Earlier last week, Facebook launched their “Like” button functionality, moving another step towards integrating their platform with all that is available online. I will write more about the implications of the “Like” button (which was the smallest of all announced changes) and the rest of the incredibly wicked stuff that Facebook launched during F8 later.

However, I am not a news guy. I’ve tried, but it simply doesn’t work. Now, cause my “how to” format does take some time to create, and since Facebook’s documentation is the way it is, I’ll have to try everything out before I write how you can do it for yourself. What I am trying to say in longer sentences than needed or grammatically correct, is that I am not done yet but they shall come eventually.

The “I Love You” Virus

What I am going to devote this blog post to is the remarkable resemblance of a lot of Facebook’s new features and the “I Love you” e-mail virus. I remember that one working day it all breached our computers and we got spammed like mad with the VB miracle produced to “fight the evil capitalism and liberate workers in Ecuador”… Or at least that’s what my version of the virus said in its credits.

I was about 20 years back then, but my Sylar alike need to pick stuff apart to see how they work was already working back then. So, naturally I decompiled (opened it in .txt-format) the virus and checked how it worked.

There were some very interesting features that had never been used before in a virus that were made available with the “I love you” virus.

1. It got sent to you from a friend
2. It went into the contact list of your Outlook, Lotus or other e-mail program on your computer and fetched all your contacts
3. It then sent the e-mail to all those in your list – from YOUR server which would lead to less spam notifiers
4. It also went onto your computer and corrupted all other files and claimed ownership with a really nice and permanent “relaunch feature” in your regex
5. It was opt in, namely you had to download the attachment to make it run

SPAM Connect

Hmm… I wonder what this reminds me of… AH… Facebook Connect… yes!! Only that we today see this as a fantastic service and a great promotional tool. It is amazing how our perspectives can change so much over such limited time. Also, do you remember how we got mad at Facebook Beacon advertising system? You know the one that fetched our actions online and published them to the profile page of Facebook. It was horrible right? Well, GoWalla… I need not say anything else.

Facebook could probably relaunch Beacon, combine it with their version of the “I love you” virus and get companies to pay for it in today’s environment. The problem with me is that I really like it. I regularly use spammers tactics to create foundations for campaigns. This doesn’t mean that I spam. I add some ethics, some GUI and some neat content and let the users spam each other instead. Oh yeah, I shouldn’t disclose those kind of things… we call it Viral in our sales docs…

SPAM is only SPAM if unwanted

No, seriously, I shouldn’t joke about those kinds of things as some people reading this blog might be interpreting me in a “not so favorable” way. The new Facebook features as well as a lot of other new services we see popping up all over the web are user friendly versions of what we previously called viruses or spam.

The bottom line is that any SPAM that is wanted is no longer a SPAM per default. That’s why we get away with spamming these days. Actually, one of the true business values of communication in the environment of “many to many” is that we now can let users spam for us. I know that is a marginally controversial thing to say, but seriously people… I know you “like” it…

Possibly related posts:

• Related posts on F8
• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-25 | SatoshiSato About !

• Related posts on Facebook Connect
• Twitter Weekly Updates for @SpurInteractive at Spur Interactive
• I Think Facebook Just Seized Control of The Internet | iancassel

• Related posts on Facebook Like Button
• The tradeoff between open and closed cdixon.org – chris dixon’s blog
• Social Web Search Provided By Yahoo | Ironpaper: Current

I’ve had it. Enough is enough. Facebook has finally shown they cannot handle their position as number 1 in the social scene online. I am completely and utterly disappointed with Mark his crew. Haven’t they learned anything from their past or anything from the web?

[Update: To clarify. The NEW thing with this is that they are removing the notification possibility making applications that utilize user vs. user interaction A LOT less effective.]

Changes to the terms of service

I was thinking that when the latest update of the terms and conditions came along it was a mere high five to the legislators of some idiot government somewhere. The new rules stated three extremely important changes to the Facebook page terms of service:

1. You have to ask permission for any kind of promotion
2. Your promotion can’t have demands of joining a page to enter
3. Post to wall is restricted to the special privileges
4. (It became strictly forbidden to promote gambling, which is not as important… yet extremely annoying.)

This did not only piss me off as these benefits were what made Facebook so easy to work with. These ARE the benefits of working with and on the Facebook platform. This way we didn’t have to run a campaign website on the side, this way all the viral aspects of having 400 million people in the same place could take effect as we could utilize the long tail of interests and thus make a buck or two regardless of what we were working on.

Destroying what helped build them

Today, I get a message from one of the applications that has helped to build Facebook to the platform it is today. One of the thousands and again thousands of applications that Facebook has paid NOTHING to have in place. Remember, even the “tag a friend” application was created by someone not working on Facebook. The throw a sheep application was as well. All they “invented” was the ability to poke another member. So excuse me when I say FUCK YOU FACEBOOK!!

This is the reason for my anger (click to enlarge):

They are removing the possibility to send automatic notifications disallowing you to use anything else but their own Facebook Connect functionality. THEY SHOULD GET SUED!! Someone wrote in a blog post a couple of weeks back that Google is behaving like Microsoft. I think that person is absolutely wrong. However, now we can truly see how Facebook is becoming another idiot corporation who is out to work against their users in order to advance their own interests.

Facebook is making money, and they could do like Google and go rev. share with their enthusiasts. That would have been a good thing as we would all earn money from what we do best.

But when a service like Facebook is starting to behave like government, then my stomach turns icky icky icky inside out.

My LAST warning to you Mark Zuckerfucker

I say this as a warning to Mark and the rest. Stop what you are doing right away. Continue doing what you did in the beginning. Open your platform and don’t start setting rules. Leverage the possibilities with the web, don’t MAKE THEM TURN AGAINST YOU. Cause rest assured… If you turn on us, we will turn on you. When we turn on you… well, let’s just say it won’t come in the shape of a Facebook group saying “Mark is an evil idiot”… There just simply might not be any group functionality at all to use…

I am working on an implementation of Facebook Connect on this blog. I am working on a longer post but for you who argue that Facbook Connect is something complicated should have a look at this tutorial. For WordPress there are many plugins as well that you can find here.

Only use these plugins. The ones that are not listed on this website but are available through WordPress.org are generally 50% not updated to their full extent.

But if you build from the ground on up that I will do with my new blog I suggest you put this blog in your RSS-reader and keep reading. But first this video.

//Jesper