Premise...

[acmespaceship]

Facebook : Internet 2009 :: AOL : Internet 1999

Which is to say, Facebook is now the Internet for Dummies.

Discuss.

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Facebook is, perhaps, LJ for dummies; it's a way to connect to a large community of people you may or may not know and you don't have to write a coherent paragraph to do use it. OTOH, I think there's lots of good internet juju that won't do for you; searches and books online and ebay and so much more.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Indeed. But there was plenty of Internet juju not available directly through AOL either. I started thinking of the Facebook/AOL comparison when I noticed the return of a familiar advertising phenomenon.

Remember when ads included a URL and an AOL keyword? The advertisers were assuming that AOL users wouldn't visit the web site unless they had a good old comfortable keyword to lead them there. Now advertisers are saying "visit us on Facebook." They're making the market-driven assumption that some portion of their audience is more likely to use a Facebook page than enter a URL.

Which might indicate there is a niche for Internet Dummies that Facebook slipped into after the fall of AOL. Or it might mean nothing at all but it's fun to speculate.

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

I really think it has more to do with the viral/six-degrees aspect of Facebook. *everybody* is on there, even lots of people who hate it, because it lets you connect up so easily. So, if you want to market something, you go where *everybody* hangs out!

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

PS, Ravelry is Facebook for fiber people. I was meeting with a LSY owner, and I walked in on the end of his staff meeting. He was saying "everybody is on ravelry, you have to get on ravelry, go do it!"

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

[New Internet Social Phenomenon] : [Internet 1996+N years] :: AOL : Internet 1996

In otherwords, all roads lead to Perpetual September.