I just wanted to weigh in for a second on Facebook, and its luring Sheryl Sandberg away from Google.
I think it’s a good idea. I have a lot of respect for what Zuckerberg has done so far. But Facebook is at a very critical point – and as a CRM analyst at heart, I think the consumer experience is borderline horrible.
Google made its fortunes, in an indirect way, by being so simple that anyone could use the search features. It is still true to its roots and every thing Google puts out has some level of simplicity.
Facebook, on the other hand, is a mish-mash of photos, mostly useless tidbits of data and messaging, and applications that make no sense.
Why do I care who buys my friendship for $3000?
If Facebook wants to provide any value to those investing in it as an advertising platform or any market intelligence gathering tool, it needs to clean itself up. And fast. Facebook may have a huge and valuable community, but a PHP on MySQL web application is not impossible to build. Heck, SugarCRM has a highly flexible UI that can embed a lot of these web 2.0 widgets already – but mostly users tend to pick useful apps, not ones that throw a cow at you…
I’m impressed by your writing. Are you a professional or just very knwoledgebale?