Am I the only person that gets scared when I read things like "Instant Personalization"? I don't know that I want IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes to be able to tell Best Buy what film titles I've been looking at.

But, of course, I'm also confused why people want to 'be the mayor' of the Starbucks down the street.

Is the 'social web' the Tamagotchi of 2010? A short fad that some people will find somehow fulfilling ("I've been the mayor of this Starbucks for 49 months straight!") but that most people move past?

I'm confused with the success of things like FarmVille, but I can't deny that hundred(s?) of millions of users confirm its success.

I think all we can say for certain is that large groups of people like to migrate to new forms of organized boredom.

Fascinating, informative interview, that validates most of what TC said in their first article over the weekend. Arrington is on a roll lately.

Yes. It kinds of sucks how he got it - he basically spread damaging false rumors until FB was forced into giving an interview to clear it up. But in the end it resulted in a great interview and - amazingly - I came away with slightly more respect for Zuckerberg at the end of it (starting from a low base).

The report about the phone was true. Here's (yet more) confirmation: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-23/facebook-is-said-to...

As far as practical things to take away from this, I particularly like this quote:

And that clarity was so valuable whereas today it’s like, Ok, we want to go build an app. Even a new product that we launch. We’re working on Questions, and it’s like OK. So we build Questions for the web, then we build the “m” site for Questions, then we build the Touch HTML5 version of questions. Then we build the iPhone version of Questions, and then the Android version, and then maybe.. (Elliot Schrage: iPad…) Right, the iPad stuff. And then we don’t work on a RIM version and then a bunch of people are pissed because it’s not available on their phone.

It’s kind of a disaster right now.

Mark Zuckerberg: If I knew who leaked it to you, I would’ve fired them already.

[... snip ]

Michael Arrington: You said Erick’s working on something else, what’s that?

Mark Zuckerberg: Um, oh he’s working on a bunch of stuff.

Michael Arrington: What’s the top secret mobile thing he’s working on though?

Mark Zuckerberg: I actually think that what he’s working on, is like I don’t think that any of the stuff is that top secret.

Michael Arrington: So there’s a theory in talking to my sources that there are…

Mark Zuckerberg: That there are levels of top secretness [laughs]? I mean, we have a pretty open culture.

Eh?

The interview makes a bit more sense just a tiny bit further down:

Mark Zuckerberg: The way that the mobile stuff is structured — Erick is really the lead PM for mobile stuff in general. I’m sure there’s specific things in there that aren’t announced yet. But he’s not running a secret project. That’s… I think that’s more like the type of stuff that Joe is working on or that Matt would typically work on.

Michael Arrington: The secret stuff goes through him?

Mark Zuckerberg: Not in general… I don’t think the secret stuff is that secret (Elliot Schrage: There’s some cool things, even if they’re not secret). There’s some stuff that hasn’t been announced, but there’s nothing like a fundamental departure from the strategy that I am laying out.

Basically agree with all his notions about HTML5, which he seemed to mention a lot in the interview. Also the horizontal strategy makes perfect sense because FB wants to be the defacto identity tool for any and every device. Why fight a device war when you don't have to, instead just concentrate on being the platform.

Yes - it was fantastic to hear him endorsing HTML5. These days all I hear is chants of "apps, apps, apps" from everybody and I just keep thinking - don't you all know what a disaster this is? Zero interoperability, colossal wasted man hours for all of humanity building duplicated native apps across different platforms everywhere, all to do the same thing, just to pander to the vanity of giant companies like Apple, Google, RIM, etc.

I must say, it feels quite strange to be agreeing vehemently with Mark Zuckerberg, but I hope he keeps talking like this. What he should say is that Facebook will always build a first class HTML5 client before anything else, so it is in the interests of every platform to have a first class HTML5 support.

Fantastic interview. Surprised to see how open Mark was about such a collossal strategy.

It's about as revealing as Google saying "we want all the world's information."

They don't have to worry about anybody dethroning them for the foreseeable future. They get to play the gloating supervillain all day long with no fear of repercussion.

A social web is one thing, but a social everything is even scarier. Imagine the impact of privacy leaks if Facebook had their tendrils spread to every gadget you used.

this just verifies mike's original article- which means facebook overreacted in response to mike's questionable semantics (see: "building").

that said, did anyone actually think techcrunch was suggesting facebook was manufacturing hardware?

I think TC was suggesting something in line which Jason asked - that the phone will boot directly into Facebook.

Oh, okay. So they're just going to try to take over everyone else's phone.

Reminds me of the famous Steve Jobs quote, "People Don't Read Anymore."

good luck Facebook. You will need it.

Their user base is big enough to have some percentage of hardcore users who will like such a phone.

This also complements perfectly Microsoft's need for a partner to compensate their late start. So the new market might look like:

   Apple -> iPhone
   Google -> Android
   Facebook -> Windows Mobile 7

?

  Apple -> iPhone ( = h/w )
  Google -> Android ( = s/w )
  Microsoft (!FB) -> WinMo 7 ( = s/w)

How interested do you think Facebook would really be in that partnership? I have absolutely no faith that an MS phone is going to go anywhere, or be pleasurable to develop for.

I hope everyone who unfairly vented at TC after the initial denial is eating humble pie.