Only Connect

  Facebook is not really a website anymore. Rather, it's a vast, branded utility. It's like another World Wide Web, but with a profit motive. It's a kind of Wikipedia, but built on a corporate, not a cooperative, model. As a communications technology, it has radically changed the ways we connect with one another. Like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, Facebook is ubiquitous; you can't go five minutes without encountering the Facebook brand or the tiny blue "f", whether in traditional media (at the bottom of every TV news screen) or online (where Facebook icons and "Like" buttons abound). Sure, services like LinkedIn, Twitter, and foursquare have significant distribution. But usage data show how Facebook dominates. It serves one in four of every display ad on the Web. It accounts for nearly 10 percent of total time spent online by U.S. Web users (just ahead of Google). It has more than 600 million users. It's like a new global telephone network, except that, rather than carry voice and data, its "content" is personal profiles and connections; rich media; real-time messaging; and an endless array of features, functions, and third-party apps. For many online users, Facebook is to our era as revolutionary as the telephone was a century earlier.

  Facebook is magnetic as a function of its social engagement. People are drawn to it, because people are drawn to people. That's why we gather in crowds for sporting events, political rallies, and mass celebrations on New Year's Eve. How much pull does Facebook exert? Google's own data tell us: in the last 24 months, Google's top search term was "Facebook." Of the top five terms in 2010, two were "Facebook.com" and "Facebook Login." If Google has built a "database of intentions," Facebook has built a database of connections. One in every 13 people on earth uses Facebook. With "Friend Finder" — a sometimes controversial feature that automatically suggests people you might want to "friend" — Facebook operates a connection engine of unprecedented scale and scope. It delivers on E.M. Forster's famous dictum: "Only connect."

(Please click on the keyword, "Facebook" to read the full article)


 Facebook, in  my opinion, is becoming the most powerful social media on the Web both on the personal and the business level because Facebook is all about people sharing. People of every race, creed and religion sharing with worldwide kindred spirits. Facebook is businesses connecting with consumers and customers like a "good neighbor" rather than a corporate entity. Facebook is sharing your Life and who you are with the world even with the risks involved. Facebook is about online "friendships" that can lead to marriage and business partnerships. The genius and power of Facebook is summed up in the theme of E.M. Forster's classic novel, "Howards End", that theme being "only connect". Facebook is all about connecting. Connect with me on Facebook and I will connect with you.