From clients to users to commodities

Imagine, if you will, Sir Richard Branson coming out with the following statement: "Planes crash, it's the gravity, live with it". I wonder how the stock of Virgin Atlantic would look like the day after. You see, planes do crash, but they are not suppose to. This is why an investigation takes place when one does crash.

Mark Zuckerberg does not seem to think so. He claims people don't care about privacy. Facebook policies have already been criticized, but he does not seem to get it. Most people do not understand aerodynamics or structural engineering, but they trust airlines to get them where they want to go (even if their language seems to want to go to other places).

The views Zuckerberg, as well as those of Eric Schmidt, seem to be an attempt to create a new meme. Well, no so new. Sun's Scott McNealy said it back in 1999. Bloggers and journalists in Israel called people to abandon facebook. I am personally not planning to quit Facebook, as it does provide me with another marketing channel, but this is only making things worse. For the users, facebook will loose value as the prominent content creators will be marketers.

The User. That the key ingredient, which Zuckergerg and Schmidt seem to miss. Those were once the clients, now they are the commodities facebook and Google need for their real clients - advertisers and Zinga and Me. My family and friends are but tools to deliver the message of the greatness of SysNet and Gil Freund. It is somewhat bizarre that I can have a more private connection in LinkedIn or Plaxo then the one I can have on Facebook. For those services, I am still the client.