Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Eric Schmidt, "A Conversation with Eric Schmidt"

Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Evan Williams, "A Conversation with Evan Williams"

Facemail? Gmail Killer?? Anything else?

And now Facebook, which wants to be your social network, your photo and video sharing conduit, your search engine, your recommendations machine, your geolocator, your coupon distributor, and (apparently) your email service. This may well be its jump-the-cartilaginous-killer-fish moment.

When you try to be all things to all people, you risk being nothing to no one. I think I saw that on a fortune cookie somewhere.

Robert X. Cringely at infoworld.com

Posted via email from Zoid's reading the Wide Web

Google Calls Out Facebook’s Data Hypocrisy, Blocks Gmail Import

Facebook has long been a one-way valve. You put data in so you can connect with friends, and then you can’t get it out and use it the way you would like to, even as the company is trying to corner the market on your identity.

And Thursday night Google called out its rival on such data-portability hypocrisy: It banned the huge social network from allowing its users to connect their Gmail contacts to see who among them are also on Facebook to get the friending frenzy started.

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Facebook and Google are locked in a fight over who controls identity on the net, which Facebook is handily winning, with its Connect service that automatically logs you into some sites (and transfers your profile) and gives sites and now phone apps an easy way to let people login via their Facebook credentials. It’s a convenience that puts Facebook firmly at the center of the Web.

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Facebook has a history of blocking its rivals and, until now, it hasn’t been serious challenged. In June, Twitter’s Facebook app gave users the ability to find which of their Facebook friends were also on Twitter, so that you could follow them or make a list of them to follow. Facebook quickly shut that down.

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Google Calls Out Facebook’s Data Hypocrisy, Blocks Gmail Import | Epicenter | Wired.com