[Quora] Is Facebook Falling Apart?

By Edoardo Moreni - July, 17th 2012

This is an answer I posted a few days ago on Quora. As always, the hot topics are Facebook and Google Plus. People says that Facebook is stronger and that Google Plus is going to fail, but I really don’t believe so. I think Google Plus could play a key role in the social networking world in the next five years, thanks to the introduction of Google Glass.

This answer can be considered the second chapter of : “Why Facebook Will Fail”. Many people still take into accounts the numbers behind Facebook and its usage statistics; but I believe that the product comes first and from the product itself you can see where the company is going. I am not suggesting that Facebook is going to fail tomorrow, I am just saying that it could be overwhelmed by other services, that develop their products in a better way.

Is Facebook Falling Apart?

Everyone around me seems to stop using Facebook the way they used it before. A lot of them using Instagram instead (which seems to be a great deal for FB). Is it just a simple misconception or is Facebook really about to fade away?

In this case we shouldn’t talk about the data that shows how many people are using the product, for the simple fact that the data is outstanding.

Instead, we should talk about the product itself, which (in my personal opinion) is falling apart. I have been using the product for the last four years and in 2012, I have come to the point in which I don’t understand how the newsfeed works. There is too much confusion there.

I see things on things and I usually get lost. Further it is becoming too much complicated, full of features and possibilities ( this is not great, my grandad, who is 80, signed two weeks ago and he hasn’t still understood anything). The ads show up on the right and make a strong contrast with the rest of the page, which seems to be “just” a little bit overcrowded.

Before filing the IPO, they promised the investors that they would have worked on mobile. It is true that they have great data as well there, but it is also true that the product is crap (if I am allowed to say that).

The iPad app is the worst thing I have ever seen on the Apple store, and we are not talking about a small team of four people in a garage, no we are talking about Facebook. The iPhone and Android have the same problem.

Of course they have great data. People love talking about things they have done during the day and know what their friends did. However the point is the product, the product is falling apart. I don’t think I am the only one to believe in this.

They should keep the things simple and clean. They should create the best product possible on mobile, because it is the future and present of the internet. On the other hand it seems they are not doing anything. I guess we should wait for F8.

All these things make Twitter a better product. It is fast, simple and clean. The Twitter’s app is awesome, it stands for what perfection means. If you keep the product simpler and easier to use, you will gain more usage.

The last thing that has really screwed the Facebook product is “Competition”. If you are developing a product, you shouldn’t look at what the others are doing. You should just try to innovate in the best way as possible without copying from your competitors.

Have you wondered why they released the “Lists” on Facebook? (G+/Diaspora)
Have you wondered why they let us “subscribe” to other users? (Twitter)

It seems a coincidence, but it is not. The lists were released after Google Plus, not before (correct me if I am wrong).