What Facebook Can Learn From Gmail
source: http://www.slate.com/id/2228451/
-
-
- atomiclegion
- added this
What Facebook and other Internet companies can learn from Google's webmail service.
On Tuesday, Facebook launched Prototypes, a service that lets users test out new tools and features before they become fixtures on the site. The first small batch offers nothing revolutionary: a search feature for photo tags, a way to better sync events with Outlook and other programs, and an app to let Mac users monitor their profiles from their desktop. But for a site with a history of unveiling huge makeovers with little notice—like the March 2009 redesign that got a 5 percent approval rating its first week—this is good news. Using Facebookers as beta testers is a great PR move and a positive sign for the future of the social networking site. By enlisting a huge, devoted focus group, Facebook will likely ensure that nothing that nine out of 10 users hate will become a part of the site's permanent design.
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Single PageSINGLE PAGE
Yahoo! BuzzFacebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE
If Facebook wants assurance that this model will work, it need only look to Gmail. For more than a year, Google has been crafting its webmail service by observing what its users do and don't want. Here's how it works: When a Google developer cooks up a new gizmo, the team will debut it in Gmail Labs, a buffet where individual users can pick and choose what to add to their accounts. (To get to Labs, sign in and click on the Settings page to find the bazaar of optional features.) There are currently 52 optional features in Labs. Some apps offer aesthetic improvements (adding thumbnail images to the chat window or randomizing the quote at the end of your messages), while others are more functional (previewing YouTube videos in the body of an e-mail). And then there is the save-you-from-yourself genre, with gems like the forgotten attachment detector and Mail Goggles, a program that asks you to solve math problems before sending e-mail during hours when you're likely to be drunk.
On Tuesday, Facebook launched Prototypes, a service that lets users test out new tools and features before they become fixtures on the site. The first small batch offers nothing revolutionary: a search feature for photo tags, a way to better sync events with Outlook and other programs, and an app to let Mac users monitor their profiles from their desktop. But for a site with a history of unveiling huge makeovers with little notice—like the March 2009 redesign that got a 5 percent approval rating its first week—this is good news. Using Facebookers as beta testers is a great PR move and a positive sign for the future of the social networking site. By enlisting a huge, devoted focus group, Facebook will likely ensure that nothing that nine out of 10 users hate will become a part of the site's permanent design.
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Single PageSINGLE PAGE
Yahoo! BuzzFacebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE
If Facebook wants assurance that this model will work, it need only look to Gmail. For more than a year, Google has been crafting its webmail service by observing what its users do and don't want. Here's how it works: When a Google developer cooks up a new gizmo, the team will debut it in Gmail Labs, a buffet where individual users can pick and choose what to add to their accounts. (To get to Labs, sign in and click on the Settings page to find the bazaar of optional features.) There are currently 52 optional features in Labs. Some apps offer aesthetic improvements (adding thumbnail images to the chat window or randomizing the quote at the end of your messages), while others are more functional (previewing YouTube videos in the body of an e-mail). And then there is the save-you-from-yourself genre, with gems like the forgotten attachment detector and Mail Goggles, a program that asks you to solve math problems before sending e-mail during hours when you're likely to be drunk.
-
- groups:
- Tech, Current Tonight, Upstream, Max and Jason: Still Up, 1 more
