I know I've rambled on about this recently, but I got to wondering if there was any real potential for real competition for Facebook. I don't think they're untouchable, not even close. Internet users are too fickle and will go where ever the easiest distraction is that aligns with their... uh... distractionary needs.
I was reminded recently of MySpace though (ironically because of a thread on Facebook), how they used to be the dominant social site. I'll never understand how outside of the fact that they had a couple of years of lead time, because it was always a steaming pile of shit. Then in 2006, I was at the first Mix conference, at the MySpace party, where the CTO got up on the bar and proclaimed they were ready to hire all of the .NET developers who were there. That sure would've been a tragic career move.
I wonder what the ideal variant of Facebook would like, without the privacy concerns.
Could you explain what makes MySpace a "steaming pile of shit?" For my needs and uses, and to my untrained eye, there really isn't much difference between them except Facebook has become more useful since more people I know are on it (though I am currently quite pissed at latest changes).