It’s been a few weeks now and I have thought long and hard about the wall. I have attempted to understand, rationalize, justify even, the interface design decisions that power the wall. But all to no avail. I just don’t get it. Context is crucial and it’s completely missing. Content on your wall is on public display and people tend to read linearly. Responses from the owner are nowhere to be seen though, so the writing on the wall has little or no meaning. So, why is it publicly visible then? You can respond on your own wall, but I have been told that Facebook etiquette demands that when a friend writes on your wall, you write back on their wall. BAH. What stupidity.

I admit I have pedantic tendencies but how can everyone in this vast Facebook community be your "friend"? Back in the day, the word "friend" meant something a little more substantial than someone you met 7 years ago while working on a project. But I suppose if we can have a financial institution called MyBank, everyone can be your friend. This is not a valid gripe – am just being cranky.

Given that poking, defenestrating, throwing sheep, adding friends, responding to notifications, and checking whether your "friends" are looking out the window is of enormous significance in the Facebook world, shouldn’t your Facebook home page refresh automatically, every so often? Some Ajax(y) goodness would help.

Then, there’s the whole MySpace vs. Facebook debate. I don’t use MySpace but the notion of a user-defined/designed space is much more appealing to me than Facebook’s rather antiseptic template. It’s neat and clean for sure but completely lacks soul. My page looks exactly like my friend’s page. Actually, I lie. Some of my friends have SuperPoke and FunWall and Horoscope and a zillion emoticons, and I don’t. Just ain’t cool enough I guess. Of course, most MySpace pages are hideous but the potential to make them look pretty exists. This isn’t really a gripe but as a designer, I find my Facebook home page utterly bland and boring. Even my wireframes are more aesthetically pleasing!

If you aren’t someone’s "friend", you can only see a limited profile. Right? So, how come you can see their photos if you click a link from a legit friend’s page? Smells like a privacy breach.

Whilst tagging a person in a photo or a note, the search box returns live results. The regular search box in the global navigation bar has a little dropdown menu. It should have an option for "Find a Friend". Classmates and Co-workers should be a sub-group. Choosing Find a Friend should return live results like tagging. The functionality is there already so why not maximize its utility?

"Drag links [here] to hide them". When will they ever learn? Where is "Here" on a web page? It has no meaning. This text appears in a box with a border and a fill. One would imagine "here" means into the box. But it doesn’t. Whatever …

The issue, I think, is that websites are morphing into applications and interface design and information architecture principles that worked for regular sites with some transactional components, don’t cut the mustard. I am not ready for a browser-only world. I love my client-side Mac apps, even those designed by the "delicious generation", and can’t abide browser-based apps for the most part.

Facebook isn’t totally horrific – I’m just mean and nasty, but it could be a whole lot better if someone from Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines team joined them.

And now, for something completely different!

What is Facebook’s business model?

YOU!

All this seemingly mundane drivel we "share" about our interests, activities, favorite music and movies, political affiliations, sexual orientation, how you are related to or know others, religious views, desires, schedules, needs, wants, etc. translates into SOLID GOLD that gets sold to "responsible third-parties that Facebook has relationships with". So, all your data is analyzed, collated, and presented to marketeers in the form of neat little charts that tell them which movies 18-25 year old girls like and how many 20 year old boys still don’t have Nintendo Wiis. Cool huh? And you thought Facebook was all about giving you an innocuous platform to connect with friends?

Did you know that "by posting Member Content to any part of the Web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license) to use, copy, perform, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Translation: Facebook and any third-parties they choose can fuck you over because they know everything about you. Third-parties include the Government and the agencies.

The more information we feed Facebook about ourselves, the more we ramp up Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. Facebook will soon get get sold to the highest bidder for zillions of dollars heralding the death of the resurgence of the web. 3.0 will be a long time coming.

If this sounds melodramatic, it isn’t. Just be aware of what’s going on. Read the privacy policy and terms of service and know that what you tell Facebook does not stay within the cosy confines of what you think is a closed network for you and your buddies. Mark Zuckerberg is not your friend. He runs a corporation. Enough said.

Hud hae! Got to Delhi in the morning yesterday and activated an AirTel cell phone connection at around 6:00 pm. First thing this morning, I received a call from ICICI Bank asking if I wanted a loan!!!! I thought the tele-marketing scene in Pakistan was intense but this is off the charts.

The Wall is an interesting idea for social networking but bizarrely implemented. A “friend” writes on your wall and all your other “friends” can see what’s been written. You are meant to respond, not on your wall, but on your friend’s wall. So Facebook’s mechanism for interaction ends up creating a strange half-baked non-versation on your wall. How utterly odd.

I simply don’t get it. Well, I do actually. Techies don’t “get” human interface design and it takes time, money, and insane amounts of effort to fuss over details. And since it’s a Windows world, most people are used to tortuous interfaces and don’t even realize that they are living through a digital nightmare. So, if the users don’t care, why should the developers?

In other half-assedness, why is the primary navigation bar so sparse? Surely a number of default actions and applications could be incorporated there instead of a gazillion links being part of the content. The personalized home page and the profile page could also be better integrated. And what of the myriad hyperlink roll-over effects? Blue text that gets underlined, black text that becomes blue and underlined, blue text that turns into a block of blue with white text, black and gray text that stays black or gray but gets underlined.

Very strange information architecture decisions. Granted, Facebook is an online community with much complexity at its core but it does feel a bit like a mashup of gigantic proportions – Reader’s Digest on steroids – trying too hard to be all things to all people.

The Mini-Feed! Gosh, triviality kee bhee inteha hotee hae. Typical techie masturbation. Capture everything and then display every mundane syllable imaginable – just because you can. It’s in the database so shove it up everyone’s ass. Woke up, scratched left ball, picked nose, poked friend, and so it goes …

LoL, Heehee, Yaay!

Of course, one can opt out. And I probably will, but for now, bitching is so much more fun.

Shikaayat kyaa hae dardé dil ki, Fazli
Agar dil hae to dükhtaa hee rahay gaa

T2F has turned my life upside down.

Have succumbed to Facebook but only because there were dozens of pending friend requests and I didn’t want to come across as snotty. Not too fond of Mark Zuckerberg and Kottke claims that Facebook is AOL 2.0. Ewww. Need to read up on the whole closed platform issue.

Just found out that Apple Asia may send me to Macworld 2008

Astounded at the level of discussion on Karachi Metblogs. Under duress, I’d rather troubleshoot Dot.Net code than read the profundities of KMB commenters.

Still trying to comprehend the Twitter phenomenon. What ARE you doing? WHAT are you doing? What are YOU doing? What are you DOING?

I wish I could make you understand …

C’mon Steve, give us Leopard already. But before you do, kill that disgusting transparent menubar. Best zinger yet.

I still wonder about that Meatloaf song.

A virtual friend in Lahore has started developing for Mac OS X. If there are any indie devs out there who want to join our currently non-existent user group, shout out in the comments. Surely we can make a widget, if nothing else.

Competition is completely, totally, and utterly unhealthy.