Comments on: Facebook, AOL, and crumbling walled gardens http://www.wordyard.com/2007/06/29/facebook-aol/ Technology, politics, culture Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:30:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joe Duck http://www.wordyard.com/2007/06/29/facebook-aol/comment-page-1/#comment-809 Joe Duck Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:12:20 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1330#comment-809 Agree with you and Dave that they are crumbling and that it's a good thing, but the process will take a long time. AOL has sustained much of it's empire through sheer "momentum". While there is a tendency to reduce the number of applications we want to use there is also a tendency to stick with ones we know. Users search Google out of habit, not becaue they have ongoing experimentation to conclude it suits them better than Yahoo. The killer application - a one stop internet shop for all things online - will have to overcome powerful habits. Agree with you and Dave that they are crumbling and that it’s a good thing, but the process will take a long time. AOL has sustained much of it’s empire through sheer “momentum”. While there is a tendency to reduce the number of applications we want to use there is also a tendency to stick with ones we know. Users search Google out of habit, not becaue they have ongoing experimentation to conclude it suits them better than Yahoo. The killer application – a one stop internet shop for all things online – will have to overcome powerful habits.

]]> By: Ducky Sherwood http://www.wordyard.com/2007/06/29/facebook-aol/comment-page-1/#comment-808 Ducky Sherwood Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:44:29 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1330#comment-808 Scott -- One word: spam. The entire Internet used to be a walled garden. Back in the ARPA days, in order to get access to the Internet, you had to identify yourself and promise that you'd play nice. This meant that authentication wasn't needed on the email system (which had the very nice side effect that email was really easy to implement and computationally cheap to run). Fast forward to 1994, and anybody can get on and anybody can email anyone. Spam. Headaches. Facebook, being a walled garden, can keep spam out. That is a significant competitive advantage. Scott –

One word: spam.

The entire Internet used to be a walled garden. Back in the ARPA days, in order to get access to the Internet, you had to identify yourself and promise that you’d play nice. This meant that authentication wasn’t needed on the email system (which had the very nice side effect that email was really easy to implement and computationally cheap to run).

Fast forward to 1994, and anybody can get on and anybody can email anyone. Spam. Headaches.

Facebook, being a walled garden, can keep spam out. That is a significant competitive advantage.

]]> By: Scott Rosenberg http://www.wordyard.com/2007/06/29/facebook-aol/comment-page-1/#comment-807 Scott Rosenberg Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:00:43 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1330#comment-807 Yeah. I agree. My formulation oversimplifies in many ways. Really this is something worth writing in much greater depth on, which I intend to do as I'm able! Yeah. I agree. My formulation oversimplifies in many ways. Really this is something worth writing in much greater depth on, which I intend to do as I’m able!

]]> By: Kevin Marks http://www.wordyard.com/2007/06/29/facebook-aol/comment-page-1/#comment-806 Kevin Marks Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:25:24 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1330#comment-806 Scott, in can be more subtle than "the service that gets in the way least wins" - the service that is readily implementable and open can win too. See my post for more: http://epeus.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-versus-closed-code-and-networks.html Scott, in can be more subtle than “the service that gets in the way least wins” – the service that is readily implementable and open can win too. See my post for more:
http://epeus.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-versus-closed-code-and-networks.html

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