Face-Oh-Ell

Facebook really looks like AOL. Not long ago, I could put up a YouTube link and the thumbnail would appear in the link automatically. The video would play on the Face-Oh-Ell page. Face-Oh-Ell does not get revenue from those videos. Face-Oh-Ell wants people to post straight to Face-Oh-Ell. So, the links suddenly stopped working. Now you just get a link with no thumbnail.

This is one symptom of the strategy of keeping people on your site. Another strategy is to track where people go when they leave your site and take steps to provide these services. Face-Oh-Ell has recently come out and said they are indeed taking the steps to track their users even when they have logged off the service. I forget where, but someone is suing the company for wire tapping because of this practice.

The only thing I use Face-Oh-Ell for is to post my video links and to read what other people are doing in their lives. To be honest, I find what is going on in other people's lives far more interesting than mine. Not sure why. My cousin is hyper on Face-Oh-Ell. He posts every five minutes. He is doing it to promote his comic book business for the most part. Several other people seem to put stuff up just because they feel like they should. It all has a feeling of commitment to it any more. This is an early sound of the nails driving in to the coffin.

Everyone still uses the service, or so it seems. There are other choices out there, but people are not flocking to them. Face-Oh-Ell simply has everyone on it at the moment. This will not last. This is what people said about MySpace. Remember that service? I believe they still exist. I haven't even looked at it in months. It hasn't crossed my mind until now.

Before the end, their walls will crack.
The ground beneath them will crumble.
Upon the end, people will walk away.
After the end, they will be forgotten.

Just like all the others.
When your temple comes crashing down.
As the wreckage burns and boils away.
Your product will forget to care.

No one writes poems for the fall of AOL or MySpace. Face-Oh-Ell, you get one. You are welcome.