What Facebook gets right (and what it gets right less)

Those of you who know me probably know that I've become a pretty big Facebook addict of late. I've actually never been that much of a social networking guy. I've played around with MySpace, but never really got into it. The closest I've come to being active in a social network is LinkedIn, but that has limited functionality and a narrowly defined purpose.

However, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company's new strategy to become an open platform for third-party web developers, I decided to give it a try. And I've been coming back ever since. Often several times a day.

Simply put, Facebook rocks. It has a robust set of features with user retention fairly built in. And now you can use your Facebook account as a single organizing site for all those other addictive applications -- Twitter, Flickr, de.licio.us, etc.

So, IMHO what sets Facebook apart from the competition? A couple of things:

1. Layout - In a word: clean. One of my biggest beefs with MySpace that it's such a friggin' mess. I know the kids (allegedly) like it, but I could never find my way around the place. With Facebook, everything is laid out in a nice, clear, navigatable manner.
2. Seeing what your friends are up to - Facebook's "news feed" updates you about everything your friends are doing on facebook: changes in profile, items posted, groups joined, etc etc. Among other things, it hips you to applications and groups that you might not have found. Also, it's addictive like nobody's business, and subtly encourages you to go back and check the site a couple of times a day.
3. Easily added applications - What can I say, between Facebook and Netvibes you almost never have to go anywhere else on the Internet anymore. It all comes to you
4. That "poke" feature - Useless but cute, an example of how to keep things light and fun
5. Positioning - Not really a feature per se, but Facebook seems a bit more serious (or real) a place than MySpace. Or, as my friend Chris commented, "it's about 900 percent less skeevy than MySpace."

Now, don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of things that need fixing. To wit:

1. Control over layout sucks. Unlike Netvibes, where you can move around any item anywhere, open up your own tabs, and define the number of columns you want, with Facebook the columns are fixed and there are many elements that can't be moved at all or can only be moved up and down in their respective columns. I would expect a lot more control over my customization.
2. While I love the fact that I can access applications directly from my Facebook page, I would love it even more if I could access them on my Facebook page. As it is, all third party apps open up in their own page. Which isn't so bad for some apps. But it sure would be nice to be able to Twitter without having to jump to a different screen.
3. No built-in chat feature. Yes, you can choose from about a dozen third-party apps. But come on, isn't IM a must-have these days if you want to speak to Generation Y users?
4. Other small quibbles, such as the "How do you know this person" function when trying to verify contacts. The list of options is pretty limited and reflects Facebook's past as a social network for college kids (one of the options is "We hooked up"). At the very least, give an "other" option.

In short, Facebook is progressing in the right direction but isn't quite there yet. My feeling, however, is that when they do get there they will become the social network of choice for a lot of people who don't play around with social networks yet. The kids and the indie bands will always have MySpace; the rest of us may likely be found here.