Scoble is insecure, researchers say

Heidi, often one can see the friends of a person totally unrelated to him/her. Note that there is a tradeoff between privacy and virality in a social network network. Facebook by default is more viral and less private, which is a good strategy in an early phase of a new technology which has not yet become mainstream. Expect Facebook to introduce more privacy as social networking becomes more mainstream.

Till then there is really a low barrier to do social research on these networks! Scientists should take advantage of this. Later on the data will be released to a selected few.

PS: A great example of similar tradeoff is OS. There is a tradeoff between security and convenience. In early days, Windows was choosing convenience by default, that is most OS services were ready to be used by default. As it matured, security is taking a central stage. If security was given more importance in the initial phases of computing revolution then it might have slowed down the revolution itself, i.e., slower adoptation rate of computers at home.

Web is going through such a revolutionary phase now. For an example, all the geeks are writing blogs. But a lot of common people have also started writing blogs. Live Spaces is full of such blogs.

The low cost PC at Walmart was put in a much bigger box than necessary since company research indicated their customers associate size with quality. Bigger = Better!

Size matters.

Having a zillion friends on social networks, that’s a purdy big marketplace of one to sell, pitch, evangelize, and entertain to…

Size matters.

The low cost PC at Walmart was put in a much bigger box than necessary since company research indicated their customers associate size with quality. Bigger = Better!

Research also indicated that a lot of people were stupid.

Size matters.

“We also discovered that if you take a really LARGE cup and fill it up with 80% ice, people think they’re getting a lot more soda!”

Having a zillion friends on social networks, that’s a purdy big marketplace of one to sell, pitch, evangelize, and entertain to…

‘Cause everyone wants their “friends” to “sell, pitch, and evangelize” stuff to them? Why just HAVE a beer with a friend when you can SELL, PITCH, and EVANGELIZE them a beer. Say, [INSERT FRIEND.FIRSTNAME], have you heard of this delicious new beer? It comes in a huge CUP full of ice…

Degree centrality isn’t the only thing that matters.

Having lots of Facebook friends doens’t mean you’re insecure.
It’s *telling* people how many Facebook friends you have that means you’re insecure

Hey, what if you’re not on Facebook so therefore have no Facebook friends? Does that mean you’re insecure too?