables amazing connections to happen. Just like Twitter, just like the telephone, just like smoke signals.
There's certainly powerful innovation in creating these tools that enable connections. Man, what's more innovative than the telephone?
But Facebook? As a product? It sucks wind. It's horrible. The user experience is constantly changed in ways that (anecdotally, at least) seem to anger users more than please them. Glitches and bugs plague it constantly; sometimes I get notifications on my phone, and sometimes I don't, and other times the iPhone app just hangs there forever and shits the bed, or the website just says "Hey, we're not working, see you on Twitter."
And this isn't a "OHEMGEE, JOBS WAS GOD, WE MUST GENUFLECT" thing. It's more about delight.
I've never been delighted by Facebook. Maybe by people using Facebook or words written on Facebook. But I've never said, "Wow, that Timeline is awesome."
I have been delighted by Apple products. Still am, on a regular basis. I've been delighted by Android products too. To me, that's what makes a great product, an innovative one--something that connects fundamentally with a user as a product, not as a tool for doing something else that just happens to work (or work sometimes, anyway).
None of which has anything to do with Facebook's IPO, which is predicated on the site's ability to aggregate and leverage data about its users, some of which they may not even realize they are sending to Facebook every time they click on a dancing cat video.
THAT is Facebook's product. Zuckerberg is putting on a good show. He's positioned himself and the company well. But it's just an elaborate tap dance.
As a product, Facebook is crap. As an endless supply of actionable, SELLABLE data, it's genius.
So I guess Zuckerberg is pretty innovative, just at the expense of a couple billion morons like me, who trade privacy for access to friends and family in other parts of the world.


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