Over three million companies use the site for marketing. 

Facebook has also become one of the most popular sites for sharing pictures and videos. I was skeptical of Facebook at first. 

At the time, MySpace seemed unstoppable, but it was focused on high school kids. Facebook took aim at college-age youth and then quickly brought mainstream users into the mix. 

More importantly, it pushed family members, coworkers, and casual friends to connect. 

My own experience with the site has shown me why it is valuable to users and will continue to be so for a long time. First, it helped me connect with old friends—some of whom I hadn’t heard from in 30 years. 

It has also helped me keep up with my brother, sisters, nieces, and nephews, who are scattered in different locations. We lead busy lives and don’t get to see each other very often. Facebook has allowed us to connect virtually. 

What really hooked me, however, was linking up with family in the Philippines I had never met. Strange as it seems, when my father immigrated to the US from the Philippines in 1931, he apparently left everything behind, including most contact with his family on the islands. He and his brother first went to Hawaii and eventually landed in California. 

I knew of my dad’s brother in Hawaii and spent time with him and his family growing up, but my dad never told us much about his parents or the other brothers and sisters he left behind. 

Thanks to Facebook, various Bajarin family members discovered me, and I have linked up with over a dozen cousins. As a result, I’ve learned a lot about my dad’s parents and brothers and sisters and about our family history in general. I will be forever grateful to Facebook because of this. 

The site’s success is clearly driven by connections—that’s what it and other social networks are all about. Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at a publishing conference in Key Biscayne, FL. Mike Murphy, Facebook’s global sales chief took the podium after me. 

He shared a lot of interesting things about Facebook’s past, present, and made an important comment that tells a lot about the site’s future. Murphy said that today’s information Web will transform into the social Web in the next three years. 

He pointed out that, while today we get information from a lot of sites, in a social Web environment many of the things we want or need to know will come through friends. He offered the example of a person interested in an African safari. 

At present, you type “African safari” into a search engine and get info from professional travel sites and the like. 

In the future, he explained, when you type “African safari,” you will get recommendations from friends who have actually gone on an African safari. The information itself goes social. 

If I read into this a bit more, I can see Facebook introducing an internal search that is a key part of its future design. 

In the process, the site will make it possible to get all manner for recommendations from friends, relatives, and associates. This already exists to some degree. I often find news stories or items of interest that were recommended by friends, when I log into Facebook. Friends also send me links in e-mails. 

But if I read Murphy’s comments correctly, he believes that the connections we make and the content or information our friends recommend will be at the heart of Facebook in the future. This is a powerful vision. 

It probably does represent the future of Facebook and the social Web at large. Of course, Facebook executives most like envision their site as the epicenter of that picture, making it the go-to for news and other content of interest. 

But I suspect that other major sites will find a way to join in on the social Web action. The heart of Murphy’s message is important. 

He’s probably right on the money when he talks about the social Web. Facebook is playing a larger and larger role in people’s lives, and it has proven itself a powerful communication tool. 

The next logical evolution is using these connected links to deliver more customized and personally recommended content and information.

Facebook Comments Box

Over three million companies use the site for marketing. 

Facebook has also become one of the most popular sites for sharing pictures and videos. I was skeptical of Facebook at first. 

At the time, MySpace seemed unstoppable, but it was focused on high school kids. Facebook took aim at college-age youth and then quickly brought mainstream users into the mix. 

More importantly, it pushed family members, coworkers, and casual friends to connect. 

My own experience with the site has shown me why it is valuable to users and will continue to be so for a long time. First, it helped me connect with old friends—some of whom I hadn’t heard from in 30 years. 

It has also helped me keep up with my brother, sisters, nieces, and nephews, who are scattered in different locations. We lead busy lives and don’t get to see each other very often. Facebook has allowed us to connect virtually. 

What really hooked me, however, was linking up with family in the Philippines I had never met. Strange as it seems, when my father immigrated to the US from the Philippines in 1931, he apparently left everything behind, including most contact with his family on the islands. He and his brother first went to Hawaii and eventually landed in California. 

I knew of my dad’s brother in Hawaii and spent time with him and his family growing up, but my dad never told us much about his parents or the other brothers and sisters he left behind. 

Thanks to Facebook, various Bajarin family members discovered me, and I have linked up with over a dozen cousins. As a result, I’ve learned a lot about my dad’s parents and brothers and sisters and about our family history in general. I will be forever grateful to Facebook because of this. 

The site’s success is clearly driven by connections—that’s what it and other social networks are all about. Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at a publishing conference in Key Biscayne, FL. Mike Murphy, Facebook’s global sales chief took the podium after me. 

He shared a lot of interesting things about Facebook’s past, present, and made an important comment that tells a lot about the site’s future. Murphy said that today’s information Web will transform into the social Web in the next three years. 

He pointed out that, while today we get information from a lot of sites, in a social Web environment many of the things we want or need to know will come through friends. He offered the example of a person interested in an African safari. 

At present, you type “African safari” into a search engine and get info from professional travel sites and the like. 

In the future, he explained, when you type “African safari,” you will get recommendations from friends who have actually gone on an African safari. The information itself goes social. 

If I read into this a bit more, I can see Facebook introducing an internal search that is a key part of its future design. 

In the process, the site will make it possible to get all manner for recommendations from friends, relatives, and associates. This already exists to some degree. I often find news stories or items of interest that were recommended by friends, when I log into Facebook. Friends also send me links in e-mails. 

But if I read Murphy’s comments correctly, he believes that the connections we make and the content or information our friends recommend will be at the heart of Facebook in the future. This is a powerful vision. 

It probably does represent the future of Facebook and the social Web at large. Of course, Facebook executives most like envision their site as the epicenter of that picture, making it the go-to for news and other content of interest. 

But I suspect that other major sites will find a way to join in on the social Web action. The heart of Murphy’s message is important. 

He’s probably right on the money when he talks about the social Web. Facebook is playing a larger and larger role in people’s lives, and it has proven itself a powerful communication tool. 

The next logical evolution is using these connected links to deliver more customized and personally recommended content and information.

Facebook Comments Box