The term “social web” sounds great. A lot of people use social websites like facebook, digg, twitter, reddit, etc. Every year more and more social websites create buttons for websites to allow users to vote, like, digg, tweet, etc for their site.
While that sounds good at first glance, after a closer look all they are doing is cluttering up websites, slowing them down, and ultimately using us to further control the web. It’s a harsh truth to realize and some people will refuse to believe that social websites are a growing plague on the internet. There is TOO MUCH voting going on. With facebook’s release, web developers have NO CHOICE but to add the button. How could we possibly ignore 400+ million users of possible exposure?
To Facebook this is a big deal to spread their empire, but to me it’s just another friggin button that I need to consider adding. If you think about it, it’s no different from any of the other buttons! They all do the same thing.
The tech websites HAVE to cover it because it’s a facebook announcement. ReadWriteWeb, Arstechnica, TechCrunch have to create their top 5 articles on what “LIKE” means for the web because they can’t ignore the 400lb gorilla. The seemingly limitless web is being controlled by a select few websites and there is nothing you can do but accept it and try to make the best of it as you can.
I did NOT want to add the facebook button to FantasySP, but I have no choice and neither do you if you want more traffic. We are at their mercy.
One reply on “The Social Web is Using You”
Of course you've got a choice. There will always be other ways of generating traffic!