DISQUS

Interesting take. I just wrote about this to taking the conventional wisdom position that virtually no company has remained successful without understanding and providing for customers needs. That is not to say that you do exactly what customers tell you, but everything you do must be focused on them. The alleged statements from Zuckerberg over on the Valleywag post smacked of the arrogance I've heard before from CEOs who's companies eventually went belly-up.

BTW, your wife may not have left and neither did my 14 year old, but with every change to the design, she has become more irritated with facebook.
It might be more troublesome for adults to move the the next new thing (and there will be one, just ask MySpace), but perhaps younger teens would jump if the conditions were right.

Alan, Thank you for sharing your memories of this day.

Matt, I really like this! Boils all the Social whatevers down to what they really are and how they relate. Steve's comment about "sharing" is important and you should consider working it into the post. As for the graphic, nicely done. The only things you are missing to raise it to the Armano level are some swirly circles within circles and some bathroom people.

Hi Whitney and happy belated birthday. I enjoyed reading this post and share some of your sentiments. I am a frustrated AT&T user. I think their marketing as blatantly misleading and am seriously considering giving up the iPhone next year when my contract ends because I'm tired of not being able to get a connection at my house or many of the places I travel to. The coverage map may show coverage (three bars at my house), but they have dead zones everywhere; which coincidentally is why they had to drop the "fewer dropped calls" marketing campaign last year. Regarding the iPhone's keyboard, I want to point out that you can hold the iPhone in portrait mode (all applications) and landscape mode when using Safari and type with your thumbs, just like on a Blackberry. You are not required to type one-handed with you index finger. I can appreciate the benefits of a true tactile keyboard and agree that, while the auto correct is pretty good, it's not perfect. Nevertheless, I believe the other features of the touch panel outweigh the shortcomings of the keyboard. For instance, if I need to get back to a place in text I have already typed, I simply touch where I want to place the cursor. Try that on a Blackberry.

As you suggest. I too have reduced my blogging frequency and increased Twittering. It's simplicity makes it easy, but the real key for me is the fact that its a living, vibrant community. People may visit my blog, but Twitter is a place where people live and interact

An outstanding and thought-provoking post!

...and if you just need a general contractor, they're even less than a dime a dozen today, just search YouTube. Great Post, Alan!

Congratulations Scott!!

Great post, Matt. I was never an Apple user until I was given an iPhone as a gift. I love it, but hate that Apple can dictate to AT&T that they cannot offer corporate discounts on iPhone plans and I absolutely despise iTunes. Sure, their products look cool and can be easier to use, the total ownership experience is not that great. I went through three iPhones in four months and a recent service experience with my daughter's DOA Macbook was one of the worst I've ever had anywhere. Their market share is growing. Once the initial infatuation wears off, I suspect that recent Apple converts will not be as tolerant of these total experience irritants as the long-time, loyal kool-aid drinkers.