Facebook Learns from Its Fumble

Mark Zuckerberg is a reluctant poster child for the phenomenon sweeping the Internet known loosely as Web 2.0. Partly that's because he's shy. And partly because he's more interested in building cool new features for Facebook, the social networking site he started two-and-a-half years ago in his Harvard dorm room, than he is in riding the speaking circuit. His take on Facebook is that, unlike many social networking and user-generated content sites out there, it's not about merely helping people find dates or network or keep in touch. Instead, it's about "helping people understand the world around them," he says.

That's why he was so pumped on Sept. 5 to pull back the curtain on the site's new features: The News Feed and Mini-Feed. They're tools that detect anything new about a user profile, such as new pictures, a change in marital status or a new blog posting—and aggregate it all into a news feed all about you. It shows up on your profile page, and the "headlines" are pushed out to preapproved friends. While a typical profile on MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and other sites is like an encyclopedia entry, this is like an Associated Press newswire feed, giving you an update on any changes in your friends' lives, every time you log on. No hunting around your friend's pages for new stuff, it all comes to you.