The Mike Abundo Effect

The problem with Facebook is that it’s still stuck in a Web 1.0 mindset: stickiness, stickiness, stickiness. They only half-embrace the widgetization ethos of Web 2.0: data comes in, but it doesn’t come out. The thing is a rat hole, and you can’t get anything out of it.

You won’t believe how much time I waste manually retyping party invites from Facebook to Google Calendar. Now I hear Facebook has actually banned Google Friend Connect. Mark Zuckerberg is determined to make your life harder just so you spend more time on his site.

Ultimately, Facebook’s rat hole strategy will reap massive backlash in the form of sheer user boredom. When you’re trapped in a rat hole, you feel obligated to scurry about like the rest of the rats, whether you want to or not. Obligation makes even the most varied activities boring. Hence this song, I’m Getting Bored of Facebook.

Two days ago, I said MySpace’s new data portability initiative will force competitors to open up. Looks like it’ll happen sooner than I expected. Facebook announces its own data portability initiative, Facebook Connect.

Thing is, Facebook Connect is still weeks away, and they’ve announced only one partner. Facebook is infamous for jealously locking in user data, even at the very public expense of A-list customers, so this announcement sounds less like a working strategic plan and more like a panicked press release. This is just Facebook trying to save face.

For an online entrepreneur, appearing on TV isn’t always a good thing. In fact, it can signal desperation.

On Sunday night, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear on “60 Minutes” to tell the world that Facebook is in trouble. He doesn’t say that in so many words, of course, but his participation on the weekly news show, given the unlikelihood that many in Facebook’s existing demographic of 12-to-24-year-olds watch “60 Minutes” on a regular basis, signals that the social networking site is trying to connect with a larger audience.

Sure, Facebook has 60 million members and is valued at $15 billion, but it is still the No. 2 social network. To defend its lofty valuation, Facebook needs to grow its user base and figure out how to make money off of it, and those two things are looking like they may be mutually exclusive. Consider the reaction of the social networking site’s users to its Beacon advertising program.

Zuckerface must resort to offline promotion to acquire online customers. I’m starting to think Microsoft and Facebook are made for each other. After all, they’ve both pissed off Scoble.