Comments on: Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features

By: links for 2007-10-12 at Framtider.net

links for 2007-10-12 at Framtider.net — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:19:15 +0000

[...] Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features - Bokardo “This echoes what I keep hearing from all sides: community building isn’t about features. Community building is about getting a group of people together who want to be there…who see themselves as part of a community.” (tags: community den_sociala_webben bokardo.com) [...]

By: facebook » Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features - Bokardo

facebook » Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features - Bokardo — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:17:49 +0000

[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [...]

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:22:01 +0000

My personal view is that it’s neither the attitude of the intended community or the technology… more to do with the fact that Facebook developed (could even have been by accident) an incredibly user friendly website that makes it easy for people do get in contact with other people… which is the long-term aim of all social networking sites… Facebook just got it right! Ballmer is just too ‘Microsoft’ to realise that complicated & sophisticated isn’t necessarily the best solution!

By: The Groop

The Groop — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:15:55 +0000

The future is not about technology, it is about UI. If you use, PowerPoint, Keynote is better, if you use Vista, OSX is better.
Why? Not because of “features” but because of ease, intuitiveness and just plain pleasure.
Xbox 360 is great. But try navigating that thing. It’s like, “oops wrong direction”, “opps wrong button”.
The future is about getting people: 1. What they want 2. Faster 3.
Do these do more? No, not really but its less of a pain.

Is Facebook about features? Of course not. But I get to see my friends once in a while.

Steve, its about people! Dammit. The future is made of people!!

By: New Media Signal - Today’s Top Blog Posts on New Media - Powered by SocialRank

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:25:23 +0000

[...] Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features - Bokardo [...]

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:49:34 +0000

Of course Ballmer gets it, but what Ballmer doesn’t get is the inability of social media platforms to monetize users. He’s not betting against the internet, he’s looking to avoid irrational exuberance. Microsoft makes products that people pay money for and that people are locked into using with high switching costs (.doc). To then go and invest in a company such as Facebook that 1) does not monetize its site well and 2) has almost zero switching costs, would be considered insane in almost any other industry.

Maybe it’s a risk Microsoft is willing to take, but it’s still a major risk.

http://www.leveragingideas.com/?p=466

By: Leveraging Ideas :: The Blog of Sam Huleatt: social media, technology and startups

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:43:34 +0000

[...] the comments of a great blog (see my analysis [...]

By: Daily Links | Akkam's Razor

Daily Links | Akkam's Razor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:24:44 +0000

[...] Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features - Bokardo This echoes what I keep hearing from all sides: community building isn’t about features. Community building is about getting a […] people together who want to be there…who see themselves as part of a community. (tags: community building software technology opensource) [...]

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:31:32 +0000

Ravi, I’m sure Ballmer is a smart guy…but his comment was about the technology…

So, if he does get it and realizes the community is what’s valuable, then why don’t we see some moves toward that end? Why can’t he say so?

Or, if as you say he’s trying to throw someone off the scent (trying to drive down the FB valuation)…he’s being pretty clumsy about it.

I sometimes think that we should give people in impressive positions the benefit of the doubt since they got there…but, well, look at some of the Presidents we’ve had. All smart guys, but boy do they say and do some dumb things.

By: Ravi

Ravi — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:57:12 +0000

It is funny when bloggers make this type of simplistic arguments that Ballmer doesn’t get it, but Scoble does. Do you think Ballmer is not smart enough to understand that it is the 40 million users Facebook signed up that is more important and not the technology? He is running a company that is worth 200 billion+, give folks like Ballmer some credit before making this kind of analysis.

It could be that he is downplaying FB to reduce the 10 billion$ valuation hype that seems to be floating.

(I am not an employee of MS)

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:38:13 +0000

Great point. I kept thinking of how much people love Facebook and how that same sentiment is not shared for the majority of Microsoft products.

Maybe their XBOX division.

By: University Update - YouTube - Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features

University Update - YouTube - Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:46:18 +0000

[...] Ballmer on Facebook: Bunch of Features » This Summary is from an article posted at Bokardo - Social Design by Joshua Porter on Tuesday, [...]