On Facebook

I had a thought halfway through my last post.  It didn't really have any place in my last post, so I didn't put it anywhere.  Here's my thought:  Facebook can't do anything right.

They were sitting in the slingshot right when people realized that Myspace was terrible.  They rode that momentum until they reached a critical mass.  Are you going to join a social networking service if only a fraction of your friends or colleagues were members?

IE 6 was really, really popular for a while.  Even today, with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, it refuses to die.  It is–and always was–terrible.  Bud Light is a terrible beer.  Two and a Half Men isn't a funny show.  Facebook is a terrible service.

• They can't do privacy right.  Period.
• They can't give users features they want.  (Dislike button?)
• They force users to use features they don't want.  (Redesigns anyone?)
• They can't even get something as simple as chat right.

They fell into half a billion users.  They've upped the number of photos you can upload, and they've introduced newer algorithms for suggesting friends.  What else?  Can you imagine another tech company that could manage to be an industry darling for half a decade, acquire half a billion users, and still manage to never introduce a (really) useful or a (really) innovative feature?