The Facebook Effect (Part Three)

The Facebook Effect (Part Three)

The third section of the reading for David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect focuses on the features of Facebook and its evolution. To my knowledge, the latest feature announced was the facial recognition of their photos. Facebook users can allow for automatic tagging of people that the facial recognition feature recognizes. As with most Facebook features, it's something you can opt out of, but most people don't even know about it until it's too late. Another recent Facebook upgrade was their layout. I don't participate in Facebook, so I don't know first-hand, but I have seen some pretty amazing artists taking advantage of the photo feature on the profile page.

Those are two of the newer features that Facebook has implemented on their site. In the book, Kirkpatrick highlighted news feeds, events, among other great features that are now staples of the Facebook family of features. Facebook will undoubtedly continue to add features and provide new bells and whistles for their users. It's a billion dollar company that I don't think will stop wanting to produce income anytime soon.

The user base of Facebook has grown due to its now open-door policy. The decision to open up Facebook to the public eventually made Facebook the success it is, but has its lack of exclusivity made Facebook no longer "cool"? Maybe. Usually when the old folks jump on the bandwagon, the cool kids tend to find something else that's way cooler. But Facebook might have such a pull on people's social behavior now that I don't think it matters that the old folks are friending you.