Love this article from over at Gizmodo which compares AOL to Facebook and how the two are strikingly similar in growth and strategy:
And it adds up—Facebook is reaching its tendrils into every single thing we like about the internet, far, far beyond the actual reasons we rolled up to Zuckerberg’s site in the first place. IMing? Check. Email? Check. Photo sharing? Check. Apps? Check. Location check-ins? Yup. Twitter ripoff status updates? But of course!
Some harsh language in that post, so read with caution, but the story is compelling nonetheless.
I remember how awesome AOL was and how I spent as much energy using it as kicking my brother off so I could have a turn getting on. It was everything that I wanted and more – until other apps and services came out and smashed the living poo out of it.
Will it go the same way as AOL? I’m not so sure. I think there’s a better management team around Facebook than AOL had back in the day and I think that Zuckerberg, despite how easy it is to dislike the guy, is still one smart-as-nails developer. As long as he keeps leading engineering instead of “management” then there might be some hope.
Or not.
[…] dollar corporation now, but they’re certainly no longer in the business of selling dial-up.Facebook is the next American On-Line.It too, will die.This is the future …Remember Facebook? It was a website … do they still […]